I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self.
Telling a good story
Stories are a vital part of every sermon or presentation. They engage the audience on an emotional level in a way that delivering information just can’t do. Here’s some of my ideas about how to tell a really good story.
Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it’s been.
Why I’m lucky I’m not a woman
We still live in a world that is grossly unfair to women - the result of a world whose direction has been set by male eyes.
In our Lab leadership team, six out of the twelve members are female. However, over the last year, only two of our weekly Sunday gatherings have been led by women. For me, this is something I feel I should be constantly working to correct and looking actively for women to encourage into leadership positions.
Either as a male or female leader, what should your responsibility be to the women you lead?
Actions speak louder than words.
What are you busy talking about that you should just get on with doing?
The Ten Commandments of Steve
The news of Steve Job’s death was a huge shock - for our generation he had become an icon of creativity, vision and leadership. The Daily Beast has 10 core ideas that sum how Steve Jobs led Apple into a new age of creativity:
- Go for perfect
- Tap the experts
- Be ruthless
- Shun focus groups
- Never stop studying
- Simplify
- Keep your secrets
- Keep teams small
- Use more carrot than stick
- Prototype to the extreme
What can church leaders learn from Steve Job’s leadership style?
5 ideas to make your talk stand out
Every day, the people we lead are bombarded by thousands of advertising messages, videos, images and news items from different sources all competing for their attention. This makes the art of communicating with an audience or congregation that much more difficult and that much more exciting, as we need to find new ways to engage with people.
Here’s five ideas I’ve pulled together over the last few years for delivering a sermon, talk or presentation that people really engage with.
Be careful who you put on a pedestal, because they just might fall off. Also, be careful of placing yourself up there - especially if you’re scared of heights.
Everybody falls eventually. Well, almost everyone.
20 points on leading young adults
Brad Lomenick has this great list of pointers for people working through the challenge of leading young adults (or Millenials - the generation who came of age around the millennium).
Emerging Leaders #1: The Call to Adventure
Just like good old Luke Skywalker (or the hero of your favourite story), the first step towards growing into leadership is hearing a ‘call’ to move forwards.
For the hero of a story, this is the call to adventure - for those of us thinking about Christian leadership, it’s a call to join God on his Mission.
What does it mean to hear a ‘call’ to leadership?
And how should we respond?
