Just wanted to pass on this comprehensive checklist geared towards helping churches/charities minimize their legal risk. It helps you identify where you are strong and where you need improvement.

Check it out here.

My experience, limited as it may be, suggests that most churches fall woefully short in their policies, procedures and risk management. We have been working hard at CWL to sharpen this area and have made some tremendous progress but there is still a lot of ground to cover. If you are a pastor/charity leader this list may be a little overwhelming at first but it does help us understand the due diligence that is necessary.

I believe that in the coming years we are going to see massive church growth as revival impacts our nation – this is even more the reason to prepare now so we are structurally/legally ready for the growth.

I don’t know if you have heard about it but there is a really serious move the Spirit going on at IHOP in Kansas City. I have not been able to follow along a lot yet due to certain factors but I did track down a really good blog from one of the intercessory missionaries/worship leaders who serves there and is posting some thoughts/updates (check it out here – and let me know if you know of more).

The guys name is Joshua Hawkins and he posts some really good stuff – one post I read today was regarding the connection between holiness and true spiritual pleasure. An excert:

But Jesus calls us to a radically different approach to holiness and shows us a completely different picture of the Father that we must fill our minds and hearts with. Jesus’ own experience on the earth showed us that holiness is not a call to a life of drudgery, boredom, and frustration. He showed us over and over again that His Father is so tender with us in our weakness. He presented holiness as a call to the greatest pleasure that the human heart has ever experienced.

You can check out the entire post here.

I was going over my posts today and realized I’ve been pretty much invisible for the month… so if you have been following along I’m going to work to pick it up a bit.

God has been doing a lot of cool stuff in me so I’ve got some different things I want to be writing about.

One of the things I love about vocational ministry is the diversity – there are dozens of different things that I do from reading and study to prayer, to meeting with people, to speaking and teaching, to travelling. I absolutely love it.

One of the challenges though is the diversity as well. There are so many different things that come at you from so many different directions that it can be overwhelming. It is hard sometimes to know what to do when and where to prioritize your time.

One area that I have found for me that can slip through the cracks in the middle of it all is taking time to think and cast vision regarding where we are going. It can be so easy to work away at the daily tasks and not take time to step back and look at the big picture of where we are and where we are going.

A recent post by Will Mancini reminded me of the importance of ‘carving out time for vision’ – check it out here.

This past Sunday at CWL we participated in the Weekend to End Slavery – it was very moving and powerful. During the time there would usually be preaching/teaching we viewed the documentary: At the End of Slavery (check out the trailer here) and then took time to pray and learn more about how we could be involved.

I was personally very impacted. I was aware of the issue of slavery but I don’t think it had captured my heart the way it needed to (or the way that it is on God’s heart). Our emphasis on this as a church has definitely moved me further along that pathway.

I mentioned at the end that I would post a list of resources here on my blog so here you go:

Books:

• Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. Kevin Bales. University of California Press, 2004.
• To Plead Our Own Cause: Personal Stories by Today’s Slaves. Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd. Cornell University Press, 2008.
• Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade – and How We Can Fight It. David Batstone. HarperOne, 2007.
• Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves. Adam Hochschild. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006.
• Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. Siddarth Kara. Columbia University Press, 2008.
• Human Rights Watch World Report. Human Rights Watch, Published Annually
• The Trafficking in Persons Report. U.S. Department of State, Published Annually

Books: Justice and Theology

• Just Courage: God’s Great Expedition for the Restless Christian Gary Haugen. Intervarsity Press, 2008
• Good News About Injustice, 10th Anniversary Edition. Gary Haugen. Intervarsity Press, 2009.
• Terrify No More. Gary Haugen with Gregg Hunter. Thomas Nelson, 2005.
• The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God’s Call to Justice. Mark Labberton. Intervarsity Press, 2007.

