Getting a glimpse of God. It is that time of year again where I think about the last twelve months and then look ahead to the next twelve months. I ask questions like: how did I do this year? What have I accomplished? Did the goals I set out to achieve work out? I know for many Christian leaders their focus at the moment is on the programmes and events that are going on in their churches. The process of Christmas planning is full steam ahead as the countdown to the big day is just a matter of hours away. Before you know it Christmas morning will be upon you and you will be wading knee deep in used Christmas wrapping paper, dodging children or grand children festooned across your lounge floor with wife or grandma trying to get them ready for the Christmas service. Life is hectic to say the least. Let's stop for a moment and focus on that "peace on earth" stuff that we long for in our hectic lives and consider for a moment the life of the poor she...
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The making of a young leader. Back to basics, what makes a leader tick? What makes a leader? Are leaders nurtured or is it part of their nature, is it part of who they are? No authors I have read have actually adequately answered the question. Some have come close by breaking the question down into individual parts but this merely answers the question of what leaders do. For example, what happens when we put young people into positions of leadership too early? Unfortunately, leadership doesn't have a one-size-fits-all definition. We all have our own ideas about what it means to be a good leader. Some people think leadership means guiding others to complete a particular task, while others believe it means motivating the people in the teams of your church. Maxwell says that leadership is influence. Jagelman says that leadership facilitates ministry. Maybe Gardiner is right when he says that it is all about emotional intelligence (EQ) rather than IQ capacity. But wh...
Hello to all my readers, My new book Turn this Church Around!-Intentional Leadership for Church Growth, has now gone live on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk as a Kindle version. The printversion should be out in a day or two. Why not help turn hundreds and even thousands of churches turn around the world. Get them creating a great culture and seeing great growth. Purchase this book and my previous book Blueprint for Growth for yourselves or as a gift to a struggling pastor and see things happen. Blessings Tim King
Have a family culture. I have just finished reading the book of Genesis. The whole book gave me the feeling that no matter what the outcome God was always in control. There is also a human face to the book, the stories of the great patriarchal families for example and their struggles with nature, their neighbours and each other. The one thing that struck me was how dysfunctional these families were. There was adultery, deceit, trickery and sibling rivalry to name but a few of their many flaws. This got me thinking about our church family and the fact that this too is made up of all sorts of dysfunctional people. Charles Spurgeon once said that there is no such thing as a perfect church and if you find one; don't go because it will no longer be perfect. By their very nature therefore churches should not exist, but they do. How do we as Christian Leaders help our dysfunctional church families grow and prosper in their relationship with God and each other? Here are some ...
Christian Leaders and their time. When my children were growing up -and in the days of VHS- they would love to watch the Disney movie "Alice in Wonderland" The opening scenes of the white rabbit running and looking at his watch crying out "I'm late! I'm late! I'm late, for a very important date!" would make my children smile with glee and anticipation as they prepared themselves for what would happen next. This got me thinking this week at how many young Christian leaders I come across who are late for things and also seem to bogged down with work with no end in sight to different projects. They spend their time running around like the white rabbit, crying they don't have enough time. I have just as much time as they do; 24 hours in a day. There are two areas that I have always been very good at; Letting my yes be yes and my no mean no and also the fact that I always like to get to my next appointment at least 10 minutes before d...
Christian Leadership in real time. This winter I am determined to do a rabbit stew, I have never done one before but it is what my grandmother used to call real food. When I think about those long cold winters evenings, I think of food that warms you and fills you up, it satisfies you and gives you a glowing feeling of contentment. This is what the idea of rabbit stew does for me. In my last blog I looked at why so many young Christian leaders lament the fact that they don't seem to have enough time. I proposed two simple rules; Rule One: Let your yes be yes and your no mean no. This will help release time and also empower others to do the work for you. Now we come to the second rule, Rule Two: Learning the difference between watching the time and real time. When I was in business I would watch as we came to the end of the day as people began to wind there work day down and the nearer it got to 5.00pm the more they would glance at their watches. All day they ...
The leader and his intentionality. In my last missive I wrote about the difference between Pastoral Leadership and Relational Leadership and how my friend good-heartedly referred to my pursuit of Relational leadership as a mad hatter's tea party. Well for me the process has been more akin to the story by Rudyard Kipling of the Elephant's Child and how the Elephant got its trunk. For me a long arduous struggle backwards and forwards that has resulted in what I believe today. A curiosity and questioning spirit that always seemed to get me into trouble, until eventually out of struggle came clarity and a new found enthusiasm that drives me ever forward to learn more and to observe and impart wherever possible. http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/elephant.htm it is well worth a read and make my musings a little clearer. Over the last seventy five years business has seen the evolution of structure from more sophisticated production systems and better uses of manpower to...
Pastoral Leadership verses Relational leadership. A few weeks ago I was having a good hearted, heated discussion with a friend of mine. Me in the UK he in New Zealand. He accused me of putting too much focus on Leadership, he accused me of having an obsessive fixation with leadership. (ouch) Like the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland I was obsessed with the minor details of the tea party I call leadership (double ouch) He said "We have been emphasising leadership in our churches for years and we haven't got anywhere. Those churches that were small then are still small now. What we need is good pastoral leadership to build the flock not just the congregation size" He then talked about how good pastoral leadership was good relational leadership. This got me thinking because to me these are two separate things, or leadership models. An over emphasis of pastoral leadership could lead to fat overweight Christians rather than fit healthy Christians ...