Dealing With Dead Horses

Every leader sometimes finds himself or herself trying to resurrect something that is either dying or already dead. Here are a few choice insights on dealing with "dead horses" from our Hillcrest Church Children's Pastor, Susan Rutledge:

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.

2. Changing riders.

3. Saying things like "This is the way we always have ridden this horse."

4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.

5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride horses.

6. Increasing the standards to ride horses.

7. Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.

8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.

9. Comparing the state of horses in today's environment.

10. Changing the requirements to specify that "Horses shall not die."

11. Hiring contractors to ride the dead horse.

12. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.

13. Declaring that "No horse is too dead to ride."

14. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.

15. Doing a study to see if the horse can be ridden cheaper if outsourced.

16. Purchasing a product to revitalize the dead horse.

17. Declaring the dead horse is "better, faster and cheaper".

18. Forming a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.

19. Revisiting the performance requirements for horses.

20. Saying this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.

21. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

Personally, I think the best way to deal with a "dead horse" is the same way Pastor Syvelle Phillips taught me to deal with a "sacred cow" … namely, you shoot it from as far away as possible with a high-powered rifle, then walk up wringing your hands over its untimely demise…! J!

The Need for Margin

As part of a homework assignment from the King's Seminary, I have been reading a great book this morning entitled, "The Overload Syndrome: Learning to Live Within Your Limits" by Dr. Richard Swenson.

I shared a few short quotes on Twitter, but here are a couple worth passing on that just won't fit within 140 characters…!

How did Jesus care for people? He focused on the person standing in front of Him at the time…

…If Jesus had chosen to live in modern America instead of ancient Israel, how would He act? Would He have consulted a pocket calendar? Would He have worn a watch? Would He have carried a beeper? Can you imagine Him being paged out of the Last Supper?...

…When I look deeper at the life of Christ, I also notice that there is no indication that He worked twenty-four hour ministry days. He went to sleep each night without having healed every disease in Israel – and He apparently slept well. Neither did He minister to everybody who needed it. Neither did He visit or teach everybody who needed it. There were many needs that He simply chose not to meet…

...Is this to imply that He was lazy or didn't care? Of course not. But it is to imply that He understood what it meant to be human…and His fully human side understood what it meant to have limits. Jesus understood what it meant to prioritize and to balance in light of those limits and how to focus on the truly important. We can learn a lesson from Jesus – it's okay to have limits. It is okay not to be all things to all people all of the time all by ourselves…

…Margin is the space between our load and our limits…

…Margin allows availability for the purposes of God. When God taps us on the shoulder and asks us to do something, he doesn't expect to get a busy signal…

…"In the spiritual life," explains the theologian Henri Nouwen, "the word discipline means 'the effort to create some space in which God can act.' Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from filling up…to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn't planned or counted on."

Convincing Modern Man He Needs to Change – Phil Cooke

In his recent blog post entitled, "Convincing Modern Man He Needs to Change," Phil Cooke gives a very thought-provoking quote from C.S. Lewis,

"When the apostles preached, they could assume even in their Pagan hearers a real consciousness of deserving the divine anger… It was against this background that the gospel appeared as good news. It brought news of possible healing to men who knew they were mortally ill. But all this has changed. Christianity now has to preach the diagnosis - in itself very bad news - before it can win a hearing for the cure."

Pastor Dan Scott – The Pathological Metamorphosis of the American Church

Pastor Dan Scott from Christ Church in Nashville, Tennessee gave an interesting quote from a recent message by Church on the Way Worship Pastor Dr. Tom McDonald in a post on his blog this week entitled, "The Pathological Metamorphosis of the American Church:"

"Something serious occurs to our worship and music whenever we change them from sacramental instruments that we employ to connect the human heart with God, into mere tools for church growth."

The Last TV Evangelist - Phil Cooke

I love Phil Cooke's books and have read or am currently in the process of reading every one of them, including Branding Faith: Why Some Churches and Nonprofits Impact Culture and Others Don't. His lastest book is entitled The Last TV Evangelist: Why the Next Generation Couldn't Care Less About Religious Media. In my view, it is a must-read for anyone in Christian ministry who uses the media in any form. For that matter, if you simply have a heart to reach people with the good news about Jesus in any way, you need to read this book...! Below is a link to his recent interview on the 700 Club. If you are not yet convinced that you need to read his book, I urge you to take a moment to at least view this video clip. Check out his blog at http://www.philcooke.com/ and his free video podcast on Itunes, "The Change Revolution."

The Life and Ministry of Pastor's Wives - Teresa Brand & Lois Evans, Word & Spirit Telecast, 05-05-09

Teresa recently interviewed Dr. Lois Evans of Oakcliff Bible Fellowship where her husband, Dr. Tony Evans, is the Senior Pastor, and the Urban Alternative. They discussed the life, role, ministry, and challenges faced by pastor's wives. Dr. Evans leads a ministry to Senior Pastor's Wives which puts on an annual "First Ladies Conference." This is Teresa's favorite ministry event every year.

WME History Makers conference audio now available free on the web

The sermon audio from the WME Conference is now available free on the internet via an ITunes podcast. Session Five with Rick Bezet was especially good - a "must-listen" for every pastor...!

New Testament Apostolic Ministry (Dale Yerton), Word and Spirit TV

Recently, I had the privilege of hosting Dale Yerton and Ted Flynn from the WME network of ministries on my daily telecast, Word and Spirit. During our conversation, Dale shared some great insights concerning the present-day function of New Testament apostolic gifiting.