Sometimes, as pastors and leaders, we do things that get us into trouble. They may not be wrong, but they are definitely unwise. A while back I read this blog by Ron Edmonson. He graciously gave me permission to repost his article about the 7 things every leader should quit doing. I love this list,…
Category: Leadership
The Necessity of Noticing
It was the great theologian Yogi Berra who said: “You can observe a lot by just watching.” It’s easy not to notice. We pay attention to what is in front of us, blinded to other people and things around us. We need to be better noticers. In fact, I don’t think we can be effective…
Suffering: The Standard of Leadership
When we became vocational ministers, we envisioned leading people to Jesus; we anticipated families finding healing; we dreamed of lives restores and hearts redeemed. The hard truth is that while that is true, much of the time, for every spiritual high, there is a corresponding low. Life is made up of the tension between joy…
4 Team Essentials
by Nancy Austin “Everybody wants to be part of a winning team.” That’s what a beloved college professor used to tell us. His point was this: build a winning team and recruitment will take care of itself; build a winning team and morale will not be a concern; build a winning team and momentum will…
Three Promises to Overcome the Fear of Change
Leaders are supposed to be courageous, right? Someone said, “You can’t follow fear!” Fear has no direction. It lacks vision. Fear paralyzes us. Fear resists. As a leader, we need the courage to lead, in spite of our fears. LET’S TALK One of my favorite writers about the Holy Land is Wayne Stiles (Check out…
Four Life Lessons from Billy Graham
As we all know, last week, Billy Graham passed away at the age of 99. He had almost seven decades of faithful and fruitful ministry. What Paul said about his own life aptly applies to Billy Graham: “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is…
12 Killers of Good Leadership
Leaders are learners. In fact, we should never think we’ve arrived. Always be teachable. Always grow. Along the way, there are certain qualities that can kill good leadership. A number of years ago I came upon a list compiled by Ron Edmonson which he called the “wrecking balls of potential.” If we fail to address these…
Better Health
I wish I was in better shape. I’m not terribly out of shape but could do a lot better. We’re in a series looking at ways to do better. Instead of setting unreachable goals or expecting perfection, we’re better off challenging ourselves to do better. This week we turn our attention to our health. Let’s…
A Better Husband
I’m in a series of blogs entitled “Better!” I’m touching base on a few things we can be better at this coming year. None of us are perfect, but we all can make improvements. Setting perfection as our goal can be defeating but being a bit better is doable for all of us. Today I’m…
Living with Resilient Passion
We are in the midst of our Annual Conference meetings. One of the highlights was Monday night’s session with Chaplain Milo Curtis. Milo is one of our pastors on special assignment. He serves as an Active Duty Chaplain in the United States Navy. What he shared was so refreshing! Let’s Talk We find how to live…
More Than Floating
A while back I read this analogy by Seth Godin: “A sailboat without a sail might float. For a long time, in fact. But without a sail, it can’t go anywhere, can’t fulfill its function. Floating is insufficient.” I believe life without a goal is like a boat without a sail. That’s also true of ministry…
Getting Good Advice
Recently, my wife and I stayed at our son’s flat in Scotland. I was making instant coffee in their small kitchen. As I reached for the VIA, I scalded my arm on the electric tea kettle, big time! I have a picture of it, if you want to see how bad it was. It looked…
Coffee with Randall 