Birthright
This is an inspiring story of a man who’s found something worth doing every day, no matter what it takes. A beautifully done short film.
BIRTHRIGHT from Sean Mullens on Vimeo.
Leading Up
Whether it’s in a corporate culture, or in the church, one of the greatest challenges for any leader in an organization is the art of leading up. Here are 6 keys to leading up, adapted from John Maxwell’s book, 360 Leadership.
1. Get the big picture. Don’t get too comfortable with your silo or area of expertise.
2. Build a relationship with your supervisor. Find common ground, learn their language, and do it with integrity. Remember – lead up, don’t suck up.
3. Be considerate of time. When you set up a meeting with a supervisor or boss, don’t go in having no idea what you’re going to talk about. A helpful rule of thumb in preparing for a meeting with your boss – spend at least an equal amount of time in preparation as you do in conversation.
4. Choose your battles carefully. Know where you want to risk your capital, and always sleep on it!
5. Become a go-to player. Identify what asset or expertise you bring to the organization that no one else has. As a corollary, be quick to identify the gifts of other people – pay it forward, and over time your strengths will be recognized as well.
6. Never stop learning. Immerse yourself in literature related to your field, because you never know when you’ll be asked to strategic insight. A helpful saying – “The only difference between who we are now and who we’ll be in 5 years is the people we meet and the books we read.”
Five Big Questions for Every Communicator
About a year ago, Craig Groeschel introduced these five big questions that biblical communicators should ask every time they enter the study, in preparation of a message. They stare at me from the wall above my desk, and remind me what’s really at stake in communicating the story of God:
1. How has this text affected you?
2. How have you failed in the area this Scripture addresses?
3. What about this text makes you uncomfortable?
4. What do you feel about what this Scripture is saying? (I know our feelings don’t trump scriptural truth, but talking about how we feel about the text can help engage others at a deeper level).
5. How are you becoming different because of your study in God’s Word?
A Letter Written…
Donald Miller’s new book, the one with the awkwardly long title, is all the rage. Last week three of my friends who teach in churches started the new year off with a reflection on “living a better story”. I thought the book was some of his best writing. The challenge to live out better scenes in the narrative of life is something all of us can respond to.
This morning, I was reading a short reflection by a guy named Will Willimon, who gives a different pitch to the concept of living out one’s story:
“Although the modern world has attempted to convince us that we are writing our own stories, the Christian faith keeps asserting that we live in stories that we did not write. Preachers have the privilege of talking people into a world where much is afoot and some Other is the author of the true story of what is going on in us and in the world. As Paul told his congregation, ‘You are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God’ (2 Cor 3:3).”
New Year’s Reading List
Here are the books I plan to kick off the new year with, as I take some time to study the theology of preaching. I wish I could say they are self-selected, but they’re all a part of a class I’m taking with Will Willimon, former Dean of the Chapel at Duke Divinity School.
Bryan Chapell, Christ-centered Preaching
Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to read the Bible for all its worth
James F. Kay, Preaching and Theology
Thomas Long, The Witness of Preaching
Doug Pagitt, Preaching Re-imagined
Haddon Robinson, Biblical Preaching
James Stewart, Heralds of God
John Stott, Between Two Worlds
Barbara Brown Taylor, The Preaching Life
William Willimon, Easter Redone: Keeping Preaching Fresh
William Willimon, Proclamation and Theology
William Willimon, Peculiar Speech
William Willimon, Conversations with Barth on Preaching
Gift Love
The simplest way for love to come to life, is when we give. And not just money, not just stuff, but when we give ourselves,
our time,
our attention,
our service,
it’s when we sacrifice for someone else.
That’s when love comes to life. For God so loved the world, that he gave.
So this Christmas, as you’re celebrating traditions, maybe some of you are creating traditions. What if this Christmas became the best Christmas, not because of what we received, what we got, or where we went, but because we gave.
Jesus knew that this was the best way to live. One day he said,
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
This week I came across a study, that John Ortberg writes about, in which high school students, who were tested below grade reading level, were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group helped tutor younger children, and the other group didn’t do anything. No serving, no volunteer work. The students in the group that tutored ended up being twelve times more likely to graduate from high school than the students in the non-serving group. High school students involved in volunteering are less likely to drop out, less likely to use drugs, less likely candidates for teenage pregnancy, more likely to graduate, more likely to have a higher level of esteem, and more likely to go on to college.
It is better to give than to receive, because that’s what love always does – it gives itself away.
What a great thing to remember this time of year, when we are inundated with images and stories and ads, that brainwash our minds with a consumerist,
want more,
spend more,
buy more,
charge more,
get more way of life.
It is more blessed to give, than to receive.
That’s what Christmas love is all about.
