Flexibility

The definition of being flexible is "being bent without breaking". I workout pretty regularly but I have always hated stretching exercises. I don't know why, I just hate it! However, the older I get the more important I see it is to stretch. It is important to remain flexible because your body is getting less and less pliable. As you get older you also find that to be true in other areas of life. You don't like to be stretched as much as you used to. You don't like to try new things or hear new ideas as much as you used to. You don't enjoy being around people who are different. That's called getting old! That is why it is so important to work at remaining flexible and open to being stretched by new ideas and new methods.

It is amazing, but younger people can be just as inflexible. They are afraid that if they "bend too much, they will break". Young Christians, regardless of age, for example, are often unable to flex in their thinking in spiritual matters. They aren't sure where the lines of flexibility end and the "breaking" begins. Obviously, it is better not to bend than to break. However, growing in the Lord in a healthy way will bring us to a place of greater flexibility without breaking. We come to a place in our growth in the Lord where we can fellowship with, love and value other Christians who don't believe what we believe about baptism, who don't believe the way we do about church government or possibly even what day we should celebrate the sabbath. We can honor them and fellowship with them without fear that somehow this will weaken our faith.

In essence we are talking about growing beyond being the"weaker brother", as Paul calls it in 1 Corinthians 8. Certainly, we all must go through that period in our development where we cannot bend for fear of breaking. However, there is a place of development where we truly experience a fuller experience of our freedom in Christ. We can love more!

I am not talking about compromising our conscience. I am not talking about violating the Scripture. I am saying that maturity brings flexibility without compromise. The Pharisees were totally rigid in their spiritual vision and their blindness cost them the Messiah. I wonder where you and I might be too rigid at this very moment.

People: A commodity or a sacred trust?


Sitting at lunch a young pastor who was just starting out asked, "how do I keep from seeing people as a problem and maintaining the perspective that I truly want to help them?" I gulped on my iced tea! After 34 years of dealing with people, counseling hundreds and probably thousands, I knew this was a bigger question than he could ever imagine at this juncture of his ministry. It is a problem of maintaining a positive attitude for ministry in the midst of dealing with negative and often hostile circumstances and people, day after day and year after year. The answer has all to do with our goals and desires. If we see ministry as our own family business through which we can obtain worldly goods and put a christian name on it, then we will become most miserable. We will come to despise those who are spiritually in need and resent having to interrupt our lives to minister to them. In essence we will become present day Pharisees. That was the condition of the ministry when Jesus made his pastoral entrance. Spiritual leaders were more concerned with their own needs than the needs of others. Jesus speaks to this condition in Matthew 10:39 "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." If a man is looking for his life or his needs to be met in the ministry, he will never find life. If, however, he can learn the lesson of Jesus and lose his life for the sake of Jesus, he finds life in that kind of service. This is the only true way to ensure longevity in ministry. It is in losing that we win. It is only in this "ministry unto Jesus" that we can see needy people as the sheep of the Great Shepherd. If we have a business mindset, the people become a commodity. If we have a Kingdom mindset, they are the children of God and our service to them becomes a life giving sacred trust.

Kingdom Stuff

Part III

Generational Leadership Transition

"The nature of the animal"

Generational transition will occur with or without us. The question is: will I be an active participant in the process. I'm finding that the emerging leaders desire the input and loving direction of the older leadership. That is why I firmly believe that this generation can do what no generation before us has done, make a Kingdom transfer with assets and not deficits. We can pass on a healthy ministry or organization and not one that has hemorrhaged for years trying to maintain. I am certain that is as much a part of our life's call as the call itself. While we can't guarantee what the next generation will do with what we pass on, that is still our responsibility.

In the last blog I mentioned that if a leader will look around he will probably see emerging leaders. Obviously, that will only apply in a healthy situation. In a healthy situation, leaders produce leaders. Let's assume that is the case. From that standpoint, it is the older leader's responsibility to prepare and point the emerging leadership in the right direction while operating in a slow release of responsibility.

