Blog Posts

Failing Forward

John Maxwell wrote, “I have dedicated my life to adding value to people. I believe that to succeed, a person needs only four things. You can remember them by thinking of the word REAL.”

Consider how to become a REAL success:

  • Relationships: The greatest skill needed for success is the ability to get along with other people. It impacts every aspect of a person’s life. Your relationships make you or they break you.
  • Equipping: One of the most significant lessons Maxwell has learned is that those closest to you determine the level of your success. If your dreams are great, you achieve them only with a team.
  • Attitude: People’s attitudes determine how they approach life day to day. Your attitude, more than your aptitude, will determine your altitude.
  • Leadership: Everything rises and falls on leadership. If you desire to lift the lid on your personal effectiveness, the only way to do it is to increase your leadership skills.

Maxwell wrote a book called Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success to change our attitude about failure.

Click here for a summary of Failing Forward

Canoeing the Mountains

When we consider this month’s focus on “Living in an Insane World”, it’s an appropriate time to look at Tod Bolsinger’s Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory.  As Bolsinger puts it, “Seminary didn’t prepare me for this!”

Consider a time when churches functioned primarily as vendors of religious services for a Christian culture.  At the time, the primary leadership toolbox was:

  • Teaching to provide Christian education
  • Liturgics for leading Christian services
  • Pastoral care for offering Christian counsel and support

In this changing world, we need to add a new set of leadership tools. And this applies equally well to Christians serving in leadership beyond the parish.

Using the story of Lewis and Clark’s expedition and applying the best insights from organizational leadership and missional theology, Bolsinger will help us learn together what it means for Christians to lead when the journey goes “off the map.”

Just as Lewis and Clark did, we will learn that if we can adapt and adventure, we can thrive.

Click here for more from Tod Bolsinger’s Canoeing the Mountains