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Leadership Means Being Misunderstood

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At some point, every leader will be misunderstood.

People will say things about you behind your back (or to your face) that aren’t true. People will judge your motives and get it wrong.

Sometimes you’ll only be allowed to say certain things in public, not because you’re being secretive, but because revealing all the information would make others look bad or would be breaking confidence. So instead, you look bad.

That’s just the territory of leadership.

Leadership is a bit like parenting. You have to do the right thing even if it’s not the popular thing.

I’ve been there many times as a leader (and as a parent).

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How to avoid church “splanting”

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WHAT IT IS: Church splanting is when a pastor plants a new church by splitting the mother church.

While many church plants are born out of a passionate call of God on a person’s life, on occasion a church plant has less noble beginnings.

In spite of Jesus’ Call for unity among His followers, at times the Church struggles to achieve it.

HOW IT HAPPENS: Anger & bitterness grow in the pastor’s heart at the circumstances in their church, and all of the sudden they develop a call to become a Church Planter.

Often motivated by frustration or hurt they declare “God is calling them to start a new church,” not in another town or state, but just down the street.

READ MORE: https://www.glichurchplanting.com/church-splanter/

Jesus Foiled an Insurrection with Food

The Feeding of the 5,000 was almost certainly an insurrection attempt.

1. Jesus & the disciples go to the desolate side of the Sea of Galilee before Passover Week, a known MUSTER POINT FOR REBELLION PLANNING outside Rome's gaze.

2. The crowd saw the "signs" he was doing with the sick, making him the LIKELY MESSIAH to overthrow non-Jewish rule & set up the Throne of David.

So thinking there is a rebellion afoot, men come from everywhere to join. Josephus indicates these musterings happened yearly.

3. The texts only count the MEN IN ATTENDANCE. If you are going to insurrect, only the total number of men would matter.

There were more men, by far, in the area during Passover than any other time of year.

Passover week was always, "Now or Never!"

4. When they sit, Mark and Luke tell us that they sat in groups of 50s and 100s.

i.e,, military-type ranks and formations.

They were there for a purpose, and it wasn't a lecture and a meal.

5. Why so many leftovers? Sometimes you have to make a choice of what you are going to carry away from your run-in with Jesus:

It's always Forks over Knives.

You can't carry both. Jesus gives them weapons of meal rather than mass destruction.

Think I'm crazy?

This is how John ends the story:

"...When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself." — JOHN 6:15

They didn't want leftovers, they wanted Barabbas.

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Just Do It

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In 1971, Phil Knight was teaching accounting at Portland State University.

One day, he overheard a graphic design student say that she couldn’t afford to take a painting class.

Knight paid her $35 to design a logo for his start-up shoe company.

When he saw the design, he said,

“I don't know if I like it, but maybe it will grow on me.”

Knight didn’t have time to fuss over the logo. "We had a deadline," he explains. He had signed a contract with a factory to produce 3,000 pairs of Nike's first shoe. "Production was starting on the shoe that Friday."

Before then, they needed a logo.

“You don’t like it?” Knight’s chief operating officer asked of the student’s design.

“I don’t love it,” Knight said, “but we’re out of time. It’ll have to do.”

Takeaway 1:

It's said that if not for constraints and deadlines, nothing would get made.

George Lucas, for instance, worked on drafts of the first Star Wars for years. "I never arrived at a degree of satisfaction where I thought the screenplay was perfect," he said.

But then he struck a deal with a movie executive from United Artists—"At that point, it became an obligation," Lucas said.

"If I hadn't been forced to shoot the film, I would doubtless still be rewriting it now."

Takeaway 2:

At Nike's IPO in 1980, Phil Knight gave the student who designed the Swoosh 500 shares.

She never sold.

Since the IPO, there have been 7 stock splits. So those 500 shares have become 64,000 shares. At the time of this writing, Nike is at $110/share.

$110/share x 64,000 shares = $7,040,000.

It makes me think of something Robert Greene once said:

“Above all else, focus on acquiring knowledge and skills. Knowledge and skills are like gold—a currency you will transform into something more valuable than you can imagine."

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Tim Keller's Final Message to the Church

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Like so many pastors, my life was influenced by the teachings of Dr. Tim Keller, who passed away on May 19th at 72 from Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer. I remember being entranced back in 2008 by how Keller connected Christ to every passage and story in the Bible. His track record as a church planter in Manhattan was unparalleled and undoubtedly will further influence Christian leaders for generations to come.

Redeemer Church posted the following today:

Last November the leadership of the Redeemer family of churches decided to host a gathering of congregants from all of our churches called Redeemer Night. We scheduled it for May 19. In God's good providence it was the day Tim Keller went to be with his Savior. Redeemer Night suddenly took on new meaning. Tim was asked several weeks ago by our network pastoral leadership team to share a few thoughts on video about his vision moving forward for our network of churches and ministries. What had not been anticipated was that it would be his final word to the congregants of our five Redeemer churches. We share it with the hope that it will encourage and strengthen all who view it to love and serve Jesus in whatever context you find yourself.

For what it’s worth, here are the three final points of Keller’s message for Redeemer Church and beyond.

Three Bits of Advice from the Book of Jeremiah

  1. Live on the Razor’s Edge. “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7, NIV).

    What razor’s edge? The Babylonians took the Jews to Babylon to destroy their culture and faith as they were assimilated into Babylon. Some Jews said, ‘Let’s stay outside so that we don’t lose our identity.’

    Keller (direct quotes): “But the Lord says to them, ‘I want you to move into the city but I want you to KEEP your identity. I want you to increase in numbers and to keep your faith but at the same time to engage. I want you to seek its peace and prosperity… I want you to love it.’ That’s the razor’s edge. Engage, but at the same time, be different. Don’t assimilate and just pick up all the views of the culture, but don’t stay out, keep your skirts clean, denounce everybody, no. Live on the razor’s edge.”

  2. Invest, Don’t Just Consume. Just before Israel goes into exile, we see these words in Jeremiah 32: “My cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. Since it is your right to redeem it and possess it, buy it for yourself.’ I knew that this was the word of the Lord; so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel… For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land’” (Jeremiah 32:8-9, 15).

    Keller (direct quotes): ”See, right now if you live in Ukraine — in eastern Ukraine — would you buy a piece of property? Probably not. Why? Because you don’t even know if it’s going to end up in Russia… It would be a terrible investment.

    And that’s exactly what Hanamel is asking Jeremiah to do…. Jeremiah says, ’I know what God has said. Yes, there will be a conquest. Yes, there will be an exile… But I will bring the people back.’

    Look, don’t just come here to consume. Don’t just come to New York to say, ‘I just want to get this on the resume, have an exciting church experience…’ Invest here. Jesus Christ said, ‘I will build My church.’ He doesn’t say, ‘I will build My church EXCEPT in big cities.’ So invest in the church. Invest your time. Invest your — yes — invest your money. Invest your life.”

  3. Forget About Your Reputation. “Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not” (Jeremiah 45:5).

    Keller: “Genesis 11 tells us that people tend to go the city to make a name for themselves. They get excited, they’re going to do well in their work. And by the way, ministers very often come to New York City to make a name for themselves. Just letting you know that. Y’know: ‘I’m a minister in New York City, I’m cool, I’m going to do well here.’

    Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. Don’t worry about your reputation. Don’t worry about your credentials. Don’t make your ministry success your identity, so if things don’t go well you feel like just another failure and you freak out. People, don’t make getting a big name in New York City your main thing. Lift up Jesus’ name. Hallowed be Thy Name. Forget yourself. Forget your reputation. Do what you can to lift up God’s Name.”

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