Thom S. Rainer's Blog, page 397

Friday is for Freebies (December 2, 2011)

My giveaway this Friday is the black, genuine leather version of the HCSB Study Bible. The unique, full-color design and format are the direct result of a nationwide research project. The Bible people wanted is the Bible B&H built. The result is a visual Bible that's comprehensive, easy to read, and easy to use, with features and formats specifically designed to enhance your Bible study experience. You can also go to MyStudyBible.com and dive right in for a complete digital experience.

This Bible has a retail price of $79.99 and features 15,000 study notes, 290 Hebrew and Greek word studies, 66 highly detailed book introductions, 62 maps, 27 topical articles, 20 charts, and 18 illustrations, all focusing on the most important topics and questions in Bible study.

To be eligible to win, take a fresh look at your favorite Scripture or passage at MyStudyBible.com. Then copy and paste it in the comment section for this post.

The deadline to enter is midnight CST this Saturday. We will select one winner from the entries on Monday morning.

Notable Voices (December 1, 2011)

10 Ideas: How to be your little man's dad — As a father of boys, I think all this is a great piece for Dads with sons. (Here's another one for dads with daughters, too.)

Pastors plan to host Christmas services despite busyness of Christmas Day — New data from LifeWay Research shows that 9 out of 10 pastors are hosting services, and many are including Christmas Eve services.

Avoid these 10 time wasting tweets — Humorous and helpful.

What to say to church members leaving for poor reasons — Jonathan Leeman offers some wise counsel here in this important, and increasingly common, scenario.

35 values I wish I had when I started pastoring — I can affirm many of the same from my own experience.

What the Gettysburg Address teaches every presenter — Five lessons from Abraham Lincoln's 270-word speech that you can apply to your next talk, speech, or message.

Courageous Leadership

In a recent article in Harvard Business Review, Rosabeth Moss Kanter looked at the connection between courage and leadership. Her article, "Courage in the C-Suite," was written for and about high-level leaders in corporations.

I saw, however, a broader application in some of the principles she articulated. Indeed, some of the principles hit home for me.

Leading with Courage

Anyone in a significant place of leadership must be courageous to be an effective leader. Clichés abound about the challenge of leadership: "It's lonely at the top"; "It's tough to be in the leader's shoes"; and "Leaders must make the difficult decisions." But the reason those clichés exist is because there are elements of truth in all of them. And the common theme evident in each of them is the need for courageous leadership.

Expounding upon the HBR article, let's look more specifically at four different types of courage all leaders must demonstrate.

Four Aspects of Courageous Leadership

In the last few weeks we've heard reports of several child sexual abuse cases. I even wrote a recent article on the issue. While the act of sexual abuse is morally reprehensible itself, additionally disconcerting has been the failure of high-level leaders to respond to the problem. Too many times we were told that leaders knew about the problem, but decided to take the cowardly path and sweep it under the rug.

The first and foremost requisite courage needed for leaders is moral courage, defined simply as "acting on principle." Leaders lose all of their credibility if they do not demonstrate this courage. Leaders first must do that which is right. Every other act or decision is secondary.

Great leaders must also demonstrate selfless courage. Effective leaders will seek to put employees, the organization, and others before themselves. Their first concern is not their own job security, their paycheck, or their ego. Jim Collins described this type of leader in his recent book, Great by Choice: "They're ambitious, to be sure, but for a purpose beyond themselves, be it building a great company, changing the world, or achieving some great objective that's ultimately not about them."

Great leaders also have intellectual courage. They are not managers who simply respond to orders. They are men and women who challenge conventional wisdom, who think beyond "the way we've always done it," and who set aside time to imagine new possibilities. They are great thinkers who act on their newly found knowledge.

Finally, those who lead with courage have execution courage. These leaders act quickly and decisively. They don't wait until they get 100 percent of the facts before they take action. They are not reckless or irresponsible; they simply understand that indecisiveness can paralyze and demoralize an organization. Timidity leads to mediocrity.

Good News/Bad News

The bad news is that relatively few leaders demonstrate courageous leadership. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that relatively few leaders demonstrate all four aspects of courageous leadership.

