In Acts 12, Peter is seized by King Herod in order to “persecute” him and because Herod saw how his killing of James pleased the Jews. Peter ends up in jail, and then through miraculous means, winds up out of jail!
We showed this clip when we shared the story of Peter’s Miraculous Escape from Prison in Main Street.
source YouTube
Lock-Ins are not my favorite thing to do in the first place, so the fact that the students had trashed the sanctuary with candy wrappers and half-empty pop cans really made me mad. We had already “served” these teenagers by staying up all night with them, and now we needed to clean up after them?!
Yep.
“Good leaders serve twice.” Not just the first time, but the second time as well. Your “humble” initial service does not “excuse” you from Christ-like service the second time!
Jesus serves his disciples in mundane ways, so that he can give something away (John 13). You serve someone in order to serve them. Only by washing feet can you serve on a higher level. It put Christ at a place where the disciples could receive him (at a level where they could receive).
We have to do the mundane before the profound.
Invest in people, so we can invest in people.
This is part of a series called Patty Proverbs. When I was in college @ Multnomah University in Portland, our professor, Dr. Steve Patty, shared some proverbial leadership wisdom with his students. These are his “proverbs.”
King Herod got a little excited that the Jews got a little excited when “he had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword” (Acts 12:2 NIV), so he proceeded to seize Peter also.
And then something miraculous happened. An angel of the Lord showed up and released Peter from his chains and walked him through the guards, unaware, and out into the street.
The power of prayer is amazing!
Story Lesson (394.5kb, pdf)
Audio File (13mb, mp3)
Video Link (4.22.12 @ vimeo.com)
Video Link (4.26.09 @ vimeo.com)
Gossip occurs when there is not enough information. If they don’t know about something they are a bit suspicious from all 3 angles: followers, leaders, and peers (people you work with).
Gossip breeds in silence. Pessimism nurtures dissatisfaction. If people are not included in on information or are left out of the loop, then those people will operate as renegades out of the group.
A leader’s staff must be in the know. There needs to be communication… and lots of it! Staff cannot support what they have not been included in on. The leader creates a vacuum and mistrust unnecessarily.
It is always vital for synergy in any organization to have high trust and high cooperation. Those traits will not occur without communication.
This is part of a series called Patty Proverbs. When I was in college @ Multnomah University in Portland, our professor, Dr. Steve Patty, shared some proverbial leadership wisdom with his students. These are his “proverbs.”
We need covenantal relationships, not contractual relationships.
What makes leading people worth the risk? People are eternal, not programs.
What are the risks in relating with people?
I know, I know, I’m reviewing the book so I supposed to say things like that, right?! Well, I typically have to trudge through books, particularly on leadership, because they are boring. Some people enjoy lists of principles and can easily see how to apply those principles in their given context.
Well, I am not one of those people! Perhaps this is why I’m a kids pastor. I enjoy stories… especially a really good story.
And “The Eric Trap: 5 things every leader has to get right” is a great story!
Patrick Lencioni wrote a book a while back called, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” Lencioni wrote this leadership book in the style of a fabled story. A good 2/3 of the book is a story about how team dynamics work themselves out in the context of a fictitious company. As you read this book, especially the story part, you don’t realize your learning leadership principles because you’re so caught up in the story. The last 1/3 of the book is a sort of debriefing of the story and a distilling of leadership team principles.
The authors of “The Eric Trap” seem to have borrowed this successful and enjoyable literary device and applied it to a ministry context – particularly a children’s pastor’s ministry context.
From one children’s pastor to the next, you will really appreciate this book because almost at every turn you will relate to the “fictitious” Eric Newman and his struggles as a children’s pastor (I know I did!). The pressures to produce, disciple, lead, create, and relate is on full display in Eric’s story. Without giving away the plot of the story, Pastor Eric has to deal with delegation issues, submitting to authority, engaging with and resourcing parents’ discipleship mandate, how to measure success in ministry, and what priorities a person (in or out of ministry) should have with their vocation and family life.
Eric Newman has to deal and encounter some real issues that he isn’t fully prepared to handle. Haven’t we all found ourselves (and will find ourselves) in situations where we cannot figure things out alone? I know I have. I think the authors’ hope is that this book will really engage with our human tendency to go at things alone or power through problems without dealing with the underlying cause.
Whether you are a children, youth, executive, or senior pastor… whether you are a pastor or a carpenter… whether you are male or female, in Houston, TX or Hayward, WI… this book will challenge the way you think and address some deficiencies you might not even know that you had.
I highly recommend this for anyone attempting to lead anything.
These are questions any good leader should ask. It’s one thing to be positive about what you do and how things are going, but it’s quite another to not admit reality when it comes to how things are going and what you do.
No one likes criticism. Some people like critique because of how it can help them grow, but the process is definitely painful and unsettling. Criticism just for criticism sake is never productive.
Defining reality is opening the door for a wise and healthy critique of your leadership and the organization/people you are leading.
This is part of a series called Patty Proverbs. When I was in college @ Multnomah University in Portland, our professor, Dr. Steve Patty, shared some proverbial leadership wisdom with his students. These are his “proverbs.”
I don’t know why they like doing this?!
In order to organizationally survive 10 hours with middle school students, one needs to have a comprehensive plan for the time allotted. Preferably there needs to be more activities planned that one has time for, which turned out to be good for us this time. We didn’t run out of things to do, but because of the number of students that attended, we had to not do certain activities that we had previously planned.
When I was in college @ Multnomah University, I had a professor named, Dr. Steve Patty. In his class on Managing Church Ministries, Dr. Patty taught his students some proverbial wisdom he affectionately called: Patty Proverbs.
Here they are:
Over the next 10 days, there will be a blog series on each of these 10 Patty Proverbs. I hope you enjoy this series on some really good and applicable leadership principles.
HT Digital Kids Initiative
via Common Sense Media
source YouTube
When I was in high school, my youth pastor, Mike Mobly loved sharing this story with us. We probably heard it 10+ times. Mike told it so well that I could almost picture the video in my mind.
The other day I came across a video that sort of recreated the moment and the circumstances surrounding this special story.
World-class sprinter Derek Redmond was set to run the race of his life and win a gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games. But before he could cross the finish line, he pulled a hamstring and was forced to fall back. As he hopped on one foot, his father left the stands and helped his son cross the finish line. Watch as this pair demonstrates the love and friendship of a father and son.
HT All Pro Dad
source Vimeo
When asked to draw a picture of herself @ Kindergarten screening a couple of days ago, this was Sari’s interpretation:
