For discipling people, I like to use the analogy of rubber bands and shoelaces. People need both enough stretch (rubber bands) and enough support (shoelaces) to be able to move forward. One without the other is incomplete. People need to be stretched and challenged in...
As I’m getting prepared to take a four-day bike trip in mid-August, I’ve been doing some tune-ups. As you may know, I had quad surgery a while back. I did the assisted rehab and they did an outstanding job. However, I found during recovery that the body would...
Whenever I have overseen people, I have tried to manage them in such a way that not only benefits the organization but also develops the person. When I was a senior pastor, I would think of a new challenge every year for each person I oversaw. I’d think, “What do they...
Ministry is like rubber bands and shoelaces. With rubber bands, no stretch equals no growth. But if you stretch people too far they break. Shoelaces need to be tied together to function, just as people need to be tied together in relational networks in order to...
Where should we set the bar in training people to do ministry? It’s tempting to set the bar too high too fast. An athlete training for the high jump wouldn’t start with the bar seven feet high. He or she would start much lower and then work their way up with...
