Decade

The timelines that we like to work in - weeks, months - are often not the ones that He likes to work in - years, decades.  This can create a lot of angst for us as we try to "speed Him up."  But what I've found is this:  We are not going to speed Him up, so we need to allow Him to slow us down, by praying more and planning less, listening more and talking less, trusting more and worrying less.

You may have heard the old saying, "Rome was not built in a day."  Having had the opportunity to visit Rome this summer, this saying made more sense.  When you see the magnitude of, say, the Coliseum (which seated over 60,000 people) you realize that building it was a major undertaking that took a lot of persistency and consistency.  May I suggest that you, as a Christian leader, are involved in that sort of an enterprise.  Building up people is painstaking work, that doesn't get accomplished overnight.

Having pastored in the CTK International story for 14 years now, I've had the joy to see quite a few people mature in Christ.  But some of them have just recently begun to bloom.  The years of planting and watering eventually bring a harvest.  But we have to be patient.  Not for years.  For decades. 

HIjack

As an experienced church planter I've come to realize that special care needs to be shown when a group is in the incubation stage.  During this stage the new group is especially susceptible to hijack by unhealthy extremists.  In fact, many churches that start with great promise are taken off course almost immediately by radicals.  For one, when a group is just starting out it doesn't yet have a history to set precedent (which, while sometimes limiting in a bad way, can also be limiting in a good way).  But also, when a group is small it is easier for a single individual/family to push it around or dominate it.  One person in a living room exerts much more influence than one person in a group of a thousand.  This may actually explain why some people are "church start-up junkies."  They love having such inordinate influence, and when that begins to wane (i.e. the church begins to grow) they become dissatisfied, sense that "the Spirit is moving" somewhere else, and move on to the next place where they are "needed."

Being part of a network such as CTK can help.  You can borrow some history and mass for protection.  When I first came to Skagit County in 1999, our group was new, but the move of God had roots going back more than a decade.  So when people came into our fledgling story with alternate agendas, I was able to point them in the direction God was leading us, and had been, for years.

Repetition

With the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech," many have been reflecting on one of the greatest pieces of leadership oratory, ever.  I've been reflecting on not just what was said that day, but how it came to be.  You see, the speech he gave was not precisely the speech he had planned.  Dr. King was asked to give a very brief series of remarks, which he had scripted, and dutifully delivered.  But when he came to the end of what he had planned, he felt that "the Spirit moved" him to continue on, and it was then that he got into the stirring "I have a dream" and "Let freedom ring" riffs.  How was it possible for him to deliver such a lucid, compelling speech impromptu?  Answer:  He had spoken those words many times before, in various contexts.  He was well-versed in the cadence of these lines.  He had repeated them often. When the big moment came, the words fervently rolled off his tongue, and into the psyche of America.

It is difficult to come up with world-changing oratory in a single attempt.  (I know that every pastor, given seven shorts days to prepare a sermon, is saying "Amen.")  But I think it is an important leadership principle to identify repeated themes in which one will become well-versed.  Jesus certainly did this.  In the gospels we get to see His variations on themes (the golden rule, loving your neighbor, the light of the world, etc.).  In Paul's writings we see a fair amount of repetition, as well (grace, etc.).  Does your ministry have a theme?  Have you been honing lines and phrases?  Could you give a spontaneous sermon?  Probably the most famous pastor of the 20th Century showed us the way, not just to racial equality, but to leaving a legacy with words.

Leaders

CTK is an inherently leader-dependent proposition.  Yet, our mission statement says nothing about leaders...or does it?  Our mission is:  "To create an authentic Christian community that effectively reaches out to unchurched people with love, acceptance and forgiveness, so that they may experience the joy of salvation and a purposeful life of discipleship."  While leadership is not a stated activity, it is an implied one, and right off the bat.  The statement begins "To create..."
We don't get two words into the statement without someone incurring responsibility to create.  And the responsibility is human, not just divine.  Obviously, we could have written this statement in a more spiritual-sounding way (not more spiritual, mind you, just more spiritual sounding), and said, "To watch God create."  And truly, unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain.  But we do labor with Him (not in vain).  We are co-laborers with Christ.  We are engaged in a great co-mission.  He has given us direct orders to go and make disciples.  It is by His authority that we are indeed sent.

