I was reading a blog post by Perry Noble this morning on the subject of hiring people. I love his insights and particularly this quote….

“The church cannot afford passionless people in prominent positions…life is too short and hell is too hot to have people on staff that do not care about Jesus, people far from God, the church and it’s vision!  A person with no passion will always seek to do the least amount possible…and people like that never make a difference!” Perry Noble

WOW!!! Here is the bottom line. Regardless of the positives and negatives within your role a great leader will find a way to rise above mediocrity. It’s called the “it” factor and “it” is fueled by PASSION! Great leaders hate mediocrity and know that when life is tough and situations are difficult God is in control. His promise of Jesus should always be the focus. When we begin to take our focus off of Jesus we become intoxicated with fear. Fear promotes hopelessness, desperation, apathy, and allows the negative people to have a voice! Let me be clear… there is a difference between a realist and a negative person, and every organization needs a healthy balance between realist and optimist. Each day we have a choice to do what is simply necessary or to rise above mediocrity. Rising above mediocrity requires courage, passion, and faith…so the question is are you PASSIONATE or PETRIFIED?

“Regardless of positives and negatives within each of our roles PASSION can still exist. Be great where you are!” Lance Martin

“If things are under control then you’re not moving fast enough” Mario Andretti

“If an idea is not absurd it has no hope” Albert Einstein

We do not need a new program to teach us how to share our faith in Christ.
We do not need a motivational seminar to entice us to share His love for mankind.
We do not need bracelet, t-shirt, bumper sticker, or car emblem to proclaim His Kingdom.

To share Christ the most important thing we can give is ourselves. People who do not know Christ can be turned off by the “Jesus Culture” we have created here in the bible belt. We need to be “real” share our lives with the world. I have seen more people come to know Christ through a believers mistakes, failures, and authenticity than a super “righteous/religious” act. Many time we walk ahead of someone who doesn’t know Christ instead of having the desire to walk beside them. If Jesus truly resides in our hearts the love and compassion of Christ will genuinely flow through our actions and our lives. Even through our failures Christ is revealed and glorified. If we remove our shiny plastic masks and be authentic with those around us we become approachable and highly sensitive to the grace God gives us each day.

Philippians 1:10

…that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.

The word sincere is from a Greek word that means “without wax”. In that day they sold quite a bit of marble products. If there is a defect, such as a crack, the seller would fill it in with wax. It would look just like the marble, however, that did not make it something you would want to purchase.

God wants us to be the “authentic” product even if there are imperfections.

We can learn a lot from our long forgotten children stories. One of my favorites is The Emperor’s New Clothes. Written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837. It’s teaching are essential warnings for today’s leaders. Take 5 minutes to read the story below and leave a comment on your first thoughts as it pertains to leadership.

“The Emperor’s New Clothes”

Once upon a time there lived a vain Emperor whose only worry in life was to dress in elegant clothes. He changed clothes almost every hour and loved to show them off to his people.
Word of the Emperor’s refined habits spread over his kingdom and beyond. Two scoundrels who had heard of the Emperor’s vanity decided to take advantage of it. They introduced themselves at the gates of the palace with a scheme in mind.

“We are two very good tailors and after many years of research we have invented an extraordinary method to weave a cloth so light and fine that it looks invisible. As a matter of fact it is invisible to anyone who is too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its quality.”

The chief of the guards heard the scoundrel’s strange story and sent for the court chamberlain. The chamberlain notified the prime minister, who ran to the Emperor and disclosed the incredible news. The Emperor’s curiosity got the better of him and he decided to see the two scoundrels.

“Besides being invisible, your Highness, this cloth will be woven in colors and patterns created especially for you.” The emperor gave the two men a bag of gold coins in exchange for their promise to begin working on the fabric immediately.

“Just tell us what you need to get started and we’ll give it to you.” The two scoundrels asked for a loom, silk, gold thread and then pretended to begin working. The Emperor thought he had spent his money quite well: in addition to getting a new extraordinary suit, he would discover which of his subjects were ignorant and incompetent. A few days later, he called the old and wise prime minister, who was considered by everyone as a man with common sense.

“Go and see how the work is proceeding,” the Emperor told him, “and come back to let me know.”

The prime minister was welcomed by the two scoundrels.

“We’re almost finished, but we need a lot more gold thread. Here, Excellency! Admire the colors, feel the softness!” The old man bent over the loom and tried to see the fabric that was not there. He felt cold sweat on his forehead.

“I can’t see anything,” he thought. “If I see nothing, that means I’m stupid! Or, worse, incompetent!” If the prime minister admitted that he didn’t see anything, he would be discharged from his office.

“What a marvelous fabric, he said then. “I’ll certainly tell the Emperor.” The two scoundrels rubbed their hands gleefully. They had almost made it. More thread was requested to finish the work.

