For many years we have watched a non-stop parade of high-profile Christian leaders who are exposed for one major failing or another with the inevitable and terrible pain and disillusionment for their followers, and the loss of credibility for the broader Church in the eyes of the world who mock such a circus. And this parade will continue as long as we refuse to face reality and deal with the underlying dysfunctional characteristics of our current church culture: As long as we honor gifting above maturity. This is the spirit of the world. The world loves gifting, but God loves integrity, serva ..read more

Four questions I love to ask, and three unexpected benefits that come with them.  According to a well-known story, Nobel Prize winner Isadore Rabi shares how his mother unknowingly taught him to be a scientist.  He explains, “Every other child would come back from school and be asked, ‘What did you learn today?’  But my mother used to ask, ‘Izzy, did you ask a good question today?’  That made the difference.  Asking good questions made me a scientist.” Journalist Diane Sawyer once marveled at this story, remarking at the beauty of educating children by l ..read more

Through focusing on building leaders, rather than on building organizations, we will avoid the common problem of vision displacement. This happens when an organization displaces its vision with itself – that is, when it substitutes for its original vision the goal of its own preservation and growth. This happens often. In this process, an organization reverses the priority between its goals and means in such a way that it now makes the means the goal and the goals a means; and the organization itself, which used to be the means, now becomes the goal. Organizations are not ends in themselves; t ..read more

Healthy organizations have good leaders who nurture the development of other leaders at all levels of the organization. The ultimate test of a leader is not whether he makes smart decisions and takes effective action in the short term, but whether he teaches others to be leaders and builds an organization that can continue to be healthy and to thrive when he is not around. Thus, the key issue of healthy organizations is leader development. The effective leader is not only a continuous learner himself; he must also be a continuous teacher and builder of others. He must pass along what he has le ..read more

In the beginning, God gave Adam dominion over the earth. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28) This reflected God’s original purpose for man – that he would rule over the earth in a state of blessing, peace and prosperity. But when Adam sinned, everything changed. Man came under the punishment of sin (Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:22) and the earth was also brought under the curse of s ..read more

I spent December quietly at home with the intention of getting much-needed perspective on the next season of my life. I was aware of the danger of drift on one hand, and of indiscriminately maintaining the status quo on the other hand. In the process, the key word that surfaced for me was the word intentional. Being intentional was a reminder for me to stay focused, to know what on earth I am here for, to live proactively, and not be caught up reacting to the many needs that surround me, and to live purposely the one life that has been entrusted to me, with courage and humility. At the ti ..read more

Read this Bible text, and it’s tough for any of us not to see our responsibility to give some time and attention to young persons: Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind ..read more

It seemed I was everyone’s target all evening … and not a single shot missed. I was the chair of that planning committee-meeting-turned-nightmare many years ago. One member came to me privately after the meeting and bluntly told me I was blowing it because I was way too defensive. By then I was quite ready to start firing back, but I didn’t. Why? Because I had no doubt this man really cared for me. Not trying to win an argument or show me up, he, unlike any other person in the group, said this to me out of love. I treasure my relationship with him because of what he told me that evening. Was i ..read more

Today I’m going to look at “leadership capacity” as a function of strength – strength to carry the responsibilities that we feel called to shoulder. Physiologists and fitness experts tell us that muscle pain is not a prerequisite for muscle growth. Stretching the muscle fibers – whether it causes pain or not – is what is needed. But for those of us committed to physical fitness, we take the muscle pain as a “medal of honor.” “No pain …” Well, you know the rest. This seems to be a principle of both spiritual and physical growth. In the same ways that we stretch ourselves physically, we challeng ..read more

View the latest Leadership Laughs comic from Dennis Fletcher ..read more