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Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category
Adventures in Relationships
By: Jock Ficken
This is a tricky one: Navigating relationships as a congregational leader in today’s world. You’ve told your teenage kids (if you have them): Show me your 5 best friends and I can tell you where you’re headed. The Apostle Paul said it this way: bad company corrupts good character. (1 Corinthians 15:33) It’s the same … Continue reading
The Leadership Adventure Continues
By: Jock Ficken
Last week I invited you into a season of adventure and leadership discovery. But first, this is why it’s important: We’ve had 2 years of everything taking a toll on everyone. Everything changed right in front of us, and accelerated us into a world we could little have imagined. Almost all of us have experienced … Continue reading
Time for Adventure and a Return to Learning
By: Jock Ficken
The summer of 2022 should be an invitation into adventure for you and me as leaders! “Seriously?” you say. Yes! Adventure…as wide-eyed learners! Set aside the expert “thing” for just a little bit. (A few years back when one of our teenage sons was making a few decisions Gail and I didn’t think were best, … Continue reading
Identity – Capturing Freedom to Lead and Live
By: Jock Ficken
Every person I know risks fastening their identity to the wrong thing. That’s alarming given the fact that identity might be the most fundamental of leadership building blocks. The Flourishing in Ministry study funded by the Lilly Foundation in 2019 interviewed thousands of pastors. Their results showed that placing your identity in the wrong thing … Continue reading
Exposing Conflicting Values…The 3 Bold Steps of an Adaptive Leader
By: Jock Ficken
We live in a highly secularized culture. It’s often dismissive, and sometimes hostile. Churches face the choice of adapting or disconnecting from their worlds. The Spirit still works through the Word of God in all manner of contexts. As a result, leaders need an attitude adjustment to expose conflicting values in our collective hearts if … Continue reading
Urgent? Or Important?
By: Jock Ficken
Parish ministry for me was always punctuated with the urgent and the important. It was an easy call for me. It was the so called “tyranny of the urgent” that was also unimportant that was a perpetual discipline. BUT, my ability to make the important but not urgent a priority was always critical! I sometimes did it well, and … Continue reading
Is it Safe? Is it Smart?
By: Jock Ficken
Recognize it or not, you probably filter almost every action, initiative, decision, adaptation, plan, or program through two questions: Is it safe? Is it smart? Now, whether you realize it or not, the folks you lead have the same filter going on every time you stand up and point to a direction, paint a future … Continue reading
Leading with What’s Left
By: Jock Ficken
Mistakes Leaders Make and How to Fix Them “I’m not sure how much I have left.” There have been a few pivotal moments/seasons in my leadership years where I’ve hauntingly wondered, occasionally voiced, “I’m not sure how much I have left.” I’d tell Gail. In my darkest “I wonder what’s left” moments it was sometimes … Continue reading
2 Questions Forward-Looking Leaders Ask
By: Jock Ficken
Here are the two big questions being asked by church leaders who are looking forward! How do I or we (as a church) disciple people? What does that actually look like? It’s more than a class, more than transferring information. How do we create a culture of discipleship in our congregation? A few admit to … Continue reading
Words for Your Leadership Soul
By: Jock Ficken
This week I want to offer some good words for your leadership soul… and the souls of your leaders! Last week, I started reading/listening to the Gospel of Matthew with my friend Eugene Peterson’s The Message. Allow me to simply offer this to you today. I’ve gone back to it a number of times. And, … Continue reading
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