Todd Stocker's Blog, page 15

What Might Be Happening When Your Leader Does Nothing

I was sitting at a stoplight waiting to turn right – 3rd in line.  The light turned green but the lead car didn’t move.  It just sat there. My brow furrow, thinking that the large SUV driver was on the phone or daydreaming or flipping radio stations.  However, I was more patient than the young man behind him, in front of me, who laid on the horn – first in short blasts, then in long drones.

Still the SUV didn’t move, green light and all.

As I watched and began to fume, from the front of the SUV, a young mom pushing a stroller that held a sleeping 2yr-old came into view, crossing past the SUV and onto the sidewalk.  The honking stopped.  All of us drivers exhaled and we realized that waiting was the smartest thing for the leader to do.  Had the leader charged ahead, tragedy would ensue.

If you’ve been in leadership, you know that sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing.  You can’t make a decision because you are needing to see what the market is going to do.  You have to wait on moving forward with an initiative because you don’t have the right people in place.  You hold back on saying ‘yes’ to one department because you know that it would decimate the goals of another.

Sometimes leaders have to wait.

The problem comes for those who are following – for those who don’t or can’t see the big picture.  We become upset with our leader and think that they are indecisive, lazy or afraid.  We ‘honk our horns’ in frustration and wonder why he or she won’t approve a spending request.  We become myopic in our quest to further that which has been entrusted to us.

If you’re in that situation, here are three questions to ask yourself if your leader seems to be doing nothing:

Is there something that I’m not seeing that he is?  Maybe there is better option coming into view that I can’t see yet.
If my leader moved forward right now, what other departments or people may be affected?  Maybe approving your venture would slow down or stop the off-shore team that is about to launch into a new area.
What else can I do to cast vision about the importance of my initiative?  Maybe my leader doesn’t know what I need.

Of course there are leaders who are lazy or procrastinate unnecessarily, but unless there’s a pattern, always give them the benefit of the doubt.  In other words, lay off your horn.  

Add to the conversation by making a comment below … 

Peace!

By the way, here is a video of what could have happened if the SUV when forward:  CLICK HERE.

Do It WITH Fear

I heard a story of a firefighter who climbed up a five story ladder to rescue a woman hanging out a flame engulfed apartment building.  As smoke billowed from the window, the woman screamed and coughed and begged for the firefighter to hurry.  The ladder lurched into place and the firefighter met her on the sill.

“It’s okay!” he said.  “Just listen to what I want you to do.  I need you to climb out of the window and onto the ladder and we’ll both go down together.”

The woman’s eyes went wide.  She looked at the firefighter, looked down and the five story drop,  looked back at him and said, “I can’t do it!  I’m afraid of heights!”

“It’s okay.  I’ve got you,” he said.

“No,” she yelled, “you don’t understand.  I get sick even walking up stairs.  I’m not coming with you because I’m too afraid.”

The firefighter thought for a moment and said, “Do it with fear!”

They both made it down together.

I love that line, “Do it with fear!”  Too often, we wait to have that conversation or venture out into something new because we are waiting for all fear to disappear.  What if fear is a good thing?  What if the adage “overcome your fear” is an impossible statement keeping us from doing something with fear.

That kind of healthy fear keeps us alert as we open a business.  That kind of healthy fear keeps us humble as we encourage someone with our faith in God.

Here are three ways to more forward with fear.

Realize that fear, at some level, is part of our human experience.
Visualize fear as a traveling companion, there to give advice but NOT to hold you back.
Know that God’s perfect love casts out the fear of wondering if He loves you.

Whatever fear is holding you back, do it with fear.

Peace!

4 Ways To Make A Difference This Halloween

***THIS IS A RE-POST OF MY POST REGARDING HALLOWEEN***

As a kid, I always loved Halloween.  I mean, who wouldn’t?  Go to people’s homes, ring the doorbell, spout off that silly little phrase and get candy!  What could be easier?  As I grew older, I understood more clearly that the origins of this American favorite, were rooted in things that were not of God and I withdrew from the practice.  (OK, maybe it was I didn’t fit into my pirate costume anymore … no matter).

