Last week I was meeting with a group of senior pastors. In our conversation, I asked what’s one way other leaders on your team can support you and help you be successful in your role? I thought it might be helpful to engage that conversation here. If you are a senior pastor now or have been one in the past, please share your thoughts.

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The following is a guest post from Ben Stroup. Ben has produced my first four eBooks and is working with me on the fifth one releasing in October.

Fifty thousand views of anything is significant. eBooks have become a popular noun used today. There are two types of eBooks. One is simply an electronic rendering of a book on the shelf. The others is a much shorter (approximately 5,000 words) piece designed to provide a concentrated infusion of new ideas into an already existing conversation to accomplish a specific, predetermined goal. In Tony’s situation, our strategy on the first four eBooks (and the next three that will complete the Leisure Suit series) was the latter rather than the former. Rather than pontificating, I want to offer some learning points others can apply to their own contexts, scenarios, and and circumstances.

1. Writing is communication. Communication at its very core begins with clearly articulating what you want to say and successfully sharing that message in a way that ensures the intended recipients heard the message exactly as you wanted them to. If we are going to be great at this, then we have to become an advocate for the people we are trying to reach. It’s the only way we can ensure what we write, say, etc. is even relevant to the conversation.

Tony fiercely protects his digital real estate which results in a high degree of trust among those who are paying attention. He often says “no” to avoid clutter and distraction. If we are going to be successful communicators, we must act on behalf of and in the best interest of those we are trying to reach.

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For the three of you who are curious, I had the number one pick in tonight’s fantasy football draft. I selected Adrian Peterson. Here’s the rest of my roster…for now.

• Matt Ryan, QB Falcons
• Adrian Peterson, RB Vikings
• Knowshon Moreno, RB Broncos
• Miles Austin, WR Cowboys
• DeSean Jackson, WR Eagles
• Wes Welker, WR Patriots
• Brandon Pettigrew, TE Lions
• David Akers, K 49ers
• Browns, DST (…because they’re playing the Bengals in week 1)

Here’s my bench…

• Willis McGahee, RB Broncos
• Mike Tolbert, RB Chargers
• Ben Tate, RB Texans
• Danny Amendola, WR Rams
• Davone Bess, WR Dolphins
• A.J. Green, WR Bengals

Frankly, it doesn’t matter who I have on my roster. It’s football season!

(Go Browns!)

In a recent Church Executive article, William Vanderbloemen offered six trends he’s seeing in church staffing. They include:

1. Spending more money on fewer people
2. Hiring “coaches” who focus on leadership development
3. Focusing on communications including social media
4. Hiring from both inside and outside the organization
5. Staffing for fundraising development
6. Preparing for the future with a succession plan

William elaborates on all of these trends in the full article.

Which of these trends are you noticing in your experience? Are there any other trends you’d add to the list? Join the conversation by adding your comment.

In case you missed the news, Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple yesterday. With that news, I thought I’d share a speech Jobs gave at the Stanford commencement ceremonies in 2005. This is after his initial cancer diagnosis. He shares three stories about dropping out of college, getting fired from Apple and facing death. It’s worth less than 15 minutes of your day to listen to how Jobs processed some “necessary endings” in his life.

For someone who likes to “be future,” it’s very difficult for me at times to “be present.”

• I tend to forget about how to get there from here.
• I want to know where I’m going to end up before I take my next step.
• I wrestle with control issues which sometimes make me wish for the comfort of the past rather than facing an uncertain future.

All of that means God is still working on me. I’m anything but perfect. With that, I’m looking forward to the challenge and encouragement of this upcoming Catalyst Conference in Atlanta. This year’s theme is “Be Present.” I need that.

This year’s conference will include main speakers like Andy Stanley, Jim Collins, Mark Driscoll and Francis Chan. The event is here in Atlanta on October 5-7. More important, tomorrow (Thursday, August 25) is the deadline to get the best registration rates. You know me–I’m cheap. Therefore, I want to try to save you a few bucks whenever possible.

I hope you’ll “be present” for the conference. See you in October.

Dr. Henry Cloud spoke at this year’s Leadership Summit. His talk was based on his recent book Necessary Ending: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward. After hearing Cloud’s message at the Summit, I finished reading the book. It has so impacted my thinking about leadership and life that I’m going to incorporate it into my future coaching networks, and we’re going to read it together as a staff team at the Carterville campus.

Here are some quotes from my reading that grabbed my attention:

• “They have realized that their success depends on having the time and energy resources to go deep with a few relationships, and they have to end the wish to go deep with everyone, as it leads to skimming the surface with almost everyone.”
• “Failing well means ending something that is not working and choosing to do something else better.”
• “If your map says that you are responsible for other adults as if they were your children, then something is wrong with your map, and no doubt some well-needed endings are not taking place.”
• “There is a difference between helping someone who is disabled, incapable, or otherwise infirm versus helping someone who is resisting growing up and taking care of what every adult (or child, for that matter) has to be responsible for: herself or himself. When you find yourself in any way paying for someone else’s responsibilities, not only are you stuck with a delayed ending, but you are probably harming that person.”
• “Make the concept of endings a normal occurrence and a normal part of business and life, so you expect and look for them instead of seeing them as a problem.”
• “In the absence of real, objective reasons to think that more time is going to help, it is probably time for some type of necessary ending.” (more…)

Here’s an update from Pinelake Church related to their involvement in Launch and planting new churches. Ever wonder what a reproducing church looks like? Pastor Chip Henderson and the team at Pinelake are modeling that for us.

Pinelake is one of 24 churches from across the United States that has partnered with the new Launch Network to inspire and equip next-generation planters to lead strong. Your church may want to join us. If so, completed this partnership application and we’ll follow up with you to talk about next steps.

Several years ago at a previous church, a friend of ours was trying to make a volunteer connection. She’s very gifted. She’s artistic–creativity just oozes out of her. She’s very compassionate–she’s routinely looking for ways to encourage people who need help finding new direction in their lives. She’s very people-oriented–she’ll complete the tasks as long as she has the opportunity to do it with a team.

More important, she loves Jesus and wants to serve others through the ministry of her church. And that’s what precipitated a rather funny (yet sad) story. She wanted to serve. She had time to volunteer. She could have stepped in to help in a number of different areas. But, rather than taking advantage of her creativity, compassion or relational skills, the church asked her to cut out cardboard cacti. That’s right. She wasn’t given the task of cutting out just one cactus for the upcoming vacation Bible school. She was given the responsibility of cutting out multiple cacti. I don’t even know that they let her draw the cacti–they just wanted her for her cutting abilities.

It would be different if her primary serving role took advantage of her gifts and passions. In every role we have inside and outside of the church, there are tasks we complete that we don’t necessarily enjoy but they’re part of our responsibility. That wasn’t the case here. They had a task that needed to be completed, and they found the first available person to complete the task. It wasn’t a part of a bigger role. The church didn’t care how our friend was gifted. They didn’t consider her personality or passions. They just needed a cacti cutter.

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“Collaboration means you are giving up something. True collaboration can and many times does involve pain of some kind. If you are a true collaborator, you don’t always get your way and might have to give up something. Unity and collaboration are different in this way. Unity is more about agreement, collaboration is more about achievement.” –Brad Lomenick, Director of Catalyst

This is a very challenging perspective on leadership. As leaders, we tend to want things our way. The reality is that we have to give up total control to gain the benefits of collaboration.

For more insights on this topic, read Brad’s “7 Thoughts on Collaboration” on his site.