Websites

• International Justice Mission – www.ijm.org or www.ijm.ca
• Not For Sale – www.notforsalecampaign.org
• Exodus Cry – www.exoduscry.com
• MP Joy Smith – Bill C-268 – www.joysmith.ca
• Compassion Art: www.compassionart.tv
• Polaris Project: www.polarisproject.org
• Stop the Traffik: www.stopthetraffik.org

(Please note this is not an exhaustive list of resources, but rather a starting point for those on a justice journey)

I want to give a special shout out to my wife, Sharon, Kelly Cameron, Carleen Nimrod, Melissa Roy and any others who contributed – thanks ladies! I’m looking forward to our next steps!

My wife and I have the opportunity to spend time with our pastors/mentors Bishop Flynn and Carolyn Johnson for a yearly gathering they host to pour into a group of pastors. We are really looking forward to it.

Thus, I will be taking a week break from blogging… I will have lots more to blog about when I get back though!

A recent edition of Dan Reiland’s Pastors Coach dealt with the importance of influnce – it was so outstanding/thought-provoking I wanted to make sure that I passed it on:

If you are a parent you care who your kids hang out with. My son and daughter are both in college and I still care about who their friends are as much as I did when they were in High School. The reason the value of association never diminishes is influence. Who is influencing your kids? How are they being influenced? As a parent you really care. As a “kid” you are profoundly impacted.

As a leader you really care about the big idea of influence. Influence is the very epicenter of leadership. When you have it, you have the opportunity to make things happen. When you begin to lose it, your leadership becomes ineffective. Lose enough influence and, game over.

It’s been interesting to observe Mr. Obama rise into his role as president and what has taken place since his election. These are not political comments, just leadership observations. President Obama gained huge influence as other candidates lost theirs. He dug in hard and campaigned well. He’s a good communicator and enough people wanted a change. Now that he’s been president for about a year and the economy is remains unstable, the honeymoon is over he is no longer gaining influence. As The President has pressed for his Health Care reform, he has received considerable resistance. He is losing some influence. It is apparent that the American people understand that Health Care reform is needed. Opinion polls would support that the insurance companies shouldn’t be running medicine, but a large percentage of the people don’t want the government to run health care either. I will stop here to avoid rendering an opinion. Again, my purpose is to give a picture of gaining and losing influence.

Influence is like momentum. When you have it, you accomplish amazing things. When you don’t have influence, it’s difficult to make anything happen. In this two part series on influence I’ll share some thoughts on losing and gaining influence. Let’s start with losing it!

Losing Influence

Everyone has some influence, it’s what you do with it that determines whether or not you increase it or lose it. I’ve officiated a lot of weddings over the years. It’s common for a new husband to have a large amount of influence the first day of the marriage. It is equally common for him to have lost a bunch of that influence by day two! There is a little smile factor here, but unfortunately a little too much truth as well. So what did he do to fall out of favor so fast? How can a guy lose so much influence in such a short amount of time? Whether you are a new husband, pastor, businessperson, politician, teacher, parent, or a foreman on a job site, you can and will gain and lose influence.

It’s common for a new pastor or church leader to show up with a significant amount of influence on day one. To a large degree you have been loaned this influence to get started. John Maxwell calls this level one or positional leadership. It’s a good place to start, but you can’t keep leading if you stay there. Smart leaders immediately begin to invest in establishing and building relationships, and they are off and running. Others seem to struggle and lose influence. This can happen quickly or take months, even a year or two. The following are the most common causes for loss of influence among pastoral leaders.

1) Fail to listen

People have a sense of how much you care by your willingness to listen. This isn’t the only way to show you care, but it’s a big one. In the age of Facebook, Twitter, Email and Texting, there is a huge amount of talking but very little listening. I’m referring to the eye to eye and soul to soul kind of listening. Listening is a gift you give to others and it’s not complicated. Step 1. Stop talking. Step 2. Start listening. Any leader can listen. Sometimes giving someone your undivided attention for just a few minutes is all it takes. Fail to do this and your influence will fall.