What should our attitude be as we, once again, come upon this ghostly of a celebration?  Should we dive in wholeheartedly?  Should we withdraw completely?  Should we ignore it and hope it goes the route of a Studebaker (an old car from the ‘50’s)?  I’ve swung back and forth between the extremes.

The overarching question is, “How can Christ-followers engage a culture that has no problem lifting up monsters, demons and ‘scary-things’?”  While the Bible says to think about things that are lovely and excellent (Phil. 4:8), it also says to but in the world but not part of the world (John 17, Rom. 12 etc).

From an outreach perspective, our attitude should be one of making a difference.  Many well intentioned Christians want to make a point rather than a difference.  They want to stand against culture in every way rather than be an influence on the culture in which they’re placed.  I choose to be a light and have every interaction with people in our world a pleasant one.

If you do decide to make a difference in your neighborhood, here are some tips to get you started:

1)      When trick-or-treaters come to the door, hand out candy or better yet – a healthy snack, but also slips of paper with written out bible verses.  Examples would be:  John 3:16+17, John 10:10.

2)      Be pleasant to the kids coming to the door but also greet the parents.  End your short encounter with “God bless,” or “May God keep you safe.”

3)      Teach your own kids about the holiday and it’s trappings but allow them to go door to door and this time, you pass out scripture cards to the people.

4)      Throw a harvest party in a local park.  Our church did this with jumpy things, candy, games etc so when kids would walk by, they’d end up at our party and not going door to door.  Our youth teams were there to engage the families in great conversations.

As with anything in our culture, we as Christians need to be in prayer and study about such issues.  But in everything, we always ask the Lord for His guidance and trust that we are not simply making a point, but more so, we are making a difference.

Peace,

Getting Away

You Need Encouragement

In 1896, Henry Ford attended a company event where Thomas Edison (the great inventor) was the guest of honor. His friend introduced him to Edison as “the man trying to make a car that runs on gasoline.”

Edison asked young Henry Ford a host of questions and when the talk was over, Edison banged his fist down on the table and said, “Young man, that’s the thing! You have it! Your car is self contained and carries its own power plant.”

Years later, Ford, reflecting on their first meeting, said in a newspaper interview, “That bang on the table was worth worlds to me. No man up to then had given me any encouragement. I had hoped that I was headed right. Sometimes I knew that I was, sometimes I only wondered, but here, all at once and out of a clear sky, the greatest inventive genius in the world had given me complete approval. The man who knew most about electricity in the world had said that for the purpose, my gas motor was better than any electric motor could be.”

I would have loved to hear that conversation.  Two powerful men talking innovation and creation. Both on the road to changing the world.  One, established in the field of electricity, the other, seeking to invent what is today, the mainstay of personal and public transportation.

The old story is a new reminder of the power of encouragement.  When someone encourages you, you are brought to a new level of hope.  When someone lifts you up, you are given a gift that fuels you for the next phase of the journey.  When you encourage others, you imitate the power of God.

I’m praying that you are awakened to someone who needs encouragement today.  I’m praying that you too can have someone bang their fist and encourage you in what you are doing and who you are becoming.

“The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of sense.”

Proverbs 10:21

Peace!

How To Get Things Done Through Your Team

Have you ever been in a team meeting and there is a problem that someone identifies that your team agrees needs to be fixed.  Lot’s of ideas are thrown out and the conversation basically ends with a “yes, let’s work on that” and then nothing happens.  If you’re a leader, especially one that has a team with great ideas, this describes a pitfall that you want to watch for.  It is the lack of assignment to ideas that the team has decided to implement.  If other words, WHO is going to be the point person and WHEN is it going to come into reality.  This is especially true in a ministry setting with very little staff or volunteers.  (By the way, I’m still working on this one – ask my team!)

