The Sunday Men - Part 3

The Sunday Men have been meeting for 3 years now. As we take a break this summer, I am reflecting on where we have been … and thinking about where we should go from here.

Here’s what we’ve done in our studies since the fall of 2007:

Legacy Leadership: The Leadership Wisdom of the Apostle Paul

James

Your Work Matters to God (Doug Sherman)

1 Peter

The Measure of a Man (Gene Getz)

Philippians

Our format has been a facilitated discussion. We study, ask and answer questions, and apply the scriptures to our lives.

The discussions have been richly stimulating as we have wrestled with understanding and applying God's Word to our lives.

Our trip through the four chapters of Philippians took 14 weeks! It was the third time I have led a group through that wonderful epistle in the last twenty years. And I am pretty sure there were some new verses added this time that weren't there before!

What a wonderful experience to get to do life with a group of men who are passionate about making a difference for Christ' sake!

The Sunday Men - Part 2

Take J.Lee to W0rk

I always said that if I was ever to become a pastor, one of the things I would like to do is visit the members of the flock in their work environments.

Early on in the life of The Sunday Men, I announced that I would like to schedule a time with each of them. I wanted to come to their work place and take a tour of the place where they spend such a significant portion of their time and energy. I wanted to understand their world, their passions, and their challenges. My purpose was to enter in to their world so that I would be able to more effectively invest in each of them.

Well, in what I now realize is Sunday Men protocol, this initiative received a name: “Take J.Lee to Work.”

You can take your daughter to work, you can take your son to work, and now you can take J.Lee to work.

This project exceeded my expectations as I learned more about each man and learned about new businesses and industries. This was great way to help me make my intentional investment in these men even more effective.

The Sunday Men - Part 1

Several days ago I was doing some clean up in my study at home. I came across a folded piece of paper with several names written in a circle. It took me a few seconds, but then I realized that it was the seating chart that Marc had prepared for me after the first meeting of a group of guys that had gathered for a Bible study they had asked me to lead. I walked into a stranger’s house that morning and only knew 1 person in the entire group.

They are no longer strangers and over the next few posts, I want to share with you some of my thoughts about these men ...

In the Spring of 2007, I had the opportunity to attend the LEAD program at Dallas Theological Seminary. LEAD is an acronym for Leadership Evaluation and Development.

This is an intensive 5-day leadership development retreat that provides coaching for couples in three areas: Marriage, Ministry, and Career. The program requires intensive pre-work that includes a battery of assessments, the preparation of a detailed life map, and a 360 evaluation. One of the outcomes is the preparation of a strategic life plan based on your experiences and your gifts. We had to write goals for the next 5 years of our life.

One of my goals was to begin intentionally investing in younger men.

It was one of those things that I was compelled to write down, but wasn’t sure how it would be actualized or implemented. So, I gave that goal to God in prayer and waited.

In August of that year, I received an email from my friend Marc. He said that he and some of his friends had a desire to start a Bible study. He had contacted our pastor who suggested that Marc contact me to see if he could use my Legacy Leadership study. Knowing my schedule during that season, Marc timidly asked if I might be interested in leading them through those materials.

And then he said that the best – in fact, the only - time that would work for them was Sunday mornings at 8AM!

Yuk! If you know anything about me at all, you know that I am NOT a morning person.

I came downstairs and said to Laura, “You won’t believe the email I just got from Marc.” I told her about his request and Laura’s response was “Sunday morning??? That’s your only downtime.”

And then without any hesitation she added, “But that’s your passion!”

Indeed it is, and it was an answer to the goal I had written down three months earlier at the LEAD session.

So we began a Bible study with a group of men who are executives and key leaders in their organizations – men of position and power who want to use their influence to make a difference for the Lord’s sake in their work, their churches, their communities, and their families.

I call them The Sunday Men.

