Category Archives: Leadership

Posted on

Three Steps For Laying a Firm Foundation

The best way to begin anything is to build a foundation. Big or small, everything needs a foundation. Two important foundations are being built in my life right now, and I’m learning important lessons from both of them.

Construction crews are building a foundation on our new home. In addition, the people of Ascension Lutheran Church and I are building a foundation for our common ministry together.

Here in Florida the ground is too swampy for basements, so a house begins with a slab. It’s a nice flat, firm, level place on which to build the house. In order to withstand hurricane force winds, cinder block is used for the lower portion of the home, and then steel straps are pulled through the cinder block to the roof to hold everything down. A great deal about home construction was learned after the devastating hurricane Andrew in 1992. I’m glad that we get to reap those benefits. Our construction manager tells us that our roof will be able to withstand winds of 140 mph, or more.

We’re laying a slab at Ascension, too. It has to be done in a way similar to the building of a house:

  • Pour the slab.
  • Lay the blocks, one by one.
  • Secure it so that it weathers the storms.

We are pouring the slab by measuring the perimeter, pouring carefully, and smoothing it all out. The slab is being poured through a series of listening sessions where Ascension members are getting the chance to respond to twenty questions about the history of the church. They get to consider the past, think about the future, and do a little dreaming. We are measuring the perimeter by keeping in place boundaries. We are staying within the boundaries of the way things are currently being done. As a wise pastor once told me, “Don’t make any major changes for a year.” And we are smoothing it all out by sharing a great deal of fellowship time with one another (thanks to the hospitality of these great people).

We are laying the blocks one by one in a very intentional way. This is happening through one-on-one conversations and in small group settings. I’m developing relationships with people so that I get to know them personally, and they get to know me. We cannot truly move forward together until we all know each other well, and understand that each of us are fighting personal battles and glorying in personal triumphs.

Finally, we are securing it all, not with steel straps, but with the most important fastener of all: Love. When we listen to one another, learn from each other, get to know our common joys, sorrows, and triumphs, we cannot help but love one another. We are bound together with the greatest love of all, the Love of God that never falls or fails.

It is that love which will help us together weather any storm. And there will be storms. But we will learn from them, and they will make us stronger.

But it all starts with a solid foundation.

What other ingredients would you add to the construction of a firm foundation?

Posted on

3 Tips for Managing Expectations

Have you ever anticipated something only to find that it was completely different from what you expected?

  • The pictures on the web site of the vacation home were taken at night, lit like a Christmas tree, from across the lake. When you drove up, it looked completely different.
  • The conference registration promised a mountaintop experience. Your idea of a mountaintop and theirs ended up being completely different.
  • The reviews of a restaurant  led you to think it would be a completely mediocre experience. To you it became one of the best places you had ever been.

For months I had been thinking, dreaming, envisioning, and contemplating what life would be like beginning a new ministry in a new place. I had certain pictures of the place, the people, and my own activities and attitudes. I had a very complete picture in my mind.

Now that I am here and I have actually settled in, things are different from what I expected. Not at all worse, or even better. Just different. I am finding that I have to manage my expectations and keep at the forefront of my mind the goals and dreams that I had when I rolled into town.

To do that, I am making sure to these three things:

  1. Following a written plan. Before I rolled into town I wrote a 100 day plan that would be my guide through my first few months. I make sure to consult it daily and see to it that I live up to my own expectations.
  2. Listening and learning from the people who have been living the reality I have now entered. I am putting together listening sessions in my new congregation so that I can learn the thoughts, dreams, hopes, and ministry goals of the people who have a vested interest in Ascension Lutheran Church and its ministry. Their thoughts both ground me and give me a launching point to move forward in an intentional way.
  3. Adjusting my expectations to meet reality. A fun part of managing prior expectations is looking at the places where they meet with reality, and adjusting accordingly. It’s a fun exercise that brings lofty ideas down to the plane of “rubber-meets-the-road” ministry. It actually gives everyday work direction and impetus to bring some of those loft hopes, dreams, and goals to fruition.

If you’re trying to manage expectations: 

  1. Write down your plan.
  2. Listen and Learn.
  3. Adjust expectations.
Your expectations may even be greater than the ones you initially envisioned.
How do you manage expectations?
Posted on

The Other End of a Decision

I am now on the other end of a major life decision. Today  began a new ministry in a completely new place amongst new (to me) people. And what a day it was. People were gracious, good-humored, very kind, and very loving.

