I just finished a book called “I’ll Have What She’s Having: The Ultimate Compliment To Any Woman Daring To Look Life In The Face” by Bobbie Houston of Hillsong Church. I know, you’re wondering why I read this book. I’m obviously not a woman. Well, it sort of happened by accident. I was sitting in the living room with my kids and this book was sitting in the magazine rack next to the sofa. I picked it up out of boredom and started to read it, and before I knew it, I had finished it. It was actually an excellent book.

Here’s the point: I can learn something from every person on this planet. Bobbie Houston actually had a lot to say about leadership. Her and her husband have been leading Hillsong Church in Australia for over 25 yrs. She should have something to say! When I think I can’t learn from someone, I have become unteachable. Heck, I can probably learn something from Charles Manson. It may be what not to do in life, but I can learn something.

Pastor Steven Furtick from Elevation Church asks all potential staff members during the interview process what they think of such and such leader, usually a well-known preacher who may be somewhat controversial. If all the potential staff member can do is criticize, then they are unlikely to get the job. I love it. You see, he’s searching out the attitude of the potential new hire: are they a learner, or are they too critical or too full of themselves to learn from others? It’s a great question that we all need to ask ourselves from time to time.

I’d sit under Brian and Bobbie Houston’s leadership any day!

Whether you’re a business leader, civic leader, or church leader, this book is for you. This has got to be one of the best books that has come out in some time. If you’re a leader of any type, you need to download this book. It’s free.

What someone has done is taken the best blogs of 2008, from some of the best church leaders in North America, and compiled them into a book format, arranged by author.

You can read one entry a day and it will last you the entire year. Or you can do as I do, and just keep reading until your eyes turn bloodshot because the entries are all so good!

Happy reading!

I wanted to let you all know that we’re going to be rolling out some new small groups (aka LifeGroups) this Sunday at RCC. Although gathering together to worship as a large group is important and exciting, we know that most of us desire more than just a Sunday morning experience. Most of us are looking for relationships and a way to grow in our faith. I think the best way to accomplish that is to live life together outside of Sunday mornings. So, this Sunday check out the new LifeGroup signups on the back table!

I’ve come out of hiding since the service last week (went fishing up the Bitterroot) and I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for doing an EXCELLENT job! I think it was quite an accomplishment to pull that off with no major hitches. I know it took an immense amount of work, but I think it was worth it. We have several people/families that are interested in becoming a part of RCC. 

Now, if we had to do it that way every week I would last about 1 month before I burned out and had to go to counseling. I’m sure most of you would feel the same way. I know that it was stressful at times, and that we’re all tired. The good news is that the next time we do it, it won’t take nearly as much effort. I’m sure we’ll get more efficient and that it will become second nature after a while.

I think this exercise brings up a good question though. How do we as leaders keep from burning out like so many we’ve known? Is that really God’s will for our lives, to work our butts off for His kingdom until we’re totally exhausted and can’t do anything more? I doubt it. In my opinion, most leader burnout can be avoided. Most of the time, it’s our own fault for burning out. Here’s why.

I see the mission of Christian leaders as one purpose, but two tiered. As Christians, the first tier of our mission is to make disciples of all nations:

Matthew 25:18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

This doesn’t mean that we personally disciple every person that walks in the door of River City Church. We are each to disciple a handful of people who in turn will do the same, just like Jesus did. So, as church leaders the second tier of our mission is to raise people up so that they will do the work of the ministry (i.e., make disciples):

Ephesians 4:1It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

In other words, it’s not our job to do all the work! We’re supposed to raise up people to do the work. We’re the coaches, the trainers, the mentors, whatever you want to call us.

The reason I’m bringing this up is that the reason most leaders burn out is that they are not good at delegating and making disciples. We often try to do everything on our own. I know I’m guilty of this at times. Why? Sometimes we’re perfectionists and we aren’t willing to give others the freedom to do things “the wrong way” and make mistakes. Other times we just don’t know how to make disciples. I can’t help you with the former, but I think I can with the latter.

Really, our job with this church plant is to recruit people to do our jobs for us. There are lots of ways to recruit people, you’ll just have to be creative about it. You definitely cannot recruit people if you are not actively seeking out people. This I know for sure. Some of the recruiting will happen during our services, but I think that most of the recruiting will happen outside of “church” during our regular lives. As we live in community with one another and others we will have the opportunity to meet people and eventually take them under our wing. Imagine if each of us found just one person to mentor, and taught each of these people to mentor only 1 other person. Can you imagine how fast RCC would grow, and in a healthy way?! We have to be intentional about it though.

Let’s truly try and be creative about how we do things, rather than just work harder. There is no doubt there is going to be sacrifice on each of our parts. A church plant doesn’t happen without some good hard work. But this sacrifice of time should only be temporary until we can find others to come along side of us and share the load.