The good news is that much of courageous leadership can be learned. But becoming a courageous leader demands a willingness to put others first, to make tough decisions that are often personally costly, and to have the willingness to take reasonable risks.

Most leaders understand these choices. Fewer are willing to make such choices. But those who do can lead organizations to greater health and, for many, change the world for good.

A Time to Pray

if you would like the readers of this blog to pray for you or someone else, feel free to specify your prayer request in the comments. Blogs are used for a variety of purposes; let's utilize this blog today for thousands to pray for brothers and sisters across the world.

If you would prefer not to give your name, simply write "Anonymous" in the name blank.

Also, feel free to comment to those who are requesting prayers.

What is your prayer need?

May God be glorified as we lift us these prayers to Him.

Reclaiming Biblical Fatherhood

Recently I saw some statistics from the National Center for Fathering and National Fatherhood Initiative. Despite the numbers, I'm still optimistic.

• There are 98 million men in America.

• 90 million are not connected to other men for spiritual growth.

• 63 million say they have no faith in Christ.

• Fewer than 10% of U.S. churches have an ongoing men's ministry.

• Only 50% of kids will spend their childhood in an intact family.

• 40% of Christian marriages are affected by infidelity.

• Over 24 million kids live apart from their biological fathers (1/3 of all kids).

• 39% of male prison inmates had no father at home.

• 50% of female inmates had no father at home.

How could I possibly be optimistic? Because I believe we're in the midst of a revolution. A major shot was fired on September 30 with the theatrical release of Courageous. More than one million people saw it on opening weekend. Many Christian men and women who watch the movie are convicted to leave a godly legacy to their children. Fathers are resolving to be better than "good enough" dads. New Christians are multiplying. And churches are building on the momentum by offering Bible studies based on the movie.

Also, LifeWay is introducing a new men's strategy, based on the success Kenny Luck has had at Saddleback Church. This four-part process helps men: 1) get in to churches through special events; 2) get healthy in their relationships and personal morality and character; 3) get strong in their spiritual development, and 4) get going into their communities to bring others into the body of Christ. LifeWay will soon release several new men's Bible studies to help church leaders support men through this strategy.

Some pastors are already planning a "get in" event by hosting a Courageous movie night at their churches. This approach is a great way to kick off a Bible study or to get new people into a church. You can do so by purchasing a license to show the movie in your church or group. Starting today, licenses are available at www.lifeway.com/courageous.

The statistics above cannot be changed by one movie or one strategy. It will take much more than that. However, if these endeavors are indications that God is beginning to move, we all have cause for optimism.

Thank You

I am taking the remainder of this week off to spend time with my wife, my three sons, my three daughters-in-law, my three grandchildren, and Nellie Jo's parents. Even as I wrote that sentence, I realized once again the many reasons I have to be thankful.

It would be negligent on my part not to give thanks to you, the readers of this blog, for your willingness to read the brief missives I pen each week. I am honored and humbled that you would take time to read my words.

During this week of Thanksgiving, may you, your families, and your churches have a great and blessed time. We all have so much for which to be thankful.

"Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth.

Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs.

Acknowledge that the Lord is God.

He made us and we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the Lord is good, and His love is eternal;

His faithfulness endures for all generations."

Psalm 100, HCSB

8 Traits of Effective Church Leaders

I am a bit reluctant to articulate the characteristics of effective church leaders for fear that some may take the information and reduce it to a neat, quick-fix formula, and that others may see this approach as human-centered, denying the reality of a sovereign God. Nevertheless, in our studies of churches that are reaching people and retaining them through biblical discipleship we have seen a very clear pattern develop, especially in contrast to leaders in other churches that did not meet our criteria.

Keep in mind that it is the total and the composition of these traits that distinguish the effective leaders from other leaders. Many of the less effective leaders share some, but not all, of these traits. I will refer to these leaders as pastors, though some of the churches used other nomenclature, such as ministers.

1. Fierce biblical faithfulness. Without exception, these pastors held to the total truthfulness of God's Word. Not only did they believe the veracity of Scripture, they passionately lived out their beliefs.

