Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• How I Work: An Interview with Lori Bridges. Joe Carter interviews Lori Bridges, a homeschooling mother who has four children.
• Nicknames Your Boss Deserves But You Don’t Dare to Use. Dan Rockwell shares this humorous post of names that none of us want attributed to us.
• One Responsibility a Christian Leader Cannot Delegate. Chris Patton writes that “there is one responsibility that you simply cannot delegate to your team – not even to your inner circle. This responsibility is prayer.
• The Dangerous Fear of Attrition. Patrick Lencioni states that “Many leaders have something of an obsession with retention, and a corresponding fear of attrition.” But, “Retaining a misaligned employee, customer or member of the congregation is not actually good for that person, who is often just plain unhappy.  Compassionately freeing them to leave, without animosity or bitterness, will actually increase the likelihood that they may eventually opt in for the right reasons.  That seems a lot wiser than retaining them for the wrong ones.”
• 5 Steps to Dealing with Compromise in Business. Chris Patton writes “If you are a Christian in business, then you have been compelled to compromise your faith (or how you exercise it) at some point. It may have come in the form of a small decision. Maybe it came in the form of a big one. Whatever the case, there are many opportunities to compromise. We need to be aware of this and fight hard to stand firm.”
• 10 Powerful Beliefs of Unstoppable Leaders. Dan Rockwell writes “What you believe is the most important thing about you. Choose your beliefs carefully, they determine your destiny.”
• In Praise of an Uncommon Corporate Value. John Kyle writes “We are not called to simply have romantic thoughts about the idea of warmth. We’re called to live it. We’re called to be passionate advocates for it – even in the workplace, even when our colleagues are hard to love.”
• 5 Keys to Getting Through Conflict. Dr. Alan Zimmerman shares five tips that will help you resolve any interpersonal problem
• Rebuilding the Dream. Bob Chapman writes “It’s our responsibility as leaders to make the American Dream a reality. We can do this by moving away from the singular focus on shareholder value and working towards leadership practices that create a ‘safe’ environment where people feel valued for who they are and what they do as we collectively aspire to a vision that creates value for all stakeholders. Business could be the most powerful force for good if it simply cared about the lives they touch.”
• How to Seize the Biggest Missed Opportunity in Meetings. Dan Rockwell writes “Treat people – in the conference room – the way you want them to treat each other in the hall. The way we treat each other, while we do the work, is the most important thing about us.”
• Four Warning Signs You’re Approaching Burnout. Eric Geiger writes “I am not a medical doctor or counselor, but I have learned the rhythms in my own life and have sought counsel continually from leaders I respect. I have seen and also learned the hard way that pushing through seasons of exhaustion can backfire.”
• 3 Signs We’ve Made Work an Idol. Jeff Haanen writes about exhaustion, fear and pride.
• The Best of Patrick Lencioni. Andy Budgell writes “For the last few decades, Patrick Lencioni has been on a crusade to help revolutionize teams. Anticipating the changes of the 21st century workplace, Lencioni’s ten books have sold more than four million copies worldwide. The following are some of our top takeaways from this prolific author.”
• Leadership Identity. Brad Lomenick ends his series on leadership identity with a sixth installment. The other five articles are also linked here.
• The Great Leader’s Guide to Connecting Emotionally with Others. John Maxwell writes “After spending forty years as a leader and communicator, I am convinced more than ever that good communication is all about connecting.  If you can connect with others at every level—one-on-one, in groups, and with an audience—your relationships are stronger, your sense of community improves, and your ability to create teamwork increases. In addition, your influence grows, and your productivity skyrockets.”
• Lead Like Jesus Devotional. I enjoy these short devotionals I receive each week. You can sign up to receive them free.
• Acquire. In this “Minute from Maxwell”, John Maxwell talks about the word acquire.
• Three Things That Will Greatly Improve Morale on Your Team/Staff. Dave Kraft writes that if clarity, communications and celebration are missing you are guaranteed to have bad morale
• 7 Popular Productivity Beliefs You Should Ignore.  Stephanie Vozza shares seven myths productivity experts say we should avoid. Some of which I’ve heard for a long time.
• 7 Ways to Respond to a Lazy Co-Worker. Ron Edmondson writes about how to respond to lazy co-workers, “People who don’t want to work. They often have a job, but give far less than their best to it. They want a paycheck, they want to eat well, but they don’t really want to earn their pay.”

• Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. C.S. Lewis
• You’re never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream. C.S. Lewis
• To you to live a significant life, you have to become intentional. John Maxwell
• Success is about us. Significance is about others. John Maxwell
• Most people are not valued. Very few people have someone who believes in them. Very few have others love them unconditionally. Do these things intentionally every day. John Maxwell
• What if leadership is mostly about trying to graciously embody each day what you invite others to follow? Zack Eswine
• God doesn’t call people to a job description, He calls people to Himself and His mission in the world. Louie Giglio
• Discernment might be the greatest requirement for leadership. Seeing beyond the surface to the core issue is essential. Pray for it. Louie Giglio
• Leadership is stewardship. Ron Edmondson
• Don’t wait to be inspired to work, work until you are inspired! KB
• Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. Coach
• To leave someone in a position of leadership when he/she cannot be successful is like cancer within an organization. Mark Miller
• Leaders with the most POWER must be the MOST willing to pass it on, Give it away and push it to others. Brad Lomenick
• Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you. Saint Augustine
• True greatness, true leadership, is achieved not by reducing men to one’s service but in giving oneself in selfless service to them. Oswald Sanders
• Great vision without great people is irrelevant.  Jim Collins
• The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.  Jim Collins
• Whatever you focus upon, increases. Andy Andrews

Faith and Work Book Clubs – Won’t you read along with us?

Kingdom Calling: Vocational Calling for the Common Good by Amy L. Sherman

I first read this book in a “Calling, Vocation and Work” class with Dr. Michael Williams and Dr. Bradley Matthews at Covenant Seminary two summers ago. King Jesus is on a mission to bring restoration in every sphere of society and has invited His followers to join Him in this Kingdom-advancing work. Learn to deeply, creatively and intentionally steward your vocational power in ways that advance foretastes of the coming Kingdom of shalom for our neighbors near and far.

