ScottyNeal.com

Leadership Insight Priority #1 Leading Yourself

Many times in my life what I find to be true is that I am my own worst enemy.  I know my own limitations and struggles many times but I ignore them and if thats not bad enough I also ignore conviction to.  This is especially the case the busier I get and the more responsibility that I have.  It becomes easier to overlook things when you are doing so much that you can justify it.  

So as I recognize this about myself and fight the temptation to be delusional I realize that the beginning point of leading myself is repentance.  If I am gong to be the leader I need to be for every other area in my life it is going to be built on my ability to follow Jesus and lead myself to be led by Him to repentance (2 Chronicals 7:14).

How about you?  Do you find yourself running to repentance or reluctantly being dragged?

Leadership Insights

I was in Lynchburg the beginning of this past week speaking to some college students and it was a great time.  I shared 4 things that I believe everyone needs to Lead if they are going to allow God to get the most out of them.  I enjoyed sharing them so I thought I would share them here as well.

Lead Yourself

Lead Your Family

Lead Your Leadership

Lead Your Church (Organization) 

Ill take the next couple days and explain what I mean by each one and if you have some thoughts I'd love to hear them in the comments section.

Calendar and Communications Coordinator

We are praying and looking for someone to step up and fill this position:

This person needs to act as the gateway to the master calendar, making sure we have no competing events and all events on the calendar are at a convenient time for people to attend. If someone wants to put an event on the calendar they need to go through them. This includes anything church wide or specialized. After events are on the calendar this person will schedule and coordinate the promotion of each event through various vehicles that will be determined using an established criteria. Once the promotion schedule is set they will then execute each promotion themselves or by delegating to someone else (designer) with clear instructions and firm deadlines.

Longevity

This coming Sunday we will be concluding our series Electable.  This series has been about the renewal that God does in us which brings about strong character which breeds consistency in us.  The result of consistently operating with strong Character is that everyone that you lead and everyone that you are in relationship with TRUST you. 

Trust is something you must have if you want lead well and have strong relationships and it is gained slowly and lost quickly which is why longevity is necessary.  Character displayed long term in my opinion and in my experience will award you  influence with people which is stronger than any amount of compensation that you could ever offer them.

Do the people you love and people you lead trust you?

Sunday Morning Joelables

For Pastors Appreciation Month I thought I'd give Scotty's blog a refresh and then took the liberty of hijacking it for this post. That's the nice thing about being the church communications guy, I have access to things. I wanted to publicly say how much I love and appreciate Scotty and give you all a chance to as well. I've known Scotty for a little more than six years now. We met while I was in college and he's played an integral role in my development as a ministry leader, husband, and father. I think Scotty embodies the heart of a pastor more than anyone that I have ever met. He genuinely loves people, God's word, and has wisdom way beyond his age. Scotty is humble, authentic, and always willing to listen and lend a hand. I love his self deprecating humor while he speaks, that he can't end a conversation, and the passion for the kingdom of God that he bleeds. He is someone worthy of great honor. Scotty, thank you so much for being a great friend and pastor to me.

Now it's your turn. Leave Scotty a comment and tell him how much you appreciate him. Oh, and feel free to get him one of these for a Pastors appreciation gift.

Catalyst 2008

Stacy and I had the awesome opportunity to accompany our Leadership to Atlanta late last night to spend today and tomorrow at the Catalyst Leadership Conference. It has already been like drinking from a fire hydren the content has been so rich.
Pray for us while we are here for God stoke the fires of his mission in us. Pray for Stacy to, cause she is 7 months pregnant and sitting all day and traveling by car for 8 hours is not on her list of things she would like to be doing.

IT

I have been reading Craig Groeschel's new book "It".  This book is about Church Leadership and what the ingredients are to growing healthy vibrant Churches.  The ingredients are:

1. Passion for His presence
2. A deep craving to reach the lost
3. Sincere integrity
4. Spirit-filled faith
5. Down-to-earth humility
6. Brokenness

How are you doing on these 6 essentials?  Where is there room for some improvements?

Are you a Risk Taker?

Risk Takers and Risk Makers (via Swerve)

One of the most common risks leaders face when making tough decisions is the risk of criticism and perception. When you step out and try something new, there are often many people just waiting to say, “You’re wrong,” “You’re crazy,” “It will never work,” and “You’re an idiot.” And if it doesn’t work, they are the same people who’ll say “I told you so,” and “I can’t trust you,” (even though they never did).
The irony is that risk takers need these people. They are the ones who actually make it risky. They make it challenging, and in many cases provide the motivation to push through. They are the risk makers.
As frustrated or angry as I can get at no-name, do-nothing critics…they make me a better leader. I need them.
How about you—what effect do critics have on you when you’re considering risks? Are there other areas of leadership where a negative ingredient can make a positive contribution?

Focused

Ralph one of our Elders sent this Download Capoeira Fighter to me and after I stopped laughing I began thinking about how we are all like this sometimes.

The devil would love to get you distracted and get you off the course on which God has placed you. God has something He wants you to do and you had better not substitute the good for the best. If you are in a fight you better not get distracted by dancing.  Find out what God wants you to do and refuse to be distracted by the devil. You need to say as the apostle Paul said, “This one thing I do!” Know what it is that God wants you to do and do it with all your strength for His glory!

Are you on the mission Jesus has called you to?  Are you focused?

Rick Warren

Today Stacy and I drove down to Virgina to attend Innovate Church Conference. Thanks to the LBF church planting fellowship it was free to us. Tonight Rick Warren spoke and he was amazing. God has granted Rick an amazing worldwide platform thru him Pastoring one of the countries largest churches (Saddleback Community Church) and him authoring the worlds best sold book aside from the Bible (the Purpose Driven Life). Rick shared tonight Satans 3 great temptations on all leaders and how he has fought them. The 3 temptations are the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The way he has and we can fight them are thru integrity, generosity, and humility. WOW, is all I can really say about his message it was truly from the heart of a man who loves Jesus and the local Church deeply. Pray for Rick he is going to be interviewing both McCain and Obama this week at his Church.