The importance of trust on teams.

The importance of trust amongst the people we work with.

I like the book from Steven Covey called: The Speed of Trust.

Almost M talks about trust in this blog post.

Trust is important. I think we would all agree.

However, I must admit that there is another part of trust that I often mess up. It is my trust in the Lord. This week as I was reading some verses in the Old Testament I came across one I have read a lot:

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.   Psalm 20:7 (ESV)

And then one I have not read as much:

¹ “What sorrow awaits my rebellious children,”
says the Lord.
“You make plans that are contrary to mine.
You make alliances not directed by my Spirit,
thus piling up your sins.
² For without consulting me,
you have gone down to Egypt for help.
You have put your trust in Pharaoh’s protection.
You have tried to hide in his shade.
³ But by trusting Pharaoh, you will be humiliated,
and by depending on him, you will be disgraced.

Isaiah 30: 1 – 3 (NLT)

Too often I put my trust in the wrong things in order to see my goals fulfilled.  I sell out.  I put my trust in “Pharaoh” for provision for myself or our ministry instead of God’s provision.

“The best way to engage people is to listen. Problem is most of the time “we aren’t listening, we’re reloading.”

I did not like his tweet. I did not push the unfollow button though. I did not like it because it hit too close to home.  Am I really trying to engage people in conversation or am I just wanting them to listen to me or read my ideas or posts or tweets?

I am finding for me that I have the tendency to talk more than to listen, to write more than I read and to want to lead more than to follow. This usually underscores how important that I think I am. This is a problem. So just to drive the point home for me this morning as I was reading in the book of John.

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. John 7:18 ESV

I need to listen more.

I need to read more.

Thanks Steve for your tweet.

Thank you Lord Jesus for your words.

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30

Missional

Movements that Change the World by Steve Addison

Discipleship

Untamed by Alan and Debra Hirsch

Detox for the Overly Religious by David Putman. Just finished this book and highly recommend it. Good read.

Leadership

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, by John Piper

Culture

Leading with Cultural Intelligence by David Livermore

God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe’s Religious Crisis by Phillip Jenkins

About Partnerships:

Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-term Missions with Cultural Intelligence by David A. Livermore. You can also also check out his site here.

Catalyst Services is a great resource that I have found helpful in thinking through partnership ideas and helping equip partnerships in missions. You can sign up for the their free newsletter that is very helpful.

www.catalystservices.org

Stick-to-it-tive-ness

I am not sure if that is the way you spell that word but hopefully you catch the idea.

resilience

perseverance

Hanging in the there

These are all important words in life and in also applies in  leadership. If we are going to be people who influence others then “Stick-to-it-tive-ness is important.

Why? You will face failure. You will face discouragement. You will face disappointment.

I am a jogger (not a runner). Honestly I prefer what I call “out and backs”. My running partner is a “looper”. He loves to run up mountains and in a big loop. He also loves to start out with a hill and some how or another end up with a hill but that is another post. grin.

I think the reason I am a “out and backer” is that for me I have learned if I can run out a certain distance then I have to get back to my starting point and I am less likely to give up. It works for me.

In life it is not always that easy. As we face the tough times we often are given an option to quit. I am thankful for many things my parents taught me. The lesson came in High School. I wanted to quit the basketball team. The picture is not of me but of one of my favorites players. His name is Chris Mullins and played for St. Johns.  Notice those shorts!  I was a bench warmer that year. I did not like practice and I hated running “suicides” or sprints at the end of the practice. So I told my parents that I wanted to quit during the season and my dad told me that was not an option. End of story. I stuck it out.

Scripture tells us that perseverance and faith are tied together.

^“because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance”.  James 1:3

I think people watch leaders  a lot. They take notes. They are watching how leaders act and react. They watch to see if a leader drops out or if they stick to it.

I am sore.

I am too tired.

I have too many emails in my inbox.

It is raining.

I don’t want to run.

It is Monday !

I did not charge my ipod!

My running partner is out of town and will not know until later that I skipped.

After the run

Why is it that when I do not want to run but then I do it usually turns out to be a great run and I feel so much better after wards? Not to mention the sun is now shining.

What can I learn from this?

Mostly is that I need to run! It is good for me.

Maybe after I catch my breath and rest a little I will write a post on perseverance.

I have been spending some time with Michael Hyatt on his blog about how to create a  Life plan. He writes about how we need to write out what we see as our preferred future in several key areas of our life. Your preferred vision is what you want your life or aspect of your life to look like.

Maybe I am in dreamland but still I think it would be cool if I could say this about my work here in Germany.

Here is my preferred future.

I am investing weekly in several national church planters who are starting churches in their communities amongst various people groups. They are also discipling potential church planters in their church plants.

I am working with the national church. I am praying with the pastors of churches in this area. They are helping me know the culture. They are introducing me to other key people. I am helping them by supporting them through prayer and serving them in ways they feel are beneficial. I am trying to influence them regarding discipleship and church planting.

I am working with several other Christian organizations who have ministries in our city. We pray together. We dream together and we find ways where we can work together on projects. We are advocates for one another and we want to see each other succeed.

I am building a network of people who work in the marketplace. These people come from various parts of the world and they are here for often for just a season. They are believers and want to live their lives as salt and light in the marketplace and community. Because the work in the marketplace they have a type of credibility that I do not have. They are untapped resources for most of us. These Skybridge Community workers pray for one another, support one another, work with local ministries and churches. I try to provide some training and equipping for them that will help them live missionally in a cross cultural setting.

I have a few churches from North America that are helping me at various levels.

I have a team of people who pray for our ministry on a weekly basis. Some of these prayer advocates have told me they pray for me daily. I keep them up to speed via email and I have a Facebook group by invitation only that prays for us.

