by Bert Thomson

As I reflect on my upcoming Marathon this weekend in Chicago I can’t help but think about what it took to prepare for this event: The Tuesday morning track workouts at 5AM, the 6 AM Saturday long runs, the stretching exercises, the Nashville Striders training runs and the smaller races (5k and 10k’s) along the way. That’s not all. There was the daily washing of my running outfits and laying them out the night before so they would be ready the next morning. I run with a Garmin GPS watch and heart rate monitor, so after each run I download the running data to my computer and review the data. Oh, yeah and the coffee. Each night I had to grind the coffee, fill up the coffee maker with filtered water and set the timer so I would have a fresh cup to wake up to. There is probably a lot more that I am missing but you get the point.

Marathon running has helped to me to understand that if you want to accomplish anything worthwhile, you must first calculate the cost so that you know you will be able to finish what you started.

As a child, I was notorious for obsessing on some new thing that I wanted to do, or something that I just had to have. I hated to admit it, but my mom was usually right when she told me that as fast as I would be into this new thing, I would drop it.

Jesus spoke these words on this subject: For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’  Luke 14:28-30 NASB

by Steve Murrell

Leaders make decisions. Lots of them. Some good. Some bad. The best decisions are value based.

The worst ministry decisions are based on:
- random open doors
- the latest get-big-quick scheme
- what worked for someone else
- how much it costs (just because it’s cheap, does not mean it is a good decision)

The following 4 questions help our Victory leaders make good decisions:

1.   Does it help us ENGAGE our culture and our community?
2.   Does it help us ESTABLISH spiritual foundations?
3.   Does it help us EQUIP all believers to minister?
4.   Does it help us EMPOWER all disciples to make disciples?

No matter if the decision is big or small, no matter if it effects the whole church or one department, no matter if it requires millions or hundreds of pesos – all good decisions run through this grid. Bad decisions don’t.

How do you make decisions?

NOTE: All of my astute blog readers realize from the above that good decisions are those that help us MAKE DISCIPLES.

Steve Murrell is a missionary, pastor, and the author of “The Reluctant Leader” and “The Accidental Missionary.”

by Mike Watkins

I was talking with a pastor friend the other day in Kiev about the lack of a leader for his youth ministry as well as a problem that I solved in our new church meetings. My problem is that since we are small and getting started I was leading every aspect of the meetings. I opened the meeting, I lead worship, I made announcements, I preached & then closed the meetings. At the same time I noticed that the whole meeting had an awkward feeling that one of our team said was like being in school.

My friend was doing the same thing with his youth because he did not have anyone experienced enough to lead. After an hour of discussion, the root as well as the solution was uncovered. It is true we did not have anyone as experienced as ourselves to lead the team or the whole meeting for that matter, but we did have people who could lead individual parts of the meetings.

I had already decided to divide up various roles at this point so that I would not be seen as a schoolmaster or even worse, the church master. Our team had a great creative staff meeting where they even decided the topic that I would preach. Another guy helped me choose the songs, and since he plays guitar, he will also play a few.

In the end it was decided that my only role in the meeting would be to preach for 15 minutes, and our team was encouraged and empowered to have been a part of the whole process.

So who was the leader in all this? I lead our team, but I lead them to lead. The first step in my leadership is to help and encourage my team to take the first steps in their leadership. We have experienced full-time leaders on our team, but we also have volunteers who are just getting started. It is unrealistic to think that we will simply find someone among the untrained volunteers or new believers who is born with the full package for leading a meeting.

I am not the only one who is leading leaders either. We pass this principle of first steps on to everyone with whom we are working. The result is that we will have a happier team and less boring meetings, and as they grow in confidence and ability God’s kingdom will not simply grow but will multiply.

The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 2 Tim 2:2

Mike Watkins is a missionary, a fisher of men and the author of the blog “Simple Truths.”

by Steve Murrell

Ministry can be complicated. But it shouldn’t be.

So many podcasts, books, blogs, tweets, seminars and conferences telling us what we should be doing to grow our church, change the world, serve the community, win the lost… Complicated.

I specialize in making things simple.   Here’s a simple and biblical job description for a pastor (church leader):

1. Equip all members to do ministry

2. Live a live that’s a godly example

3. Lead with the attitude of a servant

4. Feed the sheep (ie: teach the Word)

That’s it. Equip. Live. Lead. Feed. (E.L.L.F.) As I said before, Leadership is not rocket science.

How are you doing with these 4? Are you, like many leaders, spending way too much time doing everything but these?

Steve Murrell is a missionary, pastor, and the author of “The Reluctant Leader” and “The Accidental Missionary.”

by Steve Murrell

My friend, Paul Barker is in Manila for a couple of weeks working with our pastors and key admin leaders.

Yesterday Paul led a seminar he calls “The 5 Foundations of Productive Teams.” That’s a faith-man’s version of Patrick Lencioni’s “The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team.”

I think I like the faith version better than the dysfunctional version, because if we talk about all of our team dysfunctions, it is impossible to put them in only 5 categories.

Paul sited a Gallup poll of 10,000 followers about the kind of leader they want to follow. Here are the results, people want to follow leaders who…

1. Build Trust – it is easy to follow people we trust, difficult to follow those we don’t trust

2. Show Compassion – after all, we are leading PEOPLE, not just organizations and departments

3. Provide Stability – random, unplanned and poorly communicated change makes organizations unstable

4. Create Hope – no matter how difficult current reality is, hope enables us to stay in the game

Leadership is not rocket science. If a leader simply does these 4 things, plenty of people will follow.

What do you think?

Steve Murrell is a missionary, pastor, and the author of “The Reluctant Leader” and “The Accidental Missionary.”