As many of you know, part of my calling is to Coach other pastors & leaders across the country. Today I want to introduce you to...

Today, I am reposting an article written by one of the pastors I coach in Newark, Delaware, Mark Johnston. Mark is one of the brightest, passionate and articulate communicators I've heard in along time. Our coaching relationship began 2 years ago and in that time, I've seen Mark grow & expand as a leader. The church he leads, "The Journey" has also gained incredible traction in that time as well.

 

Mark & I meet monthly face-to-face on Tokbox.com for about an hour. Mark has also participated in my Next Level Coaching 1.0 Virtual Coaching Group.

 

You can follow Mark's blog at: 

 

http://yourjourney.typepad.com/mark_johnston/

 

Their Church's Website is: http://www.YourJourney.tv

I highly recommend listening to his podcasts... brilliant.

I hope you enjoy this article he wrote on "Coaching."

 

 

Send Me In, Coach

I’m not very athletic.  Okay, I’m not even slightly athletic.  Consequently, I didn’t have much of a chance growing up to interact with a coach.  (I tried out for the basketball team once, in seventh grade.  The coach was kind… but honest.) 

It wasn’t until much later that I began to understand the role of coaching in areas of life other than sports; and it wasn’t until a few years ago that I began to realize the explosive value coaching can bring.

Like you, I’m sure, I have some degree of talent – but I’m not even close to the top of the pile.  And along with my average abilities I also bring lots of naiveté, insecurity, bad habits, wrong attitudes, and ineffective tendencies to the table.  Coaching has helped me tackle (*gratuitous sports reference) all of these: systematically and much more effectively than I could have on my own.

Here’s what I’m learning about coaching:

• A coach doesn’t have to be an all-star player.  On any great sports team, most of the players can out-run, out-tackle, out-hit, or out-pitch their coach.  A coach isn’t just someone who’s great at the game, it’s someone who’s great at pointing out where you are great (and not so great) at the game.  The best coaches are people who blend analysis, encouragement, and discipline into every interaction in a way that leaves you informed, motivated, and determined to change.  When you’re looking for a coach, don’t just pick the person with the biggest successes; pick someone with admirable successes and a proven ability to train others.  You’re not choosing a coach you can brag about to your friends, but someone who can help you grow.
• The best coaches have a niche.  That’s why you’ll usually need several.  I asked one of my pastoral coaches once, “So, what are you doing to grow spiritually?”  His response?  “Probably the same things you’re doing.”  He’s still a great coach for church leadership, but I needed to look somewhere else for the specific spiritual growth stuff I was craving in that moment.  There’s nothing wrong with that!  If you play football and basketball, you probably won’t have the same coach for both (unless your school has some serious budget problems.)  Chances are good that no one person will be able to help you seek excellence in every area at once.  One of my goals this year is to find a parenting coach.  Don’t just seek out a coach, seek out coaches.
• Coaching only reaches maximum effectiveness when it’s paid forward.  I’ve experienced coaching for a few years now, but it’s only over the past several months that I’ve started coaching others.  I’m hugely humbled by the opportunity to spend monthly intentional time with a handful of people who are seeking insight, accountability, and support as they pursue leadership and ministry.  There’s something potent about this, about closing the loop – it perpetuates the growth you’re experiencing.  Look for people you can download from; and then look for people you can upload to.  It will take coaching to a whole new level for you.

I’m not good enough and I don’t have long enough to accomplish everything God has called me to accomplish.  That’s why I need coaching.  How about you?

“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come” (I Timothy 4:8 – NLT).

Playing with Pet Rattlesnakes... Dealing with the Media in Ministry

            Over the past few years, we have had to deal with the media from time to time in our church. By and large, it’s been a positive experience but there have also been a few times when we’ve been misrepresented or haven’t been portrayed in the best light. Gaining media attention can bring increased (& free) promotion for your church, but it must also be handled with the right perspective or it can damage you and your ministry.

In Mark 6, Jesus has an interaction with what would be the equivalent of “the media” in his day. He’s speaking and his audience is filled with people who were anxious to hear what he had to say and then leave and give their opinion about it! (I don’t know about you, but that sounds like the media to me!)

We can learn some things from how Jesus interacted with the media.

Mark 6 (In The Message Paraphrase)

v. 1-2 “On the Sabbath, he gave a lecture in the meeting place. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. "We had no idea he was this good!" they said. "How did he get so wise all of a sudden, get such ability?"

1.  The Media will think you are an Overnight Success.

The people in Jesus’ hometown didn’t realize that Jesus had been preparing for this for 30 years, they heard him speak one time and thought he was an overnight success. When you gain media attention, don’t be surprised if they don’t know or care much about your back story. The media lives in a moment by moment world and representing your years of blood, sweat and tears isn’t their biggest priority.

v. 3 “But in the next breath they were cutting him down…”

2.  Never believe your own press.

Always remember the media has a job to do: Tell a story that will increase viewers. They’re interested in telling the story they want to tell. That’s why they are capable of loving you and hating you all in the same article. If it means they gain more viewers than that’s what they’ll write. Believing your own press is a dangerous thing, because if you’ll swallow the good things they write, you’ll be tempted to swallow the bad things they write as well. Don’t let either sink in to your spirit.

v. 3 "He's just a carpenter—Mary's boy. We've known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers, James, Justus, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. Who does he think he is?"

