Joel Young Blog.com

This morning I preached on a theme that presents itself in the book of Deuteronomy. I know, I know…not the most exciting book in all of the Bible, but this lesson is a good one. You see, in Deuteronomy God is preparing his people to cross the Jordan River and enter the promise land. He tells them, through Moses, that they will take possession of the land by driving out the nations that currently reside there, but here’s the kicker. He doesn’t give them a pre-game pep talk about how capable they are to crush their foes. Instead, he tells them that the nations they will be dispossessing are “greater and mightier” than they are.

God doesn’t do this in an effort to scare them or even tear them down. He does it to help them realize this calling is something they cannot fulfill alone. They will be waging war with great nations in fortified cities, but it doesn’t matter that they aren’t able to conquer them by their own power…because it’s God power that matters. He had a plan to bless the nation, therefore his power was a part of that plan.

You see, no matter what we do there are going to be things in life that God calls us to that are “greater and mightier” than we are. These are thing we can’t do by ourselves, but rather require us to rely on God’s power for a victory. If we measure the attainable by our ability the bar will stay rather low. But, when we align with the perfect will of God and lean back as we step forward, relying on him as our source of capability, we will see success over things “greater and mightier” than ourselves.

This past Sunday I shared some thoughts on leadership with my church that I gleaned from the great speakers at this year’s Global Leadership Summit. It was a great privilege to be given the opportunity to learn from some of the world’s most gifted leaders. So, I wanted to share a few ideas that rose to the top during the fantastic sessions with Bill Hybels and Jim Collins. (These are a mixture of paraphrased thoughts and quotes)

Bill Hybels

• A leader’s job is to take people from “Here” to “There”. Casting vision and leading people in a specific direction is not simply making “There” sound great, but explaining why we cannot stay “Here”.
• Leaders need fantastic people with character, competency, and chemistry to help them.
• Everyone’s “vision bucket” has holes in the bottom of it. Leaders need to periodically refill the “vision buckets” of their people along the journey.
• There is a 40% differential between a passionate worker and an average worker. Seek to fill people with passion. Make it a priority.
• Celebrate ANY accomplishment you can!

Jim Collins

• “Greatness is largely derived from conscious choice, not circumstance.”
• Every organization has a certain amount of key seats on their bus, and growth cannot happen until all those key seats are filled with the right people.
• Leaders need to maintain the right a balance between preserving the core and stimulating progress in their organization if they want to grow.
• “Greatness is never a single event; it is a process.”

I hope you can get as much milage out of these thoughts as I have already.

Last week, as we have many times this summer, my wife and I looked out our front window and talked about landscaping plans for our neglected outdoor space. Just about a year ago we bought a “fixer-upper” and have done extensive work to get the interior of the house to where we want it. However, the outside of the house is a different story. You see, the previous owners never planted a shrub, bush, or flower in their fifty years of residence, and needless to say we need to do some landscaping.

Even though it’s a necessity here’s why I HATE landscaping projects. They are expensive, time consuming, grueling, and its back breaking work. Not to mention it’s been 90+ degrees and humid as the rain forest for the last couple months here in Cincinnati. This factor, and my hatred for such projects, aside we are still planning on getting some things done before fall. So, we have been brainstorming about everything we will need to do and the materials we will need to buy to complete the project succesfully.

We talked about getting plants from friends and family to cut down on costs, borrowing a rototiller to prepare the soil and, most importantly, how to make this new landscaping LOW MAINTENANCE. We don’t want to be pulling weeds every weekend from here to eternity. So, we decided that we needed to invest in a good weed barrier to put over the soil that would prevent weeds from growing up through our landscaping. Then my wife commented that her dad once told her old newspaper worked great as a weed barrier and had the same effect as the fancy covering you buy at Home Depot.

I’ll admit, I scoffed, and even laughed, at the idea when she first presented it. I mean, come on….newspaper couldn’t work as well as the stuff manufactured specifically for this purpose…could it? I mean it’s just newspaper…right?

We haven’t put this into action yet, but the more I’ve thought about it the more I’ve realized that my perception of something puts no limits on it’s usefullness. My preference to use something other than newspaper didn’t make it the right choice, it just made it my preference. I thought it was a downright foolish idea at first, but who made me the “knower of all things”?