So someone is going to have to take responsibility to create an authentic Christian community, and that someone is what I would call a leader.  And the reason I know for sure that it's a leader who will fulfill this "creating" is because of what is being created: an authentic Christian community.  As Erwin McManus opines in Defining Leadership:  "After three decades of stumbling through this leadership journey there is one theme that prevails: leaders create human communities."  I agree.  This is what they do.  Leaders create communities.  They always do.  What makes leadership in the CTK story different is just in the type of community that is being created.  We are challenged to create an authentic, Christian one.

So what makes you an ideal candidate to lead the CTK story?

• You resonate with the call to create community.  You want to see a community created that is authentically Christian, and that reaches out.

• You have the tools to create community.  There are various tools that one can use to create community (communication skills, relational skills, administrative skills, etc.) and there are tools available to you to get the job done.

• You are willing to make creating community your life's work.  There may be other ways that you pay the bills, but there is nothing more important than the work you are doing to create an authentic Christian community that effectively reaches out to unchurched people with love, acceptance and forgiveness, so that they may experience the joy of salvation and a purposeful life of discipleship.

Givers

Adam Grant is a young, but notable, Professor at Wharton School of Business.  He has written a book entitled Give and Take, in which he divides the world into three groups:  Givers, Takers and Exchangers.  You can see an entertaining explanation of the three at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1baNQmnRCVw

Which group proves to be most successful?  The answer, according to Grant, is the Givers.  Givers go out to make a difference in the world, to make things better for others, to share what they have, and to be a blessing (sounds like what Jesus had in mind, right?).  But in the process, they gain many friends and associates who prove loyal and important.  They usually get back more than they put in.  Nice guys finish first.  Takers, on the other hand, may succeed in the short run, but over the long haul end up losing more than they win, particularly relationally.  Associates weary of them.  Exchangers, who do some of both giving and taking, end up predictably in the middle.  

Grant then teases his students with a trick question:  Which group ends up at the bottom?  The answer is a surprise.  You might think it is the Takers, but it is the Givers.  The Givers actually split, with some ending up on top and some ending up on bottom - the Exchangers and Takers in between.  How can Givers end up both on top and bottom?  Grant answers that there is a certain percentage of givers who end up bamboozled by the Takers, and thus end up on bottom, wiped out.  

As I have reflected on his research, I've been thinking of pastors that I know.  I have seen some of the most caring pastors eaten alive by Takers.  They are as Giving as any pastor out there, maybe more so.  But they don't know how to manage the incredible drain of Takers, and thus end up with nothing more to give.  I believe that pastors must take care, if they want to be able to Give for the long haul.

I wonder if this discretion was what Jesus showed us when he went away from the crowds, instead of toward them.  For instance, at the end of John 2 we read: "Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.  But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.  He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person."  Jesus was not willing to cast his pearls before swine.  As you grow in your ministry, you too will want to grow in your discernment so you can give wisely.  You can even give to the Takers, but stop short of letting them take you down with them.

Yes

There are four 4 words to be spoken at CTK:  "Yes, Sure, You Bet."  God has good works that He has prepared in advance for people to do.  We want to get out of the way, so those good works can happen.  This has been a consistent theme for CTK over the years...

From Always a Place for You (CTK Orientation)…

At CTK we have a can-do spirit.  We say, “Yes, Sure, You Bet” instead of “No, Sorry, We Can’t.” 

From Deliberate Simplicity…

At Christ the King we don’t like the word “control.”  We like the word “empower.”  Authoritarian cultures spawn passivity and create codependency.  To combat that tendency we train our organization to be ready and able to say “Yes, sure, you bet.”  Often, those are words that cannot be spoken in church.  Typical of a bureaucracy, church leaders tend to have the power to say “no” but seldom have the power to say “yes.”  We want “yes” to be a valid answer again in the church.  God is at work in people’s lives.  We want to unleash the church. 

From Opportunistic Leadership…

Christ the King Community Church (lovingly referred to as CTK), in a dozen years, went from one location in the Pacific Northwest to over four hundred locations around the world.  How did we/God do that?  We got the board out and waxed it.  God sent the waves and we rode them, partly by learning to speak four words that are seldom heard in church:  “Yes, Sure, You Bet.” 

