Archive for Message to My Leaders
From time to time I like to share “letters to my staff”. Here are some reasons why:
- So I can brag on what Jesus is doing through them & in them. Seriously, people repeat what gets praised. If you want your team to repeat something, then praise them for it. But be genuine and authentic about it. Praise that is dis-genuine will be taken as a “slick trick to manipulate” them.
- So other leaders and pastors know that every team has its ups and downs but great leaders learn to trust their staff and lean on them during times of distress and turmoil, but especially during times of growth and winning! To win we must build up those around us and rely on them, great leaders entrust great levels of responsibility to reliable leaders around them.
Here is a recent letter to my staff:
Hey DC Staff,
I am so proud of you and how Jesus is working in your hearts.
Thank you for trusting Jesus enough to bring your best every Sunday at TheDC.tv – Every Sunday is the Super Bowl for Jesus!
Thank you for loving this city enough to invest in leadership development and visiting Northway Church so we can learn how to go to the next level!
Thank you for being humble enough to listen and learn from those further along than we are. You will always find someone further along so instead of getting jealous we should just learn and grow from them.
Thank you for investigating and interrogating. If we want to learn from those at the next level then we must put ourselves at the feet of those at the next level.
Thank you for being real in your spirituality. We can only reproduce who we are, not who we wish we were.
Thank you for inviting your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers to meet Jesus at TheDC.tv. Nothing else matters. Followers Fish!
Thank you for putting your families first, because healthy ministry requires healthy families. Be loyal to your families; Jesus is! Thank you for doing ministry with your families! Family and ministry go hand in hand, they don’t compete, they complete one another!
Thank you for supporting your pastor no matter what and truly investing in the vision Jesus has given to him. Every vision caster (lead pastor) needs a team of vision carriers. Thank you for carrying the vision Jesus has given to me and this church! Behind every great leader is a team of great leaders.
Thank you for giving financially. Thank you for giving cheerfully, regularly, and sacrificially.
Thank you for submitting to Jesus and His vision for the church. Nobody seeks after Jesus, HE SEEKS US, and we submit to Him.
Don’t grow weary “inviting your friends to meet Jesus” in due time we will reap a harvest.
Can’t wait to bust through the next growth barrier on October 11th | REHAB MY LOVE LIFE | www.theDC.tv
Investing your wealth into the mission of Jesus is never easy but it is always worth it. Thank you for sacrificing for the One Who sacrificed for us!
Inviting your friends to meet Jesus is never easy, but it is always worth it!
We aren’t inviting people to church, we are inviting people to Jesus through the church. JESUS IS THE VISION, CHURCH IS THE VEHICLE!
We all know that Beyonce wants to upgrade you (”Let me, let me, let me upgrade, let me upgrade ya”). But did you know that God is constantly seeking to upgrade you as well.
He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. (Eph.4:16 NLT)
Last night we had the privilege of BLESSING 500 PEOPLE IN THE NAME OF JESUS with free water and bubbles. We gathered at Manchester’s downtown Film Festival in Veteran’s Park (the movie was funny, Hotel for Dogs) and the event coordinator, COMMUNITY EVENTS LCC, really did a fantastic job (big props to Chris).
And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded. (Matt.10:42 NLT)
JESUS IS STILL IN THE BLESSING BUSINESS. Seriously, I was blown away last night by the response on both sides of the blessing: those who were being blessed and those who were doing the blessing (GO TEAM DC).
As the Church of Jesus Christ seeks to be all that Jesus dreams her to be, then we must seek an UPGRADE, A LOVE UPGRADE. And we must seek to bring that upgrade of love to all the hurting, broken, and confused here in our city. I can’t help but believe that Jesus has placed us right in the heart of this city because that is where we can make the biggest impact for God and His love story. There are so many thirsty for real life, the kind of life that only God can give. AND LAST NIGHT, THE DC MADE JESUS REALLY PROUD, IT WAS ALL ABOUT MAKING JESUS FAMOUS & BLESSING OUR COMMUNITY IN A SIMPLE AND PRACTICAL WAY (way to go Dawn, Lissa, and the rest of the DC Team for pulling this off – and Manchester, you ain’t seen nothing yet)!
I have made a personal commitment to raise up a generation of Christ-leaders that will completely revolutionize this city for heaven’s sake.
Here is how I am fulfilling this commitment:
1. I am committing to spending more time on leadership development in my own life. That means I am going to immerse myself in leadership books from those who are getting it done with the mission of Jesus. I am going to be visiting leadership conferences hosted by the nation’s top church leaders. And I am going to be committed to sharing all of that with all of you.
2. We are raising the bar on what it means to lead for Jesus here at The DC. That means if you don’t like it, then move on. I am serious. What Jesus has called us to is bigger than me and you combined. I will not get in the way of what Jesus wants to do here, and I won’t let anyone else get in the way either.
3. One more way I am going to really invest in leadership development here at The DC is by feeding each of you on a regular basis what I am learning in leadership and offering practical ways to grow in your own areas of ministry. One new tool for disseminating this leadership advice is through this blog.
Here is what I am inviting you all to do:
1. Pray for God to ruin you for the mission of Jesus. Ask God to break your heart for those far from God here in our city. Like I said, even if we had a 100 churches running 1,000 people every Sunday, we would still only be reaching half of this Greater Manchester Area. We live in the most densely populated region of the country and yet we have the lowest church attendance and the smallest churches in the country. That needs to change. Pray that God will burden your heart about this. Pray that God will enlarge your vision for The Dialogue Church and your involvement in the mission of Jesus through the vision of The Dialogue Church.
2. If you have sin in your life, then confess it to Jesus. He loves you and went to the cross for you. Sin will keep you from serving Jesus authentically, and sin will keep you from truly impacting others with the gospel. We can’t have that on our leadership team. So confess it and leave it behind you. Jesus will give you the strength to overcome it. If your sin is embracing a mediocre spirituality then confess it to Jesus and start pursuing Christ above all else.
3. Subscribe to the new leadership blog. If you are on this leadership team then I want you to subscribe to this leadership blog. If you need help with this step I can easily help you, just ask. This step is critical in feeding you leadership lessons from the Bible’s crater in my own life. If you don’t subscribe then I will assume that you don’t care about the mission of Jesus and making it hard to go to hell from downtown Manchester!
PS: If you have noticed that I am fired up about Jesus and His mission, well I am! And you haven’t seen anything yet. Just wait until this Sunday! More people need to meet Jesus, and we are here to make sure that happens! Nothing else matters!
Be strong and be vigilante because the Devil doesn’t like getting kicked in the nuts!
