BabuLife

Thinking About Leaving?

It happens. Folks are led to leave a church. In many cases, it's okay.  In fact, it's a very healthy thing  for individuals to pursue what God is doing in their lives. I've left a church before, and before I did, there were questions that I had to answer personally for myself and for my family.

The article below was forwarded to me and it had some fantastic points every person should consider before making the final call on leaving a church family.  You can check it out directly at the Building Church Leaders blog here.

April 24, 2009

5 Reasons You'll Want to Leave But Shouldn't

Is it really time for a ministry change?

Angie and David Ward

Should I stay or should I go? At some point, every ministry leader asks the question, sometimes at weekly intervals. The answer isn't always clear. But whether you're asking it because of the Monday-morning blahs, the post-conference buzz, or the deacon-meeting blues, here are five reasons not to leave your current situation.

1. Conflict.
Whether it's criticism, opposition, or differences in philosophy or personality, as a leader you can expect conflict. It's inevitable wherever two or more sinners are gathered, even in Christ's name. Leaving because of conflict often demonstrates the schoolyard value, "If you don't play the game my way, I'm taking my ball and going home." But you win some battles just by surviving them. Live to fight another day.

2. Slow progress.
Many of us in ministry have been conditioned to believe that more and faster are better. We want maximum impact with minimum resistance. Time is short, we say; the Kingdom is coming. But sometimes the King wants us to slow down and listen. Stuckness may frustrate your grand ministry plans, but it may also be the best thing for your spiritual growth.

3. Frustrations with leadership.
The thought, "If I were in charge, I'd do things differently" is not necessarily a call from God to leave your current situation. You may be right, and your church may be filled with horrible leaders. Perhaps that means you're the good leader they need to help them reach their full potential.

4. Uncertainty or transition.
Some leaders bolt as soon as they feel their organization is in crisis. Whether your church is looking for a new senior pastor, working through a change in philosophy, or facing a budget crunch, sometimes the best move may be to stay put, and to help your community weather the transition.

5. The lure of greener pastures.
A fellow leader once heard me questioning whether I should stay in a particular position. He asked, "Did God call you here?" I answered affirmatively, but his next question was the kicker: "Did God call you away?" I had been so focused on where I felt I wanted to go, I hadn't asked whether God had released me from my current assignment. The minute you look longingly at the fescue on the other side of the fence, you diminish your effectiveness in your current setting—the one God has called you to.

Angie and David Ward are ministry leaders who are staying—for now—in Durham, North Carolina.

How Far Will You Go?

Sometimes you just have to let it go. When everyone can see that your product won't work...it just might be time to quit selling it.  I honor the efforts of the salesman in this video who continues selling even while laying on the floor and the camera has cut away.  But really...let it go.  How far will you go to convince people of a failing product?  Enjoy the video:

Off to Catalyst

It's been awhile since our Pastoral team has had an opportunity to travel together for some leadership conferencing.  We're heading down to Catalyst in Atlanta, GA on Tuesday morning.  There are a few things I'm looking forward to this week:

• Fellowship - Just hanging out with the fellas I sweat and labor with for God's kingdom.  I love my fellow Pastor dudes and I can't wait to get away with them. I'm sure we'll have some great conversations about how we can apply what we're hearing at Catalyst.
• Speakers - There will be some top notch folks speaking this year.  I've been a Seth Godin nerd in our office since I became the Communications Director.  So much so that I've probably annoyed some of my fellow team members.  Also looking forward to Craig Groeschell (heard him at the Willow Leadership Summit) along with Andy Stanley and Dave Ramsey. 
• Labs - We're taking advantage of the pre-conference labs scheduled for Wednesday. I'm heading to the "Culture" lab to here the likes of Author Tim Stevens and Andy crouch. I enjoy these smaller/more intimate settings with leaders. Looking forward to this.
• Fellow Bloggers - I don't know how much time I'll have to meet with my fellow bloggers whom I've never met face to face.  But I might just get a chance to just say hi so if you're on Twitter, be sure to follow me and maybe we can catch a moment to just shake hands at the least.  I'm looking forward to maybe hooking up with my fellow worship leading buddy from California,  Bobby Marchessault.
• Worship - I just heard today on the Catalyst podcast that Hillsong United will be coming in to lead some worship. That's right...Hillsong United! Woohoo!!!  My fellow band buddies will be jealous I'm sure. Turns out I was waaaay off...Steve Fee, Kristian Stanfill and a few others rocked the house...still an AWESOME time of worship.