About a year after we began holding services in Mount Vernon, Washington, I came off the platform after one of the services to be greeted by an older couple who said, “I sure wish there was a CTK in Oak Harbor.”  Oak Harbor is an island community about forty-five minutes southwest of Mount Vernon.  The response I gave shocked them.  I said, “Let’s do it.”  They asked, “Do what?”  I replied, “Start CTK in Oak Harbor.  You want to do it, and I want to do it, so let’s do it.”  Shortly thereafter I began to drive to Oak Harbor on Saturday nights and began holding meeting with this couple and some of their friends in a local coffee shop.  Within a year the group had grown to over a hundred people, outgrowing the coffee shop.  At the same time we began holding Saturday evening services in nearby Anacortes.   Within three years we were convening in ten towns in four counties.  Now we are meeting in more than four hundred locations.  But it all began with three words:  “Let’s do it.”  As Greek statesmen Demosthenes opined:  “Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.”  Surfing begins with a “Let’s do it” spirit, that becomes a ride, that ultimately eventuates in a culture.

From Intrepid Faith…

Faith-inspired guts is not only required on a personal level, but also on a corporate one. Faith or fear appear to be the options, for you individually and for the church as a whole.  One of the greater decisions a church can make is deciding which side of the line they want to be on.  Will we be on the faith side as it relates to God and people? 

You know when you are on the fear side of the line when you keep hearing words like accountability, process and authority.  Fear-based congregations habitually say, “No, sorry, you can’t.”  You know you are on the faith side of the line when you keep hearing words like support, story and empowerment.  Faith-based congregations habitually say, “Yes, sure, you bet!”

From Our Values (Staff Training)…

Key words in the CTK vocabulary are “Yes, Sure, You Bet.”  Often, those are words that cannot be spoken in church.  Typical of a bureaucracy, church leaders have the power to say “no” but seldom have the power to say “yes.”  We want “yes” to be a valid answer again in the church.  God is at work in people’s lives, and we want to fan into flames the gifts and passions that are resident in the body.  We want to unleash the church. 

This is not to say that we have no structure or accountability.  We have freedom, with handrails.  But what structure we have serves mainly as a supportive handrail, not as a restrictive barricade.

In our context the role of the pastors and staff is to create and sustain an environment where the people of the church (the ministers) can carry out their ministries with minimum obstacles and maximum fulfillment.

From Wild (dMail)…

A church, it seems to me, should provide generous fairways on which people can play the game.  I have used the phrase “freedom with handrails” to describe the organizational philosophy of CTK.  The handrails are our beliefs (doctrinal statement) and our brand (mission, vision, values).  As Chesterton noted, there has to be “rule and order.”  But the chief aim of boundaries is “to give room for good things to run wild.”

How do we as leaders give room for good things to run wild?  One of the key ways is to repeat four words: “Yes, Sure, You Bet” to people and their “wild” ideas.  Caution is acceptable, but you can’t lead with it.  Caution needs to come later, in the shaping of things.  In a wild kingdom our predisposition needs to be “Yes.”  Then, we come alongside to train and support. 

From Ideas that Matter…

Learn to say "Yes, sure, you bet."  Our goal is to cooperate with God in what He is doing in the lives of people.

Determined

I don't know if you have seen the show Shark Tank on TV.  The "sharks" are investors to whom entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas for a successful business.  Some times the sharks are enticed to invest.  At other times they are not.  As I have watched this show a few times, I have noticed something interesting.  The sharks will decline to invest in a great idea, when they are unconvinced of the entrepreneurs drive to succeed.  On the other hand, they will sometimes invest in an inferior idea, if it is championed by an entrepreneur with determination.  

I recently read an fascinating article by Paul Graham (who invests in startup companies).  He talked about what he's learned to look for as a predictor of success in new ventures...determination.  He says, "In most domains, talent is overrated compared to determination—partly because it makes a better story, partly because it gives onlookers an excuse for being lazy, and partly because after a while determination starts to look like talent.

"  I tend to agree with him on this.  I have seen very talented church leaders not "get it done," and leaders with lesser talent, but greater determination succeed.  Paul enjoins:  Therefore, my dear brothers and sister, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).  Paul encouraged determination in the Lord's work.

What constitutes determination?  Graham says it it a balance of willfulness and discipline.  And balance is a key word.  He makes the analogy of squeezing a slippery melon seed with two fingers ("The harder they squeeze, the further the seed flies, but they must both squeeze equally or the seed spins off sideways."