3.  The Media can reduce you and discredit you pretty fast.

The listeners in Jesus’ day went from “How did he get so wise…” to “He’s just a carpenter…” in just a few seconds. Don’t be surprised if the media reduces you to a “He’s just a…” statement. Over the years I’ve been labeled a lot of things: Too young, too hip, a sell out, and a flash in the pan to name a few. Don’t worry about it. Let them say what they want, it’s just words. The way to prove them wrong is NOT to fight back and defend yourself, it’s to keep doing what you do every single week. Consistency wins out every time, if we’ll give it enough time.

v. 4 “They tripped over what little they knew about him and fell, sprawling.”

4.  The media only sees and believes a small piece.

In the media world, deadlines trump fact almost exclusively. Unfortunately, when a reporter is on a deadline, they must take what little facts they have about you and then project the rest. Often too much detail only clouds their mind for the story they need to write for the 6 O’Clock news. Remember, for you this is your life, for them this is today’s deadline, and tomorrow they’ll be off reporting on something else.

v. 4 “…they never got any further.”

5.  The media want what they want, sometimes, more than they want fact.

In most TV interviews I’ve ever done, I can tell the reporter is listening for a couple of select sound bites from me that will fit into the story they’re already trying to write in their head. Only every once in a great while do we get a reporter who will show up at our event with one story in their mind, see the reality of what is actually going on and then change the story they were going to write. Most media people have a pre-conceived idea of the story they want to tell long before they arrive on the scene.

v. 4-5 “Jesus told them, "A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child." Jesus wasn't able to do much of anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that's all.”

6.  The Media is a lot like a Pet Rattlesnake.

I remember when a nationally known and very prominent leader had seen a piece that CNN did on our church several years ago and made this comment to comparing the media to a pet rattlesnake. I have never forgotten that comparison. His warning was to, “never get too comfortable around them, because the minute you do, they just might turn on you and bite you.”

All in all, capturing the attention of the media can be a positive thing for your church or ministry. But knowing how to handle the attention and keeping it in the right perspective is key. Never forget, we do what we do out of faithfulness for an unseen Creator, not for media attention.

The 4th Dimension of the Entrepreneurial Personality: The Leader

The last dimension according to Michael Gerber in his book, Awakening the Entrepreneur within, is: The Leader

By far, leadership is the most important. You can have a great vision or dream, think strategically about that dream, and even tell the story of the dream effectively, but if you don't have the ability to lead people into the new reality, you're sunk. Here are a few of my personal thoughts from my experiences with start up leaders:

1. Think Growth. Leaders grow people. Plain and Simple. In order to realize your dream, you've got to be committed to the personal growth of the people that are around you. A leader who only focuses on growth the vision and not the people of the vision has missed the whole point.

2. Think Effectiveness. In every dream there are a multitude of smaller dreams that can sidetrack an organization. Jim Collins would call it "Good, the enemy of Great." Michael Gerber would call them, "nusances." Others might call them "chasing rabbits." The best leaders know how to keep their people focused on the right priorities long-term.

3. Think Systems. The greatest leaders, as Michael Gerber has so effectively claimed in all of his E-Myth books, know how to use systems to accomplish a goal. The best leaders move the focus away from their personality and toward systems all of the time. If it can't be systematized then it shouldn't be done.

? What level of leader are you, 1 to 10? ? What can you begin to do to grow yourself and the leaders around you to become better leaders? ? How system driven is your thinking?

The Greatest Entrepreneurs are the ones who leverage each of the 4 Dimensions of their Personality to accomplish the Dream God has placed in their heart.

The Dreamer, The Thinker, The Storyteller, & The Leader. 4 Essentials to every great start up organization.

Matt

Dimension #2: The Thinker

The 2nd Dimension of the Entrepreneurial Personality as described in Michael Gerber's book, Awakening the Entrepreneur Within is: The Thinker.

Michael says that the Thinker is the "HOW" behind the "WHAT" of the Dreamer. In my experience, it really is true that every Entrepreneur must have some Thinker in them as well as a healthy dose of Dreamer.

At some point in the vision of your start up, a leader has to cross a line in their mind to "Getting Stuff Done." I have met many leaders who have been so in love with the vision of their new organization that they have completely forgotten about the work that needs to be done.

There is a delicate balance in this b/c to the true Dreamer, actually thinking and working kind of stinks. So permission has to be granted in the Entrepreneur to float back and forth between Dreaming and Thinking about your Vision.

In addition to being a Dreamer, I am a Strategic Thinker as well. I enjoy the discipline of drilling down and finding how all the puzzle pieces will fit together. But I must admit that too much Strategic thinking and not enough Dreaming wears me out.

No dream ever becomes a reality without a lot of time spent by the Entrepreneur in the Thinking Dimension.

? How comfortable are you transitioning from the Dreamer mindset to the Thinker Mindset of your vision? ? How willing are you to get your hands dirty in the Thinker Dimension of your Vision?

Tomorrow is the 3rd Dimension. This is one of my favorites...

Matt