It’s an excellent book, so let’s read it together. This week we’ll look at

CHAPTER 11 ~ Pathway 2 DONATE YOUR SKILLS

• Pathway two of vocational stewardship is about donating vocational skills to nonprofits and ministries-within the church, in the local community or abroad-that can use them to advance God’s kingdom.
• Churches with the ability to promote not only blooming but also this pathway may discover that many congregants respond enthusiastically to meaningful opportunities to use their job skills on their off time.
• Despite the fact that this kind of service would be of obvious benefit to both the server and the served, most congregations have no specific, intentional focus or programs to identify their congregants’ occupational skills and match those to serving opportunities.
• With regard to administration, some churches do not use any sort of database to gather information on their parishioners. Consequently, they do not collect vocational information that could be useful in matching members to relevant volunteer opportunities.
• Some clergy are not enthusiastic about helping their members to plug in to service opportunities best suited for their skills when those opportunities are outside the church’s own programs.
• Congregational leaders have pioneered four strategies for overcoming administrative obstacles: implementing new technology; rethinking traditional approaches to engaging volunteers; partnering with a local “volunteer clearinghouse’; and providing formal coaching.
• Many church leaders fear that releasing congregants to agencies outside the congregation will leave the church itself bereft of the human and financial resources it requires. Leaders must conquer this fear if they are to implement vocational stewardship along pathway two.
• Facilitating pathway two may require congregational leaders to make some changes in both their attitudes and their administrative structures. Change is never easy, and it doesn’t happen without significant motivation. For those active in vocational stewardship along pathway two, the enormous benefits are well worth the effort.
• The first benefit is the deep joy parishioners experience. They discover that it is profoundly rewarding to use their unique, God-given skills to serve others on the frontlines.
• Service along pathway two has also deepened some congregants’ appreciation for believers whose skill sets are much different from their own. For them, it illuminates in fresh ways the truth of 1 Corinthians 12 about the value of all parts of Christ’s body.
• Congregants who have donated their vocational skills to ministries also report that they’ve grown in their appreciation for the unity of Christ’s body worldwide.
• Finally, and perhaps most importantly for congregational leaders, service along pathway two has sparked spiritual growth in some parishioners.

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• 7 Ways to Maintain Respect as a Leader. Ron Edmondson writes “As a leader, one of your most valuable and needed assets is the respect of the people you are trying to lead. If a leader is respected, people will follow him or her almost anywhere.   If a leader loses respect it becomes very difficult to regain respect.”
• The Question Great Leaders Ask. In this short video, Andy Stanley talks about the question all great leaders should ask.
• 10 Inexpensive Ways to Develop People on Your Team. Ron Edmondson writes “When budgets are stretched, development often is pushed to the back burner or cut altogether from the budget. This is dangerous for a team, which wishes to remain healthy and continue growing. If a team is not learning and improving, it will soon struggle to maintain any level of success. It’s important, therefore, to find ways to develop even with stressed budgets.”
• Eight Steps to Leading Change from Nehemiah to Kotter. Eric Geiger writes “Perhaps the most definitive business book on leading an organization to change is John Kotter’s book Leading Change. When ministry leaders speak or write about leadership, they often look to the wisdom found in the Book of Nehemiah, as it chronicles Nehemiah’s leadership in rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. Nehemiah led wide-scale change.”
• Why Does God Allow Poor Leadership? Chris Patton writes “I want us to think about the various reasons that God may have for leaving Saul in authority as long as He did. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever wondered why certain poor leadership is allowed to remain in authority today?”
• 9 Questions to Determine if You’re a Christian Leader. Chuck Lawless writes “Many of us find ourselves in leadership positions, but we wonder sometimes if we’re really leading. And, frankly, sometimes there are folks around us who also wonder if we’re leading. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to see if you’re really leading as a Christian leader.”
• 7 Ways to Find Purpose. Dan Rockwell writes “Lack of purpose is the reason you feel adrift and disconnected.” He lists provides 7 benefits of purpose and 7 ways to find leadership purpose.
• How I Work: An Interview with Karen Swallow-Prior. Joe Carter interviews Karen Swallow Prior, a professor of English at Liberty University and author of Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me and Fierce Convictions—The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More: Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist.
• Thick Skin, Tender Hearts and Four Types of Leaders. Eric Geiger writes “Don’t choose between thick skin and a tender heart. As a leader, you need both. But only by walking daily with the Lord can a leader have thick skin and a tender heart.”
• Beauty is a “Clue” that God Exists. Kyle Werner interviews Dan Forrest, a composer living in Greenville, South Carolina.
• Nobody Cares How Hard You Work. Oliver Burkeman writes “We chronically confuse the feeling of effort with the reality of results.”
• Can One Marriage Support Two Callings? Dorcas Cheng-Tozun writes “In the end, we had to confront a question that many couples ask: God has called us together in marriage, but what callings does he have for each of us? How do we balance—and support—our distinct gifts and purposes?”
• 5 Leadership Questions with Thom Rainer. In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast Todd Adkins and Barnabas Piper talk with Dr. Thom Rainer, the President of LifeWay Christian Resources, and one of the most influential leaders of leaders in the church world today.
• Four Reasons to have a “Stop Doing” List. Eric Geiger writes “A “stop doing” list forces you to evaluate what you and your team are doing and to eliminate that which is not the most fruitful. Just as waste accumulates in a spare room in a home, waste has a tendency to accumulate in any organization. Unnecessary activities and unfruitful actions threaten effectiveness”.
• A Common Calling. Steven Garber writes “What is plain to me is that a long-loved love requires a common calling…We don’t fall in love and then get married; instead we get married and then learn what love requires.”
• Seven Ways to Improve Your Team. David Mathis shares “seven ways, among others, for ministry teams (and especially team leaders) to pursue health and fitness in team dynamics”.
• Top Twelve Trends in Leadership Today. Brad Lomenick shares key trends happening in leadership today
• 5 Things You Need to Succeed. Mark Miller writes “Conventional wisdom says, “10,000 hours of deliberate practice will make you world-class”. However, if you can’t devote 10,000 hours, what do you need to succeed?

