Creative Bites

The COVID-19 pandemic is a great time for us as people to negotiate stress in a way that we likely haven’t had to before. I want to talk through a technique I put into practice recently that has helped me apply God’s Word in a way I haven’t before. 

If you’ve been listening for a while, you know that I believe all need in life, business, and organizational leadership is found in God’s Word. And that the principles of wisdom we find in business books are actually references to truths found in God’s word. So, let me share with you the approach I take when navigating stress.

1. Write your fears

2. Declare the truth

3. Revise your fears

4. Meditate on the truth of God’s Word.

5. Make the switch.

As you pray through the things you are worried about, replace the fear with the truth. I go line by line.

Here is what you are doing. You are now going past Philippians 4:6-7, and you are stepping into verse 8. Instead of dwelling on your fears, dwell on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, anything that is excellent or praiseworthy. 

During a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, we begin to see what is most important. In this episode of reflection, I want to encourage you to think about what you are missing. What matters to you? How can you build that into the next season of life you live when things return to normal?

What is it?

Focus on creating a environment that stimulates growth.

Why is it important?

Wanting to grow isn’t the same as actually growing. There are a lot of conditions that need to exist for healthy growth to happen, and those conditions don’t happen randomly

How do you do it?

Let people jump in

Learning is messy. If you don’t let people jump in until they are ready, then you’ll never let people jump in. If they never jump in, they’ll never learn. If they never learn, they’ll never be ready.

There is something to the “prove yourself” part of leadership that can’t be assessed until someone is in the position. 

In high school I struggled to hit curve balls as a batter. We were playing a team and we were tied going into extra innings. We had a runner on third with two outs. The pitcher on the mound was better than me, and had a great curveball. I couldn’t just put the ball in play to score the run, because I wasn’t fast enough to beat out a bunt or an infield hit. I needed a base hit.

If I weren’t actually in that situation, I wouldn’t be able to tell you how I handle pressure when the game is on the line. We could practice against good pitchers. We could practice against curveballs. But we couldn’t simulate the pressure of that situation  in practice. I had to actually be in that moment.

The same is true for the people on your team.

Challenge people to be better

• Set clear expectations for where you want people to be
• Ask them where they want to go - help prepare them for what they aspire to be

Let learning be messy

• Mistakes will happen
• Projects will fail
• Imperfect work will be produced
• Things could have been better

Make the mistakes productive

• Model what it looks like to own mistakes of your own.
• Center your conversations around the project and the mistake, not the person. Mistakes shouldn’t be personal.
• Talk about why mistakes happened.
• Ask questions that help them see the problem.
• When you help facilitate problem solving, you increase ownership of the solution itself, and you help others put some skin in the game. That is critical to actual, lasting change.

Questions I ask: 

• What happened?
• Do you know why this happened?
• Can you think of any ways to prevent this from happening in the future?
• How can I help you accomplish that?

What is it?

What is it that you are uniquely best at?
Are you a high caliber executor? 
Are you a developer of people? 
Are you a teacher and communicator of God’s word?
What is the most impactful thing you bring to a team? 
What are you uniquely gifted or skilled at?

Why is it important?

As you look toward stepping up into a leadership role, you are choosing to say yes to some responsibilities, and no to others. You want to start understanding better what things you should do, and what things you shouldn’t do.

How do you do it?

• Ask coworkers what you are good at.
• Ask people close to you what you are good at.
• At the end of a day when you are drained in a bad way, take note of what you spent your day doing. Why are you spent?
• At the end of a day when you are drained in a good way, take note of what you did that day. Why are you drained in a good way?
• Try things you don’t normally do. Serve on a different committee, volunteer in a different ministry, step out of your comfort zone a bit. You might find that something completely unknown to you actually resonates deeply with you.

Once you being to get a glimpse of your unique role, begin pressing into that. 

As you look to grow in leadership, empowering others is a major part of that. If there is any way you can start practicing that now, do it! 

What is it? 

Understanding that you don’t work for A church, you work for THE Church. 

Why is it important?

