I think one of a leader’s key role is chief encourager.  As we’ve talked about before, most people love to be encouraged.  I’ve actually never met anyone who is overencouraged.

One of my roles as a leader is to encourage people.  I am amazed at how often a kind word or deed goes further than I thought it would.  I’m amazed at how often someone’s note, email or words can lift my spirits, so I try to reciprocate.

One of the most important things you can do as a leader is to keep encouraging people.  Believe in them.  Believe they can accomplish the mission.  I promise you at any given moment, people are doubting themselves and doubting the future.  We leaders are dealers in hope.

But I have a problem that always works against encouragement.  It’s called reality.  Maybe it’s my personality, or maybe it’s because I’m a leader, but I tend to see all the flaws in the system.  I see all the issues in front of us.  I can sometimes see the flaws in people.  And if I don’t manage it well, my temptation will be to point out what’s wrong in such a way that the encouragement can evaporate.

It’s difficult to manage the tension between instilling hope in people and pointing out what part of the status quo needs to change.

While the tension never fully goes away, three things help me wrestle it down:

• Encourage the person and point out what’s wrong with the issue. The more I separate the person from the problem the more we can become allies in attacking the problem we’re all facing within the organization/system/status quo.
• Remember your words weigh more. A leader I admire once told me that he realized that a small criticism of an event might feel like a casual comment to him, but because he’s the leader it might feel like a 50 pound weight to the person he heard it.
• Motivate people the way they want to be motivated. Strangely, problems and flaws motivate me.  I love to fix what’s broken and make it better.  But just because pointing out problems motivates me doesn’t motivate others.

How about you?  Do you struggle with this tension?  What helps you encourage others well?  What helps you point out weaknesses in a helpful way?

I don’t do event-related blog posts very often, but I’m excited to do this one.  Here’s why;  most of the ministry leaders I know struggle to fund their dream.

Earlier this year, I started working with Casey Graham who has helped us really rethink how we approach weekly giving.  We’ve seen a significant positive shift and our future where I serve at Connexus Church is looking different as a result.

On October 20, church leaders from around the country can appear on your computer screen to teach you and your team how to fully fund your church. The free online event is called Fund Your Church Now.   I’m going to be speaking along with some other church leaders.  Here’s what they are going to share:

• Dino Rizzo from Healing Place Church will talk about how helping people in the community creates a generous church.
• Robert Morris is going to explain the Biblical command to give a tithe and offerings.
• Joe Sangl is going to show you how you can help broke people in your church with their personal finances.
• Shaun King is going to show you how to mobilize a bunch of people to connect with a need.
• Pete Wilson is going to talk about the power of personal relationships.
• Bob Franquiz will show you how to do a tithe challenge.
• Tim Stevens is going to talk about how the Granger team tracks and measures generosity.

There are more speakers and more topics.  Fund Your Church Now is a FREE online event.  Register here.

I hope this helps you fund the dream God has given your community.

More so than any other point in my life, I enjoy being alone.  But there’s a world of difference between solitude and isolation.

It can be easy to miss the difference, but the difference night and day.

Solitude is good.  It recharges the soul.  It offers time for reflection, for prayer.  And even when you’re alone, if you’re experiencing solitude, you are still connected.  Solitude connects you to God, to yourself, and prepare you to be connected to others.

Isolation, on the other hand, is never replenishing.  It can feel like solitude in the sense that you are alone, but isolation doesn’t connect you to anyone.  Isolation does what the word suggests – it cuts you off, from God, from others, and sometimes even from yourself.

Solitude is a gift from God, but isolation is a tool of the enemy – a punishment.  If you think about the way we humans punish offenders, one of the worst forms of incarceration we have is solitary confinement.  It’s pure isolation.

We all need breaks.  We all need time away.  But when you get away, seek solitude.  God uses it in powerful ways.  But never mistake it for isolation.  One gives life.  The other steals it.

The question to ask, of course, is in your alone time, are you in solitude or in isolation?

Perhaps the most challenging and haunting question you can ask yourself as a ministry leader is this:

“If my role at church was to end tomorrow, what would be left of my faith?”

It’s a question I ask myself constantly because working in ministry can often leave people confused about what we do at work and who we are in life.  After all, people in ministry are there in the first place because of our faith.

But at one point in ministry I found my bible reading was largely focused around what I needed to read for work.  I realized my prayer life was centered on concerns related to the ministry.  And my relational circle was largely comprised of people who were associated with the church.

Which would have meant, that if my role at church was to have ended, my faith would have needed a serious reorientation.

Ministry leaders:

When was the last time you prayed about something that has nothing to do with your church, your role, or your ministry?

When was the last time you read through a bible passage that you have zero plans on teaching?

When was the last time you sat down with a friend who doesn’t know and doesn’t care that you’re in ministry?

The best thing you can do as a ministry leader to ensure your faith is vibrant, alive and authentic regardless of what might happen tomorrow is this: pursue a spiritual walk that has little to do with work.

Here are three things you can do to help you pursue that:

Start a bible reading plan that’s completely independent of anything work related.

Pray like you didn’t work for a church.  I’m not saying don’t pray for church related things.  I’m just saying for at least half your prayer time, focus on other things.

Pursue authentic relationships outside your congregation and local ministry network.

Like you, I hope to be at this for decades more.  But maybe one of the keys to keeping that journey fresh and alive is pursuing God like we weren’t in ministry at all.