•  Subtle Signs of Stress. Charles Stone writes “For years doctors have warned us that prolonged stress can hurt our bodies such as causing high blood pressure and stomach problems. But as neuroscientists learn more about our brains, they’re discovering that stress can diminish brain functioning which in turn shows up in subtle ways in our bodies. Take this quick self-evaluation and ask yourself if any of these are true of you.”
• Three Ways Leaders Must Communicate Vision. Eric Geiger writes “If you want vision to be embraced, it must be repeated over and over again.
• Finish the Drill. Mark Miller gives us some tips on how to follow-through on our goals.
• Insecurity. Dave Kraft writes about insecurity, calling it the biggest issue he has struggled with as a Christian leader.
• Vision: A Conversation with Frank Blake, Part 2. In this edition of the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast, Stanley continues his conversation with Frank Blake on organizational vision and how to get things done.
• 7 Popular Myths about Leadership. Ron Edmondson writes “I have observed leadership is often not easy to define as a few simple words. In fact, there are many myths when it comes to even what leadership means — certainly how it’s practiced. I encounter people who don’t have a clue what real leadership is and what it isn’t.”
• Secrets of the Top 10%. Dr. Alan Zimmerman writes “According to Lewis Timberlake, in his book It’s Always Too Soon To Quit, statistics show that only 10% actually succeed at all their goals, making the changes they need to make to get the success they want. The other 90%, to some degree or another, may have some goals but they’re convinced they’ll never achieve them.

• People will not give you their hand until they can see your heart. John Maxwell
• Most people are more comfortable with old problems than new solutions. John Maxwell
• Rather than being a jack of all trades and master of none, be a jack of a few trades and master of one. John Maxwell
• Leadership functions on the basis of trust, and when the trust is gone, the leader soon will be. John Maxwell
• Higher calling matters. When you care so deeply about the why—why you’re doing what you’re doing—then and only then are you operating in a way that allows you to overcome the obstacles. Dave Ramsey
• Just keep taking the next step and keep having excellence in the ordinary. Dave Ramsey
• When I think of character, I think of not only behavior but also of motive. What it is that drives you to serve and do what you are doing? Ravi Zacharias
• What’s not working in your life? Challenge your beliefs to see what is working for you and what isn’t. Ken Blanchard
• The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life – mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical. Coach K
• Martin Luther was once asked by a man how he should serve the Lord. “What is your work now?” Luther asked. The man replied, “I am a shoemaker.” Luther said, “Then make a good shoe and sell it at a fair price.”
• Your vitality is going to not be so determined by how you manage your time or what programs you implement but really your vitality and strength in leadership comes from your knowledge of Jesus Christ and how well you see him and what you actually believe about him. Matt Chandler
• I think leadership just comes down to walking in a humility that allows you to learn from others and hear from others, that isn’t quick to judge, that allows you to give people the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise. Matt Chandler
• Whatever you are, be a good one. Abraham Lincoln
• Hard work is a prison cell only if the work has no meaning. Malcolm Gladwell
• Greatness is not about personality. It’s about humility, plus will. That is where the essence of leadership begins. Jim Collins
• We don’t just enter the mission field when we leave our church parking lot, but when we get out of bed every day. Burk Parsons

Faith and Work Book Clubs – Won’t you read along with us?

Kingdom Calling: Vocational Calling for the Common Good by Amy L. Sherman

I first read this book in a “Calling, Vocation and Work” class with Dr. Michael Williams and Dr. Bradley Matthews at Covenant Seminary two summers ago. King Jesus is on a mission to bring restoration in every sphere of society and has invited His followers to join Him in this Kingdom-advancing work. Learn to deeply, creatively and intentionally steward your vocational power in ways that advance foretastes of the coming Kingdom of shalom for our neighbors near and far.

It’s an excellent book, so let’s read it together. This week we’ll look at

Chapter 10: Pathway 1 ~ Bloom Where You’re Planted

• Three key commitments mark congregational leaders who are effective in encouraging their members to steward their vocations for the common good: affirmation, education and support
• Affirmation. Nurturing the tsaddiqim to bloom at their job begins with solid preaching based on the theological convictions examined in previous chapters.
• At The Falls Church, for example, in the congregational prayer every Sunday, four or five church members are specifically prayed for by name and vocation.
• Church leaders can also affirm their marketplace professionals by formally commissioning them during worship services.
• Pastor Tom Nelson from Christ Community Church in Leawood, Kansas, uses workplace illustrations in sermons and invites testimonies from marketplace members. He and his staff also visit church members at their work sites.
• Education. In addition to affirming their members’ daily work, church leaders can promote “blooming” by offering adult education opportunities devoted to faith/work integration topics.
• Some churches have found that gathering members into vocationally based small groups is a good strategy for helping believers deepen their understanding of and commitment to faith/work integration. Redeemer Presbyterian Church, a megachurch of more than four thousand attendees in New York City, leads the oldest initiative of this sort that I found in my research. Its Center for Faith and Work, launched in January 2003, seeks to “equip, connect, and mobilize our church community in their professional and industry spheres toward gospel-centered transformation for the common good.””
• We need to get to the point in our churches where even children can describe what “vocational stewardship” is. They will be able to do so if we regularly tell the stories of what it looks like in every sector of society.
• The professionals profiled throughout this chapter demonstrate that it is possible for Christians in the marketplace to go far beyond the traditional ways of connecting faith and work (that is, practicing personal morality and studying the Bible with others in the workplace). Their stories point to several additional arenas where kingdom values can be advanced, such as how employees are selected, treated and managed; how a firm’s profits are used; how an organization practices environmental stewardship; how its products are designed; how it relates to others in its industry; and how it contributes to its community.
• As church leaders encourage their members to wed their faith and work, they should challenge them to ponder this question: “In my current job, am I doing all I can to deploy my vocational power to promote kingdom foretastes? Am I truly blooming where I’m planted?”
• Even believers with limited authority at their workplaces can be creative about stewarding the level of influence they do possess. Specifically, church leaders can respond with the following. First, they can encourage church members to educate themselves about the working conditions of everyone below them in their organization. Believers can strive to develop friendly, respectful relationships with those workers, learning their names, inquiring about their families.
• Believers in the firm-including those not high up themselves-may be encouraged by church leaders to improve the quality of life for the lowest-level workers in some simple, practical ways.
• Regardless of what position a believer holds at the firm, he could start a quiet, intercessory prayer ministry.
• Church leaders should remind their congregants that, in many firms, even employees in the lower echelons can offer suggestions about ways the organization could be more engaged in the community.
• There is also nothing to stop a small group of believers at an organization from forming their own emergency benevolence fund. They could seed the fund with their own contributions and then invite other employees to contribute.
• Additionally, even employees with modest positions or low seniority can suggest small, doable reforms in terms of the organization’s energy and resource use, to inch the firm in a “greener” direction.
• Another strategy involves tweaking initiatives that already exist at the company in order to promote the values of equality or opportunity.
• The point is this: congregants need to understand that wherever they are, regardless of their status, they can probably do at least one thing that advances kingdom values like justice or beauty or compassion or economic opportunity or creation care.
• There remains a role for church leaders to continue to teach on some less “sexy” familiar topics as they disciple their people for blooming. One is ethics. Since the workplace is fallen, there will always be a place for strong teaching from the pulpit on personal holiness on the job.
• The second is evangelism. Church leaders should regularly remind their flocks that the amazingly good news of the good news needs to be shared with our nonbelieving coworkers.
• Finally, church leaders should continue emphasizing one other E-word: excellence.
• In some cases, given the weight of their individual responsibilities, some believers may need to view excellence as the highest among the kingdom values they are seeking to live by as they bloom for Jesus in their profession.