Finally, the Emperor received the announcement that the two tailors had come to take all the measurements needed to sew his new suit.

“Come in,” the Emperor ordered. Even as they bowed, the two scoundrels pretended to be holding large roll of fabric.

“Here it is your Highness, the result of our labour,” the scoundrels said. “We have worked night and day but, at last, the most beautiful fabric in the world is ready for you. Look at the colors and feel how fine it is.” Of course the Emperor did not see any colors and could not feel any cloth between his fingers. He panicked and felt like fainting. But luckily the throne was right behind him and he sat down. But when he realized that no one could know that he did not see the fabric, he felt better. Nobody could find out he was stupid and incompetent. And the Emperor didn’t know that everybody else around him thought and did the very same thing.

The farce continued as the two scoundrels had foreseen it. Once they had taken the measurements, the two began cutting the air with scissors while sewing with their needles an invisible cloth.

“Your Highness, you’ll have to take off your clothes to try on your new ones.” The two scoundrels draped the new clothes on him and then held up a mirror. The Emperor was embarrassed but since none of his bystanders were, he felt relieved.

“Yes, this is a beautiful suit and it looks very good on me,” the Emperor said trying to look comfortable. “You’ve done a fine job.”

“Your Majesty,” the prime minister said, “we have a request for you. The people have found out about this extraordinary fabric and they are anxious to see you in your new suit.” The Emperor was doubtful showing himself naked to the people, but then he abandoned his fears. After all, no one would know about it except the ignorant and the incompetent.

“All right,” he said. “I will grant the people this privilege.” He summoned his carriage and the ceremonial parade was formed. A group of dignitaries walked at the very front of the procession and anxiously scrutinized the faces of the people in the street. All the people had gathered in the main square, pushing and shoving to get a better look. An applause welcomed the regal procession. Everyone wanted to know how stupid or incompetent his or her neighbor was but, as the Emperor passed, a strange murmur rose from the crowd.

Everyone said, loud enough for the others to hear: “Look at the Emperor’s new clothes. They’re beautiful!”

“What a marvellous train!”

“And the colors! The colors of that beautiful fabric! I have never seen anything like it in my life!” They all tried to conceal their disappointment at not being able to see the clothes, and since nobody was willing to admit his own stupidity and incompetence, they all behaved as the two scoundrels had predicted.

A child, however, who had no important job and could only see things as his eyes showed them to him, went up to the carriage.

“The Emperor is naked,” he said.

“Fool!” his father reprimanded, running after him. “Don’t talk nonsense!” He grabbed his child and took him away. But the boy’s remark, which had been heard by the bystanders, was repeated over and over again until everyone cried:

“The boy is right! The Emperor is naked! It’s true!”

The Emperor realized that the people were right but could not admit to that. He though it better to continue the procession under the illusion that anyone who couldn’t see his clothes was either stupid or incompetent. And he stood stiffly on his carriage, while behind him a page held his imaginary mantle.

I believe that having a bible with you at all times is essential to obeying scripture. It’s hard to learn and commit to memory a tool if it’s not accessible in daily life, so I wanted to share with you how I access my bible.

YouVersion.com is an online bible that has revolutionized the way Christians are interacting with scripture. There are over 10 million users, and over 1 billion minutes have been logged of people reading their bibles through YouVersion. It has over 100 translations, tons of daily reading plans, and more versions that I care to count. You can also receive email alerts each day with your reading plan attached. YouVersion has taken the bible and integrated it into our mobile world. It’s really simple to use and if you have a smart phone your bible is accessible 24/7.

Here are highlights of YouVersion.com:

• iPhone, iPad, and iTouch apps
• Droid and additional smart phone apps
• Kindle and other digital reader apps
• Numerous choices of daily reading plans and devotions
• Contribute and read other contributors notes
• Access commentaries
• Have daily reading plans sent directly to your email
• Engage in online reading groups and discussions
• Connect your reading plans and share scripture on Facebook and Twitter
• Quick search topics and keywords
• Digital highlighter to bookmark your favorite verses
• Simple and user friendly website www.YouVersion.com
• Over 100 languages
• Over 50 of your favorite bible versions
• ITS FREE!!!

If you are a techy or a rookie to the computer scene you will love the simplicity and accessibility that LifeChurch in Oklahoma has brought to scripture through the creation of YouVersion. Jump online and give it a try I promise you will love it!

I have had a ton of people ask me about Google+. I found this video while updating my ipad FlipBoard app and I think it gives the most simple description.

Seems Google has hit the mark again and its just a matter of time and we will be saying…. “Who uses Facebook anymore?”

If you are a ministry leader you need to attend this!!!