If that is not done, the emerging potential leaders will not see any hope of a future under the direction of the older leader, and the seamless transition will not happen. Prov. 13:12 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life". If there is no sign of a true opportunity for ministry transfer to the emerging leader, that lack of hope will "make the heart sick". However, if the older leader will get a plan in place for training, oversight, slow release and final release, it will be "a tree of life". This tree of life will not only be for the emerging leader but for the church or organization as well.

I just did that of which I speak. As the announcement was made that I would be stepping aside, not out, as the senior leader, I could see a new life of excitement and enthusiasm in our congregation. While they have honored me for my role, they are looking to the future with great hope. Of course, I have spent years choosing the right leaders, training them, pointing them and now coaching them. Now my role has changed. I am not the "Father" of the work, now I am the "Grandfather". Had I not made the transition, the "heartsick" option would come into play. That downward spiral looks something like this: the organization begins to lose speed and direction. Members of the group feel the deterioration but loyalty makes them put it out of their minds. In time, emerging leaders may "feel led" to go elsewhere and usually that means starting a new work. The emerging followers will follow the emerging leader. The old guard will point the finger and say, "rebels and traitors". There is some truth in this accusation but there is more truth that the older, non-flexible leadership having been at the root of the problem. The new group is now left to grope around in inexperience without adequate resources. The older group is now motivated, not by Kingdom advancement but by hurts, loyalty and a "faithfulness to the end" mindset.

As I end I must say that I know that my making the transition at my age (60 at my next birthday)is apparently early and was precipitated by moving to an overseer capacity, still the point must be made. Transition must occur by plan of action if we care about posterity. Hopefully, my making the transition earlier gives me a perspective that the potential fears of my later years may not have afforded.

"Kingdom Stuff"

Part II

Generational Leadership Transition

This week I will deal with that challenging and hot topic of bringing the next generation into our sphere in order to have a seamless transition of ministry. The truth be told, very few have ever done it "seamlessly". There are so many fears involved on both sides that obstacles are at every turn. Let's bite off a little today and we will do so each week for the next couple of weeks.

"Passing the Baton"

Gold medals have been lost, not because teams didn't have the fastest runners, but because the baton was passed unsuccessfully. Historically, churches and ministries have made the same mistake. The generation with the baton is doing a great job. For years they are faithful and producing good fruit. Now things are changing. We see them moving from a creative, aggressive visionary mode to more of a maintaining mode. We all know that a maintaining mode is a dying mode but yet when it happens to you, you may not see it.

If that older generation could only look around them in an objective way, they would probably see those serving in the wings that are capable of taking mission to the next generation. This is such a critical point! Those in power have two options: either keep the power or "empower" those in the wings. Of course we don't have time to cover all the details of "how do you know they are the ones" in this blog, but basically we need to know that it will happen to all of us. Yes, you 20 somethings that are standing in the wings and chomping at the bit, it will happen to you and very quickly too! That is why everyone should make this a part of our training and planning. Absolutely every leader above 50 should be working on a transition plan. That doesn't mean quitting, it means moving to a different mode.

I haven't seen a generation in my lifetime pass the baton without dropping it. In truth, most never pass it. They die and let the chips fall where they may. The next generation gropes around in sunshine and shadows making the same mistakes and learning the same lessons through the school of hard knocks. Much could have been avoided and more progress made if only the baton was passed successfully.

Here's the really hard part: in a relay race the one running passes the baton to the next runner and the first runner stops running. In the generational transfer, the older runner doesn't stop, he passes the baton and allows (empowers) the younger runner to run faster than he and yet there remains this heart connection of continuing to pass on the wisdom of the past to the zeal of the future. It takes supernatural humility to do either. The older will see the new runner taking his race to a new level. He will see him do it with a new style that the older runner never saw and hopefully, at a new record. The younger runner must make the decision to look back to the old for wisdom and direction that only experience can bring. He must seek it out!

Join me in being a new generation who is committed to passing the baton correctly! However, you won't without a plan!