It would not be honest to say that I was always completely comfortable with the decision to end one ministry, begin another, move a quarter of the way across the country, and start all new endeavors. Sure, there were doubts. There were times when I thought about just remaining in a comfortable place where things had become somewhat routine.

But in the end, I knew that I was being led to follow a Call. In the end, I knew I couldn’t refuse. In the end, there were just too many things that pointed to a decision that I knew I had to make. In the end, the decision was made, we made the move, and here we are in the middle of a hot Florida summer.

When a decision is made, it often isn’t until one gets to the “other end” of it that there is affirmation. Following my installation today as Senior Pastor of Ascension Lutheran Church in Casselberry, Florida, our daughter made a statement that brought (for me) final affirmation.

She said, “You made the right decision. The people here are really, really nice.” True words. Affirmation. I guess it was so affirming because it came from an unexpected source. I never thought our daughter would make a statement like that. She was separated enough from the initial decision that her words carried weight.

The next time you have to make a decision, watch for signs that affirm your decision. Those signs may not come until after the decision is made, but they will bring affirmation and peace of mind.

Maybe you won’t even have to wait until after the decision is made. After seeking the opinions of people who are close to a situation, seek people who are on the perimeter of your decision and ask their opinion. It may go a long way toward turning back…or affirming a decision. God often uses His people to help reveal His will.

It’s always nice to know, on the other end of a decision, that it was the right one.

How do you determine when a decision is the correct one?

Posted on

Are You Listening?

This week I begin work in a brand new place with brand new people. The first thing I’m going to do is listen. But the listening is going to be ongoing…and very focused.

I have recently been reading a book called Church Unique. The premise is that each congregation has very specific gifts and resources. When those are narrowly focused and emphasized, it brings all work and ministry together moving in one direction and seeking a common end.

My listening will begin by paying attention to the things that make this new place unique.

How about you? What is it that makes you, your vocation, your place of employment, your ministry, unique? Begin by asking the questions suggested by Church Unique:

  • What are the unique needs around your geographic area?
  • How are these needs reflected socially, economically, ethnically, environmentally?
  • What special opportunities are found within your immediate sphere of influence (within a half-mile)?
  • What is the most significant change in your community in the last decade, and what needs or opportunities do they create?
  • What are the largest community events, and what needs or opportunities do they create?
  • Because of your specific location, what solution could you provide that no one else does?
  • What one positive change in your community would have the most dramatic effect in people’s lives?

When you answer these questions, you will have a starting place, a focus, and and plan.

What questions would you ask to help you become a better listener?

Posted on

Fresh Meaning in the Familiar

Chances are that where you are sitting right now is a familiar place. Take a look around. Now look a little closer. Even closer.

What do you see that you’ve never seen before? Very often a

  • creative idea
  • solution
  • new way of doing something
  • fresh meaning

…is there right in front of you.

Andrew Wyeth, the artist who never painted anything outside of his own home and family summerhouse, said:

Most artists look for something fresh to paint; frankly I find that quite boring. For me it is much more exciting to find fresh meaning in something familiar.

On what project are you working right now? Does it need new life, creative meaning, a fresh look? What would happen if you took a closer look and found “fresh meaning in something familiar”?

How about asking yourself these questions:

  • What if I changed the color of the thing at which I’m looking?
  • How does it work?
  • If I changed something about this familiar item, what would it be?
  • Why has it always been done this way?
  • What if we did it only slightly differently?
  • What solution is staring me right in the face?

Instead of looking for something fresh in the unfamiliar, how about looking at the things right in front of you. It may be a surprising boost to your work and creativity.

What question would you ask to bring a fresh perspective to something familiar?

Posted on

3 Necessary Components of Intentional Sabbath

Recently given the chance, I have had the opportunity to sleep nine, ten, or even eleven hour nights. That’s extremely unusual for me. I find it difficult to sleep late anymore. But I guess my body has been telling me that it needs rest. It’s been a physically and emotionally exhausting couple of months.

