Calling

If you are a leader, you will face turbulence in your ministry or organization. Sometimes the turbulence feels so intense that leading seems impossible. Here are four essentials for leading through the turbulence.

The vast majority of ideas are worse than worthless because they are simply bad ideas. Bad ideas will sometimes work because of luck or effort, but good ideas are much, much more likely to succeed. Life is too short to work on bad ideas. But how can we tell which ideas are “good” ones? Here is a list of characteristics of truly good ideas.

It's true – "When one door closes another door opens." But as a backwards interpretation of the saying suggests, perhaps we should consider the things we need to set aside to create the space we need.

If you had to boil it down to two qualities that you really need in a pastor, what would they be? We all have personal preferences but here are two indispensable qualities that form the essence of a leader.

Everyone gets down sometimes and feels like they aren’t valued and that they don’t matter. The thing is, you DO matter. You ARE valued. Very much so!

Would I go back to my first day as a pastor? I was pondering this the other day. After much thought, I concluded, Absolutely not. I wouldn’t go back if I could. I have learned a lot. The scars have taught me to walk closer with Jesus. I’ve seen enough of my weaknesses to not be surprised by them anymore.

In Revelation 3:8 God told the church at Philadelphia that He had set an open door before them even though they had “little power.” Many times God opens a door for leaders who doubt their leadership abilities. How could I be considered a leader or have anything to offer leaders? Julie had to do some rethinking about leadership and asks several important questions.

Caleb Bislow wrote a book about his calling. He is a farm boy from Nebraska, and went from a restless life as a Christian youth pastor in the Midwest, to quitting his job, emptying his bank account, and traveling deep into Africa.

Solomon told us that for everything there is a season. There are times that we need comforting, times that we need to comfort others, and times for growth when we are called to step out of our comfort zones. Kris describes what this means and the blessings God has in store for us when we do.

Dogs are exuberant in their joy. They exhibit it when they see you coming. It never matters how long – it could be ten minutes or ten hours – their joy is just as exultant. They know their purpose is to share that joy with you. However, it’s easy to get to a place in life where you forget the joy that you first found in your role. To rediscover that joy, leaders may only need to take a step back, and find the purpose and vision that God designed in what we are doing. We can have exultant joy.