Let’s say your team thinks its a good idea to reorganize the look of the entry way of your welcome area.  The environment is outdated, cluttered and unorganized.  Everyone on your team says its a great idea and then dives into what should be done.  ”I  think the couch should be on the right side wall instead of the left side,” one person says.  “I think if we take down that wall, it will feel more welcoming,” another says.  Again, everyone agrees that something needs to be done and begins to offer ideas.  They’ve jumped into the WHAT and even the HOW.

At this point, you as the leader, need to hijack the conversation and ask or assign the WHO and the WHEN before the conversation continues to spiral.  Who is going to take the lead on the remodel and when can we expect it to be accomplished (or at least a presentation of the next phase)?  You don’t assign the WHAT or HOW.  What needs to happen to the welcome area can then be a brainstorming session to expand the possibilities for the person in charge of that project.  How it happens is dependent upon the point person.  A good leader rarely, if ever, assigns the what and how unless it is critical to the functioning of the organization.

Now, the point person can take the suggestions, build his or her team and present an outline of the what, when and how.  I also suggest that the point person give a why statement that include a ‘so that’.  Using the above example, it could say something like “the purpose of this project is to update our welcome area so that our clients and employees are inspired when they encounter our company during the day.”

Comments?

Peace!

Hope In God’s Story

We are doing a study in Max Lucado’s “The Story.”  In the opening introductory chapter, he introduces this idea that can give you hope, security and perspective on your life.  Here’s the concept.

There are two stories happening in our reality.  The first – the Lower Story – is what we experience day to day.  Our relationships.  Our work.  Our seeing, hearing and knowing.  These all form the Lower Story.  For example.  If you get into a car accident, that event is now part of your Lower Story as you perceive it.  For good or for bad the Lower Story are the events through which we navigate moment by moment in our day.

The second is much more vast.  It is much deeper and encompassing.  It is grander and massive.  It is actually the driver and support of your Lower Story.  It is – as Max Lucado puts it – the Upper Story.  This is God’s story, the grand purpose for the universe.  It moves and breathes and informs a future that has already come into existence but we simply haven’t experienced it yet.

Now here is where the feeling of security comes in.  Without God’s Upper Story, our Lower Story seems aimless and without purpose.  A victory in life is simply one’s own achievement that could even be classified as a shallow cause-and-effect.  An illness is simply another indication that our world is broken.

However, when we remember that God’s Upper Story is what is really active in life, we know that what happens to us in our Lower Story is not the final word.  We know that all things are working out toward the reality of His Upper Story.

So how does that give comfort?  When you remember that there is a “bigger picture” (an Upper Story), then setbacks, trials and hardships do not or should not take all of our focus.  When death happens, when sickness occurs, when pain and struggle threaten to overwhelm, then our realization of God’s Upper Story helps you put the momentary events into a correct perspective.

God has a purpose for you.  It is already a reality you are simply experiencing the unfolding of it day-to-day.  Trust in Him and he’ll reveal His Upper Story.

Peace!

You Need Breathing Room

Right-click and save this picture for a screen saver

Picture this.  Your iPhone alarm rings on your nightstand.  It’s 7am.  The problem is that your High School aged daughter needs to be at school for an early rehearsal at 7:15.  Good thing its only a 5 minute drive but she’s still sound asleep.  Your spouse is already out of bed and gone, having left early and into his day.  Your other two kids are also asleep but your faithful dog is not.  He found the chicken bones that you discarded in the garbage after dinner last night and is munching on them all over the kitchen floor.

You jump out of bed, fly down the hall and wake up your daughter; she’s now in a GREAT mood.  You throw on your robe rush to the kitchen, impale your foot with a bone sliver and your dog barks at you for ruining his eating experience.  It’s now 7:02.

Toast in. Milk poured.  Keurig on.