)  He says that equivalent discipline is even more vital the more willfulness one possesses ("The dangers of indiscipline increase with temptation....If you're sufficiently determined to achieve great things, this will probably increase the number of temptations around you. Unless you become proportionally more disciplined, willfulness will then get the upper hand, and your achievement will revert to the mean.")  I believe this last statement explains about 95% of the pastor "blow outs" I've seen. 



What gives direction to determination, Graham states, is ambition.  ("Here in sum is how determination seems to work: it consists of willfulness balanced with discipline, aimed by ambition.")  As a believer, we might add the importance of love as our motivator.  

Empathy

IDEO is known for its innovation. The noted Silicon Valley company is responsible for such game-changing inventions as the computer mouse, the laptop, and the "Lavatory Occupied" sign on airplanes (among others).  David Kelley, the founder, was asked the secret of innovation.  His one-word answer sounded spiritual:  "Empathy."  By empathy he meant genuine concern for the customer's needs.  Kelley said the key is to watch the customer closely and see at what point they encounter difficulty, and cringe.  Then fix it so that never happens again.

As an example, Kelley noted the frustration airline passengers had when trying to use the restroom.  They would get up out of their seat, only to find that someone was already using the restroom.  Kelley asked himself, "Isn't there a way that we can send a signal to everyone when the restroom is available?"  The question led to a solution - a lighted sign that ties into the bathroom door lock.  Frustration solved.

One of the "arrows out" expressions of CTK is empathy for the unchurched.  We try hard to eliminate obstacles, remove confusion and squelch insecurity.  We try to make it as easy as possible for a non-churched person to feel at home with us.

Why do we...

Have greeters and ushers stationed at key entry points to welcome attenders?  Empathy...a person may not know whether they are wanted.
Dress in everyday clothes, instead of "dressing up"?  Empathy...a person may not have special clothes to wear.
Try to speak in plain language, instead of theological jargon?  Empathy...a person may not have the training to understand.
Hand everyone a program with upcoming events and a teaching outline?  Empathy...a person may not know what is going on.
Picks songs that are both understandable and enjoyable for all?  Empathy...a person may not relate to sacred music or insider phrases.
Have clear signage that leads to the bathrooms or kids rooms?  Empathy...a person may not know where they need to go.
Conduct a one-hour service?  Empathy...a person may not be used to sitting for an extended period of time.
Provide free coffee for everyone to enjoy?  Empathy...a person may need to have a cup of coffee to feel at ease...or to stay awake!

Empathy is why we go to great lengths to make things easier and solve problems.  Empathy is why we have staff meetings.  Empathy is why we organize.  Empathy is why we try to keep improving.  If we are lagging in our execution, it may be because we are lagging in our empathy.  Do we really care about these people?  Are we willing to do the work necessary to answer questions and eliminate obstacles?

Another word for empathy is love.

How

One of the most beautiful things I've heard in a while was said during our recent Arrows Out Conference.  Andy Geer, who pastors the new CTK in Monroe, Washington, was recounting his first meeting with Missy Willis from CTK Network Resources.  He said that at the end of the meeting, Missy turned to him and asked, "How can we help you and your Worship Center?  What do you need?"  The question was sincere.  Missy really wanted to know.  Andy said, he couldn't remember ever being asked that in all of his years of being a pastor.

Come to think of it, the question is way too rare.  Yet, it gets at the very heart of caring, doesn't it?  Wouldn't you love to be asked that today?

I remember as a young pastor (in a traditional setting) how that question changed the dynamic in a very structured and intense meeting (we had a lot of those).  Our Board was meeting with a man who had recently begun attending our church.  This man was a representative from a ministry with which we were unfamiliar.  So he came to the board meeting to be interrogated.  We stopped just short of water-torture, as I recall.  But as the man got up to leave, one of the few servant-leaders in our midst said, "One more thing.  How can we help you?  How can we support your ministry?"  The man's shoulders suddenly relaxed as a smile hit his face.  He said, "Thank you so much for asking.  That means a lot to me."  He sat back down and he shared with us the needs he had, both personally and in the ministry.  With that one question, the mood of the room snapped into love.  I think we all realized in the moment we had been asking the wrong questions.  We were behaving as if we were the center of the universe and he was orbiting around us.  The question "How can I help..." reoriented us all to see his needs as the point of the meeting.

