Life is about progress, not perfection.

I have a great friend named Jim Thurston who I have been working with here at Timberline for a couple of years now. Jim is one of our Timberline Deacons and he and his wife Karen have been a big part of mine and Allyson’s life. A couple of years ago I asked Jim to come alongside of me and help me develop into a better leader. He is a retired business man and owned an Insurance firm up in Wyoming. We get along great everyday of the year except one, the day that CSU and Wyoming play the Border War. He is a great friend and I am very thankful for his friendship.

About a year and a half ago he came to our nine70 staff meetings and talked to our young adult staff about the importance of time management and how to manage your time more effectively. It was a lifechanging experience for me personally and it really impacted our team. Last Fall I asked him to come talk to a group of our Pastors here at Timberline and we spent about 4 straight weeks with him talking about leadership and managing our time as leaders.

He recently sent us an email that was a great encouragement to me in one key area of leadership, the email focused on PERSEVERANCE. There are many traits that will help leaders succeed but perseverance is one of those non-negotiables within leadership. The email included the following experpt from the book The Best Way Out is Always Through by BJ Gallagher. It is called “Staying the Course”. The message of this excerpt is timely and hit home for me. I tend to be a perfectionist and I know that there are insecurities in my life that cause me to want to be a perfectionist. I am asking God to show me these areas of my life. I think having high standards is a good thing, but not when it drives you frustration. May the message of this blog encourage you to look at life a little differently and allow you to stop and enjoy all life brings.

I hope you enjoy it and it encourages you:

Our journey of life is about progress,  not perfection. It’s not about doing one thing 100% better – it’s a matter of doing 100 things, 1% better each day. Progress is evolutionary not revolutionary, and most days we measure our progress in inches, not miles. What matters most is showing up for your life whether you feel like it or not. Ask yourself, “What two or three little things can I do today that would move me forward?”

You’ll be amazed  at how much distance you can cover by taking it in increments.

The little things add up; the inches turn to miles; and we string together our efforts like so many pearls. Before long, look what you have – a whole strand!

Ah… beautiful.

The Principles of a successful burger stand (and how it relates to ministry)

Growing up in Southern California I made a certain burger joint a regular part of my diet. In-N-Out burger has been feeding the appetites of Californians for over half a century. Drive to any local In-N-Out in California (and now in Nevada and Arizona) and you will probably be there with others who have flocked to the burger joint because of their reputation for fresh food, great burgers as well as prompt and courteous service. I now live in Northern Colorado  and whenever I head to the West Coast to visit my parents I make it a point to try and have a couple of Burgers made “Animal Style”. IN n Out’s popularity has spread all over the country with their famous bent palm tree stickers on the windshields and bumpers of thousands of vehicles on the road. How does a burger stand turned multi-million dollar corporation get to this point? How does a burger place that is only located in 3 out of 50 states get to the point where they have almost 200,000 followers on Facebook? There is only one word to describe how this happened, quality. In-N-Out Burgers are know for their quality. I have never had a burger that I didn’t like and every burger tastes the exact same.

Now what does a burger restaurant review have to do with being a Youth Pastor? Well if you look at the formula that makes In-N-Out a success in the business world you may see that there is a major principle that we can all learn from. In-N-Out has made a living on a fairly sparse menu. Their menu is simple and hasn’t changed in years: hamburger, cheeseburger, double-double (Double Stacked burger), fries, coke, shake (See above). That’s it. We can all name fast food places that offer many types of food but we don’t go there unless we absolutely have to. With this type of steamed down menu In-N-Out is able to provide excellent quality because they are focused on perfecting a few items.

JACK OF ALL TRADES, MASTER OF NONE

Ever heard the phrase, “Jack of all trades, master of none”. Unfortunately for many of us this phrase rings true within the context of ministry.

If you take a look at most churches and ministries there are lots of events going on and ministries offered but how successful can they be? Everyone has 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, yet some people seem to accomplish more than others and some ministries seem to be making more of an impact than others. Why is that? What are they doing? Chances are they are doing less.

If you take a poll of Youth Pastors nation-wide you will probably hear that the majority of them don’t have enough time to accomplish all they want. I heard someone recently say that if you don’t have time to accomplish all that you want in ministry then you are probably doing some things that God doesn’t want you doing. The problem isn’t that Youth Pastors are lazy or don’t know what they are doing, the problem is that most Youth Pastors are simply doing too much. If you want to accomplish more within ministry then you will have to learn how to do less.

This principle of stewardship was communicated by our Lord in the 15^th chapter of John’s Gospel. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (John 15:1-2). Here Jesus shows us that each of our lives is represented by a branch that bears fruit. Look at verse 2, the skilled gardener cuts off fruit from branches that are fruitful so that the branch will be even more fruitful.

How does this effect you? A lot of us have a plethora of ministries offered and tons of great events for those within our ministry influence. But if you are anything like me you find yourself doing a whole lot of “stuff”, but not really doing what you set out to do in the first place. Impact lives for Christ. Those Pastors that learn that they cant do everything and focus their attention on what’s important are able to make a huge difference in the lives of people. I know Pastors that will spend hours on Facebook and their blog-site yet spend little time building face to face relationships with those within their ministry and even less time preparing for the spiritual direction of their flock. A couple of years ago our leaders saw that our ministry was great at putting on outreach events but we were falling way short in the area of discipling our students. We vowed to put into place the principle of John 15:1-2 and stopped doing outreach events for one year so that we could focus our attention on doing a few things (Discipleship) and doing it well. The crazy thing with cutting off fruit is that fruit is good. The reason a branch exists is to produce fruit, but that’s where a skilled gardener comes in. A skilled gardener can identify which fruit has more potential to grow and cuts off the fruit that isn’t likely to produce as much fruit. In ministry everything you are doing is probably good, but as Jim Collins says, “Good is the enemy of great”.

