This is a guest blog by my friend Stephen Gray. Find him here: http://www.stephengrayonline.com/
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While sitting at my local Fivebucks a few days ago with a new friend. He challenged me with a question that has forced me to come to terms with why I hate this divisional debate so much. He asked: “Is it because you think your right, or you think-they think your wrong.”
Great Visionaries and Leaders are great, only because the people on their team make them great! No one can go that road alone. This is what I have observed. Great leaders, and more accurately, great visionaries understand their role of “drawing out the picture.” In other words they are masters of drawing an image of where they are going.
However, the visionary must stop there! Once the picture is drawn, the visionary has to hand those on their team the box of crayons, and trust them to color in the picture! Continue Reading…
Had a conversation with a leader the other day, and he had to hold firm to a “conviction” he had. His conviction was forcing others to move in a direction they didn’t really care for. So, what does the leader do?
Hold true to his convictions! This is the kicker, don’t have to many “convictions” if you do, you will constantly be in a conflict with those you lead:
Convictions(X100) = Constant (XConflict)
Convictions(X10) = Constant (XContent)
(I’m not referring to doctrinal or theological convictions, but you should have a short list there too!)
Too many leaders mask their issues Continue Reading…
Recently I noticed something “shift” in my life rhythm. Do you know what that feels like? I added responsibilities and family dynamics had changed and things just didn’t “feel” right.
I struggled through this for several months, getting more stressed and less done! Continue Reading…
We should strive to transfer…TRANSFORMATION.
Those are (2) totally different approaches to what we give those who hear us. If we see our responsibility to be just a good “Teacher & Preacher” and giving “information” and knowledge. We will produce followers who have a lot of information in the head, but their lives will really never change! They just become more “religious.” Continue Reading…
We walk by faith, and not by sight.
That must be our mantra if we have a desire to please God, and be at the right place at the right time, with the right people! I love this cartoon, it’s not where “I intended to go.”
In other words a strong reminder that everyday we have to die to what “we intend to do, or where we intend to go” and follow God blindly, recklessly and dangerously to the place we “Needed” to be!
Its easy too recognize the movers and shakers in the process…
1- Those who have guns
2- Those who speak for the masses
3- Those with the money
Doesn’t this sound a little familiar? In the church, if you are the main, or a key leader it is… Continue Reading…
This year is the 15th anniversary of starting Cornerstone Church, while at the same time I was starting and building a business. Both are alive and well! I have seen a lot of “parallels” in the church and business arena.
Many have come and asked me about business ideas or advice on a struggling business, several of them needed to learn a very simple definition of a business~ An enterprise that can sell a product or service, pay all expenses, salaries (including the owner) and leave a surplus (profit).
I had to tell some aspiring Continue Reading…
Some of the pastors present confessed they had struggled with the lack of faith and prayer. Reading that really broke my heart! Any of us who have been in ministry for any length of time understand how easy it is to fall into that TRAP!
When you “feel” to beat up, put down or left down to pray. Listen carefully…the physical is opposite from the spiritual. When our physical bodies get hungry we eat, and then we aren’t hungry anymore. However, in our spiritual lives, when we aren’t hungry, we must… Continue Reading…
I had two different conversations today with church planters that were going through a lot of the same situations. All of which 
lead to the same question and solution… Having the right teams in place.
An oversight team is a team that helps give direction, coaching, wisdom and accountability to a new or young church. This is vital, in the early stages to help guide through the hurdles and helping to set up Continue Reading…
