SOLEQ - For a definition read on...

It stands for Sudden Onset Low EQ and comes from a colleague of mine. I found it humorous and true because all of us suffer from it at times. Symptoms include: the sharp remark, the biting email, the throw away comment that hurts, unnecessary irritation with others, inappropriate anger and each of us can fill in the personal list for ourselves.

It is worth thinking about since good relationships are all about good EQ - knowing and controlling our impulses which emanate from our emotions. SOLEQ can cause us to lose relational coinage and therefore influence. 

In addition, instances of SOLEQ are indications that we have unfinished  business with ourselves. We ought to ask, "Why did that situation push a button in me?" When buttons are pushed that cause emotional responses it is more about us than those who pushed the button. 

Someone asked me recently how long it takes to develop really good EQ. I said "a lifetime." It is an ongoing process of learning ourselves and controlling our emotions, impulses and responses in appropriate ways. The issue is to be aware of when we respond in less than an appropriate way, keep short accounts and ask ourselves how we can handle it differently in the future.

And, thanks to a candid colleague, I have a new acronym. 

Theology for non-theologians

Theology is a word from a Greek word that combines the words "God" and "study of," therefore it means the study of God. By definition, every believer, or follower of Jesus is also a student of God and understanding Him. 

Obviously this means that we are regular readers of the Scriptures. This is where our churches can be a huge encouragement to the body to be regularly in the text. I am deeply encouraged by whole congregations that are reading through the Bible together. Ministries like Bible Study Fellowship, Precepts and others make huge contributions to the body in this regard.

Every believer should understand and be able to define key biblical words and concepts that define theology: incarnation, redemption, reconciliation, the fall, sanctification, gospel, salvation, creation, the image of God, heaven, hell and sin. These and other words come directly from the Bible and are absolutely key to the understanding of who God is, what he has done for us, his eternal plan and our place in that plan. This is not exhaustive obviously but illustrates the point.

I have another conviction. Almost all of us have the ability to read and understand books on theology. There are many theological books that are very accessible to the average but discerning reader. We read many books on the Christian life. What about reading books that directly help us understand who God is from those who have spent a lifetime studying Him?

In addition there are many online courses available today from great Christian colleges and seminaries. My challenge is that however we do it that we regularly are learning more about God, His Word and the central themes of Scripture. Central themes of Scripture should be known and understood by His followers.

I titled this blog "Theology for non-theologians." The truth is that every believer is by definition a theologian. The question is whether we are good theologians or poor theologians. 

The power of simplicity

Too many ministries suffer from the confusion of complexity. That complexity keeps leaders and staff from focusing on what is most important by the distractions of all the possible things we could be doing. And there are many!

The most productive organizations and staff are those who have taken the time to simplify the complexity of their work, understand what is most critical and focus on those key areas. They also have taken the time to message that simplicity so that everyone in the organization (or part of the organization they lead) gets it. 

Remember:

Ministry is complex

Complexity is confusing

The job of leaders is to simplify complexity

It is that simple! But it is hard work to get there.

Can you clarify in one sentence what your organization is about and in a second sentence how you accomplish that mission? Can you clarify on one sheet of paper what is truly critical for your ministry? If not it is too complex. Or we are not yet clear!

The second question is whether one can clearly articulate what they do personally. While there are many ancillary things I do, I can spell out my four areas of focus with four big rocks and can therefore organize my life around those four rocks. 

Simplicity is all about clarity. Until our complexity is made simple we are not clear on what is most important. 

Leadership altitude: What altitude are you flying at?

Choosing intentionality is really about the ability to fly at the appropriate altitude and stay there. This is all about understanding our priorities and the kinds of issues we need to deal with at our level of leadership. It is a key difference between people who develop deep influence and those who do not.


Our altitude makes a difference because it determines whether or not we are able to pay attention to the issues that we must pay attention to or whether we allow ourselves to become distracted – dipping down to a lower altitude than we should – and in the process disempowering others and wasting precious time and opportunity.

I often tell my staff that if I am going to lead well, I need to be able to fly at 50,000 feet, where I can see the horizon from all directions, think, plan, strategize and consider the macro issues or organization faces. No one else will do that for me. So if I don’t do it, it won’t get done.

Flying at that altitude I often see what is happening at lower altitudes (where various levels of leadership live and lead) and there is always the temptation to dip down and try to deal with issues at lower altitudes personally. Whenever I do that, I disempower others and I involve myself with issues that I really don’t need to deal with.

Every time I choose to dip down and deal with issues that others can deal with I lose altitude in my own leadership that costs me time and energy. This is why I challenged a ministry leader not to get pulled into meetings where he was not needed. When he dips down from 50,000 feet to 10,000 feet, he is both compromising his own responsibilities and he is pushing into issues that belong to someone at the 10,000 foot level. This disempowers others who have been tasked at that level.

