leadership
What Sucks the Life Out of Your Team?
For the past several weeks, I’ve been exploring the importance and nature of successful intergenerational teams. We’ve considered what it means to be entrusted with our people, a mentoring model we can incorporate, God’s design for intergenerational ministry, and the characteristics of a belonging culture. Now I want to look at one of the qualities of a thriving intergenerational ministry or leadership team: it must be life-giving. So, here’s a question: what sucks the life out of you? What is not life-giving? Take a minute and list some things that come to mind. Actually, write them down. One thing that sucks the life out of me is complainers. I…
Does Your Team Have a Belonging Culture?
Today I want to talk what it means to have a belonging culture on our intergenerational teams. In this series about intergenerational ministry, I’ve been addressing several characteristics of successful ministry teams. We talked about what it means to be entrusted with people, explored a model for building mentoring into our teams, and dove into some ideas around God’s design for intergenerational ministry. Let’s start with a minute of reflection this time. Consider these questions: Do you feel you belong on your team or on the teams you serve on? Do you believe your teammates belong? When I was growing up in the church, here’s how I thought belonging worked:…
Designing the Best Teams
One of my favorite models of intergenerational ministry is the relationship between the apostle Paul and his mentee Timothy as described in Paul’s letters to Timothy. As his Wise Guide, Paul continues mentoring Timothy as he pastors one of the world’s first mega-churches in Ephesus. In the community I serve, we often refer to “Leadership 412.” This refers to what Paul instructs Timothy to do in chapter 4, verse 12 of Paul’s first letter to him. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. (1 Timothy 4:12, NIV) Paul…
Three Essential Mentoring Relationships We All Need
In my research, I discovered three key mentoring relationships that foster growth on teams. Let’s take a look at each and consider how they might already be showing up in your life and workplace. Open a new document or grab a pen and paper. You’ll want to make a few short lists of these mentoring relationships in ministry (etc.) to get the most out of this discussion. The first type of mentor is the Wise Guide. One of the first Wise Guides in my life was my grandmother. I remember driving as a young mom with my kids in the car. Grandma would be in the passenger seat listening to me rant…
What It Means to be Entrusted with Intergenerational Ministry
In your ministry or organization, I’m sure you want God’s design for perpetually-renewing intergenerational ministry and leadership. And you want your organizational team to embrace it, too. In my organization, we have a structural design that means every year we have many intergenerational teams working together in ministry and leadership. Our mission is to help the next generation get ready to speak, and to do that effectively with lasting impact, we had to get intentional about how intergenerational mentoring and collaboration works best. You have been entrusted with people. As leaders, we have been entrusted with people. What does it mean to be entrusted? I think about that quite a…
Flourishing is Fun
My 15-year old was standing next to the kitchen counter staring at me. He put his hands on my shoulders and shook me a bit, exclaiming, “Mom! I know there’s some fun in there somewhere. Can you please find it?!?” Nailed. He was right. I wasn’t all that into “fun.” At least not recently. When my children were very young, I was intentional about helping them have fun. I believed the best learning environments were filled with delight-directed activity and play. As they got older, there were times I forgot. Fun often felt like a pointless distraction. There were so many important things to be done. One of the wisest…
Nourish to Flourish
Years ago our family was visiting friends. As we were preparing to leave, my friend gifted me with a plant. While sliding into the backseat of our car, my then-8-year-old proclaimed, “She doesn’t know you very well, does she, mommy?” Even at their young ages, my children knew I wasn’t very good with plants. My husband, however, had a green thumb. That’s an American phrase meaning “good at gardening.” I hope I can keep his roses alive now that he’s moved to heaven. Under his care, the rose gardens didn’t just survive, they thrived. I – on the other hand – have always been especially talented at placing plants in…
Advent: The Presence of Peace
“How am I supposed to have peace when my life is such a mess?” “….when my child won’t talk to me?” “…when my loved one is gone forever?” “…when the world is so filled with darkness?” These are fair questions. I’ve asked them. You may have too. Or someone close to you has – or is asking them right now. In his Messianic prophecy, Isaiah foretold Jesus would be called the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). In their majestic announcement of Jesus’s arrival, the angels proclaimed there would now be “peace on earth” (Luke 2:14). When Jesus was departing this earth, he left his disciples with this encouraging message: “I…