I have a couple of churches who are partnering side by side with me on some projects that I am working on. They provide some strategic resources. They provide our team with some short term teams that help us facilitate the church planting strategy.

I also have a couple of churches and I am always looking for more that will be the missionary in an area or amongst a people group that I cannot be engaged with at this time. I see these churches has self starters, highly motivated and able to implement their strategies in these areas. I work with them. I try to give them support and encouragement. We have good communication.

I wish this was true for my ministry. I do well at some of these areas and I have a lot to do in other areas.

I can tell you it is one of my  goals when I look at what my ministry looks like.  It is what I am working towards.

Are you able to say ” I am sorry”?

I think transparency is important as a leader. I will never forget the time as a young church planter I was sitting in the living room of some potential core group members. They were attending our meetings and I felt we were connecting fairly well. Then the husband said “you know Larry one thing that bothers us is that you do not seem to have a hard time admitting that you made a mistake. You will be so transparent in front of people. We think a pastor should be above that.”  They wanted a pastor who was perfect and I guess who was able to display that perfection on stage. Obviously they did not stick around. I was too imperfect.

I think in leadership we can become tentative on how much we share and admitting error. If you admit a mistake will you be held accountable for that mistake? You should be held accountable. What will that cost you?

I have for a long time had an interest in corporate apologies.

How often does a corporation admit that they made a mistake? What happens when they do?

How often does a church or church leader admit they probably should have gone a different direction on a ministry?

How often does a team leader or pastor say “you know I messed this up. Can we start over and let’s do it different this time?”

It seems much simpler to just keep going down the road and hoping the next turn will be better and that things will smooth out or correct itself. After all we would not want to give the impression that we are perfect. We could be afraid of the consequences. I have found that most of the time that people will hang with a leader who is transparent and who owns up to his/her humanity.

Who have you invested in ?

We need people on both lists.

I was listening to a message last Sunday in a church here in our town. The text was 2 Timothy 2:2

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

Maybe it is Facebook but I have thought a lot about high school and college lately. It was in my freshmen year of college that I became quite serious about my commitment to follow Jesus on a daily basis. The Lord provided me with several mentors.

I remember Ken who took me as a college student to share Christ with other students in our area.

I remember Ed who took me through MasterLife 1,2 and then started making up more to walk me through as a college student.

I remember Larry who challenge me in music (hard to believe) and to not be afraid to tell my story.

I remember David who taught me how to relate to people that I lead and to serve people I lead as Jesus would.

The list could go on.  I was pretty rough around the edges.

All of these people during College and Seminary made major investments in me. They mentored me. They helped me in my spiritual journey. They helped me in my leadership journey.

As I have started a new year I have been thinking about this quite a bit. Who am I investing in? My family, colleagues, students, new  missionaries on the field, national believers, etc..

I know the benefits will out last me. If I invest my time, energy and resources in others then it can go beyond my lifetime.

For nearly every idea that was popping up in the conversation from a younger worker this person had a response.

“The problem with that is….”

I tried to be polite in the conversation but I must admit that kind of impossibility thinking drove me crazy.  I believe those words can quench the spirit of people who are trying to be creative in their ministry. Sure most ideas can be well, idealistic,  but we need dreamers.

On the other hand I know people who react just the opposite. They are what I call “possibility thinkers”. When someone presents an idea they do not kill it but they help you think through the possibilities and start dreaming with you. You start thinking you can actually do this. As they dream with you they are able in some wild sort of way help you self- realize some of the issues you need to consider as you implement your dream.

These are men and women of faith and vision.

Sometimes in organizations we can create an atmosphere where thinking outside the box or trying something new or risky is discouraged. We need possibility thinkers on the field. We need people willing to take a chance.

I talk to a lot of people from a lot of different missional networks and churches. Consider these two scenarios from the past.

One pastor called a mission organization several times about his church’s vision to start a work in a certain country. The reply he kept getting from the office was “sorry we do not work there”. Finally he gets connected with a possibility thinker. The ideas became a reality.

I heard of another pastor who had a similar story. He has a vision for his church to engage a certain people group.  He was trying to connect with some field leaders of a mission agency from his denomination.  After running against too much control and opposition from the field he moved on and started working with another organization in the same country.

What if he had connected with a possibility thinker?

Since I am becoming older each day I find this topic crucial in my own ministry.  I want to empower the younger workers on the field to pursue their God- given dreams.  I want to see churches try things in missions that have not been tried before. The future depends on this.

Are you a possibility thinker?

What is leadership?

I remember first being asked this question when I was just out of seminary. I am sure it was in a John Maxwell book. I wish I could have a dollar for each time someone has started the leadership topic out with that question. I guess I would be paying myself a dollar today. smile.

I have always hung on to the definition that leadership is influence.  This Christmas season I started brainstorming about some potential blog posts and decided I have some posts that I would like to write regarding leadership. I am not an expert on this. In fact I feel rather arrogant actually making  it a category on my blog.

In reality, I have had a lot of experience in this area.

Some good and some bad.

I have made  my share of mistakes. I will make more for sure.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to lead at various levels. Here is the one thread that runs through all of my experiences. Leadership is all about being able to influence people. It is less about position though in most churches and organizations we have made position the key factor.

If leadership is influence then I think we need to take seriously a few traits in ourselves such as our

• character
• skill to get the job done
• ability for  others to trust us
• honesty
• reliability
• being a person of vision and faith
• being a possibility thinker
  

If people are going to follow you regardless of position then there are characteristics that need to be present in your life. I hope these things can be said of me. If not then as  saying goes …. “He who thinks he is a leader and no one is following is only taking a walk. I am quite certain that I heard that from Maxwell as well.

More soon.