Catalyst and My Ironic Resistance to Change

Catalyst...

That's a strange word, isn't it? It just looks funny to me. I'm not a fan of words that "look funny." It's this strange obsessive-compulsive thing I have going on with some (not all) things. One of those hang-ups is with words...they have to "look right." It makes me physically uncomfortable to look at strange-looking words. Weird, I know, but it's one of the many "oddities" I possess. Even with this silly hang-up, this is the very word that God has been speaking to me over the past couple of weeks, and I'm really beginning to like it.

Here are the definitions I found for the funny-looking word "catalyst":

1. Chemistry. a substance that causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected.

2. something that causes activity between two or more persons or forces without itself being affected.

3. a person or thing that causes a reaction and precipitates change.

4. a person whose talk, enthusiasm, or energy causes others to be more friendly, enthusiastic, or energetic. 

Sadly, we have only been fortunate enough to go to the Catalyst East conference in Atlanta back in 2004. This was during the same time that my husband dyed his blonde hair hot pink because our students had won a challenge he posed to them. We enjoyed laughing at all of the strange looks he received during that trip. But I digress...

I was checking out the website again today because we are thinking about going to the Catalyst West conference in Cali. Because God has been speaking this word to me over the past few weeks, I felt prompted to click "What is Catalyst?" on the website. Here's what it said: "Catalyst is here: a conference that inspires next generation church leaders to be agents of change."

WITH THIS ONE FUNNY-LOOKING WORD, THIS IS WHAT GOD HAS BEEN SPEAKING TO ME!!! Through all of my ironic resistance to change, God is calling us to BE the agents of change where he has now placed us! Do I want to be in the new place? I think you already know my answer. Not too thrilled about it. But my husband and I can now impart and implement what we have learned from the awesome place we were in order to be the agents of change where we have now been placed. God's bottom-line desire is for people to know Him. How can they even come close to knowing Him if they view the church as being irrelevant to today's generation and stay away at all costs? 

We still have many questions, but our purpose is now becoming clearer...

Top 10 Ways to FAIL as a Leader

Some friends of ours sent us the link to this post they found here: www.annemcclane.blogspot.com

I thought I would share as it can be applied to every leadership position...

Top 10 Ways to FAIL as a Leader

by Steve Macchia and Rick Anderson

Perhaps you've even personally served under a notoriously bad team leader and secretly wondered whether or not you'd have what it takes to sabotage a team of your own. Just follow these simple guidelines:

10)  CONSERVE AFFIRMATION.  You don't want your team members to become arrogant. Use affirming remarks sparingly.

9) HAVE A CLOSED-DOOR POLICY.  Openness to feedback is a slippery slope. One day you're listening, the next day you're on the verge of a teachable spirit.

8)  MAKE SURE NOBODY APPEARS SMARTER THAN YOU ARE.  Nobody has more knowledge or experience than you do. That's why you're in charge, right?

7)  FOSTER AN ATMOSPHERE OF PARANOIA.  Nothing puts a better positive filter on incoming information than a renowned fear of your response to bad news.

6)  MAKE SURE ALL IDEAS ORIGINATE WITH YOU.  Good ideas come from the top, not the team. Shared credit is for couples with debt problems.

5)  EXERCISE HIGH CONTROL.  Remember, you're the team leader, and it's your way or the highway.

4)  LOOK OUT FOR #1.  When in doubt, ask yourself, "What's best for me and my interests?"  Don't underestimate the value of manipulation.

3)  DON'T TRUST ANYONE.  If you refuse to trust them from the start, you don't give them the opportunity to disappoint you.

2)  ASK SOMEONE TO DO A SPECIFIC JOB, AND THEN DO IT YOURSELF.  Micromanagement is one of the surest ways to fail as a team leader. If you want it done right, you've got to do it yourself.

1)  FILL YOUR TEAM WITH PEOPLE JUST LIKE YOU.  Could there be a more ideal team than one made up of multiple versions of you?

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Excerpted from an article in Church Volunteer Central's Idea Depot, where members can read the entire text of this article as well as hundreds of others.

Copyright 2008 Group Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. 

My New Playlist, My Brother, and Why It's Mostly the David Crowder Band

Just in case you were wondering, yes, I've added a new playlist to my blog, and yes...the majority of the songs (at the moment) are by the David Crowder Band. There's a reason for this...

Just a short year and a half ago when my husband was first beginning his newest/latest/former position as a youth pastor, my brother was gracious enough to allow us to move in with him while we were waiting to sell our old house in another city. We surely would have been living in the storage closet at the church if it weren't for his generosity toward us, because we surely could not afford to pay our mortgage with all of our current bills in addition to apartment rent with a second set of bills. Did I mention that we are youth pastors? At the time, my little boy was only 9 months old (in the beginning stages of learning to walk), and it was challenging for us not in the sense that we were living with my brother (that was great and we had a lot of fun the three months we were there), but more in the sense that we were going through another transitional period in our lives. 

