humility

Leadership Mistakes: Owning Up

November 28, 2012 by doug 13 Comments

Guest Post: David Hertweck served as senior associate pastor of Trinity A/G in Clay, NY for over eleven years. He served as the lead pastor of inside-out student ministries and element young adults ministries and as a worship leader. He is an ordained Assembly of God minister. He presently serves as the District Youth Ministries and Chi Alpha Director.

One of the most difficult tasks for any leader is when it comes to owning up to their own mistakes. We’re frightfully proficient at deflecting blame and intuitively skilled at protecting self. We carefully craft our words or strategically choose silence to avoid owning up. If you’re anything like me, you have an “inner lawyer” that can readily defend your actions and motives. But everyone loses when leaders don’t own up. Churches and organizations need leaders who own up.

What are the benefits of owning up?

1) The team you lead will be attracted to your transparency and more likely to trust your leadership.

2) Your honesty gives the team a better (and safer!) starting point for the necessary learning and growing conversations.

3) You’re modeling for your team how to humbly own up.

Where do we find the motivation to own up? The same place we find the motivation and power for all true spiritual growth: the Gospel.

The Gospel frees us to own up by giving us a true starting point: we’re sinful beyond belief. Recognizing our own depravity and tendencies keeps us from placing ultimate hope in our leadership skills or in our abilities to make things work and make people happy. When I place my ultimate hope in being “The Leader”, I will be dangerously busy maintaining that image and I’ll find myself becoming unusually angry or down when I fail. The reason? I’ve made my leadership status my true god and when I fail, it has no power to forgive me. It will only crush me. The result? I’ll never own up.

The Gospel also frees us to own up by giving us a true resting place: we’re loved beyond hope because of Jesus. As your heart rests and rejoices in that unchanging truth, you won’t be a slave to approval or achievement because the cross is the source of both of those things. Your true worth to God is never at risk when you make mistakes. The result? You’ll be humble in all your wins and you’ll own up to all your mistakes.

Question: Why is owning-up difficult for you as a leader? Share your thoughts and let’s learn from one another.

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Filed Under: Guest Post, Leadership, posts Tagged With: David Hertweck, guest post, humility, Leadership, mistakes, trust

The pursuit of [REAL] greatness…

August 15, 2012 by doug 12 Comments

I’m a little bummed that the Olympics is over… I wanted to watch more than I did. Oh well, I should still be alive in another 4 years and my chance will continue.

I found it funny that when the Olympics were on… every sport all of a sudden became interesting if there was an American participating. It didn’t matter what it was:

Archery… I actually enjoyed watching it!
Synchronized swimming? As much as I wanted to make fun of it, it was beautiful.
Rhythmic gymnastics could have been called “Dancing with Ribbons.” It looked like someone went to the garage and got some balls and hula hoops to add to their ribbon-dance. I don’t know anyone in the world who does that, or has ever signed their kids up for ribbon dancing club team… but it was awesome!
Power-lifting blew me away. The East German women… dang, I felt so weak as I watched them lift the weight of a Volkswagon.

My favorites were: women’s Volleyball (because my daughter plays), and Gymnastics… mostly because of the things they could do. It was unbelievable! I haven’t been able to stretch enough to touch my toes since the Nixon administration. I pulled a muscle just cheering from my couch.

Olympic athletes were inspirational: 6.5 billion people in the world, and there is nobody better at their specialty than those gold medal winners… in the whole world! They are the greatest!

As the Olympics came to an end, I got thinking about Kingdom Living and how differently Jesus defined greatness. His definition seems a lot more difficult in today’s world than become great at pole vaulting great heights, doing flips off the high-dive, and lifting large weights overhead. Talk about “degree of difficulty.”

So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 18:4

So many striving to be great in the eyes of world… so few living with humility.

