Two key things for leaders

Since October, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my two per month personal coaching sessions from Pastor Dave Jacobs. Dave is a former Vineyard pastor who lives in Oregon and recently retired from full-time pastoral ministry to become a personal life coach to pastors. Over the six or seven sessions we’ve had thus far, we’ve talked about a lot of various issues and all of it has been very insightful and truly revolutionary as I begin to institute some of the ideas Dave has shared. One of my primary goals in seeking out Dave as a personal coach is to improve my abilities to coach and lead those God has given me here at our church.

Sandy and I have been blessed to be surrounded by dozens of wonderfully talented men and women who love Jesus passionately and have a strong desire to lead others here in our church family. I want to do my very best to lead them in the way Jesus desires me to.

One great quote Dave shared with me today, comes from Pastor John Maxwell. Maxwell, as you might know, has written many books on leadership and I’ve come to appreciate many of his ideas on leadership skills. His quote today:

“I teach my leaders to do two things…1. THINK.  2. DO THINGS IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE”

As Dave and I talked about this quote, I realize that I get so busy “doing things” for Jesus, I can sometimes be running so fast to get the job done, that I forget to STOP, RELAX a MOMENT, and THINK. Allowing time in my busy schedule for THINK TIME is one of those revolutionary ideas of Dave’s I’m trying to institute into my schedule. Quality thinking is so missing in my schedule. How about you? Another quote from Dave comes from Albert Einstein. This great “thinker” quipped…

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved by using the same level of thinking that created our problems in the first place.”

Ouch. I guess it’s time to make a New Year’s resolution right now. Lord, help me to become a better THINKER in 2009, and let that be priority one!

~ by Marty Boller on December 19, 2008.