Tag: leadership

Sheep and Shepherds

Preparing for next Sunday’s Video talk, which we’re filming later today, I found a great deal of interesting detail from this source, reproduced at www.baptistbiblebelievers.com Manner And Customs of Bible Lands by Fred H. Wight Copyright @ 1953 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – Shepherd Life; The Care of Sheep and Goats SHEEP IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL LARGE NUMBER OF SHEEP IN PALESTINE From the days of Abraham down to modern times, sheep have abounded in the Holy Land. The Arabs of Bible lands have largely been dependent through the centuries upon sheep for their living. The Jews of Bible times were first shepherds and then farmers, but they never abandoned entirely their shepherd life. The large number of sheep in the land can be understood when it is realized that Job had fourteen thousand sheep (Job 42:12), and that King Solomon at the Temple’s dedication, sacrificed one hundred and twenty thousand sheep (I Kings 8:63). Fat-tailed sheep the variety mostly in use. The fat tail provides reserve strength for the sheep, much like the hump does on a camel. There is energy in […]

Leadership Network Interviewed Me…

about our experience of connecting to their High Capacity peer learning group for Europe, which has been fantastic; their notes from our telephone interview have just been posted widely and I reproduce it below.   In September 2014, Leadership Network will launch a High Capacity peer learning group in Europe. Anthony Delaney, Team Leader of Ivy Manchester (UK), tells his story of participating in Europe’s Rapid Growth Leadership Community. When Anthony Delaney took over as leader, Ivy was known as ‘Ivy Cottage’ and he reflects, “I saw great potential, but we needed to move out of the cottage and into the city.” With the help of Leadership Network, that’s where Anthony has been leading Ivy over the past five years. In this time they’ve planted three churches and started several missional projects. For Anthony it began when his friend Andy Hawthorne (founder and director of The Message) invited him to join a Leadership Network Leadership Community. Within a few months Anthony was at his first meeting. It was at these meetings that he began to make great friendships and was introduced […]

Jessie Jo Jacobs – Revival of love

Everything we want to do comes out of love. Jesus sets a very high bar; don’t look at her with lust, she’s your sister Don’t look at him with anger; he’s your brother The fasting he requires is feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, loving those that have nowt. He asked Simon Peter: do you love me? Yes Feed my lambs then If you love me – love them What else can save the world, our cities, but this love. A people caught up in love. The bible is a love story Not a rule book Matt 13:3-9 parable of the sower 19-23 unpacks and explains it. Jesus is sowing seed on planet earth Some – hard ground; ‘I just don’t and won’t believe that love story.’ Some had no root; shallow relationship. The first joy of the first date. No depth to the relationship. And some – it’s wealth that gets in the way. The cares of this world, consumerism is choking out the gospel in the world. Britain is full of rich young rulers who won’t give up […]

Love Takes Action

Love Takes Action – Bob Goff @bobgoff (This guy is a force of nature, I’m buying his book!) We all want to lead strong, but we get our signals wrong.   We can memorise the Bible and learn more and more stuff. We stalk Jesus. Find out all kinds of facts about him. It creeps him out. Stop stalking Jesus. Learn from him.   1 John 3:16-18 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. Do the stuff so you will know. What? Who you are, what you’re here for. Love your enemies so you can be perfect. Next time someone asks how you’re doing, Tell YOURSELF ‘I;m trying to be perfect like my awesome dad.’ Love God Love People and DO […]

Multipliers or Diminishers?

MULTIPLIERS – Liz Wiseman @Lizwiseman Willow Creek GLS 2013   Why do some leaders DRAIN intelligence and others AMPLIFY it?   Multipliers act as Talent managers.   There is more intelligence in your organization and teams than you can see and are putting to work.   Being a multiplier is a simple idea – you use your knowledge and skills to amplify and magnify the capability of people around you. Then they do their best work, They get more capable working for you.   This is not multiplying YOURSELF so everyone is like you. Or your IDEAS. You grow THEM.  Their ideas and intelligence.   The leaders model can be ‘If you all get what I want done, done…’ that’s not multiplying.   Who’s been a multipler to you? Who’s been a diminisher?   How much of your intelligence did each use?   Diminishers on average get 43% of your capability out of you. (micromanage, self-absorbed)   Multipliers on average get 91% out of you. (How do I use all the brains in the room)   Larry Gelwix. High School […]

The Courage Leadership Requires. Bill Hybels at Willow Creek GLS

    The Courage Leadership Requires. Bill Hybels at Willow Creek GLS Dt 31:7-8 Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”   The charge to the younger leader. But why would it need such courage?   Later God himself speaks to that younger leader in Joshua 1. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. “Be strong and very courageous.   Why do I need to know that? He soon learned! Leadership demands a non stop flow of fortitude from day one, to the end.   Courage correlates to every component of leadership; You need courage for…   […]

Problem – People – Plan. Acts 6

Great input from Chris Willard  @Chris_willard at Leadership Network @leadnet Retreat.   In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”  This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large […]

No Such Thing As Private Morality.

Tomorrow we finish a series I have loved us going through at Ivy, all about David. We’ve been in his life for months and learned a lot. But as we draw a close on his life, I’m left wishing he finished better – and praying that I will finish well. David was a man after God’s own heart. But as we track through his life we know that David’s heart was often broken. All of our hearts are broken by sin. By wrong things we’ve done and things done to us. Last week we saw how at times, temptation won and sin reigned in David’s heart and controlled him. If you want to check out my video teaching on that fall with Bathsheba it’s available free on ‘Ivy Player’ on www.ivymanchester.org now Now while David was forgiven of that because he turned to God in repentance, consequences came back to bite him. That’s something we often forget ahead of our sin, or even post confession. Consequences. There were consequences with regard to how much God could bless him, because that […]

Don’t Tell Me What Your Idea Is

Reading a great book ‘Anything You Want,’ by the founder of CD Baby, Derek Sivas. He talks about how while we place great value on ideas, even the greatest idea is pretty worthless without DOING something about them. Execution trumps ideas every time. Here’s his explanation of that: AWFUL IDEA = -1 WEAK IDEA = 1 SO-SO IDEA = 5 GOOD IDEA = 10 GREAT IDEA = 15 BRILLIANT IDEA = 20 ——– ——— NO EXECUTION = £1 WEAK EXECUTION = £1000 SO-SO EXECUTION = £10,000 GOOD EXECUTION = £100,000 GREAT EXECUTION = £1,000,000 BRILLIANT EXECUTION = £10,000,000 To make a difference, you need to multiply the two. Execution is the great multiplier.  He finishes by saying, “That’s why I don’t want to hear people’s ideas. I’m not interested until I see their execution.”