My husband & I (along with my little boy and his crib) were all together with our necessary stuff in a small guest bedroom (with the rest of our stuff in two storage buildings at two different places across town...don't ask), and sleeping on a peculiar air mattress (I have a funny story about that and will probably tell it at some later point). Our new students resented us (at that time) because they were attached to their old youth pastor (totally understandable), we were trying to sell our house in another city several hours away (ick), we were in a new environment, at a new church, trying to gain new friends (although there were a few old ones we reacquainted ourselves with in our new city)...overall, we were in a very unsettled period in our lives. 

But the memory from our transitional period that stands out the most to me is so precious: At night, to help our little boy go to sleep, we would open our laptop and play a worship set list that my husband put together on iTunes . If our baby was upset, it always worked to calm him. Now, I need complete silence in order to fall asleep...my husband, on the other hand (being a drummer), likes to fall asleep listening to music (one of the first challenges we had to overcome in our now nine year marriage). 

Anyway, after doing some reading and spending some good old-fashioned time on My Space (my husband calls me the "My Space Minister"), I would crawl into bed and pray and just listen to that music....sometimes all night. I can't even explain the presence of God that was in that tiny room for those three months. But every night, I would fall asleep listening to that same music and would very often wake up in the middle of the night--several times a night--overwhelmed and in tears, so thankful for His presence and for His leading and blessings in our newfound adventure. 

As you may already know if you follow this blog, we once again find ourselves in that period of transition, growing, and faith-building. There were 15 songs on the iTunes set list my husband made, and out of those only 6 were David Crowder songs (so yes, I added those & a few others to this playlist--why not?). To my dismay, I really wanted my favorite song on the list but couldn't find the MP3 link anywhere (so please do share it with me if you find it so I can add: "O God Where Are You Now (In Pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)" by the David Crowder Band).

In any case, if you're needing some peace in your storm today, I invite you to keep the playlist open as you go about your day and let it bring you rest. 

P.S.--To my brother:  Thank you again for your generosity. We could never pay you back monetarily for allowing us to stay with you during that time. But it was during those wee hours of the night that I would pray for God to answer some very specific prayers on your behalf for blessing us with your kindness...and most recently, I believe he did.  :)  I love you!

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Are you in a place of transition, growing and faith-building in your life right now? Let me know...I'd like to hear about it.

Bad Leadership (Part 2)

The details of Part 1? Not so important. It's the result of the details that matter. I've seen it time and time again, played out in the lives of people I know, as well as those I don't. The tell-tale result of bad leadership is ALWAYS the same. Manhandled situations, loss of team morale, and lots of steam-rolled people left (flattened) in the wake of their rabid ideals.

The following is one of my all-time favorite excerpts from a book regarding leadership and team morale. To me, it's the determining factor of what sets a good leader apart from a bad leader...I've had both in my life, and I know the difference:

Leaders in some organizations don't recognize the importance of creating a climate conducive to building potential leaders. They don't understand how it works. Advertising executive William Bernbach, who understands the difference it makes, once stated, "I'm always amused when other agencies try to hire my people away. They'd have to 'hire' the whole environment. For a flower to blossom, you need the right soil as well as the right seed."  Until the leaders in an organization realize this, they will not succeed, regardless of the talented individuals they bring into the firm. The right atmosphere allows potential leaders to bloom and grow. That is why the atmosphere needs to be valued and developed first. Even when a leader from an organization with a poor climate steals away a potential leader who is beginning to bloom from the rich "greenhouse" environment of a healthy organization, the potential leader will not continue to grow and bloom. Unless, of course, the leader has already converted the environment of his or her own organization from "arctic" to "tropical."

To see the relationship between environment and growth, look at nature. An observation was made by a man who dives for exotic fish for aquariums. According to him, one of the most popular aquarium fish is the shark. The reason for this is that sharks adapt to their environment. If you catch a small shark and confine it, it will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium in which it lives. Sharks can be six inches long and fully mature. But turn them loose in the ocean and they grow to their normal size.

The same is true of potential leaders. Some are put into an organization when they are still small, and the confining [Nazi-like, with lack of respect & trust] environment ensures that they stay small and underdeveloped. Only leaders can control the environment of their organization. They can be the change agents who create a climate conducive to growth.

...Leaders set the tone...A leader cannot demand of others what he does not demand of himself.

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An excerpt from "Developing the Leaders Around You" by John Maxwell [pgs. 19-20]