To God Be The Glory!

I have a friend who prayed a prayer thirty years ago asking the Lord to help him remain humble. He received an astonishing reply from the Lord. The Lord spoke to His heart that he should look at his life as that of an instrument. The instrument is not what receives the glory in a concert, it is the musician. The instrument is the vehicle through which the musician expresses himself. The instrument is the prized possession of the musician. Keeping the instrument clean and shiny is all a part of the performance so that light is reflected by it. From time to time the instrument must have the impurities blown out of it so that the music will be pure. He said that the Lord shared with him that the wind that blows through the instrument comes from the musician himself. In other words, it’s all about the musician making music and expressing himself through the instrument. The challenge of the Lord is to always be willing to be the instrument in the hand of the master musician. If we are willing to fill that function then we will go to the concert and great music will be shared but all of the glory will go to the one playing the instrument. To God be the glory!

Leading Change

Change is all around us. There is only one thing that really never changes and that is the fact that everything changes. Society is changing at a faster rate than ever before. How we, as leaders, handle change is critical if we hope to remain relevant and be productive in what God has called us to do. What does a leader do when change is unavoidable? John Kotter in his book Leading Change lays out a process to implementing change in an organization. He places an emphasis on the processes by encouraging several steps to be followed by the leader. The process begins with developing a desire for change by examining the landscape and identifying and discussing potential opportunities. Next, the leader would create a guiding coalition by putting together a group with enough power to lead the change and encouraging the group to work together like a team. This coalition would develop a vision and strategy to help direct the change effort. The leader would then empower broad-based action by changing systems or structures that undermine the change vision and encourage risk taking and nontraditional ideas and actions. Next it is important to generate short-term wins by visibly recognizing and rewarding people who made the wins possible. These wins lead to consolidating gains and producing more change by reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes, and change agents. The last step is important as the leader must work to anchor new approaches in the culture by creating better performance through productivity-oriented behavior and more effective management. These steps should be effective in helping the leader become a change agent in the organization. May God help us to become that change agent.

Prioritizing Connecting

Jesus prioritized connecting by commissioning all believers to go out and make disciples of all people everywhere. This cannot be done without connecting. Connecting helps us to understand and comprehend the true essence of ministry. There is no higher goal than that of obtaining the standard of Christ Himself. When asked which is the greatest commandment Christ answered with the standard of God. That standard is to love God and to love people. Connecting Points is designed to connect people with God and with each other. It is by this means that we will begin to see people experience the two great purposes of God. These two purposes are communion and community. We were made for God (communion) and for each other (community). As we help people find their purpose singularly, we will see our church find its purpose collectively.