Category Archives: Leadership
Great Week * Great Leaders * Great God!
What a week we’ve had in the youth ministry at Morningside. We’ve kicked off a great new year in Sunday School, we’ve started our Fall season of discipleship groups and we’ve started a new worship service for students on Wednesday nights. In fact, we had over 50 attend the first service last week. As I look back at this wonderful week of ministry I cannot help but be thankful for two things:
First of all, we serve an awesome God. As we’re in the midst of a study about the truth about God and absolute Truth, I’m time and time again blown away by how good God is to us. Even at our worst hour he is there. But in these last few days of great things at Morningside, he’s good too. I love serving Him and I love seeing our students serve and honor him too. May God not only receive all the glory for what happens at Morningside, but may He also have the hearts of us all.
Secondly, I am very thankful for great volunteers. We have over 25 adult leaders plugged in weekly and focused on reaching students for Christ. I love their passion and enthusiasm for students and their tireless efforts at keeping up with the lives of the students that God has entrusted to our care. Most youth ministries have great adult volunteers, but I am really becoming encouraged lately at how much some of our older youth and college students have stepped up in their leadership to begin helping lead out in the youth ministry. Specifically, I love how ten of our students are helping lead our new Ignite worship service on Wednesday nights.
Thank you volunteers for serving with us at Morningside. It’s been a great week and I can’t wait to see what God is going to do with us this school year if week keep our focus soley on Him! See you at Ignite this Wednesday.
Simple Church
Recently I’ve made a commitment to read more, especially as it relates to ministry. I spend a lot of time (not as much as I would like) reading God’s Word and I spend time reading blogs, emails, and the occasional article, but I’ve been slack in my book readings.
So, I’ve started back. I picked an awesome one to start with. In the midst of my busyness I read a book ironically called Simple Churchby Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. Gustaw, the head of the Polish Baptist Union and our contact in Poland, suggested it to me on our recent mission trip to Poland. It was exactly what I needed to hear. I’ve read The Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Drive Youth Ministry and a dozen other church leadership books – but this is one of the first that has been so crystal clear about the importance of streamlining ministry and programing to be only the essential things. And that those things should all be moving someone along in the process of becoming a disciple. Finally, a book that’s not suggesting new or more programs, but offering solid statistical evidence for a “less is more approach.” Check it our some time. It’s a good read.
Pat Williams on Leadership
Today Morningside had the great privilege of having Pat Williams speak in both services. Pat is a well know sports manager and has worked in both major league baseball and basketball. He’s managed many pro teams and also speaks on leadership. He currently lives in Orlando Florida, where he co-founded the Orlando Magic. More than anything, he’s a man who loves the Lord with all of his heart. These days he is a highly sought after speaker on leadership. Here are just a few things I heard him say today about leadership during the message he delivered. Check out his website for more info about him or to get one of the 26 books he has written.
Seven Sides of Leadership…message by Pat Williams
- Vision – keeps you focused, keeps you fueled, helps you finish well
- Communicate Your Vision – communicate optimism, inspiration, motivation, talk about the vision often in front of people
- People Skill – be visible, be available, empower others, listen! It may not be a coincidence that “listen” and “silent” have the same letters just in a different order.
- Character Counts – don’t disqualify yourself because of your character, honesty, integrity, humility
- Competence - must be good at what you do, need to be a good teacher, need to be a great learner
- Boldness - great leaders step up, don’t worry about others, be the boss
- Serving Heart - our greatest model is Jesus himself when he told us if we want to be great, we need to get up and serve other people.
