To Highly Esteem

In our current series at LifeChurch.tv called Forgotten Virtues, the first message I taught was on “Honor.” If you are interested, you can view it here.

When Jesus said a prophet is without honor in his hometown, the Greek word he used was “atimos” (pronounced at’-ee’-mos). It means to dishonor, to treat as common or ordinary.

The word translated as honor from Greek is the word “time” (prounounced tim-may’). It means to value or highly esteem. This word means to treat as precious, weighty or valuable.

Applied to our daily lives, we could say:

• Honor builds up. Dishonor tears down.
• Honor believes the best. Dishonor believes the worst.
• Honor values. Dishonor devalues.

If you want a common marriage, dishonor your spouse. Treat him or her as ordinary. If you want an exceptional marriage, highly esteem your spouse. Treat him or her as precious or valuable.

You might say, “But he isn’t acting honorably.”

Remember, respect is earned, but honor is given. If you treat someone with honor even though they haven’t earned it, they might start behaving honorably.

Romans 12:10 in the ESV says, Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” (Emphasis mine)

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A Culture of Honor

When I travel to different countries, I always ask my friend who has traveled to well over 100 countries, what do I need to know about showing honor?

For example, when we ministered in Korea, my friend told me to

• Always bring a gift to offer
• Hand it with two hands not one
• Embrace my right forearm with my left hand when shaking hands.

These are simple ways to show honor in Korea.

After learning from him about several different countries, I asked, “How would you advise me to show honor if I was visiting the United States from another country?” He laughed as he told me, “I wouldn’t have to tell you anything because most people don’t care about showing honor in our country.”

His comment made me think. Have we become (for the most part) a culture without honor?

When Jesus returned home, people were offended by him and treated him as a commoner. Jesus said, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” Mark 6:4

Verse 5 and 6 said, “He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he was amazed at their lack of faith. Mark 6:5-6

Notice the Bible doesn’t say he “would” not, but “could” not do any miracles.

I wonder if our “lack of honor” to God and His people is limiting what could happen in our churches. What do you think?

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Letting Go of the Know

Perhaps the most challenging thing about empowering people is “letting go of the know.”

When you are in the beginning stages of empowering another (developing) leader, you probably want to know a lot. You are building trust.

Once a leader is trained and functioning well, it’s time to “let go of the know.”

Sam Roberts oversees all of our Life Church locations and pastors. Because we’ve developed a deep trust, he knows what I need to know. Rather than me interacting regularly with fourteen pastors, I interact regularly with one leader.

When someone else knows what I need to know, I don’t have to worry about the details. As we hand off the “need to know,” we are freed to lead rather than micromanage.

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Transforming Church in Rural America Book Giveaway!

Pastor Shannon O’Dell wrote Transforming Church in Rural America to offer churches of all sizes the strategies and Biblical guidance that turned a church of just 31 into a dynamic multi-campus church of several thousand.

Shannon supplements the book with videos and offers free resources for rural churches at www.nlpg.com/bnc.

We are giving away 100 copies of Transforming Church in Rural America.  Want one for yourself? Your pastor? Your home church?  New Leaf Publishing Group will randomly choose 100 people who do ALL of the following:

(NOTICE: The book giveaway has reached the 100 mark. If you didn’t make the first 100 entrants, you can purchase Shannon O’Dell’s book HERE.)

1. Leave a comment on this post about your rural church experience or perception.
2. Fill out this form —- http://bit.ly/cUY3bZ.
3. Tweet about it:  Revolution 4 rural churches! Read Transforming Church in Rural America by @shannonodell  #TCiRA

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Shocked By What I Don’t Know

It happened again the other day. We had a group of pastors visiting. When they started asking me questions, I deferred often to several trusted staff members.

After about 30 minutes of looking to my team to answer questions, one pastor said, “Craig, there are a lot of things about your church that you don’t know!”

When I told him “thanks,” he seemed surprised.

I unquestionably want to know when people need prayer, when major problems arise, and when my help is needed; but there are so many things I really don’t want to know.

If I have capable team members and volunteers who know about issues and can make decisions without me, that’s all I really need to know about those issues.

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You Don’t Need to Know What, But Who

Instead of always knowing “what” is happening with a project, what we really need to know is “who” is covering the project. If we have the right “who,” we shouldn’t have to worry about the “what.”

If we have the wrong “who,” then we need to know the “what.” If you always need to know the “what,” you have one of two problems:

1. You are not an empowering leader.
2. You have the wrong “who.”

Either way, the problem needs to be fixed.

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What You Don’t Know Matters

In some ways as a leader, what you don’t know matters as much as what you do know.

In ministry, many pastors want to know everything about what is going on. The problem with that concept should be obvious. To know everything means that you can’t have a lot going on.

It’s not uncommon for a pastor to delegate something to a trusted person, then expect to know all of the details about the progress. Although some communication is always valuable, the only thing the pastor really needs to know… is that the job is covered and will be done well.

This week we’ll talk about the benefits of not knowing everything.

What do you not know about what is going on in your ministry?

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Promise and Deliver—Later

Because we had over triple our projections when we opened our newest campus, we were and still are behind the curve on many things:

• We don’t have nearly enough groups.
• We’re recruiting volunteers and releasing leaders on the fly.
• We’re training newly hired staff.
• We’re recruiting more staff.
• We’re putting finishing touches on the building (including solving parking challenges).
• We’re not close to having the programming in place.

In short, we’re building the airplane while it’s in the air. That’s okay. People understand and actually like it—if we lead well.

Though we don’t have everything the way we want it, we can make promises.

• We’ll be adding parking in the next few months so you won’t have to walk a quarter a mile! Thanks for being a great church and making it work!
• We’ll be adding a Saturday night service one day so you don’t have to sit in the overflow! Thanks for understanding and still bringing your friends!
• We’ll be starting our youth ministry in two months! It’s going to be amazing!
• We’re looking for a junior high pastor right now! Pray God brings us the right one.
• So many of you are new! We thank God you are here. Within the next month, we’ll have some meetings just to get to know you.

You don’t have to have it all today. Make promises for the future—then deliver.

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