In this series Creating Positive Environments I identified three areas (Physical Appearance, Verbal Presence, and Spiritual Awareness) churches must evaluate to create a positive environment for growth. I have saved the most important for today!!

When one of my daughters are hurt and begin to cry I can hear her, and identify her, out of an entire room of children. At that moment I can feel my blood pressure rise, my adrenaline starts pumping, and an overwhelming pull to do what ever it takes to get to her and help.

When we are hurting and cry out as individuals and/or as a church God hears us and has that same response. He doesn’t want us to experience emotional, physical, or spiritual pain.
I believe to create a positive environment for growth within our churches it begins with a crying out to God for help, a release of control, and an open heart towards change. This creates an environment of spiritual awareness where the Holy Spirit is present and sensed by the church body and its guests. There are 5 characteristics that can be identified within the life of the church that would classify it as being spiritually aware and ready to experience growth.

1. DESIRE: There is a personal and corporate calling out to God for direction, which produces an urgency with the Gospel and heart ready for change and to do what ever it takes.
2. RESISTANCE: There is a push back from those consumed with the sin of selfishness, pride, and inability to see God at work in ANYTHING! This resistance will always be present, this is a spiritual war, but the desire of those authentically seeking God quietens the negative resistance.
3. LIFE CHANGE: There is evidence of people coming to know Christ, broken hearts over sin, and an environment flooded with grace.
4. SPIRIT LEADERSHIP: People take immediate action when the Holy Spirits speaks directly to them. This results in unlikely people doing amazing things for God!
5. JOY: People express and display spiritual, emotional, and physical changes resulting from a healthier lifestyle born out of the freedom in Christ. There is less anger, worries, anxiety, pride, arguments, and loneliness within each person and body of Christ.

Positive verbal presence is one of the hardest things to earn and one of the easiest to lose. To gain positive verbal presence our quality must be the best we can possibly offer. In our modern age of self expression through social media an individual does not need a mega platform to create a verbal perception. One tweet and/or Facebook status can speak volumes about a product, person, or organization.

There are more than 500 million active users on Facebook with over half logging on each day, and spending over 700 billion minutes per month surfing.  Out of the 500 million the average user has 130 friends. With all those people within your community on FB and other social media sites each voice is being heard and can carry significant influence.

Leaders must be able to see/hear what is being said, and more importantly, what is NOT being said. This is extremely important as it pertains to churches. An unsolicited positive comment/testimony can draw people toward your church just as quick as one negative comment can drive people away. So how do we as leaders know what’s being said?

Here are some questions we must ask to understand what the community is saying about your church.

• Does your worship on Sunday morning create an expectation of the next week?
• Does your social & church life Monday-Saturday promote attendance for Sunday?
• Do people (without encouragement) rave about your church on social media sites & in the community?
• How often do you hear/read about lives changing during the worship experience?
• Is life change and salvation through Jesus the primary focus every week?
• Where is the majority of your time spent? With people or behind a desk?
• How much of your budget builds first contact, worship, and advertises your church?
• If your congregation were to grade the Sunday morning experience what would it be?
• Do you have people protecting the church on social media websites?
• Do people rave to your face but say nothing in public?
• How often are members bringing people to church?
• Do you employ non bias “secret worshipers” to give rational feedback?

I’m sure there are more questions we should be asking. I would love to hear them through the comment section. Post your questions below…

Three aspects of Creating Positive Environments: Physical Appearance, Verbal Presence, and Spiritual Awareness.

There are over 40,000 nerve endings in the human eye. This amazing organ can see approximately 25 MILLION different hues and shades, which we define as colors. Our sight is the entry point for understanding and making assessments of the current environment. Sight gives us the foreknowledge of a dangerous situation or an inviting one.

If the eye is such a powerful tool humans use to gain an assessment of a potential environment then we should be diligent in producing inviting environments that portray the life of the church. To a guest the physical appearance of the church facilities can set the tone of the first visit. If your facilities are out of date, run down, or trashy looking then a person’s natural tendencies is to make several possible assumptions:

• the congregations God is not worthy enough for them to provide a suitable place of worship
• the congregation is also “out of date”
• the congregation is lazy
• the church is broke and all they want is my money
• the church will not care for me if they will not care for their facilities

Even though many of the previous assumptions are just that, assumptions, the body of Christ must create time to step back and evaluate what message we are sending to the community through our facilities. This is God’s house and we must show our community that we care about them, our God, and His house of worship. We should strive to keep it modern, maintained, and clean. The first blade of grass, the front door, the baby room, kid’s areas, student areas, adult areas, and the worship area all make a visual impact that provides a perception which can become a reality for guests. The question is… What does the physical appearance of your church say to a guest?

Three aspects of Creating Positive Environments: Physical Appearance, Verbal Presence, and Spiritual Awareness.