I don’t have one specific point to make with this illustration, but the concept can take you a long way. My hope is not to give a green light to every foolish ideas that live inside your head, but rather to broaden your perspective on the possibilities that exist in this world. Realize that most innovate ideas start out as foolish ideas, which means our world progresses through the actions of fools. I know, pretty deep for a story about old newspaper, but you’ll never know if, or how, your perspective is holding you back until you step out of it. Something every leader in every context should contemplate.

Ok, slap me on the wrist with a ruler…I haven’t been a very faithful blogger as of late. It’s really ironic that I haven’t written much over the last month because I’ve had more thoughts racing through my mind during this time than ever before. In fact, I would dare say that there is TOO MUCH going on inside this head of mine, at times, for my own good.

As I’ve been trying to process everything internally I’ve realized this:

The faster I move internally, the more sluggish I am externally.

In other words, until I slow down and simplify what is happening inside my head, my heart, and my soul I will never be able to allow it to take action. Otherwise, my life would look like a watermelon that has been packed full of dynamite and detonated; pieces of me flying in every possible direction.

What makes life difficult is not the quest to find things to do, but deciding what things are worth your time…your efforts…your thoughts and then proceeding with ONLY those things.

Who/what is winning that battle in your life?

Who/what SHOULD be winning that battle in your life?

There are A LOT of things that I’m NOT good at (and I know it), and over the years one of the things that I’ve worked hard to get better at is seeing potential in others. Most of our lives we are told to seek the potential in ourselves, but rarely are we encouraged to help others in doing the same thing. And yet, I believe that one of the greatest abilities a leader can have is the ability to see the potential in others and possess the courage and tenacity to help them develop that potential into something great.

Without a healthy support system of talented and committed people surrounding and supporting them even the most capable leaders will fail. I’ve spent a lot of time studying great leaders and how they are able to do the things they do, and I believe I’ve found one common denominator between all great leaders. They all have great men and women who vigorously work alongside their vision and passion. I used to think that these leaders were just lucky to have found these people, but what I’ve recently realized is that these types of people don’t just fall into your lap. They are developed.

A great leader will seeking the potential in those around them and search for ways to draw that potential to the top and harness it for the good of the organization/movement they lead. A good leader will desire to empower those who are around them, and while this is often difficult it is always worth while.

Are you seeing the potential in others?

A lot of people ask me, “what has church planting taught you?” Often my response is something like, “Not to do it again,” or “That I really don’t know as much as I thought I did.” But all joking aside there is something that church planting has taught me that is invaluable in both life and ministry. Craig Groeschel captured that lesson in a very short an concise post this morning. Here’s what he said about, “Letting Go of the Fear of Failure.”

The fear of failure paralyzes too many people.

I’ve found one of the best gifts God can give a leader is the gift of failure.

Too many of us are not doing what we feel called to do because we’re afraid to fail.

As I observe the people around me, it seems the most effective have failed far more times than the least effective.

The people making the biggest impact seem to:

1) Try something outlandish.

2) Fail.

3) Learn.

4) Adjust.

5) Try something that works better.

Failure is never final. It is often the first step to success.

If you haven’t failed in awhile, why don’t you try something crazy and see what happens.

This one lesson we all need to learn. Thanks for the reminder Craig.

Sometimes people, knowing that I’m a preacher, ask me this question. “Why don’t you take Monday off?” I guess more than probing into my personal life they just want to know why I don’t take a “break” after my busiest and more stressful day of the week. So, for all of you who are curious and might ever ask me that question in the future here’s the answer.

I remember things on Monday that I won’t on Tuesday.

I’ve posted several times before about my weekly process and how I start my process of preparing very lightly every week, but I think it is very important for me to reflect on what has happened on any given Sunday before I forget. I don’t do any “heavy lifting” as I work on Mondays, but use it more as a day of light review and preparing to prepare for the coming week. Sometimes I even jot down little notes to myself throughout the day on Sunday so I can reflect on them the next day. Things like…

• [insert name here] is doing a great job on [task]. Send them a note of encouragement this week.
• You need to do [insert task] less.
• Leave more/less time for [worship element] next week.

It’s not that I’m naturally forgetful, I just want to be very sure that everything we do, and don’t do Horizon and everything I do, and don’t do, as a leader is on purpose. So, I don’t allow a lot of time to lapse between an event and the review of the event. I like to go over the rocks (bad) and rubies (good) while they’re still fresh in my mind (that’s some old school terminology that Mike taught me).