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• 5 Ways to Deal with the Grouch in Your Life. Dr. Alan Zimmerman writes “I don’t know your exact situation, but I do know this. You’re probably a grouch once in a while. And if you want The Payoff Principle to work for you, you can’t afford to be a grouch. So what can you do to maximize your chances for incredible happiness and outlandish success?
• Four Leadership Personalities: What Color are You? I very much enjoy personality tests (Strengthfinders, Myers-Briggs, Pace Pallet, Stand Out, etc.). Eric Geiger shares one that I am not familiar with. He writes “With our leadership team, we use the Insights Discovery tool to help each other understand our unique personalities. The tool is validated and has proven helpful to our team in serving and communicating with one another.”
• What are YOU Waiting for to Truly Enjoy Your Life and Responsibilities? Dave Kraft writes “Are you stuck emotionally and vocationally? Do you feel you are in a rut and will be there for a long time?”
• Calling: Context is Everything. What happens when expectations misalign with reality? David H. Kim expounds the rarely discussed, surprising and vitally important context of calling as it relates to our work. What expectations do you have with respect to your calling? Expectations play a hidden, but very important role in shaping our motivations for work as well as a deeper sense of purpose. The wrong expectations can make a great job seem miserable. Yet, our expectations often go unexamined and unchallenged. Here Kim explores how the Bible presents a very important context which transforms the way we view our work and our sense of calling. The gospel changes everything and realigns our expectations in such a way that connects our daily work with God’s redemptive purposes.
• 10 Things You Don’t Know about the Faith and Work Movement. Jennifer Woodruff Tait shares these ten helpful thoughts about the faith and work movement.
• 5 “C” Suggestions for Developing Trust as a Leader. Ron Edmondson writes “If any leader wants to be successful, much will be determined by the level of trust he or she can attain. One goal of every leader, therefore should be trust development.”
• The Courage to Change Course. Mark Miller writes “There are no great leaders without great courage. A Stop Doing List is an outstanding tool to strengthen our courage and our leadership.”
• Why Some of Us Don’t Have One True Calling. What do you want to be when you grow up? Well, if you’re not sure you want to do just one thing for the rest of your life, you’re not alone. In this illuminating talk, writer and artist Emilie Wapnick describes the kind of people she calls “multipotentialites” — who have a range of interests and jobs over one lifetime. Are you one?
• H3 Leadership Q&A with Brad Lomenick. Matt Perman, author of What’s Best Next, interviews Brad Lomenick about his new book H3 Leadership. I’ll be reading that book soon and will post a review after I do.
• Empower. In this “Minute from Maxwell”, John Maxwell talks about what it means to empower.
• Book Review: 18-Minutes To Maximize Productivity. Paul Sohn writes “Peter Bregman, author of 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done reveals helpful insights on how to jump-start our productivity.
• 3 Dangerous Ways to Think About Your Identity. Our friend Kevin Halloran writes “Everybody in leadership needs to foster the right self-identity in relationship to their work. For many of us, identity issues can be major sources of pain and frustration as we seek to make a difference in the position the Lord has placed us.”
• Trusting God in a World of Competition. Carey Bustard interviews Robert Bigley, a performer, administrator, and educator. He is currently executive director of the Trust Performing Arts Center and director of choral activities at Lancaster Bible College.
• Four Practical Ways to Change Organizational Culture. Eric Geiger writes “Changing the culture of an organization is extremely difficult, and it is not something that can be done with a new logo, a purpose statement, a white board session, and a few media slides.”
• How Fear Shapes Your Life—and How to Take Control. In this edition of the In the Loop podcast, Andy Andrews answers two listener questions on how fear shapes your life and how to balance belief in yourself against pride.  
• 7 Qualities of an Easy to Follow Leader. Ron Edmondson writes “The best example I know of a followable leader is Jesus. Consider some of the reasons He was able to develop such loyalty among the people He led — why He was easy to follow.”
• How Do I Find My Calling? New Bible App Reading Plan Available on YouVersion. IFWE recently launched a new five-day reading plan by Dr. Art Lindsley, “How Do I Find My Calling,” on the YouVersion Bible App.