We had the struggle of making a major life decision. We have packed our entire house, purged many of the contents, and put the rest of the contents in a POD. I carried out the emotional task of writing and sharing a final sermon with my beloved church family of the past fifteen years. We said goodbye to our house, our neighbors, and many friends. And now there’s the uncertainty of living in a new place, serving a different congregation, and trying to find a job for my wife, Tammy.

I’m tired.

Anticipating such a season, I intentionally planned some down time between finishing my ministry at Mt. Calvary, and starting a new ministry at Ascension Lutheran in Casselberry, Florida. I knew I would need it physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Sabbath is necessary. So necessary that the Lord Himself “rested” on the Seventh Day. The Eighth Day was the First Day of the New Creation.

As far as I’m concerned, “sabbath” isn’t just sitting around watching TV. Even sabbath has intentionality to it. My personal sabbath between ministries provides me a number of opportunities:

  1. To reflect on what has past. During these days I have spent some time thinking about all that was accomplished over the past fifteen years, failures, successes, false starts, and great triumphs. History is important. It informs the future.
  2. To enjoy the moment. During these days I am enjoying spending time with my parents, taking a short trip to northern Wisconsin with Tammy where her parents have a home and will be with us for a few days, catching up on some reading that I’ve wanted to do, doing a little writing, and trying to get back in shape by restarting my running habit.
  3. To anticipate what lies ahead. During these days I am trying to learn how to start a new pastorate. It’s been a long while since I’ve done so! I’m writing down thoughts and goals. I’m reading books that will help provide direction as Ascension and I start our journey together. I’m even trying to come up with a 100 day plan so that I can measure my goals as I begin in a new place.

I guess you could say this is sort of a “Seventh Day” rest for me. Pretty soon it will be the Eighth Day, the day of a “new creation” set before me and the people of Ascension. I plan to be rested and ready to go when July 8th arrives.

What does an “intentional sabbath” look like to you?

Posted on

3 Keys to Collaborative Creativity

Major events take time. Every three years our national church body plans and executes a National Youth Gathering, drawing in the vicinity of 25,000 youth and adults. The host city varies. The next one, in the summer of 2013, will be in San Antonio, Texas. The event includes Mass events each night of the gathering, concerts, activities, and a worship service that includes all 25,000 people.

I was recently asked to help plan and write the worship service for the 2013 Youth Gathering. That meant flying to St. Louis to collaborate with a group of people preparing a year in advance for two hours on a Wednesday morning in July. As we did this very exciting and invigorating work together, I realized that there were three components to the collaborative creativity that was flowing in the room.

In that one room where we worked for about 8 hours, there were people who brought experience, wisdom, and fresh perspective:

  1. Experience: Those with experience had been here before. They’ve worked with others. They’ve been through numerous Gatherings. They knew the right questions to ask and the specific suggestions to make.
  2. Wisdom: Those with wisdom knew the proper theological and technical questions to raise and input to make. Wisdom made sure that we would do things decently and in order, in a theologically sound way, while being grounded in the things that are important.
  3. Fresh Perspective: Those with fresh perspective brought new questions, different thoughts, and insights that built on the experience and wisdom of the others in the room. They hadn’t been through this before, so their insights were a bit different.

In a collaborative process, experience, wisdom, and fresh perspective bring forth a creativity that isn’t gimmicky or over the top, presents an end result that is professional, and brings an energy that is fresh and renewing. The next time you get together to create an event or project, how can you bring these three components together in the same room?

What key component do you see in a collaborative process?

Posted on

Vision Over Visibility

You have the ability to see something that isn’t yet there. If you’ve ever set a goal and went out and achieved it, you saw something that didn’t yet exist. If you’ve ever started something new with a picture in your mind of the end result, you trusted in something that you couldn’t yet see. In the song, “Moment of Surrender,” U2 calls it “vision over visibility.”

That’s a pretty good description of faith.

As I look around, there’s plenty of that going on in my life and many of the people I know:

  • Two of my nieces graduate from high school this week. They have a college vision over visibility. On the horizon are new friends, experiences, and learning.
  • My parents are about to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. 50 years ago they had a marriage vision over visibility. Little did they know that fifty years later they would have three children and nine grandchildren, distinguished careers, and wonderful accomplishments.
  • A friend is about to move cross country and start a whole new life. He has career vision over visibility. This is an opportunity for him to paint a whole new picture of what the next chapter of his life will look like.
  • My wife, Tammy, and I are in the midst of transition from Milwaukee to Florida, from Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church and School to Ascension Lutheran Church and ??? We have adventure vision over visibility. We are looking forward to creating a new life, new ministries, and new friendships that as of right now are only shadows on the wall. Soon they will be reality.

