Pride - A Leader's Greatest Problem

Pull a 10-dollar bill from your pocket, and you will see the face of Alexander Hamilton on the front. By merit of his accomplishments, Hamilton should be one of our greatest national heroes. Consider his contributions to America:

• Revolutionary War hero
• George Washington’s chief of staff by age 22
• America’s first Secretary of the Treasury
• Co-author of The Federalist Papers
• Creator of the Coast Guard
• Designer of the nation’s banking and finance system
• Architect of a system of tax collection to bring revenue to the U.S. Government
• Builder of the infrastructure for an industrial economy

Yet, despite displaying the greatest blend of legal, political, and financial knowledge of the founding fathers, Hamilton does not rank among the foremost heroes of our country’s history. Why? Read the complete article by clicking here.

Creating Your Own Personal Financial Plan

A question we've heard countless times over the years is "What's the most common mistake people make when managing their finances?" Our answer: making spending and investment decisions apart from a personalized financial plan. No matter how good your investing choices are, if they're made outside the framework of a larger plan, you're inviting trouble.

Imagine that you're preparing to build your dream home. Over the years, you've accumulated scores of ideas that you'd like to see incorporated into it. Before construction begins, you sit down with your builder to review your design goals. You ask him how long before the blueprints will be ready, but to your surprise, he tells you he doesn't work that way. Rather than planning everything ahead of time, he prefers to develop the design as he goes along. He'll keep your ideas in mind, but "blueprints are so restricting," he says-he wants to have the freedom to be spontaneously creative as the house is being built. Read the complete article by Mark Biller.

Effective Stewardship Ministry
Developing an effective church stewardship ministry includes all of the church's financial functions; stewardship education, missions education, budgeting, and accounting. This process is a comprehensive, end to end set of activities that helps the church accomplish its mission vision and statement. Once started, it is an ongoing process that cycles back to the first phase at the beginning of each new year. More information click here.

Launch of New Online Tool for Church Websites

"Does your church's website communicate to outsiders as well as to the members?" asks a new web resource. A church site is the congregation's 'shop window' to its community. To fulfill this function well, it must be enticing, people-centered and easily understood by outsiders. Unfortunately, many churches are unsure how to achieve this vital mix.

So the Internet Evangelism Day team has launched an online self-assessment tool. It leads a church through a series of key questions, to highlight areas of their website which may need development: InternetEvangelismDay.com/design

"I think it will be very helpful to churches," comments Gene Anderson of Resurrection Lutheran Church, California.

A church site which has been prioritized for non-Christian visitors can be remarkably effective in reaching the community. "Week in, week out, more visitors turn up at our church on a Sunday because of the website, than anything else," writes one growing church in London UK that uses these principles.

The Internet Evangelism Day ('IE Day') website also explains other types of online evangelism, such as outreach sites, video clips, blogging and podcasts. There is even a free 'conversation starter' screen-saver to download.

April Church Focus Day to Increase Awareness
The IE Day team also encourages churches and other groups around the world to hold their own 'web awareness focus day' on (or near) 29 April 2007. The IE Day site provides downloadable video clips, drama sketches, posters, handouts and a PowerPoint presentation, making it easy for any church to create its own IE Day program. This can as brief as a 2-minute spot within a worship time, or an entire themed church service, seminar, or midweek meeting.

Churches that have already held their own focus day are enthusiastic. "It was a real eye-opener for many," writes one in Muncie, Indiana. "We held a midweek evening presentation of 90 minutes, for other local churches," says another from Dawlish UK.

A Canadian church leader comments, "I used a 10-minute presentation that focused on how anyone can get involved in reaching out to the Internet community. I also added a section on using our church website as an evangelism tool, as some of our members have already had great success with it."

One surprising aspect that the IE Day team emphasize: web evangelism is for anyone, not just the technically gifted. "There are many ways to share your faith online, without any technical background at all," says IE Day Coordinator Tony Whittaker.

IE Day is supported by a wide range of Christian leaders. "I am glad to commend Internet Evangelism Day," says John Stott.

Internet Evangelism Day is an initiative of the Internet Evangelism Coalition, an umbrella group of major interdenominational Christian groups involved in Web ministry, based at the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton. IE Days purpose is to explain to the worldwide church the potential of the Web for effective proclamation of the Christian Good News by:- a detailed resource website: InternetEvangelismDay.com- encouraging churches and other groups to hold an annual web awareness focus day

New online self-assessment tool from Internet Evangelism Day team enables churches to develop and improve their websites. And this year's web evangelism focus day is set for 29 April 2007.

