Category: Meanderings

Playing Through

Pastors still believe in the church Almost all pastors—88 percent—strongly agree that “If I had a friend who wanted to make a difference, I would encourage him or her to do so through their church.” Pastors are investing in developing leaders—but the church may not be doing a good job at thisAmong Lifeway’s respondents, 67 percent say they “strongly agree” and 26 “somewhat agree” to “I am intentionally investing in leaders who will emerge over the next 10 years.” However, those percentages drop (to 52 percent and 26 percent) for “The church does a good job fostering and developing new leaders.” Maybe this explains why so many pastors agreed (38 percent strongly, 37 percent somewhat) that “Our church struggles to reach young adults.” Pastors feel they’re fulfilling their calling When asked to respond to “I am currently in a season where I am living out my calling and making a difference,” 86 percent “strongly agree.” Lower but still strong percentages (53 percent “strongly agree” and 35 percent “somewhat agree”) respond to “I am satisfied with the way I am currently fulfilling my calling.” And finally, “I expect my current church to look very different ten years from now”: 57 percent strongly agree, 26 percent somewhat agree.

Ed Stetzer’s research on pastors says we believe in the church and see it changing in the next decade.

Here are a few nuggets from day one.“It’s not about who is against you or for you. It’s about who you are for.”Such a great reminder from Andy Stanley. If you’re worried about who is against you, you’ll be a nervous leaders. And nervous leaders lead for the wrong reasons. They are defensive and reactive. “Incompetence irritates me. Overconfidence scares me.”Love this observation from Malcolm Gladwell. It’s amazing the way effective leadership traces back to one thing: humility. It’s the only solid ground from which to lead. “When you obey God you won’t want anybody else’s life.” Rob Bell made a profound point that the ten commandments end with do no covet. If you obey the commandments there is where you end up. You won’t want to be someone else. You’ll want to be the person God created you to be.

Mark Batterson on what he is learning at Catalyst

Princeton Theological Seminary asked McEntyre, a professor at Westmont, to give the Stone Lectures, and she essayed into her subject with twelve insights: 1. Love words 2. Tell the truth 3. Don’t tolerate lies 4. Read well 5. Stay in conversation 6. Share stories 7. Love the long sentence 8. Practice poetry 9. Attend to translation 10. Play 11. Pray 12. Cherish silence.

Scot McKnight reviews Marilyn Chandler McEntyre’s Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies

I was part of a lunch with Dave Ramsey today. One thing he said was such a freeing thought. He said, “You cannot control the bell curve.” In other words, don’t worry about what people do with what you say. You just need to say it. Once it’s out of your hands it’s out of your hands. We worry way too much about the outcomes we cannot control.No matter how God-ordained your vision is, there will also be the 16% laggards who won’t get on board right away. It’s the categorization of adopters. Don’t get discouraged by that. Just realize that everybody has a different time line. Everything passes through everybody’s personality in different ways.

Mark Batterson and Dave Ramsey on paying attention to the early adopters and not the laggards