• 5 Leadership Questions Podcast with John Maxwell. In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, John Maxwell tells us about how he moved from pastoring into the leadership development space, shares much wisdom, and drops some absolutely gold quotes. Maxwell also shares about his new book, Intentional Living: Choosing a Life that Matters.  
• 5 Leadership Questions Podcast with Eric Geiger. In this episode of the podcast, Eric Geiger joins the team to talk constructive vs. destructive criticism, the difference between feedback and criticism, and how to respond well in a digital age when everything goes public and trolls abound.
• Pride, Pro Baseball, and Perspective: An Interview with Ben Zobrist. Collin Hansen interviews the major league baseball player, who is from a small t own about 30 minutes from my home.
• 10 Principles of the Thorn. Dan Rockwell writes “Salve is a temporary response, not a solution, to nagging frustrations. The best thing you can do with thorns is dig them out.”
• The Bottom Line Isn’t at Odds with Loving Employees. Carey Bustard interviews Les Slough, vice president of Shank’s Extracts, Inc.
• 7 Communication Opportunities For Every Leader. Bobby Albert writes “Successful, values-driven cultures have leaders who consistently offer meaningful communication with a purpose.  And they repeatedly communicate internally- with their employees, as well as externally- with customers and suppliers”.
• Does the Everyday Mundane Matter? Hugh Whelchel writes “If Christianity is to once again become a positive influence in American public life, all Christians need to be present within that life as salt and light. Christians need to leave the safety of their Christian ghettos and take the risks necessary for reforming, renewing, and recalling today’s culture.”
• Injury Interrupted My Idolatry. Professional basketball player Landry Fields writes “Suffering has made the gospel real to me. And God will use suffering to make the gospel real to you too. If you’re going through something painful or difficult, it doesn’t mean that God isn’t paying attention or doesn’t care. It means God wants to win you to true faith in him, a better hope in his salvation, and deep humility and joy in his grace”.
• Communicating Grace in an Ungracious World. In the first article of a four-part series on communicating grace in the workplace Bill Peel writes “Whether we work on a factory floor, in a cramped cubical, or in the corner office, each of us has the opportunity to bring grace to our workplace. Even small things—a word of encouragement or a simple act of kindness—can be used by God to accomplish big things”.
• Take Every Task Captive Today. Marshall Segal writes “Serve in the strength and time and talents that he supplies (1 Peter 4:11), because the work ahead of you is God’s, given to you for his glory”.
• Our Questions, Our Callings, Our Commitments. Steven Garber, an excellent writers, the author of Visions of Vocation, writes about the Ligonier Valley Study Center, Libri and other things in this article.
• 10 Easy Ways Leaders Can Build Trust with Their New Teams. Randy Conley writes “The primary goal of any leader stepping in to lead a new team should be to build trust.”

• Leaders should bring clarity to the unknown, calm to chaos, and order to disorder. Brad Lomenic
• Your reputation is not for sale. Protect it at all costs. It takes years to build, but only seconds to lose. Brad Lomenick
• Too often we confuse popularity with success, and obscurity with failure. Chris Larson
• Good attitudes among players don’t guarantee success, but bad attitudes guarantee failure. John Maxwell
• If you wake up in a bad mood, get over it, ask for help, or call in sick and stay home. No need to infect others with what you have. Dr. Henry Cloud
• A sure-fire way to gain a boost in attitude is to surround yourself with optimistic people. Dr. Alan Zimmerman
• Giving people real responsibility accelerates their growth. Mark Miller
• Effective leadership is influence, but the foundation on true effective leadership and influence is agreement—not disagreement. Andy Andrews
• Learning is at the heart of mentoring. Think about how you can learn from people across generations as mentors. Ken Blanchard
• Choose JOY! That is the feeling that life is a special occasion and you take the opportunity to serve when the opportunity comes. Ken Blanchard
• There is great joy and satisfaction in the journey to achieving your goals. There is power in intentionality. Dave Ramsey
• Ability can take you to the top but it takes character to keep you there. Coach K
• Surround yourself with people strong enough to change your mind. John Wooden
• Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. John Wooden
• What the whole world wants more than food, shelter, safety and peace — is a good job. Scott Sauls

Faith and Work Book Clubs – Won’t you read along with us?

Kingdom Calling: Vocational Calling for the Common Good by Amy L. Sherman

I first read this book in a “Calling, Vocation and Work” class with Dr. Michael Williams and Dr. Bradley Matthews at Covenant Seminary two summers ago. King Jesus is on a mission to bring restoration in every sphere of society and has invited His followers to join Him in this Kingdom-advancing work. Learn to deeply, creatively and intentionally steward your vocational power in ways that advance foretastes of the coming Kingdom of shalom for our neighbors near and far.  It’s an excellent book, so let’s read it together. This week we’ll look at