Civilian

As a soldier of Christ, you may not be able to get to participate in activities that others do.  These are areas of involvement that are not necessarily wrong, in and of themselves, they are just not prudent for you.  Paul instructed Timothy, "No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs — he wants to please his commanding officer" (2 Timothy 2:4).  "Civilian affairs" might include:

• Time wasters, such as TV, internet, etc.
• Amoral worldly activities that take time and energy away from God’s work.
• Draining relationships that take energy away from those who need you most.
• Ministries that are not “core” to how God has gifted and wired you.
• Intractable conflicts or disputes, that are not about the main thing.

Others may have freedom to get involved in things that are not eternal, life-changing, or life-giving.  As a servant of Christ, you will not have these freedoms.  You are not your own.  You are bought with a price.  You are a living sacrifice.  Your involvements will be limited.  Why?  Because...

1.  You recognize God’s call on your life (“serving as a soldier”).  You are no longer a civilian.  You're in the army now...the Lord's army ("Yes Sir!").
2.  You desire to please Him most of all (“he wants to please”).  Others may not understand why you cannot do the things they do, or the things they want you to do.  But you are not living for "others."  You are living for Him.  You only want to do what pleases Him.
3.  You desire to obey His commands (“his commanding officer”).  What He says, goes.  Period.  He says "Jump."  You say, "How high?"  

By signing up for His service, what you get in replacement of the "civilian" is the "eternal" - eternal victories, eternal joys, eternal rewards.

Onward Christian soldiers.  March on!

Faithful

If we are faithful with what we have been given, God will give us more.  This simple maxim has proven true over the course of the CTK story.

When CTK met in a single location, and involved less than a hundred people, there was a concerted effort to do the best we could with what we had.  Our worship team was small, but well rehearsed.  Our signs were informative and well placed.  Our coffee was hot (we had someone stationed near the table to clean it and keep it stocked).  The greeters were friendly.  The kids rooms were clean.  The bathrooms had toilet paper and towels.  The kids workers were in their rooms ahead of time, and they were identifiable with shirts and badges.  The service started, and ended, on time.  We made a big deal out of the coffee mug we were giving to our guests.  We did what we could think to do to meet the needs of those who were coming our way.  And God ended up sending more people, maybe because we did pretty well with the ones he had sent already.

Contrast that with a small church that is not tending to detail:  The worship team is still practicing as people are arriving.  The powerpoint slides are being formatted just minutes before the service is to begin.  Kids workers are showing up at the same time as the kids.  Because someone is absent, a classroom has a sign posted, "Sorry, no class today."  The coffee pot is empty, and the information table is a mess.  The programs are being just laid on a chair for people to pick up, instead of handed out personally.  The service starts late, and of course, runs over.  People don't greet the newcomers, but instead jump into cliques when the service is over.  The whole experience is half-baked, as if this church was not planning on having guests that weekend.  This lack of attention to detail does not work for people.  People can understand that you may be a small congregation.  What they don't understand is why you are sloppy congregation.  They appreciate cozy; they just don't appreciate careless.  They like little, they loath lazy.

But of bigger concern is God's opinion about all this.  He has already gone on record that faithfulness precedes fruitfulness.  So before you ask God for more people, ask "How are we doing with the ones He has already sent?"  You will be a bigger church, after you are a better church.

Easy

Some solutions are simple, but they are anything but easy.  Consider, for example, the debt crisis in America.  It is actually very simple what needs to be done to balance the national budget and pay back the debt.  It's simple math, requiring simple adjustments.  But it's anything but easy.  The consequences of budget cuts are so painful to consider that no one really wants to consider them (so they aren't).  Plus the political implications of being the instigator of such draconian measures - well, that's a recipe for a pretty short political career, so everyone wants someone else to go first.  But no one can say that the solutions aren't obvious.  

But isn't this how it almost always falls for those in leadership?  It's simple.  It's just not easy.

Perhaps the location in which you are meeting is working against you, not for you.  The solution is rather simple:  move to a better location.  But that's not easy.  Not easy to find a better spot, or convince people of the need, or actually get stuff packed up.  The challenge is all in the implementation, not the decision.