I'll be Twittering from the conference so if you're interested in updates, just click here and elect to follow me.  You can also check back here as I'll try and blog as well.

Leadership Summit 2008

I've been at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit these past couple of days.  This is a great time of leadership vision refilling every year.  So many great speakers, so much encouraging content that stretches me.  Our entire staff is here along with another 10-15 Gracers.  That's a lot of visioneering going on.

If you're interested in the conference, you can follow Tim's notes here.  You can also visit the "Leadership Summit" Twitter page here to catch conversations from attenders across the globe.

Speed Bumps

"Friendships are like speedbumps...just little bumps in the road causing you to slow down while getting to your intended destination."

There are things I regret doing and saying in my life...this is one of them.

In our lives we experience many friendships that come and go.  Some of us build walls to keep our distances from those we actually care about.  Why do we do this?  For me, I came to a realization in my life that I have a fear of being let down.  I've been let down in my childhood by friendships.  Wounded by people I've let into my world only to have them disappoint me.  The result was a person who always remains guarded, always avoids dealing with conflicts and dismisses friendships easily when they move along.  This isn't healthy.

As I've grown in my personal relationship with God, I've learned that friendships in the Body of Christ are essential to the Christian walk.  We were never meant to walk alone, we were never meant to deal with trials on our own and we were never meant to abandon those who God put in our paths.  People are NOT speedbumps.

Proverbs 18:24 A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Just a thought to chew on this Wednesday.  Do you need to rethink your view on friendships?

Consuming Worship Interview Part II

Head on over to read the rest of the interview.  Thanks again to Jeff for the great questions.  Visit Consuming Worship for part II.  Thanks to my friends for the kind comments on part 1.

Part 1

Part 2

Interview at Consuming Worship

Recently Jeff at Consuming Worship interviewed me as one of the Worship Leader Wednesday posts. Today is part one of the interview.  Thanks Jeff for the great questions!  Go here to read the interview.

A Little Vision

This morning our worship team got together for some donuts and a little vision casting.  I'm a believer in the power of communication for teams, hence the WST blog, this blog and other sources.  While these are great tools, nothing beats the power of a face to face every now and then.  Here are some of the things we had a chance to talk about...

• Celebration - I've been keeping notes and comments from Connect Cards received during the weekends.  It would be selfish of me to just keep these to myself so I pulled a few out to share with the team like this one.
• 2007 Review - Looked at what major things happened for our worship team this past year.  Things like professed salvations, baptisms, new worship team members etc. 
• 2008 Focus - We've got some major things happening this year.  With an anticipated third service on the horizon, we'll be making some moves this year to prep our worship team for whatever time is decided upon.
• PlanningCenterOnline Training - Walked through some of the tools offered on the site.

It was good for our team to refresh ourselves on why we do what we do.  It was good for all of us to actually be in the same room without instruments in front of us.  I'm looking forward to 2008 and can't wait to see how God uses our team.  Thanks to the team for taking two hours out of your weekend to catch up!

Discontent is Good...Do Something With It

During last summer's WCA Leadership Summit I picked up Bill Hybel's book "Holy Discontent".  I have yet to crack it open, but I know it's going to be a good refresher on directing my discontent for certain things into a greater cause. I believe there are a lot of folks who have a "Holy Discontent" that God has stirred up within them but have yet discovered how to direct it.

Back in 2000, I had that stirring within me. The discontent and passion to squelch worship that was ineffective at stirring people's hearts for God.  I became passionate about eliminating "lame praise", as I once heard my pastor call it, feeling this stirring within me to implement worship that connected people in a way that related to our culture.  When you have a discontent this strong, you feel there's nothing that can or should stop you from seeing that discontent dealt with.

During our Quarterly Leader's Meeting this morning, I was reminded during our conversations that I need to refresh and revisit my holy discontent.  In essence it's good for leaders to deal with "vision leak" and refocus attention to the calling God's given each one of us.

"Discontent is the first necessity of progress." - Thomas Edison

Check out Bill Hybel's book "Holy Discontent"

Watch this video highlight of the book and discover your "Holy Discontent":