Today is our last day at River City Church here in Lewiston. I’ve been reflecting on all of the different churches that I’ve been a part of over the last 25 years, and I can see how God has purposely used all of the people in our lives to shape us into who we are today.

His Place Foursquare

This is the church that I grew up in and where I first met Jesus. It was the first church that I stepped foot in that I can vividly remember sensing a strong presence of God right from the get go. Larry Wersen was the senior pastor, and his son Bruce was the youth pastor. Both of these guys had an unbelievable impact on my life. Larry was such a down to earth guy, and an avid outdoorsman, which appealed to me. He was never afraid to tell all of the crazy stories from his past, and he always ended them with how God totally changed him. Bruce was about the funnest guy around, and genuinely cared about all of the kids around him. He would ask me every week, “So Brian, how are you doing?”. I would answer, “Fine”. Then he would say, “Really?” as if somehow he knew I wasn’t fine. In fact, I was starting to experiment with drinking and was slipping into the party life. I couldn’t figure out how he knew, but he did. Bruce is now the senior pastor of that church. Thank you Larry, Bruce, Ken, Kurt, and all of the other wonderful people at His Place! You taught me that church life is supposed to be fun!

Pullman Foursquare

I went through about 10 years where I didn’t serve the Lord, but rather served myself by partying constantly. That ended abruptly in 1994 when God intervened in my life. Andrea and I started attending Pullman Foursquare. Our first Sunday, we were mobbed by well meaning students inviting us to their small group. These people were obsessed by small groups! We held them off for about 3 Sundays, then we were tricked into bringing olives to one of their dinners. We had to show up. We learned the value of small groups at Pullman Foursquare under the leadership of Dan Smith and Steve Reames. I’m so grateful that those crazies kept inviting us to their group, even though we really didn’t want to come. Thank you Dan and Steve for your passion for people and small groups!

Desert Spring Foursquare

We moved to Oregon after college and began attending Desert Spring. Dave and Kelley Eshleman immediately began courting us (by Dave taking me fishing and Kelley hanging out with Andrea). We became part of the leadership team there and ultimately launched a small groups program. It was an exciting time for us and helped to anchor our passion and conviction for small groups. Dave’s unique way of teaching helped to ground me in the Word, and gave me a passion for teaching the Word. It was here that I received my calling to plant churches. I’ll never forget all of the people and experiences that helped us grow at Desert Spring. Thank you Dave and Kelley and all of the other people we love at Desert Spring!

River City Church

You would have thought we’d have found another Foursquare church when we moved to Lewiston, but the week we were visiting looking for a church, Foursquare was having a leadership convention in Oregon and none of the pastors would call us back. Go figure. Instead we found River City Church and Ron King. The minute I met Ron I knew he was our kind of guy, and the minute we stepped foot into RCC, we knew it would be our home for a while. One of the things that we weren’t prepared for was the grace that flowed in this church. It was so thick it was almost overwhelming! I didn’t realize that I had a fair bit of legalism in me, and God was going to use the people of RCC to beat it out of me. I’ve also learned the value of team here at RCC. Nothing is done here without a team, thus we are planting a church using the team approach. I wouldn’t do it any other way. Maybe that’s just me. There are so many people that have influenced our lives here at RCC and through Lifelinks, I couldn’t begin to list them all! Thank you Ron King and Kevin Beeson, and the rest of RCC and Lifelinks! I’m proud to say I’m a DORK (Disciple of Ron King)!!!

Of course this is just a small smattering of the people who have helped us get to where we are today. There have literally been hundreds of people who have mentored us, allowed us to mentor them, and just stood beside us as God has grown the vision for church planting in us. Thank you everyone!

I have found that as my life has gotten more complicated I am continuously searching for ways to simplify it. I take the same approach when it comes to ministry. Our society is so busy these days, no one has time for all of the church meetings and outreach campaigns we pastors continuously invent. So, I’ve been thinking about a new approach. A simpler approach. What if we were to simplify the Christian life so that all of our spiritual disciplines could be boiled down to a concept as simple as “The power of one”. If we could get everyone to spend just one hour a week living out spiritual disciplines, we could turn the world upside down. Here’s what I’m talking about:

• 1 hr a week serving your community

• 1 hr a week serving your church

• 1 hr a week investing in each important relationship

• 1 hr a week in reading your bible

• 1 hr a week in prayer

• 1 hr a week mentoring someone

• 1 hr a week being mentored

I know this simple concept is very easy to criticize and pick apart, but perhaps it would be a good place to start as a church. How many people do you know that do all of these things? Perhaps they don’t do them because they are overwhelmed with life as it is. But, if we could encourage everyone in our church to just start by spending one hour a week doing these things, just think how God might use us to change the world. Even one hour a month. What do you think? We could probably nail most of these just by getting together once a week with a group of like-minded people with a common purpose. Sounds too simple. Couldn’t possibly work. Could it?