If you are a coach, take a moment to think about how coaching skills can be applied broadly to the full range of our everyday life relationships. We can use coaching skills to good effect with our friends, our spouses, our children, and even just in everyday...
Do you have questions and concerns as the pandemic “dust” settles? Do you have big ideas to move forward but aren’t quite sure how to get them off the ground? How does an opportunity to spend a day in strategic conversation with experienced ministry leader Dr. Bob...
A Barnabas is someone who asks good questions and sometimes that makes all the difference. I was listening to someone recently who was upset about a particular situation. He’d been venting for a while, when I asked, “What do you want?” “What I want is for [coworker]...
If so, check out my latest book: Becoming Barnabas. This would make a great Christmas present. Becoming Barnabas is a book designed for ordinary people– short and eminently readable– that drills down in practical ways on communication skills in the church...
I conducted an experiment for one year (although with humans, not guinea pigs). The goal was to not answer people’s questions directly, but to first ask, “What do you think?” I would listen, summarize without evaluating or interpreting. Then I’d invite them to...
Why look for the pain? The point of pain is where the power of the gospel is at its strongest. Only when we find the pain (and it IS there) can we move toward healing. Four steps to uncovering the pain: Listen. Prayerfully listen to what people are saying. What are...
Are you leading a group? Most Christian leaders are facilitating a group of some kind. Why not try something different to breathe some new life into it? Try asking these three questions of the people in your group: • How are you experiencing God? • How is God...
For the next 30 days, every time someone asks you an advice-type question, instead of giving them an answer, them this question: “What do you think?” Then discipline yourself to simply listen and help them unpack their thoughts. When I tried this experiment myself, I...
