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Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category
3 Benefits of Pride and Arrogance
By: Jock Ficken
Hmmm! 3 Benefits? In seasons when it’s really hard, OR I’m not well, OR our church is not well, OR the tick, tick, tick of postponing actions or hard decisions is waiting to detonate…pride and arrogance gets crushed in me…needs to get crushed in me! But it doesn’t seem to go anywhere if I don’t have … Continue reading
The Conspiracy of Silence… The Leader’s Biggest Mistake
By: Jock Ficken
Leaders across the church…not all leaders but plenty of leaders, women and men, denominational officials, pastors, God-fearing leaders…they don’t speak up and define: Here’s our reality. Here’s what this means. Here’s the big challenge in front of us. Maybe because they… “When you put a name on your reality you now have the capacity to … Continue reading
Will the Next 10 Years be the most Fruitful?
By: Jock Ficken
What does it take for the next 10 years to be the most fruitful 10 years of your leadership life? Like last week, it will include… Necessary Endings New beginnings A “not so easy” journey through the Muddled Middle or Neutral Zone Do these well in your church? Change gets easier. Do these well personally … Continue reading
Six Energy Outputs for Top Level Leaders
By: Jock Ficken
Leadership takes energy. However if you’re like me you don’t have a never ending supply. Here are six places to focus your energy that will multiply your efforts. 1 Enter New Territory. Build relationships with spiritual sojourners outside your ministry context. You’ll gain insight that can unlock a mission future. AND be nimble. The culture changes … Continue reading
3 Critical Steps to your Best Leadership Future
By: Jock Ficken
As a leader, what if the next 10 years were your best 10 years? No matter your age and stage! The workplace is full of people that have decided that they are too old to make a shift. – William Bridges in Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes You’ve seen a lot about 1000 Young … Continue reading
64 Things You Might Not Be Good At and What to Do About It!
By: Jock Ficken
It’s a popular myth that every leader should possess the same competencies and skills to be effective and fruitful. They don’t. You don’t. Most congregational leaders are steered into activities they’re not good at and they don’t do well! Congregations suffer because leaders make three common mistakes… Leaders never gain clarity about what stirs deep … Continue reading
Identity! Capturing Freedom to Lead and to Live
By: Jock Ficken
Every church leader I know risks fastening their identity to the wrong thing. Identity might be the most fundamental of leadership building blocks. The Flourishing in Ministry study funded by Lilly Foundation interviewed thousands of pastors. It’s one of their four fundamentals to avoid a lifetime of life depleting ministry. True for the rest of … Continue reading
Mentoring Leads to Life-Enriching Leadership
By: Jock Ficken
Every church leader needs mentors, coaches, guides to flourish. (For short, we’ll call them mentors.) Remember this? Think of “3” as spiritual apathy and distrusting of church leaders. Think that your leadership task gets increasingly difficult with every widely reported sexual misconduct and cover up noted last week. The Flourishing in Ministry research among thousands … Continue reading
Flourishing in Ministry…It’s all about Relationships!
By: Jock Ficken
Is your ministry life-enriching or life-depleting? Congregational leadership can flourish…be life-enriching and not life-depleting…when four types of relationships are well according to Bloom’s Flourishing in Ministry project. While this was a clergy study, you’ll find easy application to whatever your role. We termed it “Collegiality” last week. Here are the four critical relationships: Family and … Continue reading
Are you Flourishing?
By: Jock Ficken
From my perspective the stakes are high! In the next few weeks of summer… New pastors will begin their ministries with anticipation. They will be… life-enriching for some, life-depleting for others. Older pastors will retire. They will have been…life-enriching decades for some, life-depleting for others. Another group? They will quit. Prematurely retire. Change careers. They … Continue reading
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