What is a Culture of Healthy & Uplifting Correction?
This can be a difficult one… few people are naturally comfortable and gifted at challenging and correcting others who perhaps aren’t biologically related aka children. We may feel like we aren’t called to judge others (correct!), nor are we able to speak into other’s lives (incorrect!). You may think: “You don’t know me… you don’t know my life!” Well… that thought may be absolutely correct. So how do we change that? For we are our brother’s keeper… our sister’s keeper. Let’s make sure we don’t take the posture of Cain (the banished son of Adam and Eve). His example may not be the best to emulate.
What is Well-Developed Group Identity based on the Character of Christ?
When you know who you are you know what to do! - @craiggroeschel - Does your group know who they are in relation to one another? What does it look like to live in and as your group? How do you treat one another? How do you love? How do you act when together? How do you have tough conversations? How do you challenge one another?
What is Hesed Love of Securely Attached Communities?
❤HESED❤ (חֶ֖סֶד, pronounced kheh-sed”) is a Hebrew word we find 246 times in the Old Testament. Like many Hebrew words, it’s difficult to capture the meaning in just one word. HESED is translated using the words mercy, loving kindness, steadfast love, kindness, loyal love. Theologian John Oswalt said HESED is “… a completely undeserved kindness and generosity”.
What is True Joy found through Connection & Relationships?
😄What is true joy found through connection & relationships?😄Simply stated, true joy is found and multiplied when people are simply glad to be with one another. When we are able to say, "there's no other place I'd rather be and no one else I'd rather be with!" And it shows! Especially on the face.
Four Necessary Ingredients to Develop & Maintain a Vibrant, Transformational Community
Brain science has revealed amazing findings on how God wired our brains and how that effects our spiritual growth and #discipleship journey. Our life experience first enters through the right side (relational connection; primal; experiential) of our brain then passes to the left side (information processing; logical; strategic)... which simply means that information alone does not bring about life transformation; we need these four biblical ingredients.
Continuous Breakthrough: COMMUNE
We celebrate, we confess, we get clarity… and now we commune. We invite the Lord to meet us as we are… with our highs and lows, our successes and our failures. We have celebrated; given thanks and identified the wins. We have confessed and declared and owned where we are struggling. We have asked the Lord to speak to us and we have given him a listening ear. This process may lead us to sorrow, it may lead to lightheartedness, it has likely led us to a bit of breakthrough. But we cannot do it alone. We have a present God who cares about the littlest of things. He desires and promises to be tender with our hearts and meets us with the exact thing and posture we need at the moment. We just often don’t know what that looks like.
Continuous Breakthrough: CLARIFY
Life can be confusing, which often makes us frustrated. Frustration occurs when our expectations are not met. We expect things from ourselves, from our family, from our team, and from our supervisor; even from God. Getting clarity brings about confidence and even a greater sense of peace.
Continuous Breakthrough: CONFESS
Confession is paramount to the follower of Jesus. Confession of sin, confession of Faith, confession of struggles, confession of doubts, confession of hurt… there are so many things to confess. Confession is central to our lives and relationships; with self, with others, and with God. Real relationships thrive when confession is practiced, both individually and corporately.
Continuous Breakthrough: CELEBRATE
It is so easy to complain isn’t it? As humans, we are always tempted to see the negative first, to dwell on it, and to ruminate on it. Did you know that our brains actually wire and rewire it’s neurons based on what we pay attention to most? That means that the more we complain… the more we will complain. The more we focus on what’s wrong… the more we’ll see what’s wrong. I don’t think even the biggest complainers actually want to live in that reality.
Healthy Leaders Endure Hardship Well
Rare leaders ENDURE HARDSHIP well. What does this mean? It means that you are good at doing the first three. In the face of negative emotions (sadness, anger, disgust, shame, anxiety, and despair) you REMAIN RELATIONAL, ACT LIKE YOURSELF WITH JOY, & RETURN TO JOY QUICKLY often. And you do these even when others cannot. You take on the burden of enduring hardship well when others cannot.
Healthy Leaders Return to Joy Quickly
Do you ever get stuck in a grudge? Hi-jacked by fear and frustration for days on end? Maybe weeks? Are you avoiding certain people? You’ll probably agree you are not yourself and that you’ve lost your joy. You’re stuck.
Healthy Leaders Act Like their True Self with Joy
In the face of tension, disagreements, even perceived disagreements, many of us are tempted to put on a mask and become more like the person we are trying to seek approval from. You may be well aware if you are someone who is a “people-pleaser” and have tried to set boundaries and even ask the question: “Lord what is mine to do today?”
However, I’m going to take a different direction. I want to introduce you to the idea that when we are living from a place of JOY we are acting like our true selves.
Healthy Leaders Remain Relational
Part of being a whole brain leader is that you always keep relationships bigger than the problem at hand. You avoid making a person just a problem to be solved.
Healthy Leaders are Whole Brain Leaders
Many leaders tend to focus just on solving problems (Left Brain). This may be why you were, yourself, promoted; you can solve problems. But what happens when we turn people into a problem to be solved? Engagement plunders.
Concentric Circles and Mutual Submission
This season of life has had me wrestling through many of the tools, values, vehicles, and language that I have dedicated myself to practicing the last decade. I’ve been asking myself, which of these tools have I understood correctly? Is there another way of understanding them? How does this line up with scripture? How has the practice affected relationships and mission?…
Revival Begins with Paying Attention
Paying attention is something that I’m not naturally good at, skillful at, or even desire to do all the time. It’s easy for me to check out, to become lost in my thoughts, to disconnect. To disconnect from the present, to disconnect from my wife and children, to disconnect from a meeting, and disconnect from the Lord…
The Worship Leader with the Slung-Back Guitar
Today I had an image come to mind as I was listening to the Love and War Worship podcast Episode #3: The Worship Leader Persona. It was an image of two worship leaders side-by-side. One had his guitar in the front of him ready to play and the other with his guitar slung behind his back…
Worship, meet Mission. Mission, meet Worship.
So last night, 7 of us from Oikos Church rode the Metro Rail south in the Near Northside from Moody Park. As we pulled up to the Fulton stop, a homeless gentleman got on board with a $5 Little Caesars pizza. With guitars in hand, we struck up a conversation, his name was Cowboy. I asked him about his thoughts with regards to the tension between the Northside and the Salvation Army…
Worship as War @ Near Northside
Three of us sat on the METRO Rail platform in the Near Northside of Houston, Texas with two guitars and a viola. Worship from our hearts. Music from our hands. Prayers from our lips. And a police office in our line of sight…
Following Directions Even When You Didn’t Hear ‘Em
This morning at our daily devotions at Target Central Starbucks, we were discussing hearing the voice of the Lord even during times when He seems silent. We know that the Lord delights to speak to us, spend time with us, and hear from us. However, we also have seasons where either the Lord is withholding His voice, or perhaps the silence is created by all the distractions and cloudiness within our own mind. Either way, God’s character never changes and even in the silence we know that God is near…