Telling stories is one of the most effective ways to lead a community or congregation.

The church that I serve, Resurrection West, is a member of the Olathe Chamber of Commerce who recently released a video to promote Olathe.

This model could be effective for a wide variety of settings to share stories of:

• Generosity
• Vital congregations
• Church conference reporting
• New church starts

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One of my favorite podcasts is the HBR IdeaCast. Episode 283, The Right Mindset for Success, focuses on the distinctions between a fixed and growth mindset. One of the most helpful portions was about supervision and management. This list, from Carol Dweck, describes the methods and message that a manager or leader could give to new employees that would put them into a growth mindset:

• We value passion, dedication, growth and learning; not genius.
• We do not expect that you have arrived here fully formed. We expect that you have arrived here ready to learn.
• We expect you to stretch beyond your comfort zone and take reasonable risks. We do not expect you to do the same thing you are good at over and over and stay in your comfort zone.
• We value and reward process, taking on big but reasonable challenges, dogged pursuit of challenges and teamwork.
• Even without success we reward that you have engaged in the process in a wholehearted and smart way.

I have much to learn from these methods in the way that I supervise staff and volunteers. These methods would be helpful for:

• Pastors with staff and volunteers
• Board of Ordained Ministry with candidates
• Bishops and District Superintendents with appointed clergy.

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I have had the privilege of spending time with Ray Pitman, a member of Resurrection, over the past several months. Several years ago, I officiated at the funeral for his wife, Betty, and we reconnected this summer when I lead worship at Leawood one Saturday night. I found his perspective on capacity to be particularly helpful as presented to an executive MBA class at the Helzberg School of Management at Rockhurst University.

As drinking glasses exist in different sizes, people have varying capacities in life and work. If you fill a glass to the point of overflowing it won’t do any good to keep putting water in it. When your own glass is overflowing you have to be able to recognize that and make sure that you are surrounded by other people who have some additional capacity.

1. Opportunity – Be able to recognize an opportunity when it presents itself.
2. Vision – Have the vision to project that opportunity to where it might go; Be able to recognize if this is the opportunity for you
3. Ability – Have the ability to make it happen
4. Passion – Have passion for what you are doing.

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I have had the privilege of spending time with Ray Pitman, a member of Resurrection, over the past several months. Several years ago, I officiated at the funeral for his wife, Betty, and we reconnected this summer when I lead worship at Leawood one Saturday night. Last Friday he invited me to hear him speak to an executive MBA class at the Helzberg School of Management at Rockhurst University. He has told his life as a case study to classes at the Helzberg School for several years and I wanted to share a few tidbits for life, work and ministry.

• Don’t ever be afraid to ask. Don’t worry if you don’t have the money to accomplish a project that you have in mind. If the idea is great, there will be someone that will be able to help fund it.
• Just because your back is against the wall don’t think that there isn’t anything to do about it.
• What may seem to be tragedy at the time may be the best thing that ever happened to you.
• Surround yourself with people that are smarter than you are and your horizons will be broadened by their abilities.
• Sometimes its best to ignore the details and focus on the people who are caring for the details.

I’m 31.

I suppose that makes me in my early 30s.

Any advice on this decade?

Vital > Viable > Inviable

I would much rather lead and be part of a vital congregation than one that is simply viable.

I would much rather lead and be part of a viable congregation than one that is inviable and has not yet closed.

I believe that one of my roles as a United Methodist clergy person is to help congregations move from one to the next.

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Last week my son and I met Nicole for lunch at Chick-fil-A. This is a restaurant that has hospitality down pat and from which the church could draw helpful lessons. I have come to expect this when I go there to eat, but this time I had a surprise.

We had ordered a Kid’s Meal and was taking the toy (which was a computer game on CD) to the counter to trade it in for the board book designed for younger children. The cashier gladly took back the CD and asked if I would like a cup or a cone. I was confused. I was bringing it back to trade in for the board book. It took me a bit to catch on to what the cashier was telling me.

I could trade the CD in for a board book, or I could turn it back in for a kid’s ice cream cone.

Amazing!

What a great deal. I took the cone and there was a benefit for everyone. I will gladly make this trade again in the future.

This started me thinking about how to pleasantly surprise people at church? What do people (both new and regular attenders) expect when they walk in the doors to worship? In what ways could the church have more pleasant surprises? I haven’t come up with any out of the ballpark ideas yet, but will keep thinking as Chick-fil-A made a great impression on me.

I recently heard this phrase and found it to pretty accurately describe my habit of using my iPhone to check news, play a game or read email while having down time of even a minute or two.

Do you info snack?

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I had a great conversation with a colleague a couple weeks ago about the reality of jobs. Here is what he had to say:

• When considerino possibile roles or commitments, play to your passions and don’t apologize for it.
• There will always be a part of every job that you hate.

What would you add to the list of reality about jobs?