Session V: The Creativity Challenge
Learn to be a good steward of your mind
Love God with the Left side (logical) and the Right (creative) side of your brain

There is a natural shift from Right to Left. When we learn something it begins in the right side- fun, mystery, new, exciting. As we become more familiar with the action it natural moves from imagination to rote behavior. From excitement to simply going though the motions.

Five ways to stay creative.
1) Cross Pollenate- Read like crazy. Read anything and everything. Master your domain but have the guts to move outside your comfort zone and learn something new and challenging

2) Do Recon- go to conferences, visit other churches, download multiple podcasts

3) Exegete Culture- the Athenian Approach (Acts 17)

4) Allow for Mistakes- learn to adjust and find the sweet spot

5) Notice Details- Anything says something about everything. 1% of what you makes 99% of the difference

Change of place + change of pace = change of perspective

Creativity is exceeding expectations.

Session III: The Personal Challenge- Who are you becoming?
5 Thoughts from Mark Batterson

1) Establish Boundaries- helps to maintain sanity
Mark doesn’t travel more than 30 night away from his family each year
Doesn’t check email on his day off
Uses all of his vacation days (owes that time away to his family)

2) Put Family First- do not sacrifice your family on the altar of ministry
One way Mark puts his family first is through his Father/Son challenge (FSM): as his son becomes a teen Mark and his son are participating in a spiritual challenge (reading the NT together), an intellectual challenge (reading books together), and a physical challenge (running a 10-k together)- all this to be intentional about raising his kids

3) Set Life Goals-
Family goals
Travel goals
Physical goals
Influence goals
Financial goals

4) Focus on personal growth- ministry comes from the outflow of your heart (true that!!!) and that is contagious to your people

5) Create Margin- breathing room
Mark takes Mon. off, schedules meeting days on Tues/Thurs, and focuses on study/prep on Wed/Fri

Personal Challenge Q&A
What does your Sabbath look like?
a) Carves out time for spiritual reading
b) Time with family (if you can discipline yourself during the week then it will create more time for you ad your family)
c) connects with wife over coffee- go through important conversations- fill each other in- calendar issues

What does your work week look like?
20 hrs (min.) for sermon prep
Learn to manage your energy- when; at what time are you at your best?

What is the most important thing you do each week?
Speed of the leader determines the speed of the team
Jud- 1) soul care; 2) strategic leading of the leadership team
Mark- 1) Team meeting- Asking the team, “Where have you experienced wins?”; 2) Sermon prep

You talked about FSM, what about your daughter?
Reading together- Chronicle of Narnia
Create open lines of communication
Shemah- as you rise, walk along the road
Notice how your kids express their love to you give insights into how the receive love

In session 2, Jud Wilhite of Central Christian Church in Las Vegas spoke about the need to stay on mission and to keep our people focused through vision casting.

People need to know where they are going. Over time people/churches drift. Mission —> Memorial —> Monument —> Mosque

They start On Mission. They know their purpose, why they are there. There is excitement, mystery, and challenges. They are on fire and gung ho for the mission at hand.

Then comes a time where the church moves to a time of Memorial. The past was effective and we memorialize past victories. We celebrate the past and ignore the future.

Next comes the Monument phase. This old church is now a monument to the past. Nothing has changed for years and there is no growth. I think of the great church buildings in Europe.

Next is the Mosque phase. Jud explained that he added this phase after a prominent older baptist church closed its doors and was purchased by a Muslim group and turned into a mosque.

The point is that without vision the mission dies.

Vision can unify or divide and that’s ok. People must choose between being 100% on board or moving on.

Vision Challenges:
A) Clarity of Vision- clarity is more important than inspiration
clarity in words, practices/ there is no excuse for your people to not know what the specific mission of your church is

B) Vision Consitency- Jud says that about every 30 days he is teaching/praching/reminding his people who they are and what the vision/goals of the church is

Think through applications —> How can the church as a whole apply the lessons & how can individuals personally apply the lessons —> this naturally leads to vision

C) Culture of Vision- is your church a cruise ship or a battle ship?

Cruise ship- On cruise ships people are served. They are not asked to do anything, sacrifice anything. Activities are presented to them. Behind the scenes few serve the many.

Battle ship- All hands on deck. Working together for a common mission. Training, recruiting, brotherhood, victories, adventure.

“You will have to talk about vision 1000 times more than you think you will have to.”

Vision Q & A
How do you serve under a (self-described) non visionary leader?
Gene Edwards- A Tale of 3 Kings – Which king are you? Saul, David, Absolem?
2 options- stay or leave. There is no option 3.

How do you know your vision is from God? Visioneering resources.
Read like crazy & pray like crazy. This keeps you sensitive to the Spirit of God. Pay attention to the matrix around you- the people, your passion, the timing. Ask yourself, “What am I compelled to do?”
Resources: Visioneering by Andy Stanly; Holy Discontent by Hybels

How do you bring clarity to your vision?
State of the Church address each January (at least once a year)
Ask, “What’s the next step?”
Personally stay fired up about the vision.

This week I’ll be posting my notes from the Unplugged Conference. There were five sessions on the greatest challenges leaders must face and I’ll post a different challenge each day this week. We’ll start with Session 1: The Motivation Challenge.

I wish that we had discussed ministry motivation more when I was in college. In fact there are two sides to the motivation challenge. There is so much power behind figuring out, focusing on, and remembering the reasons why we do what we do.

We concentrated on Matthew 10:5-16 when discussing the challenge of motivation.

“Jesus sent out (the twelve) with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near. ’Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

“Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts—no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for workers are worth their keep. Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at that person’s house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your blessing. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”

“Go”- go out into the world rather than expect them to come to us

“Freely you have received, freely give.”- Minister out of the joy that you’ve been given. Giving much returns much.

“As you enter the home, give it your blessing.” Goes back to Abraham that we are to bless the world. Mark talked about that too often we give our blessing to people/things long after we deem it worthy. Jesus told the twelve to bless first, evaluate on the go.

“shake the dust off your feet”- I know I’ve felt the need to shake off the dust after meeting with certain people or after many situations. Nothing like a good old fashioned dust shaking to get you back to the things that matter.

Innocent as Doves
“Innocent as Doves”- Do things with the right motivation; continually checking the motives behind your actions

My will vs. THY WILL 1Sam. 14 & 15 – In ch. 14, Saul builds an alter to the LORD. In 15, he builds an alter to himself. In one chapter Saul’s motivation for leadership went from honoring the LORD to honoring himself. It happens that quickly.

The Comparing Game with distort your heart and lead you down one of two ways. First, you will compare yourself to people less talented and gifted than you are. This will lead you to believe that you are better than everyone else- we call that Pride.

Secondly, you’ll compare yourselves to people who are more talented, more gifted, and have better resources than you leading you to believe that life’s not fair and how you really deserve all that they have- we call that Jealousy.

Kill the selfish ambition inside of you.

Shrewd as Snakes
“Shrewd as snakes”- Like the men of Issachar. Men who knew the times and knew what to do. (1Chr. 12:32)

Definition: Outsmart the enemy at its own game; understanding the times; redeeming culture rather than consuming it blindly.

Contextual Intelligence- learning the times an discovering ways to harness new media for the kingdom. Podcasts, social networks, webcasts, invite cards

“Church is a tag-team sport.” When people bring friends/family to services they are tagging the leadership to answer questions, point to God, honor Jesus. Then each week leaders tag their people to move out from the doors of the building and take the message of the kingdom to the streets. “Tag you’re it.”