J.R. Lee

I read an interesting blog post that I thought was encouraging on one hand and an indictment on the other.

America’s poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do, surveys of charitable giving show. What’s more, their generosity declines less in hard times than the generosity of richer givers does. “The lowest-income fifth (of the population) always give at more than their capacity,” said Virginia Hodgkinson, former vice president for research at Independent Sector, a Washington-based association of major nonprofit agencies. “The next two-fifths give at capacity, and those above that are capable of giving two or three times more than they give.”

Since giving is an issue of trust – I wonder how trustful and trustworthy you and I really are?

I pray every day that Freedom Church would continue to become a powerful church.  A church lacking power isn’t an accurate picture of the character of God.   Jesus didn’t come come to this earth, die, and rise again so that His church could limp along until His return.

God is fully capable of making the extraordinary ordinary.  Leaders of every background, denomination, style, etc. are seeing God do what many had classified as impossible.  How?

Here is something that I’ve come to realize:  Vision is vital, but power comes through prayer.

Vision and strategy are important, but prayer produces the power that can shake a city, state, nation, and world.  My tendency is to spend disproportionate time on vision and strategy – while praying that God blesses the “work” we have done.

I need to stop praying “for” the work and realize that prayer “is” the work.

Matthew 8 contains an intriguing story…

Jesus and some friends were in a boat.  While Jesus was asleep, a huge storm had moved in and the boat wasn’t doing so well.  Neither were Jesus’ traveling companions.

In a panic, they woke Jesus up begging Him to “Save us”, for “we are perishing!”  Jesus responded by saying “Why are you afraid” and then He told the wind to settle down.  His disciples didn’t know what to say – especially when the wind obeyed and the waves stopped.  Actually they responded with “what kind of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey Him?”

Now to the point: It’s interesting to me how often I will beg God for a miracle only to be shocked and surprised when He actually comes through.  I believe enough to “wake him up”, but when He acts, I am taken back.  It shouldn’t be that way.  He already said we’ll get to the “other side of the sea”, now I need to consistently trust Him to get me there.

I read this in the book Leadership Gold.  It’s actually a quote from the book Making a Life, Making a Living by Mark Albion.  Good stuff…

“A study of business school graduates tracked the careers of 1,500 people from 1960 to 1980. From the beginning, the graduates were grouped into two categories. Category A consisted of people who said they wanted to make money first so they could do what they really wanted to do later after they took care of their financial concerns. Those in category B pursued their interests first, sure that the money eventually would follow.

What percentage fell into each category? Of the 1,500 graduates in the survey, the money-now category A’s comprised 83 percent or 1,245 people. Category B risk takers made up 17 percent, 255 graduates.

After 20 years, there were 101 millionaires in the group. Only one came from category A, 100 from category B.   The study’s author, Srully Blotnick, concluded that “the overwhelming majority of people who have become wealthy have become so thanks to work they found profouundly absorbing….Their ‘luck’ arose from the accidental dedication they had to an area they enjoyed.”

I’ve been challenged recently in the area of self-discipline.  I think that it might be one of the most overlooked aspects of leadership – or maybe I just struggle with it a lot and would like to pretend that others do as well.

We talked about this phrase in staff meeting recently and it continues to reverberate in my brain…

The smallest crowd you will ever lead is yourself, but its the most important.  If you don’t do that well, then why should God trust you with a larger one?

That’s a great thought.  If I can’t put the Double-Fudge Brownie back on the plate, exercise consistently, or effectively manage the money that comes my way than what would make me think that I can effectively lead people from where they are to where God wants them to be.  Because I need to stop thinking about this and get back to the gym…I will leave you with this.

Most leaders I know that have screwed up and lost their influence – haven’t done so because of their inability to lead others – it happened when they lost the ability to lead their self.