Maybe you have a staff person is not getting the job done, nor will they.  That's a simple one.  Replace them with someone who will or can.  But it is not easy to make a move like that.  It's emotionally taxing and organizationally perilous.  So many trudge on for years with an untenable situation rather than do what needs to be done.

It's possible that in your Worship Center there is a very small percentage of people connected in small groups.  You know what to do.  But small group work is very difficult work.  It's easy-er to just get up and preach another sermon.  It's hard to make the phone calls, schedule the meetings, and actually get people connected.

Why is the distinction between simple and easy important?  Well, for one thing, you might be praying the wrong prayer.  You might be praying, "God help me to know what I must do" when you should be praying, "God help me to do what I must do."  For many of us, it is not a lack of insight that is holding us back.  It is a lack of courage.

Discreet

There is a lot of talk about guns in the wake of the Connecticut shootings.  Our regional paper conducted some interviews with local leaders about their feelings on gun control, particularly the idea of stationing armed officers in schools, etc.  One of those questioned was the superintendent of a nearby school district.  He said that he didn't want to comment on gun control, but that he would discuss school security.  When asked about an important subject, he didn't answer.  I know him.  He's a pretty sharp guy.  I'm sure he has a point of view on guns.  He just wasn't willing to offer it up.  Wise man.  He knows that no matter what he says, he will alienate half of his constituency.  He knows that he is in the education business, not the gun lobbying business.  So he is discrete.  He stays focused on the bigger mission.

I wish more Christian leaders would learn the art of non-disclosure.  Just because you have an opinion doesn't mean that you need to offer it up.  Masterful leaders learn to keep their big trap shut, about a whole host of topics that aren't "the main thing."  This can be taken to extreme, of course.  Where a leader will not disclose enough about what is really going on.  But for every leader who is too tight-lipped, there have to be ten who talk too much, about too much.  Loose lips sink ships.

This, to me, was one of the better takeaways from Spielberg's movie Lincoln, chronicling the president's political maneuvering in passing the thirteenth amendment to the constitution of the U.S.A.  At the time when a bill abolishing slavery was making its way through congress, something else was happening.  The war-weary south was reaching out to bring an end to the war.  Not the end of slavery, just the end of war.  Lincoln slow-played those negotiations, while he pushed hard for the amendment, fearing that those in the the northern states would lose their gumption on the real issue if offered a cease-fire.  But the rumor was circulating that the south was offering a truce.  Lincoln dodged.  When Lincoln was asked whether Confederate delegates were in Washington, he deftly replied, "I don't know of any delegates in Washington."  (The delegates had been directed to go to Hampton Roads, Virginia.)  

If it would have been me, knowing how much pain people were in over the war, I would have been tempted to say, "Yeah, the rebels might be ready to capitulate!"  But saying that would take all the focus off of slavery and onto pain relief.  Lincoln was too great of a leader for that.

Initiative

If someone were to ask me about the characteristics of an ideal church leader, initiative would be at the top of my list.  There are people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who ask, “What just happened?”  Leaders make things happen.
  

Things don’t happen without someone taking initiative.  Let me repeat:  Things don’t happen without someone taking initiative.  This is especially true in church.  In What Leaders Do I break it down like this:  Leaders see what needs to be done (they see both current reality and a preferable future), and do what needs to be done (they enlist others and follow through).  To reverse engineer this, if something needs to be done, and it isn’t getting done, it’s because someone isn’t taking initiative.  Someone isn’t leader.  They are either watching things happen, or wondering what is happening.

Initiative has to come from within a person.  It can be encouraged, but not created, by others.  For some inner reason, people of initiative actually care about what is going on.  They take responsibility for results.  They activate themselves and others to grow, build, develop, expand.  They have goals.  They have aspirations.  They cannot abide the status quo.  Whatever they are looking at, they are thinking about how to expand it and improve it.  Growing ministries are led by such types.

In a grace-based, relational ministry I sometimes fear that people get the wrong idea:  I don’t have to work hard…it’s all love here.  Grace both inspires us and frees us up to do the right kind of work, in the right kind of way.  Love, acceptance and forgiveness is how we do the work, but not the work itself.  The work itself is outreach.  The work itself is disciple-making, the hardest work of all.  “Loving” is not work.  Actually inviting, including, involving people – that’s work.  We may do it because of love, and we should.  But the work will not grow without someone actually doing the work of setting up meetings, replying to emails, making phone calls, writing job descriptions, training leaders, etc.