Chapter 9: Displaying Vocational Power

• Having seen why they should steward their vocational power and what that power is, members of the congregation now need help in discerning where to invest their efforts. This is the work of deployment.
• Blooming where you’re planted. The primary and most important avenue for deploying vocational power is in and through one’s present work. The first place believers should look to conduct their foretaste-bringing mission is right at the current job they hold. I call this “blooming where you’re planted.”
• Blooming involves reflecting and promoting God’s glory in our current vocation. The tsaddiqim do this by seeking to live out, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the vertical, personal and social dimensions of righteousness in the context of their vocation.
• We bloom when we acknowledge God as our director and audience, and conduct our work in functional, daily reliance on the Spirit. We bloom when we honor God through our ethical practice and when we intentionally and creatively seek to advance shalom for all our organization’s stakeholders. And we bloom when we act as “intrapreneurs”-people who innovate needed reform within their company or industry sector.’
• Temptations of pathway 1. The temptations in this pathway are two (at least). One might be called pietism; the other, triumphalism.
• The pietistic temptation emerges when congregants mistakenly define the mission of faith/work integration too narrowly. That is, they seek to be people of integrity on the job and perhaps attempt to evangelize coworkers, but they do not muse deeply over the work itself. They don’t invest time considering how their work images God in his ongoing providence in creation or how their work participates in God’s redemptive purposes. They fail to discern how people can bear witness to the missio Dei through work in ways other than placing Christian plaques on the wall or leading Bible studies.
• A second temptation in pathway one is triumphalism. This can occur when Christians in their secular workplaces forget the doctrine of common grace-the notion that God has granted degrees of wisdom and insight to nonbelievers and that he can advance his purposes through non-Christian institutions. Triumphalism rears its head when Christians assert that only they can perceive the true, the good and the beautiful. It surfaces when Christians carelessly use language about “taking” their institution or vocational sector “for Christ.” Such language can cause great consternation among secular colleagues. Triumphalism is revealed when believers fail to be good listeners to people of good will who do not share their Christian faith, when believers are inhospitable toward others’ views.
• Church leaders equip their flock to resist the temptations of pietism and triumphalism when they teach a robust view of faith/work integration and remind their members of God’s common grace. As they celebrate members who are living out vocational stewardship along pathway one, they need to affirm a wide range of examples.
• As they exhort congregants to influence their fields positively, they should employ the language of servanthood, not conquest.
• Pathway 2: Donating. The second pathway of vocational stewardship involves donating our skills to organizations other than our regular employer. This includes volunteer service at churches, nonprofit ministries or private or public agencies that can make good use of our particular vocational knowledge and experience in their labors here at home or abroad. This pathway is unique in its concern that volunteer service intentionally capitalizes on vocational power. It’s about getting bankers to serve as bankers, carpenters to serve as carpenters and architects to serve as architects.
• Temptations of pathway 2. The main temptations of this pathway involve impatience, arrogance and failure to appreciate work styles or work environments/cultures different from those with which one is most familiar and comfortable.
• Pathway 3: Inventing. Vocational stewardship along the third pathway is a form of what author Andy Crouch calls “culture making.” In his book by that name, Crouch argues that “the only way to change culture is to create more of it.”
• Pathway three involves drawing on our vocational power to launch a new social enterprise that seeks to advance the kingdom in a fresh way. It is about creating new or alternative institutions (big or small) that implement innovative ways of addressing social problems. Vocational stewardship along this pathway brings foretastes of shalom first to the direct beneficiaries of the services provided by these new organizations. In some cases, it can also bring about significant, far-reaching cultural or social change.
• Temptations of pathway 3. The principal temptation of pathway three involves failure to listen or to partner.
• In the same way, professionals who have proven themselves excellent problem solvers in the business realm may fail to see where there are limits on the transferability of those skills.
• Investing. Finally, pathway four involves participating in a targeted, intensive initiative by a congregation to serve a particular people group, neighborhood or cause in a way that strategically employs our vocational power. Some congregations have chosen a narrow but deep strategy for affecting community renewal. They’ve honed in on a particular neighborhood or a particular problem, such as failing schools or the troubled foster care system or international sex trafficking.
• Pathway four funnels all the diverse talents of congregants toward the same target.
• Temptations of pathway 4. The principal temptation to fight on this pathway is the failure to undertake the work in a “ministry with” paradigm as opposed to a “ministry to” paradigm. For example, if a church has targeted an economically distressed community, it must guard against its talented, fast-paced, powerful members running roughshod over community residents in so-called helping initiatives.

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• Pursue the Caller, Not the Calling. Ryan J. Pemberton writes “Calling wasn’t so much about writing or theology per se. Rather, it was about daily offering up all that I am—my passions, experiences, talents—as I faithfully embody these gifts in a community that witnesses to Christ’s “follow me.” It was only when I loosened my grip on what I believed to be God’s static, specific call on my life that I was free to once again follow the One who called in the first place.”
• One Sentence That Changed Everything.  Dan Rockwell shares ten helpful tips on how to prioritize people.
•  4 Leadership Styles that Trigger Peak Performance John Maxwell writes “Most teams don’t naturally get better on their own. Left alone, they don’t grow, improve, or reach championship caliber. Instead, they tend to wind down.”
• 5 Enjoyable Weekend Habits That Set You Up for Success. Sujan Patel suggests trying these five weekend habits in order to set yourself up for a successful work week.
• The Stories We Live By. Steven Garber writes about the courage and compassion that marked William Wilberforce, a man with a very public vocation born of a very personal faith.
• Top 40 Christian Communicators in the U.S. Brad Lomenick shares this interesting list.
• To Tell the Truth About the World. Carey Bustard interviews J. Mark Bertrand, a novelist, essayist, and lecturer who lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he is an elder at Grace Presbyterian Church.
• Top 30 Must-Read Leadership Posts for September. Paul Sohn shares this helpful list of leadership articles.
• Busyness…The Curse of the Age! Dave Kraft writes “How are you doing? Are you busy here and there, or have you discovered what He wants you to do and are staying focused on and faithful to that?”
• What’s the Difference Between Coaching and Mentoring? On this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast Todd Adkins, Brad Lomenick, and Barnabas Piper discuss the differences between coaching and mentoring, how to do them well, and when each is ideal.
• 25 Books Top CEO’s Recommend You Read. John Rampton shares 25 books recommended by some of the top CEOs in the world.
• Getting Off to a Fast Start. Mark Miller discusses five mistakes that new leaders commonly make.
• Execution. In this “Minute with Maxwell”, John Maxwell discusses what it takes to execute.
• 5 Leadership Questions Podcast. In this episode of The 5 Leadership Questions podcast Todd Adkins and Barnabas Piper talk with Matt Perman, the author of What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done, an excellent book that I am re-reading and discussing with friends in a Faith and Work book club at work.
• The 11 Questions Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Ask Themselves. Dov Baron writes “The authentic leader is an evolving leader, a growing human being and a self-questioning individual.
• Four Leadership Personalities: What Color are You? Eric Geiger writes “With our leadership team, we use the Insights Discovery tool to help each other understand our unique personalities. The tool is validated and has proven helpful to our team in serving and communicating with one another.”
• Serving Those Who Are Food Insecure. Abigail Murrish interviews Dr. Abigail Borron is an assistant professor of agricultural communication at the University of Georgia. In her opinion, having the opportunity to work on the complexities of both culture and food security is a privilege.
• 7 Characteristics of the Bottleneck Leader. Ron Edmondson writes “In an organization, the bottleneck is many times the leader. When this happens, progress stalls, growth is limited and people are frustrated.”
• The First Great Commission. Check out this sermon from Scott Sauls, from his series “Leave it Better: Faith, Vocation & the Mission of God.
• How I Work: An Interview with Trevin Wax. Joe Carter writes “A key component of TGC’s view of gospel-centered ministry is the integration of faith and work. We seek to help Christians work with distinctiveness, excellence, and accountability in their trades and professions. To aid in this effort we’re launching a new series, “How I Work,” in which we ask people to share their shortcuts, tools, and routines that help them do their jobs or fulfill their vocational roles.”

