In this 4^th and final episode of a sermon series on the life of Jacob, Pete observes the life of Jacob in contrast to his son Joseph.  One lived as if all things were against him.  The other lived knowing God was for him even in difficult circumstances. How might you be living?

Here are some questions to ponder as you listen to the podcast.

• Am I anxious and fearful or am I waiting and trusting?
• Am I living lies or am I living truth?
• Am I distracted or focused?

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Tension. Distress. Difficulty. Pressure. Walls. Do these adjectives describe some days in your leadership?

Listen to Part 2 of “Hard Lessons from the Life of Jacob” as Pete shares how God met Jacob in the mess, strain and conflict of his leadership. God is there to do the same in our own difficult leadership days.

Enjoy!

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Tension. Distress. Difficulty. Pressure. Walls. Do these adjectives describe some days in your leadership?

Listen to Part 2 of “Hard Lessons from the Life of Jacob” as Pete shares how God met Jacob in the mess, strain and conflict of his leadership. God is there to do the same in our own difficult leadership days.

Enjoy!

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Jacob offers us a rich study of leadership. While he was richly blessed by God – chosen, destined to greatness, and deeply loved – he struggled to rest in that reality. Instead, we observe him as manipulative, aggressive, and restless. His very name meant “cheat or grabber!” Over the next few weeks we will look at a number of stories out of his life that come out of his earthly spirituality – while traveling, in conflicts, and with his family.

I can relate to Jacob. I trust you can also.

In this message I unpack the lessons of Jacob’s exploitation of Esau to ensure he gets God’s blessings for the future (cf. Genesis 25:21-34). This fear drives him to manipulate circumstances, and his brother, with devastating consequences. Jacob shows us that true spirituality is not about grabbing or controlling, but about resting, trusting and surrendering to God’s love and plans, even when they unfold more slowly than we like.

Enjoy!

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In this podcast, I break down Jesus’ challenge into 5 categories:

1. Be careful to practice what you preach. We need to be careful that the gap between our role and our soul diminishes, not widens, with time, and that we slow down enough to actually live what we preach.
2. Be careful of showiness. Jesus railed against leaders who “do everything… for people to see” (Matt. 23:5). The temptations we face to draw attention to ourselves and to do things that show we are great are powerful. Jesus was the opposite of showy and spectacular. In fact, one of the most impressive things about him was how unimpressive he was.
3. Be careful of entitlement. Jesus warns us to never let ourselves be set apart above others. Never. The teaching and leading honor belongs exclusively to him. There really is only one teacher – Jesus. He combats all hierarchical thinking, reminding us that we are simply servants.
4. Be careful of being one thing on the outside and another on the inside. This is very hard to avoid when we represent the living God to so many people! Jesus warns us to not fall into the trap of being beautiful on the outside without cleansing ourselves of hypocrisy on the inside.
5. Be careful to listen to the prophetic now. The leaders in Jesus’ day honored the ancient prophets but failed to listen to the Prophet, the Lord God Almighty in the person of Jesus. And so we must also listen for God’s prophetic voice coming to us now.

May we allow these difficult words to fall on our hearts. At the same time, may we be kind to ourselves in the process, remembering: “A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out (Matt. 12:20). May we also relax in where we are in our leadership journey now. Learning this kind of wisdom takes time. And finally, may we surrender our wills and listen to Jesus, remembering that this is the essence of all good leadership.

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• Do you move in quickly to advise and fix things lest they fall apart?
• Do you have difficulty allowing others to struggle with their own problems?
• Do you find that, in the long run, it is simply easier to do things yourself?
• Do you say yes when you prefer to say no, even if you are overloaded?
• Do you struggle to trust others to do as good a job as you would?
• Do you not like asking for help because you don’t want to burden them?

If your answer is yes to three or more, you probably suffer from a case of overfunctioning, i.e. doing for others what they can and should do for themselves.

In this podcast I invite you into my personal journey of slowly breaking patterns and behaviors that reflected my overfunctioning posture as a pastor for the first seventeen years of my leadership. In those years, I often interfered with an essential process of God (often through pain) of maturing his people. Unknowingly, I limited their development. Moreover, I lost sight of God’s unique call for my own life and suffered the negative consequences of trying to run God’s world for him.

After considering the examples of Moses (Exodus 18; Numbers 11) and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) as classic overfunctioners, I lay out the three steps I took, and continue to take, that help me stop overfunctioning. While they may unleash a bit of short-term chaos, you can rest assured that God will catch both you and those you lead.

Enjoy!