It is the ultimate dream to build an expanding team of people who take the highest initiative for God, his church, his people.  In this regard, there are levels of initiative, from lowest to highest:

1) wait until told 

2) ask what to do

3) recommend what to do

4) act but inform

One of the statements our value of empowerment makes is, “We are encouraging high initiative of everyone.”  Among pastors, staff and directors, levels 3) and 4) are required. 

In the parable of the talents, various servants were entrusted with opportunity.  God was only upset with the one who did nothing; the one who seemingly had to be told what to do.   

Keepers

Recent experiences have given me some insights and resolve regarding organizations institutionalizing.  Why do groups institutionalize?  Because that is the default setting.  Your group will too, given time.  You don't need to do anything for it to happen.  And that really is the challenge.  It takes intentionality and effort to keep (a key word) it from happening.  If you and others do not show that kind of intentionality, it is just a matter of time.  

In the CTK story, what specifically do we have to "Keep"?

We have to KEEP the main thing the main thing.  The main thing (according to Jesus) is love for God and people.  We have to keep getting better at being loving.  We know that we are becoming the disciples that Jesus had in mind, when both God and people feel loved by us.  The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.  

We have to KEEP the arrows pointed out.  This is not about us.  This is about the countless lost souls all around us.  "Arrows out" means a lot of things.  It means that those of us who are already here pay the price for those who are not.  It means that we behave in a way that is winsome to the broader community.  We need to keep saying, "Always a Place for You."   

We have to KEEP following the bread crumbs.  The CTK story has been about individuals following the leading of God.  But we have to keep following.  We cannot settle, or stagnate.  Where does God want to take us next?

Remember, someone has to keep it from happening, to keep it from happening.  

Guardrails

Cliffs prove dangerous, but guardrails are helpful to protect us from disaster.  The ideal placement for a guardrail is not right the edge of the cliff, but back aways. 

One of the great threats in ministry is the temptation for a pastor to develop an inappropriate relationship with a member of the opposite sex.  In order to keep away from this danger, the guardrails should be placed as follows, as it relates to the opposite sex:

1.    Do not meet with a woman on an ongoing basis (including prayer meetings).  Make the handoff to a counselor or another woman.

2.    Always meet in a public place, and during normal business hours.

3.    Do not sit next to them, and if possible, have a desk or table between you.  Sit with good posture, in a professional manner.

4.    Never meet at your home, or theirs, unless your spouse is present.  Never meet in an undisclosed location, or in secret.

5.    Do not give a frontal hug – only side-armed hugs.  If possible limit physical contact to a brief handshake, or none at all.

6.    Never say, “I love you” or “You are special to me,” etc.  Always make clear that any caring is from a spiritual perspective.

7.    Do not ride alone in a car.

8.    If they correspond with you, let them know that you share correspondence with your wife or husband.

9.    Maintain eye contact when in conversation, do not look elsewhere.

10. When having conversation with a couple, look at the person of the same sex, more than the person of the opposite sex.

11. Never wink, or give what could be perceived to be a flirtatious gesture.

12. Do not use innuendo, double meanings, or tell an inappropriate joke.

Agitation

The Islamic world is up in arms over a movie produced by a half-rate amateur film-maker in California:  Innocence of Muslims.  Ironically, the vast majority of Muslims have not seen the movie, and never will.  So why are they so upset?  They've listened to their leaders, the imams and mullahs.  The islamic leaders have told the people how to feel about it.  The movie was an excuse to agitate.  What it proves, though, is that people will be motivated when they get angry enough.  People respond to emotion.

What is the application for us as Christian leaders?  I think we need to get in touch with the emotion of the gospel.  We need to have a passion for grace.  We need to get excited about loving the lost.  We need to be stirred by the Holy Spirit.  We need to be passionate about Christ.  Are we being stirred up, and are we stirring up our people?  John Maxwell said, "People change when they hurt enough that they have to, learn enough that they want to, or receive enough that they are able to."  What our people need to receive from us is a Spirit-inspired agitation.  

But it has to start in our own hearts, first.  Old-time saints said it well, "If we want a fire in the pew, there has to be an inferno in the pulpit."