I often talk to pastoral staff whose senior leader loves to dip down at inopportune times and “fine tune” what they are doing. In one case, a senior leaders who lives by the seat of his pants would breeze in on a Friday afternoon, look at the service plan and frequently make changes to fit his desires. What he just did was to disempower the staff member responsible for that service. That meeting should have taken place weeks before and then he should have let the worship leader make the decisions he or she needed to make.

Part of my intentionality is to fly at the attitude I need to fly at and empower others to fly at their altitude – and as much as possible not to interfere with their work. Because I have a monthly check in with each of my reports, we have a chance to dialogue with one another over critical issues but my job as their leader is not to redo their work but to enable them to accomplish their responsibilities and help them fly at their correct altitude.

If I fly at 50,000 feet, my senior team flies at 40,000 feet, giving leadership in their own areas. On their teams are folks who fly at various altitudes in order to fulfill their unique ministry roles. Pilots that decide to fly at an altitude not assigned to them run the risk of crashing with a plane at a different altitude. The same is true for leaders who violate their or others responsibilities. A crash often occurs and influence is lost.

This happened to one of my leadership staff years ago who regularly chose to descend to a lower altitude and essentially get into issues that he should not have. In the process, he lost the trust of those who were tasked with those issues because they felt violated, not in the loop and saddled with the implications of decisions he made at altitudes he should not have been at. Others had to live with the impact of his decisions, yet they had not had any voice in the decision itself.

Knowing the altitude we ought to be flying at and empowering others to fly at their altitude with minimal interference is a part of our intentionality – and the intentionality of others. If frequent interference is needed we either have someone who is not competent to fly at their altitude or we have not learned how to empower others appropriately.

One of the secrets to being able to fly at your altitude is to build a team around you that can take care of issues that you are frankly not good at. I am really terrible at small details: they take me too much time, fall between the cracks and slow me down. Having an administrative assistant who loves details and gets them done in a heartbeat is huge for me. The better the team we can build around us the more possible it is for us to stay in our sweet spot and fly at our correct altitude.

When a church loves the city

One of the most powerful things any congregation can do is to love on its neighborhood, city or region because Jesus does. One of those churches who believes in the power of loving on its community is Valley Church in Des Moines, Iowa. 

It recently completed a beautiful community center adjacent to its own facility for the sole purpose of blessing the community. Since its recent completion they have had over 12,000 guests and expect 5,000 for their great Pumpkin Party.

The facility is located on a 35 acre campus across the street from Valley Church.  It is 29,000 square feet and features an Event Hall (large gym that converts into an attractive, carpeted venue for 1250), Maplenol Café (seats 150), kids indoor play area, meeting rooms and offices.  Outdoors are sports fields, the historic Maplenol Barn, and the Global Greens Farm (for refugees).  The cost of the facility is $6.5 million.

Why would Valley Church make such an investment in their community - at their expense?  The heart behind the Valley Community Center is from 1 Peter 2:12 (ERV) - “People who don’t believe are living all around you. They may say that you are doing wrong.  So live such good lives that they will see the good you do, and they will give glory to God on the day he comes.”

Quintin Stieff, the senior pastor and a friend of mine says this: "At one time, the church was at the center of community life.  But today, it is marginalized both by our own choices and by the response of our community. Our heart is to return to the center of the life of our community.  Not to dominate it, but to be a life-giving presence.  How is that possible?  We have concluded that we cannot talk our way into the hearts of the people of our community.  We cannot force our way.  We need to serve and love our way back into their hearts.  So, we have launched a major initiative called “Love You Des Moines” to do just that.  The Valley Community Center is one component of that initiative.  It is a community bridge."

VISION

The vision for the Valley Community Center is:  “A hub for partnerships, doing good for the community… with the community.”

STRATEGY

Nearly all the events and activities are for the greater Des Moines community. (There are very few “church events” held here.) 

Half of the community activities are led by community partners (both community non-profits and Christian ministries).  The other half are community events and activities led by Valley Church for the community. 

To fund this effort they approach morally positive non-profits and say:  “We really believe in what you are doing in the community.  Could you use the Valley Community Center to help advance your cause?”  Their fees are quite low (sometimes free), and are intended to be revenue-neutral.  They don’t make money off the Valley Community Center.  It is our gift to the community.  Many of the guests assume (wrongly) that the city of West Des Moines built the community center.  They are shocked (and pleased) to find out that the church did this.

From a Christian perspective and internally, the strategy is communicated:

Good works à  Good will à  Good news

Aggressive GOOD WORKS for/with the community lead to GOOD WILL and that leads to opportunities to share GOOD NEWS. 

Quintin shares a few examples of how the Valley community Center has been used recently:

·       Public School Teachers - The Valley Community Center hosted the staff training day for all 675 employees of the local public school district.