As a leader it’s very important to keep your eyes on what you are achieving and what you’re not. This can be taken this to awful extremes, as I know I have before, when we worry too much about the bad and don’t celebrate the good, but early review can help you to pinpoint problems and capitalize on a job well done.

One of the most useful realizations that I have come to in the past five years as a leader is that I can’t convince myself of anything. I’m a pretty confident, self-affirmed person, but I don’t do anything if I have to convince myself to do it. I know that my thought process can be skewed by the things that I desire and my ultimate reason for action may be purely selfish. So, I’ve adopted a rule for all decisions I make as a leader and pastor.

Let God do all the convincing.

• When God convinces you to do something, you don’t second guess.
• When God convinces you to do something, you don’t worry where it will lead.
• When God convinces you to do something, you aren’t suffocated with a fear of failure.
• When God convinces you to do something, you don’t care how much credit you’re going to get.
• When God convinces you to do something, you will eagerly await the next line of instruction instead of becoming complacent and idle in your work.

Maybe you need to take a step back in your decision making process and let God do the convincing for a change.

This morning I was reading a post from Clayton King’s Blog written to Pastors, Preachers, and Church Leaders who have a huge role in Sunday activities. The post was called “It’s Monday. Be Careful, Pastor.” In the post Clayton outlined why it’s important for Pastors to have some recovery time after the craziness of preaching, teaching, and leading that happens on Sundays. Here are some suggestions that he made that I thought were great.

1. You are most vulnerable to criticism and discouragement. Hold off on most calls and emails til Tuesday. They can wait unless they are a medical or spiritual emergency.

2. You are susceptible to sexual temptation, whether in person or online. Monitor your mood and your online activity everyday, but particularly on Mondays.

3. Fatigue from Sunday means you have less energy to focus on important tasks on Monday. Schedule, in advance, important meetings, including staff meetings (if possible) to Tuesday.

4. Hold off on making big decisions (staff, budget, family decisions) until you have had time to reconnect with God and regroup personally. Most big decisions can wait a few days and the extra time may bring greater clarity.

5. Plan margin on Monday. Create uncluttered space to read, reflect, pray, eat lunch with your wife, take your kids to school, go to the gym, or (gasp!) take a nap. You worked hard yesterday. Take some time to rejuvenate today.

Great advice if you’re a Pastor, and a great principle for us all to live by. You can ask yourself these questions.

What is the height of my responsibility and stress each week?

What sins am I most susceptible to after my body and mind are completely drained?

Knowing the answers to these questions and implementing some of the principles that Clayton talked about can keep us all strong and still allow us to properly recovery from those high impact, high responsibility, high stress situations we all experience.

I have been processing a lot of things inside my own head lately. I feel like I am finally getting what it means to let God do the leading, both in my life and in my work, and it has caused me to spend more time listening than I ever have before. During this season of listening I have come to some humbling realizations about myself, but none have been more real than what God gave me through Jenna, my wife, last week.

Sunday was one of the best worship experiences EVER at Horizon and we were trying to process it all as we came down from cloud nine that afternoon. If you know me, you know that I process out loud and therefore say everything that I’m thinking. On this particular Sunday I was elated with the response to the sermon God has laid on my heart. It was really one of those weeks where I had to pray ALL WEEK that God would say something through me because I felt so inadequate and unable to articulate His message, and boy did He. The Word rocked everyone there and caused many people to honor my delivery of that Word like never before.

Selfishly, here’s what I was thinking, and what I said to my wife. “When did these people begin to respect me, and the Word that God has put inside me, so much? It’s not like they didn’t before, but today I really felt the weight of their respect for me as God’s instrument to lead His church like never before. Why/how did that happen so suddenly?” As carefully as she could my wife articulated to me what was crystal clear to her. She answered, “Because now you believe you can lead this church.”

WHAT?!?! At first I was taken back, and a little angry. How dare she question my confidence in following God’s leading. I seriously thought to myself, “She just doesn’t get it. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” I mean, confidence has never been something that I have lacked before.

Then, after a few minutes of silence I came to this humbling realization: SHE WAS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! I had been leading this church and trying to follow God’s prompting for over a year, but up until a month ago I really didn’t have confidence that God could do the job through ME. I don’t know what I was thinking, but the way I lead was telling people that I had doubts about God’s ability to use ME.

It’s a humbling thing when you realize that the only thing standing in the way of God radically blessing His calling on your life is YOU.