Thinking of you today!
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Author: Phillip Santillan
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A parable on change
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Say Cheeeeese!
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What should church look like?
Two words.
Wonder and Amazement.
As they listen, their secret thoughts will be exposed, and they will fall to their knees and worship God, declaring, “God is truly here among you.”
(1 Corinthians 14:25)When was the last time unbelievers walked into our church and they said, ‘God is truly here?”
1 Corinthians 14 tells us that it is good to be led by God’s Spirit, but also shows us that there is a powerful, God-ordained place in being intentional in how we “do church.” So the questions I ask myself this morning are:
- How does God want to intentionally reach those who come into our church?
- What is it that I am doing that is not only led by God’s Spirit, but is logically and strategically planned so that God could move in the hearts and mind of people without me getting in the way?
Dear Lord, please let our church be a place where people are found saying, “God is truly in this place.” Amen.
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Tonight I was just Phil…
Community + Accountability = DiscipleshipI’ve probably preached on this. I’ve facilitated small groups that promote this. But tonight I was able to really participate in something I haven’t done in a looooong time. Tonight I attended a small group and I was just Phil – and I loved it!
I am excited to be involved with other men of God who desire to grow in their faith and do it in the context of community and accountability. Personally, I don’t think you can be a growing believer if you aren’t involved in community and accountability – even if you are a “pastor.”
So who are you in community and accountability with?
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“Not so Famous” quotes
“You can’t be late and expect to get taco bell!”
When I was about 15 years old I got shoved into the position of leading worship for my church’s youth group by (at that time) the “new” youth pastor. I learned a lot of things about ministry and leadership at that time, but one of the greatest lessons he taught me was during the one night I arrived late to my own worship team practice.
During the formation of our new worship team we started rehearsing at around 5:30pm before church, which was tough as high school kids just getting out of school. So to do what I thought was a way to “reward” us for making the sacrifice of coming out early, my youth pastor said he’d buy us all Taco Bell. The only condition was that we needed to at the church at 5pm if we wanted free taco bell.
Well I didn’t arrive until 5:30pm. And when I got there, I came in (like a typical teen) expecting to get some food. When I found out the food was gone, I made a big stink that I didn’t get dinner and I probably had some lame excuse for being late too. My youth pastor looked me right in the face and told me, “Phil, you can’t be late and expect to get taco bell!”
That day was the moment I learned some huge principles in leadership.
- Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable. As a leader, my actions set the precedent of what “on time” means. If for me, being on time means 5 minutes late in reality, then whenever I say, “Be there by so and so” people will always feel that what I’m really saying is “be there at ‘so and so’ but if you’re 5 minutes late, it’s cool.”
- The reward for doing what you’re supposed to do is the doing. Too many times you can place your hopes in the result of your “doing” as a reward, when the “doing” is the reward. If we as leaders can begin by seeing that being a leader is a reward that God has given, then it will take the focus off of us, because leadership is not about you, it’s about others.
- People are watching. Leadership is about influencing others. That night I learned that acting out of selfishness caused a diminishing effect on my leadership status in front of those who I was leading. Yes I was hungry, but as a leader, there is a fine line between “keeping it real” and understanding that my actions can hurt my ability to influence others. (1 Corinthians 9:11-23)
- Keep the main thing the main thing. Taco bell was a reward for coming to worship practice, but I as a leader did not accept the position to get taco bell. I wanted to be used by God to lead people into real encounters with a living God. If I was focused on that, then I would have thought with my head instead of my stomach.
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Yeah…I don’t play drums
These guys do!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln6b_nBM-V8&feature=player_embedded]
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Book Review: The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player by John Maxwell
I picked up John Maxwell’s The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player in the bargain bin at the bookstore a couple of weeks ago.Being that I am a firm believer that effective leadership is best done in a horizontal environment (where each person is a vital player) and not in a verticle environment (where one person at the top dictates what those below are to do) – I was excited to find some insights. After all, even though not all readers are leaders, all leaders are readers!
So here’s some things that really stood out to me.
- Teamwork and personal rigidity just don’t mix.
- A person’s age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea.
- Commitment and talent are UNCONNECTED – unless you connect them.
- …you cannot make a commitment to uncommitted people and expect to receive a commitment from them.
- You cannot have teamwork unless you have communicative players. Without communication, you don’t have a team; you have a collection of individuals.
- If you have any kind of difficulty or conflict with a teammate, don’t let more than twenty-four hours go by without addressing it.
- Having hidden agendas, communicating to people via third party, and sugarcoating bad news hurts team relationships.
- Open communication increases trust, trust increases ownership, and ownership increases participation.
- The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
- Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.
- It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.
- What we do on some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are, and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.
- People have just two choices when it comes to their emotions: they can master their emotions or be mastered by them.
- Discipline means doing the right things at the right time for the right reason.
- If you try to push people to work in areas where they have no talent, you will only frustrate them.
- Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
- Being intentional is…about focusing on doing the right things, moment to moment, day to day, and then following through with them in a consistent way.
- A team really isn’t a team if it isn’t going anywhere!
- Anyone who loves his opinions more that his teammates will advance his opinions but set back his team.
- You can’t make the other fellow feel important in your presence if you secretly feel that he is a nobody.
There’s so much more to this book. I receommend this to anyone who feels God has called them into leadership because leadership is more like football and less like tennis – it takes a team to win big!
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Book Review: The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player by John Maxwell
I picked up John Maxwell’s The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player in the bargain bin at the bookstore a couple of weeks ago.Being that I am a firm believer that effective leadership is best done in a horizontal environment (where each person is a vital player) and not in a verticle environment (where one person at the top dictates what those below are to do) – I was excited to find some insights. After all, even though not all readers are leaders, all leaders are readers!
So here’s some things that really stood out to me.
- Teamwork and personal rigidity just don’t mix.
- A person’s age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea.
- Commitment and talent are UNCONNECTED – unless you connect them.
- …you cannot make a commitment to uncommitted people and expect to receive a commitment from them.
- You cannot have teamwork unless you have communicative players. Without communication, you don’t have a team; you have a collection of individuals.
- If you have any kind of difficulty or conflict with a teammate, don’t let more than twenty-four hours go by without addressing it.
- Having hidden agendas, communicating to people via third party, and sugarcoating bad news hurts team relationships.
- Open communication increases trust, trust increases ownership, and ownership increases participation.
- The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
- Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.
- It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.
- What we do on some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are, and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.
- People have just two choices when it comes to their emotions: they can master their emotions or be mastered by them.
- Discipline means doing the right things at the right time for the right reason.
- If you try to push people to work in areas where they have no talent, you will only frustrate them.
- Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
- Being intentional is…about focusing on doing the right things, moment to moment, day to day, and then following through with them in a consistent way.
- A team really isn’t a team if it isn’t going anywhere!
- Anyone who loves his opinions more that his teammates will advance his opinions but set back his team.
- You can’t make the other fellow feel important in your presence if you secretly feel that he is a nobody.
There’s so much more to this book. I receommend this to anyone who feels God has called them into leadership because leadership is more like football and less like tennis – it takes a team to win big!
HT:
