Encouraging Words from Cary Schmidt » church staff

Repost: Why Leaders Need Communication

caryschmidt — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 05:41:50 +0000

WARNING: Failure to communicate frequently and effectively will bring distrust, tension, and grief in any valuable relationship.

A large percentage of our problems in work, family, and ministry could be attributed to communication failures—either miscommunication or a lack of communication. Everybody has people in their lives with whom they should work at communicating more effectively and more frequently. If only the people in our lives could automatically “just know” all the things they need to hear from us! How much easier would life be—right?

If you’re somewhere in the middle of the organizational flow chart, then you have the responsibility to regularly communicate “up the chain”—to someone responsible for your workflow or your projects. A failure to communicate will bring grief into your world and will cause trust, dependability, and connectedness to suffer. This responsibility to communicate falls to you (and me).

Simply put—does your leader have to PULL information out of you? Or does your leader get information PUSHED from you?

Do you have to be tracked down and asked? Or do you voluntarily generate information to someone in leadership?

Busy leaders need reliable co-laborers to generate communication—needed information—with which they can make well-informed decisions. When we fail to generate this communication (as I have many times), we inadvertently decide to withhold information that might prove valuable in the decision-making process of the leader. This isn’t good. This isn’t team. Frankly, it’s just stupid. (Yes, I’m pointing at myself.)

The question is—how much communication does your leader desire? I’ve made the grave mistake of trying to “not bother” the leader, only to find out that more communication was needed or wanted. Good leaders usually desire a lot of information from those they lead. It’s not about trust. It’s not even about accountability. It’s about leading effectively. The more informed they are, the better they can lead.

Part of the reason you are on your leader’s team is to help keep the leader well-informed in the areas where you serve. Just remember, it’s not about being “lorded over” or merely “giving account” for your work hours. It’s about building trust, reliability, and dependability. It’s about helping the leader lead well.

So—practically speaking—find out how much communication your leader desires, and then make sure that leader gets it. Make brief, informative, and thorough communication a regular part of your daily workflow.

Unfortunately, this is one lesson I’ve learned the hard way. How often over the years I have wished I had communicated more thoroughly. How often my simple lack of communication has caused grief to myself and others!

Communication is a really good thing. Hopefully this post will challenge you to push more needed information in the right direction—and for the record, this principle also works really well in marriage too!

What are some ways you have found effective in communicating?

New Podcast: Biblical Vision for Growth

caryschmidt — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:53:41 +0000

The newest edition of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast from Dr. Paul Chappell is posted. This month the lesson is entitled “Developing a Biblical Vision for Every Stage of Growth.”

This lesson discusses the various stages of growth that every church experiences, and how to develop vision for each of those stages. It’s a very practical and challenging lesson.

Don’t forget, you can always subscribe to receive the free companion outline if you visit paulchappell.com and click on the Spiritual Leadership Podcast link. This podcast, and it’s previous editions are available on iTunes.

Enjoy this month’s lesson!

SL Podcast – Staying the Course

caryschmidt — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:00:54 +0000

The most recent Spiritual Leadership Podcast is one you SHOULD NOT miss! It’s entitled “Staying the Course Through Troubled Waters” from Pastor Paul Chappell.

This lesson challenges spiritual leaders to stay faithful through difficult times! I promise you it will encourage your life and strengthen you in the ministry. You can listen above, or better yet, subscribe through iTunes.

The Spiritual Leadership Podcast is a monthly resource that is offered free from Pastor Chappell. To subscribe to the complimentary outline, click HERE. Submit your email address and you will receive the outline along with a notification that the newest podcast is posted.

Enjoy!

An Effective Staff Member Grows

caryschmidt — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:00:55 +0000

This is part two of a series on an effective staff member. You can read the first article here. The big question we’re answering is simply this: What qualities make an effective staff member? What characteristics produce winning teams? If God has placed you “in the middle” of the organization chart somewhere—welcome! Many of us are called of God to serve on a team.

In the first post we discussed commitment—an effective staff member fully commits to the Lord and to the team. Let’s move on to a second quality (and these are in no particular order):

An effective staff member grows!

One of the saddest places to be in your Christian life is the place where your spirit ceases to be teachable—the place where you have stopped longing for growth. Weariness, depletion, arrogance, experience, disillusionment, and even suffering—these things can cause us to stop thinking, to stop moving forward and growing in God’s grace.

The moment you stop growing—the moment you begin to believe you know it all and understand it all, is the moment you begin to become increasingly less effective. The longer I serve the Lord, the more keenly aware I become of how little I really know, and how much more there is to learn. I knew a lot more when I was younger!

In our quest to be effective staff team members, I believe a quest for growth and a healthy dissatisfaction with “status quo” is key. Here are a few areas an effective staff member is always seeking to grow:

Grow in Spiritual Life—nothing is more valuable than your understanding of biblical truth and your ability to transfer it and apply it to the lives of others. When you hit a “growth plateau” this is where to go first—renew your passion to grow in God’s grace and spend more time in His Word. But be ready—some times the tools God uses to create growth are painful. Some times they involve trials. Spiritual growth is often painful and uncomfortable. Do you want spiritual growth enough to endure the pain that might be involved?

Grow in Skill and Competence—this is about growing in your understanding of your role and the skills involved in fulfilling your job description. David Gibbs once said to our staff, “Nobody’s competence is static. You are always either becoming less competent or more competent.” What have you done recently to increase your practical skills for ministry? I have found that every hour I give to growing in competence—learning new software, developing a new administrative system, reading a book, attending training—every hour gives me back multiplied hours in the months to follow!

Grow in Gracious Leadership and People Skills—good staff members love people and love to help other people to grow and succeed. Therefore, an effective staff member will seek to grow in leadership—learning to compassionately nurture people. The ministry is no place for abrasive personality, harsh spirit, or caustic leadership. Leaders after God’s heart seek to be shepherds—to lovingly nurture people and to constantly express abundant grace toward them as God’s heritage.

I appreciate serving with a pastor and ministry team that has allowed me the opportunity to grow. As much and as often as I have failed, I’m thankful that every failure produced growth, and continues to do so.

Are you growing? Are you walking with God consistently? Are you reading, studying, and expanding your knowledge-base and skills? Are you seeking to become a more Christ-like individual in working with people?

Here’s the test: What intentional steps have you taken in the last thirty days to grow personally?

An effective staff member keeps growing. Stay tuned for part three.

An Effective Staff Member Commits

caryschmidt — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 23:36:17 +0000

I’ve never written a ten part blog series, but here goes! Whether you hang with me for all ten parts, or just read one or two, I hope you will be encouraged.

Do you serve on a ministry staff? Are you a member of a team? If so, you are no second-class citizen in the work of Christ. Some men are called to be a “Senior Pastor,” but probably many more are led to serve on a staff under a pastor. While some may believe that only Senior Pastors “have a clue” and everybody else is a second-rate servant, I believe that God’s Word is filled with great examples of winning teams. There is no doubt that God brings people together to strive together for the faith. He calls some to serve by leading, and others to serve by following, and frankly, almost everybody who serves God, does a good bit of both!

The big question of this series is simply this: What qualities make an effective staff member? What character traits and principles create winning teams? If you serve on a team, what would make you an excellent team player?

First and foremost, an effective staff member commits—100%!

This commitment is first to the Lord, and second to the Pastor and team. What does this mean?

It means your life is absolutely, irrevocably committed to living for God and serving Him.
It means that ministry isn’t a “try it and see” proposition.
It means you don’t have “plan B” constantly taking shape in your mind.
It means you aren’t using the ministry for your own agenda.
It means you aren’t competing with anyone else on the team.
It means you aren’t carving out your own career path or personal dreams of success.
It means you believe in the cause of the team.
It means you trust the leader and believe in his integrity. (Not his perfection.)
It means you don’t care who gets credit for victories.
It means you are committed to guarding the spirit of the team.
It means you are fixed in your heart and not making other plans.
It means you plan to stay and work through hardships.
It means you will do whatever required to protect relationships.
It means that those you serve can count on you sticking around.
It means that you believe you are in the will of God.
It means God’s leading would have to be clear and undeniable before you would leave the team.

May I challenge you to commit! Anyone who ever did anything for God was first deeply anchored in God’s call. Those who are used by God are first committed to Him and to the team to which He leads them.

Great marriages begin with commitment. Great families are built on commitment. Great churches are established with commitment. Great church families consist of people who are committed. And great staffs begin with a group of committed people.

Without commitment you are merely flirting with the eternal. Without commitment, your attempt at serving God will be merely an experiment—and short-lived at that! Without commitment, you will greatly handicap your ability to have a profound impact on others.

You know what we need more of in local church ministry? Commitment. We need pastors, assistant pastors, teachers, youth pastors, music ministers, and team players to dig deep, anchor in, and stick it out. We need fewer “try and see if ministry works out for me” staff members. We need more “count on me—I’m not going any where any time soon” staff members.

We need to declare war on superficial, shallow, surface, temporary, flighty ministry endeavors.

If you want to get something done for God, it takes decades. So, buckle up for the long haul, God will honor it!

Do you want to be an effective staff member? Start with commitment!

Podcast – Striving Together in Leadership

caryschmidt — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:57:00 +0000

The newest Spiritual Leadership Podcast from Dr. Paul Chappell is now available (above or through iTunes!)

This lesson was taught at our annual staff orientation and is entitled “Striving Together in Spiritual Leadership.” It’s a two part lesson—this is part one and focuses on the spirit of ministry. It’s a challenge to have the right spirit as you serve on and with a team of people in local church ministry.

Don’t forget you can receive the free outline by visiting here and submitting your email address! We pray that this month’s lesson from Dr. Chappell will encourage you!

Developing a LifeTouch Database

Cary Schmidt — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 23:22:01 +0000

Have you ever wondered who you are ministering to well, and who you are missing? Whether it’s a class, a group, or a church family, it’s easy to minister to many but miss some—especially those who are quiet.

Some years ago, as our youth group grew larger, we became burdened about who we might be missing in our regular week to week ministry. It occurred to us that we had no reliable way of tracking who was being visited, called, written, or given personal time in ministry. And our heart in ministry is personal relationships—making sure that every student has an opportunity to be mentored and loved one on one.

The answer was what we called the “LifeTouch” database. It’s a simple concept that requires some administrative oversight, but is well worth the effort. It began as an excel spreadsheet which we sorted as needed to generate reports. That led to a man in our church helping us develop an online database accessible from the internet—which means all the LifeTouch information was accessible from anywhere—including a smart phone. Here’s what a lifetouch database is all about:

First we imported all of our student ministry names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, birth dates, age, grade, etc. into our document or file. We separated these by class/grade and gave each worker access to their class roster in the database.

With this database, we decided to track four types of regular contacts or personal ministry. They are as follows:

Visits – personal visits to the home of a class member. (Doesn’t count if they were not home)
Calls – this is a simple phone call of encouragement
Notes – this is a written for of communication, including email or Facebook
Appointment – this would be a time when more than 15 minutes was invested into a life over lunch, a coffee shop, or even after a church service.

Then, we created a column or field for each of these types of contacts in our database. From that moment, we kicked off the effort and asked our workers to report weekly on every visit, call, note, or appointment that they had for student ministry. At first these reports were filled out in Sunday school each week. Our secretary would collect those reports and enter the information. This gave us a good record of everyone who was being ministered to and how.

From there, we began to print lists weekly and distribute them to the teachers and workers. We called them the “No Contact” lists—this was the list of students who had not received any contact yet. Then we could custom print lists showing those who had not been visited, not been called, not been written, or not been taken out for an appointment.

This system helped us, as a group of workers, to make sure we did our best in contacting and ministering to everybody. Unfortunately, it’s not a system I can just put on a disk and give to you. It requires that you have someone on your tech team who understands how to program and maintain an online database. If you have such a person and would like more information about our system, please feel free to email me and I’ll put someone in touch with you.

The system needs to be re-kicked off annually or seasonally as you see fit. We have since reworked our database into a more user friendly format and now our workers are able enter their reports online, and access data including visitation maps and email addresses online. We are preparing to kick this off soon.

The heart of this LifeTouch concept is what’s important—not how you achieve it. The heart is— “Let’s not miss anyone! Let’s make sure we’re ministering to everybody God has given to us!” Whether it’s a simple hand written list, an excel spreadsheet, or an online tool, I encourage you to employ tool to make sure you don’t miss someone. As I said in the beginning of this post, we began with an excel spreadsheet and just sorted columns to print the no contact lists.

It’s simple, but very helpful! The best part of the LifeTouch effort was that it really motivated our team to reach out to every body! Perhaps it will do the same for your team!

Leader—Fleshly or Spiritual—Which Are You?

caryschmidt — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:05:43 +0000

Recently I was having a conversation with a wonderful servant of God who has worked for several “high-profile” Christian leaders in the past two decades. This is a person for whom I have the utmost respect—an individual with a very gracious spirit, incredible gift mix, and true servant’s heart. And this is a person who has expended sacrificial service to the Lord with great poise and faithfulness. Yet, in our conversation, I was sad to discover the mistreatment and disrespect that this person had endured from a well-known evangelical leader. The conversation was brief, appropriate, and rather vague, but enough for me to see that this person had lost a lot of respect for someone once held in high esteem.

Flesh is powerful. Flesh is demanding. Flesh in leadership is ugly—really ugly. Flesh in leadership finds it easy to ride roughshod over people. Flesh enjoys “ripping face.” Flesh reasons that someone “deserves it.” Flesh enjoys dominance. Flesh finds fulfillment in being insulting—especially in a group. Flesh feels justified in giving a piece of its mind, putting someone in their place, and reminding everyone who’s really in charge. Flesh often reminds itself how stupid everybody else really is. Flesh loves to assert and reassert itself. Sometimes it masquerades as well-meaning. Sometimes it rationalizes the “ends justifies the means”—after all, the ministry outcome is for the Lord. But for those on the other end of the “flesh trip”—it always hurts.

Fleshly leaders demand. Spiritual leaders inspire.
Fleshly leaders rip face. Spiritual leaders shepherd.
Fleshly leaders fly off. Spiritual leaders reconnect.
Fleshly leaders remind you where you failed. Spiritual leaders help you know how to win.
Fleshly leaders talk down to. Spiritual leaders communicate respect toward.
Fleshly leaders blame you. Spiritual leaders mentor you.
Fleshly leaders grasp for respect. Spiritual leaders earn respect.
Fleshly leaders remind you of their position. Spiritual leaders remind you of Jesus.
Fleshly leaders block you out. Spiritual leaders welcome you in.
Fleshly leaders are unapproachable. Spiritual leaders are transparent.
Fleshly leaders are authoritarian. Spiritual leaders are humble authorities.

In this post, I speak to me. I am made of flesh. And too often, over the years, I have found myself in moments when flesh masqueraded itself as “spiritual leadership.” I was harder on someone than I should have been—a rebellious teen, a struggling Christian, a growing staff member, my own son or daughter. I’ve had to look back and see times when I responded in frustration rather than Spirit-filling. How I would have been better to let my frustration settle, turn the mirror back on myself, seek the gracious temperament of the Holy Spirit, and then approach that other person as they are in truth—a precious child of God.

And then I look at Jesus. He has all authority. He is the King of Kings. He has all power. He is the great God of the universe. If anyone had a right to deal in authoritarian practices and tones, it was Jesus. Yet, He is the perfect expression of authority that isn’t authoritarian. The perfect balance of power expressed with humble compassion. He dealt firmly. He dealt strongly. He dealt authoritatively. But He wasn’t harsh. He wasn’t caustic, insulting, or demeaning. He didn’t treat everyone else around Him like He knew everything and they were all stupid. (Which was actually true, in this case!) He treated them like a shepherd. He was gentle, kind, compassionate, caring, forgiving, patient, and nurturing. Sure there were moments where Jesus dealt very strongly and directly with sin, false religious leaders, and outright blasphemy. But to those He led—He did so with the pristine qualities of a shepherding leader.

People don’t respond to “harsh” or fleshly leadership. In fact, “harsh” is perhaps the ugliest quality of modern leadership. It shuts people down. It is entirely uninspiring, demotivating, suffocating. “Harsh” kills the heart, smothers spiritual desire, and starves the soul. “Harsh” hurts. “Harsh” kicks someone in the gut rather than breathing life and energy into them. “Harsh” impeads forward progress, quenches the Holy Spirit, and stifles a team. “Harsh” never inspired anybody. ”Harsh” is just… well… repulsive!

If you serve the Lord and lead people, they probably yearn to get it right. They probably work hard to get it right—even when they fail. They probably long to please you and the Lord. They probably grasp for every positive word of encouragement you could share. They probably are genuinely stronger than you in some areas, and could benefit by hearing you acknowledge it—I know my team is. They are probably inspired to action and rallied to greater focus, rising up to greater levels of service every time you are the inspiring, Christ-like leader that the Holy Spirit enables you to be. And they are probably sucked dry of life and energy every time you return to “harsh” flesh.

And so, just a convicting word to me—and perhaps to you, whether you lead a 6th grade girl-scout cookie sale, a youth group, a student body, or a church family. “Harsh” is not listed in the fruits of the Spirit. People have to put up with harsh all the time. It’s everywhere in secular culture and the modern work place. But it’s just really nasty when it’s pretending to be “spiritual.”

When all is said and done. When it’s all over. When our time of serving the Lord and leading His sheep is wrapping up and we are headed home for the marriage supper. I know this for certain. We will regret the times our flesh stepped in. We will wish we could rewind and undo those moments. And we will reap the rewards for the times we shepherded God’s own with grace, humility, and compassion—just like Jesus—a true spiritual leader.

Nov. Podcast—Balancing Pastoral Priorities

caryschmidt — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:01:24 +0000

Correction on the November Spiritual Leadership Podcast—the one I previously wrote about was actually October’s lesson. November’s lesson is about Balancing Pastoral Priorities and was taught originally at Spiritual Leadership Conference 2010. This lesson investigates the roles and responsibilities of the Pastor and breaks down some practical and biblical input on how to balance those demanding and often competing priorities. This lesson will be a great challenge to anyone in ministry who wrestles with the challenges of balance and life management.

You can listen above or subscribe to the podcast through iTunes. For the free outline via email, please subscribe here and you will receive a monthly email notification. Enjoy the lesson!

New Podcast-The Disciple-Making Church

caryschmidt — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:02:04 +0000

The September Spiritual Leadership Podcast has posted—a lesson from Dr. Chappell entitled “The Disciple-Making Church.” This lesson will challenge you to focus on the heart of New Testament ministry—developing disciples. How easy it is to get distracted into well-meaning but diversionary ministry efforts. Lessons like this remind us what we’re really supposed to be doing in local church ministry.

This lesson also gives a process—how discipleship can effectively happen in a local church environment. With the lesson, Pastor Chappell answers some questions about discipleship ministry. You can listen above or subscribe through iTunes. Also, be sure to send us your email address so you can get the free outline that accompanies the podcast. Subscribers to the outline receive a monthly email notification when the podcast has posted, along with a link for the outline.

Click here to subscribe to the outline!

Enjoy the September Spiritual Leadership Podcast!

Are Revolutionaries Starting to Recant?

caryschmidt — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:47:49 +0000

It’s no secret that in the past few years, George Barna and people like him have given up on the local church (the flawed model they invented) and have documented a revolution of people leaving the organized church to simply go and be the church. While there are a lot of biblical problems with this statement, that’s not the purpose of this post. I received a very encouraging email from a friend yesterday who pointed me to a blog post of one who, for a long time, was critical of the local church. The post was encouraging on a number of levels:

First, it was an admission of wrong. The sincere-hearted minister honestly admitted that missions and outreach become impossibly limited without the local church. He essentially described the dead-end road he had discovered while in search of authentic ministry, and how it led him to return to a local-church focus. He recanted his previous tone toward the church and stated that he had fallen back in love with the local church!

Second, it was an affirmation of God’s truth and purpose in local-church ministry. On his own journey, this revolutionary had come full circle! I love it! He had left church and gone into a lone-ranger style of ministry, only to find out he had no body of fellowship in which to baptize, disciple, and serve with new Christians. He had discovered, by process, that the local church is still God’s purpose and the fulfillment of Christ’s full mission of life transformation.

Third, it was a validation that local-church ministry works in spite of imperfect local-church members. Some revolutionaries left the local church because they were running from spiritual authority and accountability. But not all. Many left because they were disillusioned—fed up with carnal local-church experiences. They were tired of the game that contemporary churches are playing where Christ is not preeminent, and genuine new life is not found. In knee-jerk reaction fashion, they rejected God’s very design. With sincere motivation, they did the wrong thing. This revolutionary wrote that he now realizes churches of imperfect people are a priceless treasure in God’s eyes!

I was greatly encouraged to read of one revolutionary coming back to a biblical focus for Christ-centered ministry. And I really respected his love and passion for authentic ministry. Local church is God’s plan—we don’t need to revolt, reinvent, or think out of that box. That’s God’s box, and we need to stay in it and work within it. There will always be carnal churches—and there always have been. (Read Revelation 3.) But all over the world today there are growing, Bible-believing, local churches thriving with new life, discipleship, and heart transformation. Barna’s revolutionaries need to see a few healthy churches in action. Many of them would fall back in love with God’s blueprint! There’s nothing like it, and there’s nothing better!

Perhaps the work of God’s Holy Spirit will continue to draw other revolutionaries back to loving the local church the way that Jesus does. Apart from the local church, ministry is crippled. Our best efforts to serve Christ fall far short of the true and lasting life transformation that Christ desires to create through healthy, local-church ministry!

Note: I don’t have permission to repost the article, and I’m not familiar with the man who wrote it or his ministry. I didn’t link to it because I would not want him to think I was being critical of him. I was just really glad to read how God had brought his heart around.

Spiritual Leadership Conference 2010

caryschmidt — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:13:27 +0000

Spiritual Leadership Conference 2010 wrapped up last night. God gave us a fantastic week. Today, in the midst of decompressing, I couldn’t help but sit down and journal some of the highlights of the week for me. Here’s what God used to impact me the most:

1. The Preaching. Every single message was a grand-slam home run! Dr. Chappell, Dr. Norris, Dr. Davison, Dr. Sisk all preached with power. In my life, God most used Dr. Sisk’s message last night—He must increase and I must decrease. He concluded the message with this question: “What’s growing in your life?” He then said, “If you are getting bigger and bigger, then Jesus is getting smaller. But if you are getting smaller and smaller, then Jesus will get bigger.”

2. The Testimonies and Programs. Throughout the week we heard stories of the ministry of the Holy Spirit—from Monday night’s video “Walking with Giants” (from Dr. Bobby Roberson) to Wednesday’s individual salvation stories and then the video highlighting growing ministries around the world. Each story challenged me in a unique way. I’m eternally grateful for every person who was willing to give a testimony or be a part of a video.

3. The Friends and Fellowship. My greatest friends are other servants of God who are fully engaged in the work of Christ. For that reason, we don’t often get to spend a lot of time together. It was truly awesome this week to rub elbows with so many great servants of God from so many places. I believe the fellowship of this week was a taste of Heaven. We weren’t gathered this week around a college, a personality, a fellowship, or a political position. We were gathered around biblical principles and a common passion to serve Christ with purity. There wasn’t the slightest spirit of competition or comparison! I believe that pleased the Lord. This made for an incomparable spirit and unforgettable encouragement. It was just awesome to see and spend time with so many amazing people.

4. The Team of Servants. I could never be worthy to serve with the incredible people on our team. All week I watched our staff, our church family, our teens, and our in-town college students give of themselves and expend themselves in ways that are noble beyond words. Teams of people worked through the night preparing facilities, videos, technical systems, etc. The music team labored for hundreds of hours on songs, narrations, and rehearsals. The publications team prepared resources, lugged boxes of books all over campus, stayed late processing orders, etc. The tech team recorded, edited and posted 125 sessions, worked tirelessly on livestream details, and supported an entire campus with sound, light, and projection. This is the tip of the iceberg. God’s people are amazing! It is a privilege beyond words to serve on this team and with this church family.

It is our desire to share Spiritual Leadership Conference with people who couldn’t attend. I’m posting several links below that will help you access videos, audio, photos, and resources that were available at the conference. I pray these things will be a blessing.

Free audio downloads of the entire conference—as a gift to you, the entire conference, including the outline notebook, can be downloaded free of charge at www.strivingtogether.com. Pastor Chappell’s sessions will be produced into Spiritual Leadership Podcasts in the coming months. You can find out more about the podcasts at www.ministry127.com.

Videos from the conference and of main services—several videos are already available. These take longer to upload, but you can view each service and video at this link in the coming few days. Feel free to download the videos and use them in your own ministry.

Photos of the conference—this is a collection of shots taken during the week.

New Striving Together Publications resources introduced—this is a complete list of the new resources available at the conference.

Registration for the 25th anniversary conference 2011—this link will let you get the best seats and early registration benefits for next year’s conference.

25th Anniversary Alaska Cruise—this link will help you contact Templeton Tours to get more information about the 25th anniversary Alaska Cruise, August of 2011. If you are a pastor, consider becoming a co-host. This simply means you desire to bring a group, and in doing so, you can earn free passage on the cruise. If you are a church member, consider sending your pastor on this trip of a life time! If you have question, please feel free to contact my office at 661-946-4663.

Over all, Spiritual Leadership Conference 2010 was a life changing time in my life, and I pray, in many others. We thank God for allowing us to be a part of such a wonderful event! To all who came—thank you for coming! It was awesome to fellowship with you. To all who helped—thank you for serving the Lord with us! It was certainly a week to remember forever!

Communication on a Winning Team

caryschmidt — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 16:28:28 +0000

Communication is about sharing information with those who need it. But often communication is what is lacking the most on ministry teams. When we don’t communicate, we aren’t working together, and that causes things to break down. Here are seven quick principles that the Lord has challenged me to work at. I pray they will encourage you to be a better communicator on your team:

Don’t Make Your Leader Pull Information—Push it His Direction—Leaders must make informed decisions, and leaders always need more information—they thrive on it. Followers don’t always understand a leader’s need for information. Good communication always gathers information and pushes it to the people who need it. For more on this, see this article: “Why Leaders Needs More Communication.”

Be More Focused on Talking to Someone than about Someone—On struggling teams, people sit around and bite on each other. They are frustrated with others, and they need to air their grievances with sympathetic listeners. But this is destructive! On winning teams, people talk to each other and resolve their grievances. It’s simple, but HUGE!

Be More Focused on Providing Solutions than Pointing Out Problems—Some people are professional “problem-pointer-outers.” They see all the problems, but they never offer a solution, they never take action to be a part of the process of improvement. It’s not that winning teams are blind to the problems, they just view them differently. Rather than see only problems and gripe about them, they see the problems and immediately start working on solutions. This is an easy rut to fall into. Try to make it your goal to never bring up a problem unless you can offer several helpful solutions.

Be More Focused on Taking Responsibility than Fixing Blame—What is our human fixation with having to assign blame? Have you noticed how much attention on the recent oil spill has been spent on fixing blame, and blame-shifting? Winning teams don’t really care who’s to blame because whoever it is, they’ve already owned it! Winning team members take responsibility—they step up, raise their hands, and say, “This one is all my fault… I’m sorry!” This instantly allows the whole team to focus on a solution and recovery. Assigning blame is a diversion. As long as we are trying to find out who’s fault this is, we’re probably not getting a solution into place. Taking responsibility is a rare character quality in today’s culture.

Be More Focused On Giving Credit than Getting Credit—Winning teams don’t really care who gets the credit. Credit is pretty lame any way. We all know that ultimately God gets the credit for any good thing. And if He allowed you to be part of a good outcome, there were probably others who helped make it happen. Winning teams share credit and constantly thank others for their contribution to the good.

Be More Focused on Glorifying God than Getting Your Way—Losing teams are very territorial and fractured by personal agenda. When we are territorial we get tunnel visioned—about budgets, about schedules, about facilities—we want to fight for our piece of the pie. This isn’t how winning teams function. Winning teams see the larger perspective and work together for the good of the whole. This means territories and personal agendas have to give way to the larger perspective of giving God glory.

Be More Focused on Helping Others Succeed, and Rejoice When They Do—On losing teams, members step on each other to elevate themselves. Winning teams are focused on helping each other succeed. Winning teams have lots of really great players that are willing to be located in the middle of the flow-chart somewhere. For a winning team, the leader’s success is a win for the whole team.

Are you on a winning team? Ask God today to help you become a more effective team member by communicating in a way that helps the whole team move forward!

Costs of Pastoring a Growing Church

caryschmidt — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:58:49 +0000

The June Spiritual Leadership Podcast from Pastor Paul Chappell

The June edition of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast has posted from Dr. Paul Chappell. This lesson is entitled “The Costs of Pastoring a Growing Church” and it challenges spiritual leaders to embrace the cost that comes along with ministry fruit. So often we want “success” but we don’t want the “burdens” that come along with it. This lesson will encourage you to “take up your cross” and let God use you.

The Spiritual Leadership podcast is a free resource from Striving Together Publications (a ministry of Lancaster Baptist Church and West Coast Baptist College).

You can subscribe to this podcast through iTunes and listen on your computer or iPod. You can also receive the complimentary outline with each lesson. Click here for more information about subscribing to the outline.

To hear our newest podcast, Ministry127, be sure to visit Ministry127.com!

Enjoy the lesson!

Why Ministry127.com?

caryschmidt — Fri, 14 May 2010 23:17:34 +0000

Two months ago, we launched a new website—Ministry127.com. It has had a wonderful start. Friends and co-laborers from all over the world have written and expressed appreciation for the site and the resources it contains. Contributors have continually sent in submissions that are practical and helpful. The site has been overwhelmingly received and used in just these first two months. And this is just the beginning!

To me, it’s one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever had a part in, and I wanted to share with you the “why.” Why would Pastor Paul Chappell invest the time, the staff, and the resources to create such a website—and then make it FREE? What’s the motive in building a site that isn’t “about our ministry” and isn’t generating income? What’s the point behind Ministry127.com?

The simple answer is that it’s a true reflection of Pastor Chappell’s heart and philosophy of ministry. As long as I’ve known him, he’s a man who avoid politics and stays focused on local church ministry, and equipping others for ministry—soulwinning, discipleship, and service. He’s a man who desires to bring people together around solid biblical values. He’s a man who loves to encourage pastors and church leaders. But beyond that, there are some core values that drove the decision to create Ministry127.com. Here are just a few:

We believe in local church—this site is designed to help facilitate and encourage ministry in local, New Testament churches. Each article and resource is chosen to breathe life and ideas into local churches. And the heart is especially to help and encourage smaller local churches who may have limited staff and resources. We believe in God’s work in your local church.

We believe in the value of encouragement and edification—there’s plenty of carnality and bad attitudes among Christian leaders today, and for those genuinely desiring to serve God, that carnality can be discouraging. And for some reason, the internet became the default parking place for much of that carnality. We felt it appropriate and biblical to launch an entire site committed to the purpose of encouragement and edification.

We believe in the principle of synergy—independent Baptist churches have a lot of success stories happening all over the country. Many of our leaders are being greatly used of God, but often out of the “limelight”—their stories are not heard the way they should be! Our prayer is that Ministry127 will bring great content from many dynamic voices that others may benefit from what God is doing in many places.

We believe in the value of ministry resources—we’ve experienced first hand how difficult it is to find trustworthy resources and fresh ideas for ministry. What better way to share ideas and glean from ministry successes than a website like Ministry127? Whether it’s a sermon idea, a graphic, a video, or a challenging article—we believe there is great value in the things we’re adding to this site.

Bottom line—Pastor Chappell really has a heart to help equip and encourage spiritual leaders in the ministry. Pure and simple, Ministry127.com is an online outpouring of that heart. As God has blessed our local churches, we desire to bring those blessings to a table where others can use them as well. To that end, we sincerely pray that Ministry127 will be a destination for your team for years to come—a place where you can find encouraging friendships, trustworthy ideas, and powerful resources for your local church.