• People are never fit for a divine call until they are overwhelmed and floored by the glory of God. Bob Smart
• The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. Frederick Buechner
• When I get the ball back after my last warmup pitch, I always think of Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for man.” It’s easy to go out and pitch to impress people and to impress teammates, but the reality is God is giving you the ability to be out there. It’s almost a form of worship to give everything you have for His glory. By doing that, not only is it glorifying to God, but my teammates know I’m giving everything I have on the field. Steve Cishek (St. Louis Cardinals pitcher).
• What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle and giving 110 percent all the time. Coach K
• Don’t pretend things are easy when they’re challenging. People won’t trust you if they think you’re faking. Dan Rockwell
• Aligning personal passion with organizational objectives creates performance sweet spots. Dan Rockwell
• Expectations establish trust so set them clearly and early. Brad Lomenick
• Organizations learn by making decisions, even bad ones. Patrick Lencioni
• The problem is too often they (meetings) and boring in a meeting happens for the same reason as in a book or movie – when there is not enough compelling tension. Meetings should be intense. Patrick Lencioni
• Any time you engage in shaping the beliefs, thoughts, and development of others, you are engaging in leadership. Ken Blanchard
• Desire greatness! But bend your definition of greatness to the one He gives us Remember, in Jesus, obscurity and greatness are not opposites. Zack Eswine
• Be a Rising Tide as a Leader, instead of a crashing wave. Rising tides lift all boats, while waves erode, crash & cause chaos. Brad Lomenick
• The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall. Coach K
• It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit. John Wooden

Faith and Work Book Clubs – Won’t you read along with us?

Kingdom Calling: Vocational Calling for the Common Good by Amy L. Sherman

I first read this book in a “Calling, Vocation and Work” class with Dr. Michael Williams and Dr. Bradley Matthews at Covenant Seminary two summers ago. King Jesus is on a mission to bring restoration in every sphere of society and has invited His followers to join Him in this Kingdom-advancing work. Learn to deeply, creatively and intentionally steward your vocational power in ways that advance foretastes of the coming Kingdom of shalom for our neighbors near and far.

It’s an excellent book, so let’s read it together. This week we’ll look at Chapter 8: Formation:

• Faithful vocational stewardship is not only about doing, it’s also about being.
• Discipling for vocational stewardship involves not only the work of inspiration and discovery but also an emphasis on formation.
• The danger here lies in people acknowledging the position, knowledge or skills they possess-but then over-esteeming them.
• Preparing believers for wise vocational stewardship begins with cultivating at least four key character traits: servanthood, responsibility, courage and humility.
• Servanthood. Congregants who steward power well see their primary identity as servants. To nurture this attitude among their flock, church leaders can begin by teaching the Hebrew word avodah. This term is used to express three notions: worship, work and service.
• Avodah also includes God-dependent prayer as we undertake our work, God-focused attention as we do the work with him as our audience and God-guided love for others as we consider the kinds of work we should do.
• Another ancient word can also help church leaders seeking to shape their people for vocational stewardship. This one is vocare, a Latin term meaning “to call.” It is the root of our English word vocation.
• Our fundamental vocation (calling) is that of a servant. Our work is fundamentally about serving others. Congregants who deeply grasp this are more prepared for vocational stewardship than those who don’t.
• The tsaddiqim practice seeing and perceiving rightly.
• Courage. To accept responsibility for acting in a world of injustice and brokenness takes courage. And courage is not something our culture regularly calls us to. Our culture idolizes comfort, happiness and safety.
• Church leaders encourage the development of godly courage in their members when they call those members to participate in doing the work that truly matters to God. That work is his mission of pushing back the kingdom of darkness with fresh expressions of the kingdom of light. It is the work of bringing foretastes of justice and shalom to broken people and broken places.
• Humility. Many church leaders are in congregations filled with individuals with significant vocational power. Stewarding that power well requires deep humility-a character trait with which highly successful, competent people sometimes struggle.
• The first part of the work of formation involves church leaders seeking to develop within their members the character of compassionate, engaged, humble servants. The second part of this work involves educating congregants in the right manner of deploying power-namely, doing so in a way that accords with how God manages his power.
• God manages his power by sharing it, and we must imitate that modus operandi.
• Made in God’s image, we have talents from him and authority to use them. We have vocational power. And it is God’s gift.
• In this world, there are power disparities. Some people possess more power than others. That is just a fact. Another fact is that middle-and upper-class American Christians are among the world’s powerful. From our position of relative power, we are called to avoid despising those who, in the eyes of the world, are not powerful. We are called to see the poor and the dispossessed as more than just poor and dispossessed. We are called to see their potential, their dignity, their latent capacities. We’re called to labor with them. We do not impose our vocational power on them or even use it for them. We are called to bring it alongside them.