Five Slides for Thinking About Church

Legendary CEO Jack Welch suggests that we should be able to boil a strategy down to a Five Slide presentation that answers the following questions:

• What does the Playing Field Look Like Now?
• What has the Competition Been Up To?
• What have You Been Up To?
• What's Around the Corner?
• What's Your Winning Move?

I like this approach and in fact we teach our students to answer these questions as a way of presenting their strategic analysis in our graduate level Strategic Management classes.

Over the last several months, I have been re-thinking several issues concerning the local church. Specifically, I have been wrestling with what it means to be a “Biblically Functioning Church.”

Now, let me be clear, I am not necessarily talking about issues of doctrine – although there are some doctrinal issues that inform this quest.

As I have been wrestling with this issue, I have developed my own version of the 5 Slides:

Slide 1: What is your governing structure? This is about accountability. Is there a local body of elders who are accountable for the teaching and ministry of the church?

Slide 2: What is your leadership philosophy? Lording Authoritarian or Servant Leadership? Command and Control or Empowering and Releasing? How are staff members treated? How are volunteers treated?

Slide 3: What is your stewardship philosophy? Do you live beneath your means and are you generous? How does your stewardship of resources reflect the priorities of ministry? Is there a transparency in the preparation and reporting of the budget? How do you pay vendors who provide services for the church? Are they paid in full and on-time?

Slide 4: How is your commitment to making disciples manifested in the activities and programs of your church? How is your commitment to reaching lost and unchurched people in your community demonstrated? Is there a balance between evangelism and discipleship?

Slide 5: If someone with the gift of pastor-teacher joined your church, how would you deploy them in serving? This could apply to any gift. How will the spiritual gifts of the people in your church be used to serve God and His people?

The answers to these questions will help you determine if the church is indeed a “Biblically Functioning Church”?

Moral Authority

As you know, one of my favorite leaders is Andy Stanley. His books The Next Generation Leader and Visioneering have been required reading in the advanced MBA courses I teach.


In this months edition of Catalyst there's a short video of Andy talking about a crucial matter of importance to all leaders.


Take a few minutes to watch and listen.

Do you have moral authority?

Books of April

April was a good month for reading.

Of course, that long flight to and from Maui helped. Thank you Justin and Shannon!

The Blessed Life, Robert Morris
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford
The Christian Atheist, Craig Groeschel
A House Divided, John MacArthur
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, David Wroblewski
The Priesthood of Every Believer, David Dawson

Planning on a lot of novels this summer.

The stack has been created and is waiting!

The Road to Derailment - Part 2

Several years ago I made an observation about the various televangelist that I found so appalling in their greed and manipulation. Often when questioned about their motives and methods, they responded by saying that they were only accounatable to God.

My observation was this: When a man says he's only accountable to God, its just a matter of time before he falls.

I have seen this pattern repeat itself over and over.

Certainly as leaders, we are accountable to God. But we are also accountable to each other. The Apostle Paul was clear about this in 1 Thessalonians 2:10-12:

"You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory."

We are accountable to God. But He also brings other people into our lives to help administer that accountability. Unfortunately, leaders on the path to derailment allow arrogance to take root and refuse to hear the wise counsel of those who are trying to tell them about their blindspots.

As leaders we need to hear the voice of those who love and care enough about us and warn us. We need to keep listening even when its painful.

Dietrich Bonoeffer said that "When a man stop's listening to his brother, its simply a matter of time before he stops listening to God."

Are you still listening to your brother?

Are you still listening to God?

Just Maui'd

We had a great week in Maui conducting and celebrating Justin and Shannon's wedding!

What an honor to get to do the ceremony for them.

And what a place!

I always thought that the Garden of Eden where God Himself conducted the very first wedding was a forest-type environment with lots of green foilage.

But now I think it might have been on Makena Beach in Maui with the waves crashing against the lava rocks in the background.

I am so happy for Justin and Shannon!

I always wanted 4 daughters and I couldn't have asked for a better addition to the family!