If you lose this perspective:

• You will be mad when people leave your team
• You won’t trust new people for a while
• You’ll view other churches in your area as competition.
• You won’t be willing to invest in others 

How do you do it?

• Ultimately you have to accept that ministry success is completely up to God, not you. Spend time learning more about who God is. 
• Spend time reading about God’s sovereignty
• Spend time reading about Discipleship

What is it? 

How you discuss problems in your organization matters.

Why is it important? 

Calling out the wrong things in the wrong ways can cause frustration. 

The four things I see elevated often are:

1. Starting with complaints: "I didn’t like this."
2. Starting with symptoms: "It seems like we keep getting behind on projects from a specific leader."
3. Starting with problems: "This is broken." 
4. Starting with solutions: "I think we could solve this by doing something differently."

How to do it?

The best teams have the ability to translate from each of these tiers to the next. 

This week we are going to talk through a couple ways your mindset needs to shift as you take on more leadership responsibility.

These may look different depending on the role you are aspiring toward, but these are new challenges you should be anticipating:

• Helping others grow safely 
• Growing others while growing yourself 
• Leading out of turmoil yourself
• Setting others up for success 
• Taking their criticism on your chin 

Three important mindset shifts:

1. God isn’t just providing to you, he’s providing through you. 

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

3 He restores my soul;

He guides me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil, for You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You have anointed my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Understand that you are not sole destination for God’s provision. 

2. God isn’t just providing for YOU, He’s providing for others too.

3. Start being the type of person you want to follow

Ultimately what you value is what others will value. If you are leading people, who you are is what others will be become over time.

You are going to find that a lot of this season will point us to scripture. That’s because, in my opinion, Godly living is BY FAR the most effective way to develop as a leader.

In this week's episode, I wanted to share a conversation I had with my wife, Amy Curtis. Circumstances are often things used by God to "order our steps". Amy provides insight and encouragement for those times in life where our plans and the steps God is ordering don't seem to line up the way we think they should.

Proverbs 16:9 

The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.

• The call to Christian living is the foundation of effective ministry–regardless of vocation.
• If you want to learn more about your calling as a Christ follower, spend more time in God’s word. If you are stuck on a starting point, read the Sermon on the Mount in Mathew 5-7. There you will find a great overview of what Christ has called every single Christ follower to.
• If you have ambitions to be in vocational ministry, you should read the qualifications of Deacons in 1 Timothy 3:8-12. Or, if you have ambitions to become an Elders, read in Titus 1:5-9, 1 Tim. 3:1-7, and 1 Peter 5:1-4. Clarity around the requirements of these roles exist. If you do not meet the qualifications, then you should not be called to either of these roles by the church. 

I think the bulk of the angst that exists around vocational decision making is that we don’t separate the two. We think we are making a highly spiritual decision when we choose a career path. One of the most beautiful things about our God is that He allows us to participate in ministry. And by our diligent pursuit of living a Christ centered life, we find ourselves in a very exciting position. Largely, we can do whatever we are skilled to do vocationally and have the opportunity to minister to a lost world. Simply because we are striving to be obedient to the call God has placed on our lives as Christ followers. 

As you seek to assess where to go, here is what I would encourage you to ask yourself.

1. How should I respond to what is happening right now?

2. What do I care about? (What don’t I care about?)

3. What am I good at? (What am I bad at?)

4. What types of problems keep finding me?

5. What frustrates me?

6. What hardships has God allowed me to endure?

7. What situations can I endure?

8. What does scripture say?

Some cautions.

you typically don’t find success when you try to help people solve problems you haven’t solved. 

• Be patient. It will feel like everyone else has it figured out before you do. That’s ok.
• Don’t assume your hardships are things you need to get away from. Sometimes the challenging things in life actually need to be leaned into, not run from.
• Don’t assume that things that are easy for you are easy for everyone.
• A career change isn’t bad. And chances are, your previous season will make you better at what you are moving into next. 

5 things that can help you know when change is needed and actually change. 

Information Helps You Change

Trust Your Gut

When Passion is Dying, Pause and Listen

Seek Trusted Counsel 

Let Your Creation Live It’s Life

• The Courage to Change

Season 2 starts next week!