The post Stop Fixing Your Church: Part 2 – EH Leader Podcast appeared first on Emotionally Healthy Discipleship.

In this podcast, I introduce this large theme by inviting you to listen to Geri’s reading of the audio version of an outstanding chapter out of The Emotionally Healthy Woman called “Quit Overfunctioning.” By the time you finish, it will make sense why quitting overfunctioning is foundational to leadership. In fact, unless we take up this biblical challenge, it will be nearly impossible to raise up healthy, biblical communities that effectively engage the world with the gospel and deeply transform lives.

For example, you will be introduced to four realities that should motivate us to make this a critical topic for prayerful discernment:

Overfunctioning perpetuates immaturity.
In Exodus 18, Moses mistakenly believed his self-sacrifice was serving the people. Moses became the largest obstacle, the bottleneck to the people’s growth and maturity. In Numbers 11, the Israelites demanded a rescue from their pain. Moses accepted the role. In doing so, he ensured their continued immature behavior.

Overfunctioning prevents us from focusing on God’s unique call for our own lives.
Jesus said, “I have completed the work you have given me to do.” Unlike Jesus, however, we easily get sidetracked from our own life direction by over-focusing on others. Overfunctioning toward others often results in under functioning for oneself. When we overly-focus on others, we lose sight of our own values and goals.

Overfunctioning erodes our spiritual life.
One of the subtle yet most insidious effects of overfunctioning is how it separates us from God. We are called to trust and to surrender to His love. When we cross the line into running God’s world for him, we enter into dangerous territory, into the very rebellion of our first parents. When I am overfunctioning, I don’t allow God to be God.

Overfunctioning destroys community.
The examples of Moses and Martha give us a visual picture of the negative impact of overfunctioning on communities, whether that community is a church, a workplace, a school, or a family. The problem is it confuses caring about someone with having to take care of them. It eventually results in resentment, frustration, and conflict (see Martha in Luke 10:38-42).

There is much more in this podcast, of course. And next week I will expand on the content of this chapter by exploring more specific applications to leading our churches and teams.

Enjoy.

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I spent last week expanding on the first goal we tend to overlook in our leading: investing in our own development and growth in Jesus. In this week’s podcast, I explore four other goals we frequently overlook in our leadership:

1. Each person on our team is blossoming with a personal/ministry growth plan as a disciple of Jesus.
2. Our team models the quality of life in Jesus that we want to give away, i.e. we embody what we seek to happen in others.
3. Each member of our team defines success in God, thoughtfully and prayerfully, for their area.
4. Each person on our team is engaged in the slow work of discipling/mentoring one to three others.

In summary, we are concerned with the task our people are commissioned to do as well as their personal development and transformation. Yes, this slows us down. But I trust that, as you lean into God’s wisdom for your context, you will discover as I have, the great joy and long-term fruitfulness found by broadening your definition of success.

Enjoy.

Warmly,
Pete

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In the process, however, we can miss other key goals that, while they may be more difficult to measure, are also biblical and important.

This podcast (Part 1 of 2) will consider, in detail, the MOST frequently overlooked priority and goal of our leadership – ourselves! The greatest gift of leadership we give those around us is our continued diligence to be a disciple and to follow Jesus wherever, and however, he wants to lead us. Every year I ask: “Where is Jesus inviting me to grow this year and in what areas of my life? And how would he have me do that?” Time is then carved out to make this a reality.

In this podcast, I give examples of what this has looked like for me over the past twenty-three years (in terms of emphases for study, readings, mentoring, spiritual disciplines, marriage and family, etc.).

We must “do the work before the work” of leading others. In other words, we must ensure that we possess a sufficient inner journey so that our outer journey of work flows from a deep center with Jesus.

May this podcast expand your horizons and sharpen your ability to hear his voice. ENJOY!

Pete

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The large majority of you may be driving, walking, or working out as you listen. Nonetheless, I will lead you in this podcast through this very slow experience by reading the words as they appear on the screen. I trust you will be able to experience a portion of this gift even without seeing the images. But for the fuller experience with Jesus, let me invite you to click on the image below and watch it via your phone or computer.

Note: I saw the seed of this idea for this somewhere in 2008. (However, I am not sure where that was.) I watered that seed and developed a sermon around it to help people at New Life Fellowship Church integrate silence into their relationship with Jesus. Then, we vastly improved it at our Level 2 Training Conference in May of this past year. We have now retitled it Breathe: Being with God in Silence.

And may the miracle of the Creator becoming a human creature like one of us evoke wonder and worship in you during this season.

Pete

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