The Force of Focus (part 2): Five practical ways we can maintain a narrow focus
Force of focus (part 2), five practical ways we can maintain a narrow focus and keep the main thing, the main thing.
Leading and Grieving
Other than at funerals, how many sermons do we hear on death? Surely, as leaders, we need to be more proactive. Death is part of life which means it’s part of our discipleship. Therefore, we need to talk about death!
The Force of Focus (part 1)
Leaders face multiple distractions. In a complex and busy world, focus is a powerful force.
10 Highlights from 10 Years
In the blink of an eye, I’ve been with The Message Trust for ten years. Therefore, I thought I’d post 10 things I’m grateful for about being part of The Message South Africa and global family.
Working while Waiting: Leadership Gems from Andrew Murray
Waiting and working might seem contradictory, but Andrew Murray shows how they must be held in balance as a Christian leader.
Serving Young People: 3 Principles for Youth Development
It seems that every generation of young people needs to find themselves and their place in society. The challenge is, how do we create an environment for young people to discover their place in society without them falling prey to desperation and negative life choices?
This article proposes three principles for youth development.
Follow the Call
I share a little about my calling to mission and invite you to watch a video about how we are developing the ministry of The Message in Africa.
Do you not perceive it?
“I wanted to change their perception of what is possible”. Siya Kolisi
Perception is powerful! In particular, as Christian leaders, how we perceive what God is doing in the world will critically shape our approach to life and ministry.
Thread of grace
It was 1944. The Germans were losing the battle on the Russian front. My grandfather (Opa in German) was a recent recruit to the front… but his physical war didn’t last long. Within a few months, he had been captured and taken as a prisoner of war. Now a new battle began…
The Grab a Towel mandate: apprenticing to Jesus.
The foreman screamed across the shop floor… “Tucker… what the ******* are you doing – you’ll lose a finger”. I immediately realised how stupid I was being… seeking to clear metal shards from the rotating drill with my hand. My safety report that week was somewhat humiliating. Being an apprentice on the shop floor had its ups and downs. This was definitely a low point! But I believe in the principle of apprenticing – I don’t think there’s anything quite like on-the-job training. And this equally applies to being Jesus’ apprentices…
Getting off the Treadmill
2020 is drawing to a close… I can hear that collective sigh of relief. Although there are clearly concerns about the uncertainty of the future…
navigating crises are a part of life. Perhaps the scale of the Covid-19 crisis is unique – but some of what I’ve faced this year has felt strangely familiar…
The question of curiosity
It seems to me that part of our expectation of leaders is that they can answer our questions and solve our problems. There is a danger that we want our leaders to be omniscient and fail to recognise that the greatest leaders do not try and be the fount of all knowledge. In fact, I’ve been wondering recently if the power of great leadership rather rests in the ability to ask great questions and to remain curious.
Navigating Covid-19
This post reflects on leading The Message Trust through the last 6 months… As we entered 2020, we were full of hope and optimism for the year ahead. Our keyword for the year was expectant… but the one thing we didn’t expect was Covid-19 and the hard lockdown.
Evangelism: the call to faithful stewardship
If we are to exert godly influence as leaders, then we must prioritise becoming Christ-centred servant leaders which should shape our entire approach to life and ministry… I believe that a critical foundation of servant leadership is that those in leadership see themselves primarily as custodians/stewards. We can get ourselves into all kinds of trouble when we forget this principle.
Detoxing my heart
there is an insidious threat to Christian leaders that looks like we’re putting people first, but it is actually the antithesis of servant leadership. Rather than putting people first, we succumb to the disease of being a people -pleaser.
Keep Your Head
There’s a scene in the Matrix where Neo first enters the computer generated world and is learning to live counter to what he has been programmed his whole life. He is with his mentor, Morpheus, and they are walking against the tide of hundreds of people on a city’s streets. Morpheus, overcoming the confines of his mind, is able to walk without bumping into anyone – parting the proverbial Red Sea of people. Neo, on the other hand, bumps into everybody and is unable to avoid all the tide of people in his path.
I believe that the experience of a Christ-centred servant leader is more like Neo’s experience than Morpheus’s.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: no more cheap grace
On April 9th 1945, 23 days before the Nazis’ surrender and the end of the Second World War, Hitler’s orders to hang Dietrich Bonhoeffer were carried out. Bonhoeffer had been imprisoned for almost exactly two years. His legacy, however, is not just as an opponent to Nazism through involvement in the active resistance to Hitler’s evil regime, but is primarily as a preeminent theologian and humble Christ-centred servant leader. He was a ‘deep-well’ leader… combining depth of theological insight together with fruitful ministry… the fruit of which has extended into the century beyond his physical life.
There is no them… only us
The history of humanity is a litany of devastation and destruction when the ‘us’ rises against ‘them’. Even in leadership speak we have ‘leaders’ and ‘followers’… which risks causing an unnecessary “us” and “them” divide in our organisations, on our teams, and in our churches. Grab a Towel seeks to break down the myth of us and them… recognising that as Christians we are all followers, and we are all leaders – carrying influence in this world. There is no them, it’s only us…
‘That might not be such a stupid idea…’ and other clues to discerning your vision
According to most leadership gurus, we all need to have a vision for our life. I don’t necessarily disagree… but what I’ve come to question is the process we undertake to comprehend the vision and calling that God has for us…
This post documents my personal journey in discovering my calling and vision…
Born Followers
Maybe a more critical question for Christian leaders is not ‘are we born leaders’, but, ‘are we effective followers?’ The essential unifying quality of every Christ-centred servant leader is that they are first and foremost a follower…