2. Longer tenure. The leaders we studied are willing and even want to have long-term ministries at one church. While longer tenure itself is not the key to effective leadership, a series of short-term pastorates rarely allows one time to establish lasting leadership in a church. In one of our national surveys of pastors, we found the average pastoral tenure to be 3.6 years. But in different studies of effective leaders, those pastors had an average tenure ranging from 11.2 to 21.6 years.

3. Confident humility. In our subjective interviews with effective church leaders across the nation, our interviewers repeatedly reported that the leaders had a clear and compelling confidence about their own leadership. But that confidence was not arrogance. To the contrary, their confidence centered more on what God was doing and less on their own inherent abilities.

4. Acceptance of responsibility. We did not hear of excuses for ineffective ministry from these effective leaders, even though many of them experienced prolonged periods of struggles. Instead, these pastors accepted the leadership responsibility that comes with their position, and they refused to blame circumstances or others when the inevitable times of conflict and challenge occur.

5. Unconditional love of the people. Ministry can be dirty and Christians can be jerks. It is often difficult to love those who complain and attack you. But these effective leaders, with no claims of perfection, still expressed an intense love for the members of their congregations. In some measure, they have learned to love as Christ loved us.

6. Persistence. Because these leaders have a long-term perspective of their ministries at the churches where they serve, they are able to lead toward progress one incremental step at a time. That is not to say they have a laissez-faire attitude; to the contrary, these pastors are incredibly persistent.

7. Outwardly-focused vision. An integral part of the lives of these effective leaders was their passion and vision to reach people who were not Christians and who were not a part of their churches. To say that these leaders are evangelistically focused would be an understatement. They are passionate about reaching the lost and unchurched, and the visions they communicated inevitably reflected this priority.

8. A desire for a lasting legacy. The ambition and drive of these leaders cannot be denied. But that ambition is not limited to their personal successes. They are ambitious for their churches to be thriving and healthy well beyond their ministries and even their lifetimes.

In the final analysis, we cannot know how much of leadership skills are innate and how much can be acquired. These leaders will tell you, however, that they have made significant strides in becoming better leaders. Such are their testimonies. And perhaps, in God's strength, we can follow these examples and become the types of leaders God wants us to be.

Friday is for Freebies (November 18, 2011)

My giveaway this Friday is the Subversive Kingdom: Lessons in Rebellion From the Parables of Jesus leader kit by Dr. Ed Stetzer. Dr. Stetzer is one of the great missiologists of our time and a leading voice among today's evangelicals. I am delighted to have him as one of our executive leaders at LifeWay and am proud of his commitment to serving churches around the world.

This kit has a retail price of $69.95 and includes six DVD teaching sessions examining the parables of Jesus regarding the kingdom in Matthew 13 and the Bible study workbook.

To be eligible to win, tell us something for which you are thankful. You are free to enter more than once, but only one item per comment please. If you enter more than once, you must submit something else for which you are thankful.

The deadline to enter is midnight CST this Saturday. We will draw one winner from the entries on Monday morning.

Friday is for Freebies (November 17, 2011)

My giveaway this Friday is the Subversive Kingdom: Lessons in Rebellion From the Parables of Jesus leader kit by Dr. Ed Stetzer. Dr. Stetzer is one of the great missiologists of our time and a leading voice among today's evangelicals. I am delighted to have him as one of our executive leaders at LifeWay and am proud of his commitment to serving churches around the world.

This kit has a retail price of $69.95 and includes six DVD teaching sessions examining the parables of Jesus regarding the kingdom in Matthew 13 and the Bible study workbook.

To be eligible to win, tell us something for which you are thankful. You are free to enter more than once, but only one item per comment please. If you enter more than once, you must submit something else for which you are thankful.

The deadline to enter is midnight CST this Saturday. We will draw one winner from the entries on Monday morning.

Notable Voices (November 17, 2011)

Facebook is most popular social network for all ages; LinkedIn is second. Are you surprised that Twitter isn't one of the top two?

Four words to help discern a call to vocational ministry. "The person who is sensing a call can often begin to discern that this IS the call based on the way they respond to these four words."

How an image becomes an icon. Interesting discussion here from Martin Kemp's book, Christ to Coke.

Is social justice an essential part of the mission of the church? Al Mohler and Jim Wallis debate this important question at Trinity International University. [VIDEO]