Shift >>>

Your 'Communication' Language (leadership)

I was speaking to a friend the other day who introduced me to a new term, 'Communication Language'. It's similar in concept to Gary Chapman's 'Love Languages'. That we each have a preferred communication medium that we like to use:  Email; Text; Facebook; Phone; Skype (chat/call); Etc. 

My friend said to me 'I'm a phone guy, call it old fashioned, I love my technology but I always prefer to make a phone call.' Now I'm not a phone guy, sure I'll make phone calls and enjoy them but it's not my preferred method of communication.

What I want to highlight is this: the preferred means of communication for some people is email,  they enjoy writing them, receiving and reply promptly. For others it's text. I've a friend who confessed to me the other day 'I LOVE getting text messages.' For others it is a phone call and for others still it's a Facebook message. I would add the fax option in here but that's just plain weird!       

My point is this... If someone who's preferred medium is email, emails a preferential texter, then the texter is likely not to value the emailers medium as highly. If it were a text sent, then a near instant reply would happen, but because it's email there is the potential for no reply to be sent at all.

As leaders we need to value all mediums. We need to be aware that for those communicating with us, the medium by which they use is important to them and therefore necessary to respect and engage with. Crossing mediums: you are texted and respond with a phone call is fine. What is at stake is the content of the communique, and that this is honoured with a response when neccessary. 

For our integrity as leaders we cannot afford to become slack communicators just because our preferred method of communication isn't instigated. We must take the higher road.

This also applies to those situations when you communicate to someone, perhaps asking them a question, only to have no response. Then some days later that same person will send a communique to you expecting a response. We all know what we'd like to do, but a leader with integrity will do what is right: reply to their communique, and enquire of the communique that was previously seemingly ignored.

Books and books have been written on this very subject, all of which offer far more wisdom and depth than these initial thoughts, but foundational to our leadership needs to be a sound integrity concerning our communication. May this be what results for you as you put into practice these ideas.

Conquering Conformity: part 6 (Leadership lessons from Moses' life)

Moses life teaches us many thing and so in thei messge I wanted to hone in on three:

Influence Excellently

Choose Courage

Personify Reliability

I hope Moses life can help you fine tune your and further your leadership.

You can listen to the teaching here:

Conquering Conformity _ The Story of moses _ Wk6

Youthstreet: Being an example in speech! (Michael Hands/Ralph Mayhew)

Tonight Mike and Ralph tag-team preached on 1 Tim 4:12 "Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."

We spoke about how our speech not only has a powerful affect on other people, but whilst we speak words to others the true recipient of those words is God!

James 3:9-10 says "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be." So we thought we needed to explore just how all of this works, and we found out it's all a matter of the heart. So how do we change the condition of our heart, so we not only value the likeness of God in other people, but are able to come to God with pure and holy praise. Have a listen below!

Setting an example in speech

Conquering Conformity: part 5 (Choose your own adventure sermon through the desert))

Tonight we did something very different: Choose Your Own Adventure Sermon! I preached through the major situations that the Israelites faced as they followed Moses and God through the dessert over a 40 year tme span. As we went through, those who came, had the chance to vote on what aspect of the journey they were to hear of next. They did and we traced a path through the wilderness. As a result of such an endeavour there was a lot of material written but not used, so you are able to download the full pdf, and powerpoint from the link below!

You can read the full manuscript with all eight options included here here.

You can download the full and corresponding Powerpoint with all eight options included here here.

You can listen to the teaching on the night here:

Conquering Conformity _ The Story of moses _ Wk5

(PS thankyou to Brady McNamee who helped me get my head around the Powerpoint linking!)

Six reasons the next generation is leaving the Church (a response in the positive)

On his blog: Without Wax, Pete Wilson mentions the work Christianity Today have done on why Young Adults are leaving the Church (Barna President David Kinnaman examines the 6 reasons in a new article in Christianity Today). It's some really good food for thought. But I wanted to offer a response, granted it's limited to my own experience, but I thought it would be good to look at six reasons why Young Adults are coming to Church.

1. Community: Church offers a sense of being able to be known and know others more deeply. Becoming involved in people's lives on an existential level, which is primarily the level of engagement within a Church, given the things and nature of what is spoken about, leads to vulnerable, open and trustworthy relationships. This is what people are hungry for and what the Church can truly offer.

2. Aspirational Standards: We live in an age where the lowest common denominator seems to set the standard. But young adults who live in this world, are equally hungry for challenge that encourages and inspires them to live a more wholesome, healthy and life giving lives. This is what the Gospel, communicated well, offers.

3. Social Justice: Church is a place where a young adult's passion for social justice can be fed and exercised. If a Church is carrying out it's Biblical mandates, then a place is created for a young adult to belong to a community of like minded people wanting to stand up for the lost, last, least and lonely, those who are oppressed.

4. Transcendent Experience: Another hunger of this generation is to know God, or at least a version of him, and this does not necessarily mean the Christian God. But Church can offer a space where people can come and be, and where God (Yahweh) can meet them.

5. Solid Theology: The Gospel is God's invitation through Jesus Christ to be in relationship with him, to follow him toward life, to be apart of God's life and to belong to a kingdom or movement that is slowly but surely taking over the world. This is an attractive thought to a young adult, and although it is understood that a high cost accompanies such an opportunity, there is eagerness to belong to and understand this, as opposed to sitting under a God who is only about you doing the right things, and doing them now! This god is not attractive, or accurate for that matter!

6. Identity: Belonging to a Church, or Christian community offers a young adult something which is rare in most other cultural settings. It offers belonging, identity and stability. These things are born out of the nature and being of God, which ultimately is what we, enjoying the human existence, need.

So there are my six reasons of why I think young adults are actually coming to Church. Love to hear your thoughts!

Full-time ministry is like this...

The video below has gone viral, and as I watched it, I felt for both Nadal and Djocovic. They have just finished a marathon of a tennis match and are absolutely spent. as I watched and thought about the clip, my thoughts drifted to how that experience, that they are having, of imense fatigue and a need just to sit down, relax, and chill out, can be very similar to some seasons of ministry. That even when you may want to, or need to sit down, take a break, chillax, it isn't actually possible. Thankfully though there are times for rest, which we need to embrace, just like the reality that every tennis match finally concludes in some way shape or form. I hope you enjoy the clip, and see the funny side of it with compassion.