2) Lead from insecurity

Insecure leaders are ineffective at best and can be dangerous. Insecure leaders are worried about what others think. They want to be liked more than they want to cause change. That’s where it gets complicated. They do want change. They want the Kingdom to move forward, but not if it rocks the boat too much. This tension causes leadership energy to be diverted into managing unproductive relationships rather than praying for God’s vision and then leading the people in that vision. If you are an insecure leader, prone to caving into pressure, your influence will decrease. You can begin to turn that around by hearing from God and caring more about what He thinks (about you and the church) than others.

3) Hesitate to make tough decisions

I’ve never awakened in the morning and looked forward to firing someone. In fact, it’s at the top of my list of things I never want to do. But on rare occasion, it is necessary. Letting someone go is always a tough decision, even when a mature, behind closed doors, agreement is made. Failure to make a decision like that hurts the organization and lessens your influence. If you find yourself in the position where everyone sees the issue but you won’t act on it, your leadership will suffer. There are many tough decisions you must make as a leader. They require prayer, wise counsel, and reflection. But in the end, you must make a decision. It may not be popular, but it’s time. You may have a tough decision before you right now. Don’t put it off. You probably know the right thing to do. Do it and your influence will increase. Procrastinate or avoid it altogether and you will lose influence.

4) Fail to solve problems

There is a difference between a tension to be managed and a problem to be solved. As a leader you will get in trouble when you try to solve a tension or manage a problem. There are some tensions in ministry that will never go away, that’s part of life and leadership. But problems are meant to be solved. As a leader you are among the chief problem solvers. You do this in one of two ways, either empower and delegate so other competent people can solve the problem, or you solve it yourself. Failure to do so guarantees to diminish your influence.

5) Work in ministry not on it

This one isn’t as blatant, and never feels as urgent as some of the things already mentioned. This is a slow-burn, long haul issue. In fact you can get away with this for months, even a couple years. But eventually working only in your ministry and not on it will take its toll. You, like all of us, are under pressure to make things happen and get things done. But it’s important to take time to pull away and improve your craft. Learn new methods and better ways of doing ministry. I don’t mean the latest fad or something that doesn’t fit the culture of your church, but a needed change or improvement that will help your church become healthy and grow. Working only in the midst of daily ministry will, over the long haul, reduce your leadership influence.

6) Fail to think

I love asking pastors and church leaders this simple question. “When do you think?” The most common response is “All the time.” That’s just not true, no leader thinks all the time and some leaders rarely think. I’m talking about setting aside time to think and strategize with pen (or laptop) in hand. I don’t believe anyone can do critical thinking if they don’t write something down as a result. You set aside time to pray, play with your family, exercise and a number of other things. You need time to think. Mark it down, and do it, or lose influence as a leader.

7) Break trust

This is a serious violation that might cause irreversible damage to your leadership. God will forgive you and people can forgive you but there are consequences that are difficult to erase. We don’t need to cover things such as an extra-marital affair or stealing. These are obvious. I’m referring to things of general integrity like keeping your promises, not using manipulation to move people, and not taking advantage of your authority. As leaders we have a precious trust with the people we lead, break it, and influence is all but over. This can happen slowly over time and sometimes overnight. It’s not something to fear or be paranoid about. If you will live according to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, God’s Word, and the counsel of wise and trusted colleagues, you will do well.

Part 1 has focused on how a leader loses influence. My purpose has not been to overwhelm you but more so to give you an opportunity to reflect on your own leadership and possible areas where you might lose influence. Ultimately the goal is to help you increase your influence so you become a more effective leader.

Rick Warren had an excellent article on observing a personal Sabbath.

This principle is extremely important to me, and I think vital for anyone involved in ministry (well, really for anyone overall but I think ‘ministry people’ tend to neglect it). I have had seasons in my life where I did not obey this principle and seasons when I have and there is a drastic difference.  When I do coaching with young pastors/leaders this is one are I really emphasize.

You can check out the article here.

Here is another great excerpt from Passion for Jesus (Mike Bickle) that really impacted me:

“From here, let me give you the Mike Bickle paraphrase of Zechariah 4:6-10 -

Zerubbabel had tried to get people to work on rebuilding the temple, but they were so discouraged that no one would work. So the disheartened governor sat down on a huge stone, looking around at the heaps of rubble from what had once been a great temple before the Babylonian army destroyed it in 586 BC.