From down the hall you hear yelling.  One of your younger two has woken up and slipped into the only bathroom on the second level causing your older daughter to be locked out from her makeup, hair straightener and fingernail polish.  The yelling continues and you rush and join in, addressing your younger one to “get out of there now cause sissy is late!”  He flings open the door and stomps out.  You notice he is frowning and crying but you also notice the finger polish remover has been dumped over onto the counter by his tirade and is dripping down on the wood base.  It’s 7:07.

The dog has just thrown up and your now awake youngest has found it.  “Painting!” she proclaims as you see her making a smiley face with it on the floor and the dog begins to … well you know.  It’s 7:10.

You run to the car, leaving your son to watch the baby while you speed your daughter to school.  You fly into the parking lot, she jumps out of the mini-van like a hurricane, leaving the door open and disappears into the already bustling school building.  Now you have to jump out of your vehicle in your slippers and robe to run around and close the van door.  As you do, the line of cars behind you start to honk.  It’s 7:18.  She’s late.  Your late.

Welcome to your life.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have some Breathing Room?  That’s the series our church is doing based on a great series by North Point Community Church.  The whole premise is that God has intended for us not to live at our limits all the time.  Not to push the ceiling of our abilities but to intentionally create space in our time, our finances and our schedules.  I love that in 2 Samuel 22:20, God led David out into open spaces and refreshed him there.

You and I need space in our lives.  Ask yourself these questions:

Am I constantly late for my daily appointments and duties?
Is there always more month at the end of the money?
Do I feel distracted because of all the things I feel I have to do at work, home or school?

If you consistently answer yes to these, you may need to start saying no and trust that God will take care of the rest.

“But me he caught—reached all the way from sky to sea; he pulled me out

Of that ocean of hate, that enemy chaos, the void in which I was drowning.

They hit me when I was down, but God stuck by me.

He stood me up on a wide-open field; I stood there saved—surprised to be loved!”  2 Samuel 22:17-20

Peace!

My Facebook Day

Like yours, Facebook lit up for me like a Christmas tree on the 24th.  “Happy Birthday” flooded my timeline and I indulged in the well-wishes of family, close and distant friends and the casual acquaintance who happens to know someone who knows someone who knows me.

It is good, I think, to ponder our days and years, each one of which is a gift from God.  Psalm 139:16 says that while I was an unformed substance, he looked into my timeline and formed each and everyone of my days.  Literally, God placed each day as on a potters wheel and formed a vessel into which He and I both pour.  Some things he wants me to do.  Other things, I choose to do myself.

That’s the beauty of living.  To weave in and out of one’s moments.  To discover His surprising goodness.   To experience the joys of my consequence.  And to know that among the Facebook eulogies is one that will say, “Well done” by my God who forms my days.

(By the way, thanks to those who noted my wall yesterday.  If you want to join my Facebook conversation, Click Here)

Peace!

The 9-11 Space

I remember the day well.  I walked into my office and noticed that some of the other staff were already gathered there, quietly watching the 9-11 attacks unfold, on the mounted corner TV.  I joined them in disbelief.

After a few moments, someone said that they’ll set up a tv in our gathering room and throughout the day, we could watch the horrific events in there.  It was “in there” that I spent the rest of the day absorbing with disbelief that hate could take wing and desimate people’s lives and bruise our countries thick skin.

You remember where you were in times of tragedy.  Driving by an intersection brings memories of a loss that happened there.  Generations before me remember where they were when they heard of the Pearl Harbor attacks or the news that their son was killed in action.

Spaces are spiritual in that way.  Environments can recall feelings that are tucked away and memories are attached to the visualization of the ‘when and where.’  Even today, as I think about our staff huddled around that TV, I also remember that God is timeless and without borders.  He is not relegated to one environment and is not bound by memories of the past.   That is why I can trust Him in all things.  He knows the number of my days and the environments through which I will move.  He sees the joys and tragedies that I will encounter and He promises to walk with me through them all.  The Lord is there.  He moves in the bright light of the day and the muted darkness of the night.  That’s called trust.  That’s called faith.  That’s called hope.

“Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me.”  Psalm 23

Peace!