Karl Vaters makes an important point in his book, Small Church Essentials. Many of us learned the basics of our faith in Sunday school or discipleship classes, but it takes mentoring to understand how to put it all into practice. The goal of mentoring is to help us move from knowing to becoming. Here are […]
Category: Influence & leadership
The personal surveyor.
A nearby city is replacing its sewer mains. They’re excavating entire roadways by employing all the backhoes, bulldozers, bucket loaders, dump trucks and cranes you can squeeze into a residential neighborhood. Between the deep chasms and lumbering vehicles, it’s quite the event. Yet, despite all the screeching, scraping, thumping, and rumbling about, what caught my […]
What work isn’t.
When I was nine, my father built a giant sieve to separate stones from the soil. He wanted a lawn back where the yard was still piles of rubble from a construction project. At dinner that night he asked me to help him shovel one of the piles through the sieve. At nine, my idea […]
The secret of humility.
There’s a quiet presence to humility. It’s gentle. You experience it in butterfly exhibits and hospital rooms. A deference to the other. A gentle touch that affirms dignity. It’s also evident on airplanes when someone stops to help the elderly couple lift their carry-ons into the overhead bin. A fragrance of grace in the urgent aisle. Humility […]
The cost of goals.
Goals are important — they help us think beyond ordinary outcomes. They’re also a burden, because aiming farther requires more of us (and others). Every historical marvel cost time, money, rest, relationships, alternate opportunities, and lives. Stepping back, achieving goals is really about perseverance, which entails strength of character, sacrifice, and encouragement. Not all goals […]