Avoid Being or Appearing Lazy in Your Ministry

Whether your laziness is real or merely perceived, your work, your witness, and your words are diluted when you appear to be lazy to others.

Three ways not to deal with the accusations.

• Do not remind people how hard you are working.
  
• Do not publish a detailed record of where you have been, what you have done, or who you have seen.
  
• Do not develop a “poor me” attitude of being overworked and under paid as God’s called servant.
  

Most church members are not responsive to these approaches. Your church members work hard as well and believe you should work hard without complaint.

Here are four steps you can take when your critics accuse you of being lazy.

The Smallest Package

The smallest package I ever saw was a man wrapped up wholly in himself.
-- Citation: Billy Graham, Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 2.

Discipleship Is Loving Obedience

Discipleship is . . . loving obedience. Jesus calls his disciples to follow his teachings through self-denial. This attitude of self-denial is not particularly popular today, but it was not popular during Jesus' time either. Being a disciple of Christ, however, demands it.

While discipleship is not a program, it can be encouraged through special mentoring relationships and training classes. New Christians should have the opportunity to learn how to study the Bible and how to develop a personal devotional life. Older Christians should continue to mature while lending guidance to younger Christians. In this manner, the entire body of Christ will be edified.

If you find that your congregation is not participating in church-based Bible study, consider implementing some of the following ideas.

• Bible study classes. Introduce some special Bible study classes that your church has not offered before. You could do these during the Sunday school hour or within a Sunday evening or week-night discipleship format. Promote these studies to the best of your ability and invite some of your best teachers to lead them. -- Option No. 1: Begin a Sunday school program or strengthen your existing one: A well-planned and well-organized Sunday school program can be a powerful ministry tool. If one is not already in place, make plans to instituted one as soon as possible. If your program is lack luster, investigate ways to make it more effective. William E. James and Associates has worked with several churches to turn their Sunday School from one of extinction to one of distinction! -- Option No. 2: Small group book studies: Choose a single book of the Bible for the study group to focus on. Encourage the group to spend time working through the book at the pace they feel most comfortable. Do whatever you can to make the atmosphere of the study as conductive to learning and growth as possible. -- Option No. 3: Small group studies: Implement small group studies focused on teaching individuals how to study the Bible more effectively. Materials from Kay Arthur (Inductive Bible Study), the Navigators, Howard Hendricks (Effective Bible Study) or Lifeway & Serendipity House, not only teach your congregation how to study the Bible, but they also help group members study the Bible in a group setting.
• Adopt a church-wide standard translation. One indirect way you can help your congregation become more involved in Bible study is by adopting a standard text for church use. If everyone has the same translation, Sunday school, Bible studies, and the worship service will most likely find more people engaging in Bible study.
• Select a congregational reading plan. Many people do not know where to start reading the Bible so they randomly flip through the scriptures with no direction. If they were given a systematic reading plan, they would have the needed structure to help them read the Bible in a beneficial method. Consider publishing a reading plan for the church that takes them through the entire Bible in one year.
• Create a Bible reading challenge. Select a month out of the year and a book out from the Bible and challenge your congregation to read through that book (one chapter a day) for one month. Give them a definite starting and ending date for the challenge and keep it well publicized. Once the challenge is over, set aside time in (or as) a worship service for the people to give a testimony about what God has taught them through the challenge. You could also use this idea in a year long program with something similar to The One-Year Bible by Tyndale Publishers.
• Develop a one-to-one enlistment program to get members involved in Bible study. Invite your members to sign up to be Bible reading accountability partners. Give them a set study guide and encourage them to meet on a weekly basis to discuss what they have learned.
• Encourage the use of Bible software. As computers become more prevalent, more and more people are using them both at home and at work. Encourage your people to put Bible software on their computers or perhaps even on PDA's. At home, they can help with Bible study and at work they can help in witnessing. Even something as simply as a scriptural screen saver or desk top wallpaper with inspirational messages can help you people focus on the Word of God.