·       Military - Hosted 750 members of the Iowa Air National Guard for a training gathering.

·       Disabilities - Host a weekly meeting for Iowa Adaptive Sports, providing individuals with physical and cognitive abilities in power (wheel) chairs the opportunity to play “power soccer” completely independently.

·       Refugees – We provided a few acres of land (at the Community Center), irrigation, and some resources to create the new Global Greens Farm in partnership with Lutheran Services of Iowa.  The Center/Farm serves 20+ refugee families from Rwanda, Nepal, Myanmar, Burundi, and Bhutan.  They raise produce to supplement their family income and food source.  The church also hosted several Global Greens Farmers Markets, where church members could meet the refugees and purchase produce.  Delicious!

·       Youth – We hosted the 10 Year Gala Celebration for Freedom for Youth, an inner city ministry partner that serves homeless and at-risk youth in Des Moines. 400 people attended and over $125,000 was raised for this organization.

·       Children – Valley Church leads Upward Sports (community leagues for children in flag football, cheerleading, basketball, soccer).  This fall, we have 1300-1500 children, parents, and coaches participating on a weekly basis.  We are expecting 25% more for basketball this winter.

·       Random Groups – We host an indoor cricket league (30 men from India), a Pakistani community celebration (120), an historic neighborhood reunion (100).  Coming soon:  Special Olympics basketball, Circle of Friends banquet (special needs), Mosaic (disabilities) dinner (200), Parks and Rec Daddy/Daughter Valentines dance, etc.  These are all community events, not church events.

·       Monthly Compassion Focus – Every month there is a different compassion project to serve people in need.  This month is the winter coat drive.  The community is invited to participate, as well as the church.

·       Guests – Since our opening in June, we have welcomed over 12,000 guests.  We expect 5000+ this week for our 3-day Great Pumpkin Party.

See the attached magazine for a list of some of the partners and other info.

Website:  http://valleycommunitycenterdm.com/

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/ValleyCommunityCenter

It is a powerful story and one that God is going to bless! You can do this in your way and in your situation. It comes out of a heart like Jesus to love our communities.

Helping our staff find their sweet spot - and it applies to us as well

A critical factor in the success of any organization or team is ensuring that staff are deployed in their "sweet spot." That is, in alignment with their gifts, abilities and strengths. In fact the difference between a staff member being deployed in their proper lane or not is absolutely huge. Someone who looks like a failure in one lane can look like a huge success in another.

How does one go about determining where a staff member fits? I have several suggestions.

One: Understand if they are an individual producer or an organizational or team leader. There is a fundamental difference between the two. Individual producers are those who best work projects that they do alone (think a salesman). They are not wired to manage other staff. Team or organizational leaders love to work through others (think the sales manager) and that is where they shine. Put either individual in the role they are not wired for and they will be frustrated.

Two: Dialogue deeply with staff members about what they have done in the past that gave them the most joy and satisfaction. If they are frustrated in their current role or if you are frustrated with them in their current role it is a good indication that they are in the wrong role. This meas asking a lot of questions to bring clarity both to you and to them about what they are really good at and what gives them the most satisfaction. 

Three: Be candid with a staff member if you have concerns about their current job. As you probe their own satisfaction you will often discover that they are frustrated in the same areas you are because those areas are not in their skill set. They may not be able to articulate that to you except for you raising the issues and sharing your observations. It has been my experience that there is often relief when staff members discover why they have been frustrated and that discovery makes it possible for you to reposition them for success.

Four: Remember that when we are in our sweet spot we experience satisfaction rather than frustration, those around us are served by us well rather than poorly and the role we play sees the proper results. When we are not in our lane, we experience frustration and those around us do as well. Frustration, lack of results, irritation by those we serve or are on our team are often symptoms that someone is not positioned properly.

Helping staff find their proper role is an ongoing responsibility of leaders. The better we do this the better our team performs and the higher the happiness factor of our staff. This is a stewardship role of leaders.

Introducing (or reintroducing) people to the Word

It would be interesting to know how many of those in our congregations have ever read through the entire Scriptures. In my experience the percentage is not high. We read many books about the Christian life but many of our people have not read the book of life themselves.

A best practice I have observed is that of congregations reading through scripture over the course of a year together. If this is encouraged from the front, through the ministries of the church and with regular encouragement it is possible to see a high percentage of folks participate.

All of us deeply desire life change for our people. We also know that spiritual transformation is not what it ought to be in our ministries. Could it be that part of the reason is that our people are not living in the word themselves and therefore not experiencing the Truth first hand?

I often wonder what the simple practice of regularly reading God's word would do for God's people in our day. If what Psalm 119 says about the word is true, they are missing out on a lot by not soaking themselves in His truth.
It is simple but profound. Think about it.