I have a picture that shows Walt Disney standing on the ground of what would one day be Disney World. Superimposed in the background is the famous Cinderella Castle that would one day grace the end of Main Street, U.S.A. Walt Disney had vision over visibility.

For those with faith and trust in Jesus, vision over visibility takes on an even greater and grander meaning. With the eyes of faith there is a vision of heavenly glory, obviously far greater than the Cinderella Castle, and bringing a deeper and more glorious joy.

You have the ability to see something that isn’t yet there. Go out and get it.

What is the vision over visibility to which you are reaching right now?

Posted on

Assuring the Success of a Successor

I carried the very last things out of my office at church today. There were just a few odds and ends. I left a few things on the shelves for my successor. But the one thing I don’t want to leave is the dirt and dust. I still have to wipe some of that away.

I hope that’s the way I’ve left everything for him: neat, clean, and lacking dusty old ways of doing things. I have to admit that as my days at Mt. Calvary wound down, my successor was not first and foremost on my mind. But the closer I got to my final days, the more I thought about the next occupant of my current office.

We don’t always work so that things are left in a better way for our successors. But perhaps we should. Conscientious work today means a better platform for tomorrow. Working well with co-workers, managers, and leaders enables them to do their best and be more than ready when a change is necessary.

I want my successor to succeed, because I have poured my heart and soul into the ministry at Mt. Calvary for more than fifteen years. It would be difficult for me to see it spiral downward.

So I have

  • Met with leaders
  • Shared documents and passwords with my assistant
  • Left the congregation with a clear sense of mission
  • Suggested strategies for the interim
  • Put full confidence in a faithful and hard-working congregation

More than that, I am praying for my successor, whomever he may be. He deserves my prayers, as do the people of the congregation I leave behind. He will face a challenging and interesting ministry. They will need a faithful and hard-working shepherd.

I hope that there isn’t too much dust left behind for my successor. He deserves a clean and fresh start as he ministers amongst a people who are loving, welcoming, and ready to be stretched in challenging directions.

How do you see to it that things are ready if and when change is necessary?

Posted on

5 Things I Have Learned Teaching College Students

I have been teaching college students at Concordia University — Wisconsin for the past twelve years. Even in those twelve years college students have changed. They used to be much more engaged in the classroom. Now they’re much more passive. It means that educators have had to adjust, as well.

Teaching is simply one form of communication, and it’s techniques apply to other forms, too. Here are five things I learned teaching college students that apply to communication, no matter what it may be.

  1. College students care when their teachers care. Students can tell from the moment a lesson begins whether a teacher cares and is passionate about the subject. If they sense a caring teacher, they will be immediately engaged. If they sense a teacher who is disengaged and uncaring, they will be too. Don’t ask me how I know this… Good communicators care about their audience.
  2. In this digital generation, college students frequently need things changed up. How many minutes is it between TV commercials? That’s generally how often teaching techniques in the classroom should change. Every eleven to twelve minutes switch from lecture, to small groups, to video, to question and answer. Good communicators keep an audience on their toes.
  3. Over the past few years, college students would rather listen to a lecture than do small group work. This generation of young adults is used to having people cater to them. That’s OK for a while, but they do need to be stretched and taken out of their comfort zone if true learning is going to happen. Lecture for a while, but don’t do it exclusively (see above). Good communicators do the same.
  4. Given the opportunity, most college students want to impress. Give an assignment that’s more than just writing a term paper, and most college students will go above and beyond just the bare minimum. They want to create something excellent and unusual. I once had a student write and perform a song, ala Phoebe on Friends. It was one of the most excellent homework assignments I have ever had the pleasure of grading. Good communicators give their audiences opportunities to participate in a unique way.
  5. College students sometimes need some motivation to keep them on track. It’s the reason why there are tests and grades. Some students are motivated by them more than others, but all college students need motivation, whether it is a “carrot” or a “stick.” Good communicators motivate their audience to move forward in some way.

Based on your own learning style, how would you suggest communicators keep you interested and engaged?