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• 5 Gears – A New Productivity Book to Check Out. Brad Lomenick writes that this new book by Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram, founders of GiANT Worldwide will “Help you develop a rhythm and routine for your life that allows you to be productive at the right time of the day, as well as shift gears to be truly present with your family and fully recharge.”
• The New Necessity for Leadership Success. Dan Rockwell shares 25 qualities and behaviors that will make success more likely for leaders
• Foundation. In this “Minute with Maxwell”, John Maxwell discusses building a strong foundation.
• The Four Phases of Your Life’s Work (Which Describes You?) Dan Cumberland writes “There are four major phases that people find themselves in when it comes to doing their life’s work. These phases describe a person’s journey toward a deeper expression of who she is in what she does.
• Five Dangers of Only Looking at the Past. Eric Geiger writes “There are many leaders who are stuck in the past. While there are dangers in leading with only a view of the present or with only a view of the future, leading with your mind only rooted in the past is destructive. Here are five dangers with only looking at the past as you lead.”
• 5 Habits of Innovative Leaders. Samuel Deuth shares five habits and key questions that will help us develop as innovative leaders.
• Four Ways Leaders Should Rebuke and Challenge. Eric Geiger writes “In a leadership role, leaders are required to confront and challenge team members and peers. While the issues are often performance and communication issues, and not sin issues, we can still glean insight from biblical exhortations on confrontation. Leaders should rebuke and challenge others in the following four ways.”
• 7 Signs Your Culture is Sick. Dan Rockwell writes “I don’t want to be a pessimist, but I think there’s more sickness in organizational cultures than health. Healthy organizational culture results from focused attention. Sick cultures indicate distraction and neglect.”
• Treating Our Tasks as from God. Robert Fraser writes “Once we change bosses [from men to Christ], we are to obey our earthly bosses “just as we would obey Christ” (Eph 6:5). Even though our tasks are dictated by others, we are to treat them as if they come directly from the throne of God. Then we become “like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from our heart” (Eph. 6:6). By viewing our tasks this way, several things happen.”
• How to Re(Gain) Your Leader’s Trust. Eric Geiger writes “Credibility with your leader is essential. If your leader does not trust you, your influence and impact will be greatly hampered. So how do you regain your leader’s trust in the midst of difficult challenges and disappointment? Here are six steps to regain your leader’s trust.”
• What Does Hope Have to Do with Leadership? Dr. Alan Zimmerman writes “Human beings cannot live without some form of human recognition or some sense of hope that things will get better. The same is true in the business world.”

“Vocation is integral, not incidental, to the mission of God in the world.” Steven Garber

 Faith and Work Book Clubs – Won’t you read along with us?

Kingdom Calling: Vocational Calling for the Common Good by Amy L. Sherman

I first read this book in a “Calling, Vocation and Work” class with Dr. Michael Williams and Dr. Bradley Matthews at Covenant Seminary two summers ago. King Jesus is on a mission to bring restoration in every sphere of society and has invited His followers to join Him in this Kingdom-advancing work. Learn to deeply, creatively and intentionally steward your vocational power in ways that advance foretastes of the coming Kingdom of shalom for our neighbors near and far.

It’s an excellent book, so let’s read it together. This week we’ll look at Chapter 7 ~ Discovery.

• Beyond casting an inspirational vision to congregants to steward their vocation for God’s glory and the good of their neighbors, church leaders need to provide a system that helps their people to examine their gifts, passions and “holy discontents,” and the dimensions of their vocational power.
• Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in the Kansas City metro area is a national leader in walking members through this process of discovery and equipping for service.
• Any church serious about vocational stewardship needs to designate a specific individual or team, paid or unpaid, that devotes time and energy to the work of equipping the laity.
• Pleasant Valley’s equipping system is composed of staff training, a thoughtful adult education curriculum, one-on-one coaching and a database tool called Church Community Builder (CCB).
• Congregational leaders need to establish deliberate pathways for helping members to discover and apply their talents.
• At Pleasant Valley, the first steps on that pathway unfold through its four-week “Discover Your Design” course. This course relies heavily on Saddleback Church’s SHAPE assessment as well as assessment and spiritual formation tools that Pleasant Valley has crafted. Congregants learn through the class to identify their spiritual gifts, passions, skills, abilities and personality traits, and the key life experiences that have shaped them.
• This high view of laity is emphasized in Vernon’s preaching from the pulpit. That preaching is then reinforced by the strong emphasis leaders put on having all congregants take the “Discover Your Design” course.
• The task of discovery includes, but must go beyond, the traditional emphasis on spiritual gifts assessments. The vast majority of these assessments don’t help congregants to see how they can apply their spiritual gifts in the context of their daily work or in volunteer service outside the four walls of the church.
• The seven dimensions of vocational power my fellow church members and I have identified are knowledge/expertise, platform, networks, influence, position, skills and reputation/fame.
• Knowledge/expertise. Workers accumulate specific knowledge for the industries or fields they are in. This results from educational and vocational preparation as well as on-the-job experience.
• Platform. Some professions provide workers a voice, an opportunity to get a message out or to shine the spotlight on an issue, cause, person, place or organization.
• Networks. To take stock of vocational networks, congregants can begin by listing current and former coworkers. Then they can identify friends and colleagues from their time of vocational preparation (college, graduate school, training programs); colleagues they have met at professional conferences; and customers, vendors, partners, mentors and public officials they have interacted with on the job. Most people are surprised to see just how wide their network is.
• Influence. In 2003, a book called The Influentials by Ed Keller and Jon Berry made the case that the kind of power known as influence-the capacity to cause an effect in indirect or intangible ways-is not synonymous with position. That is, people can have substantial influence without holding high positions. All Christians, regardless of their position within an organization, should consider what degree of influence they possess in their work setting-and how that influence can be used creatively for good.
• Position is a dimension of vocational power that involves the degree of authority one has within an organization based on seniority or title or reputation. It also denotes the standing or credibility a person has that comes from the positional power of her or his organizational affiliation.
• Sometimes people are so used to simply performing their jobs that they don’t often stop to take stock of the many different skills they are using in the process. Individuals in various vocations possess an almost endless array of skills.
• Some professionals achieve a high level of name recognition within-and sometimes beyond-their vocational field. This can afford them entry to powerbrokers, capacities for mobilizing a large following or strategic opportunities to direct wide-scale attention to a particular issue or cause.
• Beyond identifying spiritual gifts and dimensions of vocational power, the task of discovery involves encouraging congregants to discern their holy discontent.
• A holy discontent is that passion that “wrecks” a person-that issue that “keeps you up at night; something in the world you want to fix.”