If you want to take the pulse of your church and check the vital signs of not only discipleship, but worship, fellowship, ministry, prayer and evangelism contact William E. James and Associates for the Church Health Survey or a Comprehensive ChurchHealth+Plus Consultation.

Picking Potential Leaders

John Maxwell on "The Law of the Inner Circle:" Those who are closest to me will determine the level of my success.

Good leaders realize the significance of surrounding themselves with talented people. That's why leaders repeatedly ask me, "How can I be sure to hire the right person?"

I have never discovered a foolproof hiring practice, but I do know finding a great hire goes hand in hand with identifying potential leaders.

Over the course of the next two editions of Leadership Wired, I'll explore eleven questions I use to spot a potential leader. Before I begin, I'd like to give credit to my mentor and friend Fred Smith. Several of these questions were developed from my conversations with him. Read the complete by Dr. John Maxwell.

TUNNEL THINKING - Persistence of Vision

In his article "Persistence of Vision," highlighted on Leadership Now, Michael McKinney uses the phenomenon of physical sight to illustrate a hazardous tendency in a leader's way of thinking.

As leaders, we absorb vast quantities of information, and we interpret life based upon our own attitude, emotions, opinions, and experiences. Out of necessity, we develop default habits of thought in order to connect the dots of the diverse elements of our lives and understand our world.

Leaders face the danger of thinking on autopilot. Instead of seeing with clarity, leaders can fall into the trap of making decisions from a limited perspective and a narrow mindset. Inflexibility and resistance to change are inevitable unless we make a concerted effort to force ourselves to widen the scope of our thoughts.

Read more by following these two links. Number one. Number two.

Beautiful Feet Conference at Cedarville University

Mark your calendar now and plan to attend Beautiful Feet at Cedarville University on June 2-3, 2006. Sponsored by the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio, this conference is designed to encourage, equip, and engage women in evangelism. All women who attend will hear what God is doing through women in America, have time to seek God's specific call for them, and receive resources to reach their community for Christ. Register today and commit to pray everyday through June 3 that multitudes of women will answer God's call to reach the lost.

Guest speakers in 2006 include Mary Kassian, Lori Beckler, and Jaye Martin. Babbie Mason will be providing music for the conference. For a word from our Women's Enrichment Consultant, Janice Brown click here.

Da Vinci Code movie provides ‘apologetic evangelism’ opportunity, says Kansas pastor

Pastor Jerry Johnston describes the upcoming Da Vinci Code movie, starring Hollywood star Tom Hanks and set to premiere May 19, as the biggest attack on the Christian faith this year.
"Nothing will come remotely close to it," said Johnston, who pastors the 5,000-member First Family Church in Overland Park, Kan., an affluent suburb of Kansas City.

To prepare his congregation for the movie's release, Johnston designed a series of sermons titled A Christian's Response to the Da Vinci Code: All the Fallacies Exposed, starting in March. The six-part series, spread out through four Sunday morning and two Wednesday night services, focused on the major attacks lobbed against the Christian faith from the book on which the movie is based. Read the full article by Cory Miller.

Responding to The Gospel of Judas

R. Albert Mohler Jr.

Headlines around the world are announcing the publication of a "long lost" and "suppressed" ancient document, known as The Gospel of Judas. The National Geographic Society announced the publication at a major media event April 6, just in time to boost publicity for its special on the National Geographic Channel April 9.

The announcement led to a frenzy of media coverage, ranging from responsible reports to outrageous sensationalism. According to some commentators, the publication of this new document will force a complete reformulation of Christianity and our understanding of both Judas and Jesus. In reality, nothing of the sort is in view. The document is highly interesting, however, offering an ancient and authoritative source into the thinking of heretical groups who offered alternative understandings of Christianity. Read the full article here.

Deceptive First Impressions at Church?

Anthony D. Coppedge wonders how many first time visitors will come to churches this Easter weekend and experience quality media, quality music and a well-planned out sermon only to attend next week and wonder what happened?

Sure, churches want to give their very best first impression on big attendance days like Easter, Mother's Day and Christmas. But how about that critical second impression - the one that happens when that skeptical visitor shows back up the following week after a big weekend? In many, many churches, the second impression will keep those seekers from coming back to investigate the claims of Christ. And that's sad.

Here's my point: Why is it that churches will work hard and really plan ahead for the big attendance days but won't plan ahead and use that same successful strategy week in and week out? Read the full article here.