I challenge you to take a look at all that you are doing and all that your ministry is doing. What in your ministry can be “cut off” so that other areas of your life / ministry can become even more fruitful. I used to wonder why I couldn’t get a taco or a salad at In-N-Out, but  after understating this principle I am glad and will have another Animal Style Burger while I visit the West Coast.

Carmelo Anthony (The Growth Of a Maturing Leader)

Carmelo Anthony has achieved a lot in his life at this point. He led Syracuse to the NCAA National championship as a freshman. He was the first pick for the Denver Nuggets 6 years ago, which on the outside, seemed to start a positive and success filled basketball career for the young Carmelo.  Then his legal troubles started surfacing.  

Carmelo was a part of a documentary filmed in his home town of Baltimore warning people of “snitching” (giving information to authorities) about things going on in the neighborhood. This same documentary had friends of his threatening to lynch Larry Brown (the Olympic coach at the time) if Carmelo was benched for any amount of time. He knew it was being filmed and should have known better. Those in the basketball world labeled him a trouble maker and a black eye in the NBA.  On the court he was suspended 15 games for a fight that broke out with the New York Knicks in which Carmelo threw a sucker punch that landed on an opposing player’s face. He has been arrested and charged with marijuana possession, a charge that was later dropped because a friend took the blame for the marijuana. His most recent legal trouble found Carmelo picked up for a DUI while driving in the early morning hours on a Denver freeway. All in all Carmelo has had a horrible reputation and any dream he  had of becoming an NBA icon was quickly diminishing because of his on the court and off the court antics. However, his participation on the 2008 USA Olympic Basketball team seems to have changed Carmelo for the better.

During these NBA playoffs there has been much attention given to the young Carmelo, however, this attention is not about his performance on the basketball court. It seems that almost any conversation about Carmelo on sports networks is giving credit for Carmelo’s on the court success to the fact that he seems to have matured greatly off the court. In an interview with ESPN Carmelo said that his exposure to last year’s Olympic team has impacted him greatly. He saw a team that was focused on being the best team, not a team of individuals focused on being All Stars. Carmelo talked of the work ethic that he witnessed and how he recognized that if he wanted to be successful in the NBA he would have to change his attitude and, more importantly, his off the court attitude.

A couple of weeks before the 2008-2009 NBA season started the Denver Nuggets traded for hometown hero Chauncey Billups. Chauncey Billups is a very talented basketball player but is better known for be a gentleman within the NBA.  The Denver and national media have given Chauncey a lot of credit in Carmelo’s maturity. It seems that the last 18 months have changed Carmelo as a basketball player and more importantly as a human being. Carmelo Anthony has become a basketball icon and is one of the biggest stars in the NBA at this point. As a leader I think that there is a lot to be learned of Carmelo’s journey.

Carmelo Anthony is a leader. Not only because he can play basketball well, but because he is an influencer. I don’t know Carmelo at all, but I would bet that he never saw himself as much of a leader because great leaders don’t ever know they are great leaders. The difference is that Carmelo used to influence people in a negative way and now it seems that he has grasped the idea of impacting people and taking responsibility for influencing people in a positive way. What’s different about him? What changed? Again, I don’t know Carmelo Anthony at all, but I bet that the last 18 months have everything to do with this newly perceived maturity.

He has cut his hair and not only have his off the court troubles subsided, but even his post-game interviews reflect his new-found maturity. In this year’s NBA Western Conference Playoffs the Carmelo’s team played a physically grueling series with the Dallas Mavericks. This series got pretty chippy at times and tempers and emotions ran high. The old Carmelo may have mouthed off in post-game interviews but this year’s installment of Carmelo Anthony was cool, collected and very mature in how he handled questions from the media about the “dirty play” between the Nuggets and the Mavericks.

GREAT LEADERS SURROUND THEMSELVES WITH GREAT LEADERS

Carmelo’s experience on the 2008 USA Olympic basketball team opened his eyes to the way others go about their work. There is a lesson in this: sometimes the best thing we can do is put ourselves in a place where we are surrounded with people that are more successful than we are at a certain task. In Carmelo’s world it was surrounding himself with Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, etc… for me as a Pastor it is seeking out those who have been where I am at and are where I want to be. Right now I am seeking out conversations with Pastors who have been faithful servants of God longer than I have been alive. It is not horrible to surround yourself with people that are on the same level as you or are where you have been, but to grow personally and especially in your leadership ability you need to seek out people that are where you want to go. If longevity is what you are looking for, look for people that have been doing your profession for years. The reason we don’t do this is either pride or fear. Either we think we don’t need to seek out others to see how they go about their lives because we have it all figured out or we are too afraid of facing the truth about ourselves and in turn shy away from surrounding ourselves with those that have gone before us.

I encourage you to find people that you can talk to about your profession or career. What have they done that helped them become successful? What are their daily, weekly, monthly habits / goals? What are they doing that you are not doing and what are you doing that they would advise you not to do? It seems that these kinds of conversations have happened between Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony and it seems to have impacted Carmelo for the better.

These are great questions to ask and to contemplate as leaders. I am personally very proud to see the maturity in Carmelo Anthony and I am thankful for his example of maturity and for the lesson in it for all of us. Is there a “Chauncey” you can surround yourself with in life? Everyone needs a “Timothy” in who they mentor, we all need a “Barnabas” that encourages us, and everone of us needs a “Paul” (Or Chauncey) who can mentor us. May you find yours.

Go Nuggets.