I get saddened to see this posture among so many of today’s visible Christian leaders. I don’t know what the answer is and I realize it’s always easier to point out problems than to offer solutions–I’m sorry I don’t have a three point plan to eradicate arrogance. I often wonder what the day will be like when Jesus’ words ring true of the Great Reversal:

“Many who are first will end up last, and the last first.” Mark 10:31

Question: what type of greatness are you pursuing? How do you know? Who has been given “back-stage” privileges to your life to call you out and hold you accountable? Are you going for the [humility] gold? Thoughts?

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Filed Under: Faith, Leadership, Personal, posts Tagged With: arrogance, humility, Leadership, Mark 10:31, Matthew 18:4

5 Benefits of Special Events

October 31, 2011 by doug 4 Comments

This is a guest post by my friend and colleague Mark Matlock. Mark is the executive director (head hauncho) of Youth Specialties. He’s the author of several books, he’s the designer and creator of Planet Wisdom, and a leader in the global youth ministry conversation. You can follow Mark on Twitter at @MarkMatlock.

A big thanks to Doug for inviting me to be a guest blogger today. Working with Doug has been a blast, it’s a relationship I never could have imagined when I accepted the task to take the helm at Youth Specialties (YS) as the executive director. I’ve been part of producing events for more than two decades, and while some people think there isn’t a place for big events anymore, I’d beg to differ. Big or small, there is always something great about the special event. At YS, events come in many flavors NYWC, YS Palooza, PlanetWisdom, YS Listens, or one of our Youth Ministry Unconferences, you just can’t match being physically present with people who are like-minded.

So, I’m going to jump on the “list-making” bandwagon and offer 5 reasons I love special events:

1. Play. Let’s own it and not be ashamed. It’s always a lot of fun to travel and hanging-out with other youth workers. Even though I work hard at conventions and sleep very little, I receive so much joy playing and socializing with others (and that’s saying a lot for an extreme introvert like myself!). I used to be one of those people who thought fun was a bad word, a “lesser” value, but I was wrong. Play is healthy. Play leads to innovation. Play enhances community.

2. Humility. When I started attending the National Youth Workers Convention, I always made time to stand in the exhibit hall… to stop and realize that I wasn’t the only person who thought they were doing great things for Jesus. Real quickly you come to realize how small you are apart from the work of God. You begin to value others. For this reason I still walk the exhibit hall to this day.

3. New Perspectives. While I love just about any gathering of youth workers, I crave gatherings that are diverse. One goal I have at every National Youth Workers Convention is to attend a seminar or meet someone who doesn’t think like me. I learn a lot from people I disagree with or don’t normally travel in their circles. This year I enjoyed sitting in our theological forums–we had people who think much differently than I do wrestling with theology and practice of youth ministry. I learned a lot about myself even if I didn’t fully embrace the view of another. NYWC has the most diverse gathering of youth workers, we can do better, but we do work hard to represent the breadth of our community.

4. Getting Unstuck. It seems most of the counseling and coaching I do centers around one reality: Getting a person I care about “unstuck”. It is amazing how quickly we can settle into a rhythm that destroys our creativity and overall health. Events help us get unstuck, they may be the most effective ways to have that happen. At NYWC in 2005 I was stuck, a freak 10 minute encounter with Doug got me moving again, in fact, it was the first action that led to a series of other important events that led me to my current positions. I got unstuck and I know it can happen for you too.

5. Returning Home. I never fully realize the value an event has had on my life until I return to my everyday life. Every time I return from NYWC or another event I see life and ministry differently. I spend time sharing with others what happened to me and I approach the tasks that face me with new energy, passion and vision. Based on the many emails I receive after an event, I know the same is true for others. Events are meant to be a profound contrast to our everyday routine.

You know, it’s hard to take care of ourselves. It feels selfish, and it’s not why we do what we do, but we need to take care of ourselves or our marriages and ministries quickly fall apart. Doug, Kara, Tic myself and the YS team (including nearly 40 youth workers that work 15 hourdays as volunteers) hope you’ll join us at NYWC this fall or YS Palooza next spring. It may just be the boost you’re needing, and we are excited to serve you. Join us and prepared to be surprised by what God may do in your life!

Question: What do you like about events? Share your input here.