“Jerusalem is in total ruins,” Zerubabbel sighed. “There is nothing left of this city. Toppled stones and debris everywhere. This place is a disaster.”

Just then, young Zechariah, the prophet tapped Zerubbabel on the shoulder. He said “How’s it going in your work to rebuild the city and the temple?”

“What a disaster!” moaned Zerubbabel. “Nobody showed up for work again today. Here I am, ‘the great restorer of the land of Israel.’ We are supposed to raise up this temple to the glory of God but I cannot get anyone inspired to work on it.”

“Zerubbabel, God is with you.”

Looking up at the young prophet, Zerubbabel questions, “God is with us?”

“Of course He is. The very fact that you are in the city and no longer in captivity is proof of that. God says that your hands have laid the foundation of this house, and you hands will finish it. But there’s something you must do first.”

Zerubbabel moaned and shook his head.

“No, no. Listen to me. See that stone over there almost hidden by grass and weeds? That’s the capstone, the finishing stone for the new temple. Its the final stone the people will put into place, the stone that signifies the building is completed.”

“Yeah, OK. So?”

“Well, God says you’re to shout, ‘Grace, grace!’ to it.”

“To what?”

“To the stone.”

“I’m supposed to shout at a stone?”

“Listen to me, Zerubbabel. God said to tell you, ‘it is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit.’ You’re supposed to put your confidence in the grace of God. That’s what shouting ‘Grace!’ is all about. Come on now. Get up, walk over there, and shout, ‘Grace! Grace!’”

Zechariah, I know you mean well But I’m already having trouble getting people to follow me. If they see me standing out here in the middle of these weeds, shouting at a rock – “

“Zerubbabel, are you going to obey the LORD or not? Are you going to trust His grace, or aren’t you? Now say it!”

“Ok. What have I to lose? I’ll do it. Here goes: “Grace… grace…”

“No, no, that will never do. Shout it man! Like this: Grace! GRACE!”

After a couple halfhearted shouts, both stood silently looking gat the stone. Finally Zechariah said, “You know what’s the matter with you, Zerubbabel? You despise the days of small beginnings.”

Zerubbabel made no reply, and Zechariah continued, “Because you do not see a lot happening around your right now, you’re counting these days as unimportant. You have thrown them away as irrelevant. But the very fact that you’re here in the land is the beginning of the move of God. There  is something very great he wants to perform.”

“It doesn’t feel like a move of God to me.”

“That’s because you’re out of touch with how God sees it. You are despising what is happening now because it looks small. It is small, but it is also real; and it is legitimate. All these obstacles that look like great mountains will become a flattened plain. You’ll see the day when the temple is complete and the capstone is set in place. Why wait until that great day when the last finishing touch is pout on the temple before you begin to see the validity of your work? Begin praising God right now, and trust Him that your efforts are relevant even in this day of small beginnings.”

(Passion for Jesus, Pg 184-186)

Today I had a great meeting with one of the servant-leaders in our church and he was sharing with me about some real transformation God has been doing in his life regarding keeping his word, and being dependable and consistent. He was going through a difficult season but he was humble enough to take responsibility for his part in it and was really walking out some cool personal change.

As I was talking with him, the Holy Spirit really began to convict/remind me of some areas of my life where I was not keeping my word. Concept is this: a huge part of walking in integrity is being a man of your word. When you say something you need to do it. Your word needs to be your bond. This is something that previous generations understood that ours has lost in many ways.

I remember hearing Jerry Savelle preach one time that he was really struggling to believe the word of God and so he was praying into it. During his time of prayer he sensed the Spirit say “one of the reasons that you struggle to believe my word is because you don’t even believe your own word!”

All that to say – I took a few moments to repent for not keeping my word, contacted the people that I needed to so I could make things right and am doing what I need to do to get things done.

How about you? Are there areas where you have given your word but have not kept it?