No Blood, No Foul

"Effective leaders do not fear passion. They welcome it. But from time to time passionate discussion digress into personal attacks, and real people get really hurt. In my view leaders must head that off before it happens." -Bill Hybels

I attended my first staff meeting in over four years.

I was asked by a Pastor whom, I love and respect, to sit in on their staff meeting and give some input and feedback as an "outsider." (can I say I respect him more!)

As I listened and engaged in discussion it was so apparent that this Pastor is a great leader and has great leaders around him. The scriptures tell us, "iron sharpens iron" we know that and like to quote it. But have you ever thought about iron?
It's heavy.
It's rough.
It's hard.
And we need that. We need opturnities to be able to disagree or voice our view; no matter how harsh or heavy it may sound, because we all have the understanding, "we can disagree without drawing blood."

I witnessed two strong personalities "hash out" their strong beliefs about an issue and discovered they were both saying the same thing from two different angles. Allowing this type of dialog actually causes value to be built for both parties involved. It's only if it goes to drawing blood that it devalues everyone involved.

So here's to passion and living passionately in the healthy context of doing life together means we will get dirty, but not bloody.

The Great Door

1 Corinthians 16:5-9
After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you—for I will be going through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.

These words have jumped off the page and have hit me square in the face.

Paul writes to the church in Corinth about coming to see them and staying a while. His destination is Corinth; however the Lord is clearly opening a "great door" in Ephesus for him now. He explains to them that if God permits he will be with them, but for now God has opened a great door to do effective work.

For years I have thought of "destiny" as the arrival part of life. I think we all have asked God, "what is my destiny in life", or "God show me my destiny you have for me." But I see in this scripture that Paul has learned something that we may not recognize; that there is a vast difference between "destiny" and "destination."

Here is the key insight: Destiny is the journey getting to your destination.

Think about yourself when you were a kid, or maybe even your own kids, on the way to grandma's house. Every 15 or 30 minutes that famous question pops up, "are we there yet?"
Why do they (we) do this? Because they (we're) so focused on the destination that they (we) forget how to enjoy the journey.

I'm looking forward to sharing some insights on this subject starting in 2009.
God has opened my eyes to a great door before me.
A door of destiny that He has opened for effective work.

God Bless and Happy New Year!

Tribes

In his book, Seth Godin, goes into detail describing how we are all part of a tribe.

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea.

So the question that stands out is, "who will lead these tribes?" the Web can do amazing things but it can't provide leadership. That still has to be done by individuals---people like me and you. God has put inside of all of us a "ticker." You know, what is it in you that gets you going? What makes you tick? What is your passion?

Anyone who wants to make a difference now has the tools at their fingertips. Youtube, iMac, Facebook, Myspace....they all are just some examples of Tribes. They're Tribes because they all have one thing in common, followers---people connected to an idea, a common interest, a way of thinking. To be a leader, you need people who will follow you and the fact you have people who will follow you makes you a leader. You may not consider yourself a leader, but you must. We need, more than ever, you to step up to the plate and lead.

Ephesians 4:11 tells us that God gave every single one of us a gift, a gift that is supposed to bring out the best in others.

So if you're a leader of a blog tribe, leader of your own family tribe, leader of favorite football team tribe the key is to do that, lead. Lead with excellence. Lead with passion. Lead others to be what they were created to be, part of something bigger than themselves.