Greg Atkinson

Lately, there’s been a ton of controversy over Rob Bell and his new book Love Wins. I’ve read several book reviews of the book and as I stated on Twitter and Facebook, it gives me great cause for concern. Let me first say that I love Rob Bell, respect him and think he’s a great communicator. I’ll talk more about that in a future blog post. What I disagree with him is in the area of theology, our view of Hell and what seems to be a universalist view (even though I know he doesn’t like that label).

I’d like to point to two great blog posts by people much smarter than I that express what I’ve been feeling for weeks and haven’t put into words, yet. It’s only after much thought and debate that I even write this blog post because I don’t want to be labeled as a hater or critic. Again, let me state: I love and respect Rob Bell. I just hold high the teaching of sound doctrine and feel I need to speak up if someone with a large following leads people astray.

First, on Rob Bell – I’d like to suggest that you read THIS blog post and book review that was posted on ChurchLeaders.com. I thought it was very well done and expressed my concern and a warning about what he writes in his book. I’ll let you read the review yourself and come to your own conclusion.

Second, on Hell – I believe there is an actual Hell and believe the Bible supports that belief. Pastor Mark Driscoll wrote an excellent blog post on Hell and he sums up the Scripture’s teaching on Hell much better than I could. I really respect when a pastor is clear, definite and straightforward. It’s the vagueness of Bell that concerns me. Read Driscoll’s thoughts on Hell HERE and see what you think.

Third, on why I’m not a Universalist – let me share with you three Scriptures that mean the world to me and that I simply can not shake or ignore.

For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus… – 1 Timothy 2:5

Jesus is ”‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” – Acts 4:11-12

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

Watch the intro of this interview with Rob Bell on MSNBC and listen carefully to how the reporter explains Bell’s book. He says that all people will go to Heaven and that people can change their mind post-mortem. From the questions that the reporter asks, he is clearly puzzled by Bell’s mixed message of  ”No, I’m not a Universalist”, but “In the end God wins and everyone goes to Heaven.” This is dangerous stuff in my humble opinion. Watch and see for yourself.

This is my humble attempt at not bashing on anyone, but explaining my position and belief on this recent controversy and the issues of Rob Bell’s new book, teachings on Hell and Universalism. My only encouragement to you, my friends, is to search the Scriptures and teach sound doctrine.

“Jesus is not one of many ways to approach God, nor is He the best of several ways; He is the only way.” ~ A. W. Tozer

Yesterday I took my son to the eye doctor because he had been complaining of having trouble reading things up close. He’s getting reading glasses to wear just for homework and reading and will hopefully get better with time. As I sat in the room with him and watched them test his vision, I had a very interesting experience.

As they asked my son to read a chart up close, he began to mess up and couldn’t focus on the letters. I sat there feeling helpless, uncomfortable, grieving and sincerely wishing he could do better. I left the doctor, dropped him back off at school and couldn’t shake the feeling.

I started thinking about vision as it relates to leadership and what it must be like for people in a church where the leader lacks vision and there’s nothing compelling about their mission. I wonder if they feel helpless, uncomfortable, if they grieve and sincerely wish the leader would make a call and lead them. The Bible says:

Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish; - Proverbs 29:18 (Amplified Bible)

I started thinking about that word perish. One of the definitions of perish is “to pass away or disappear” – I wonder if people in churches without vision die a slow death. I wonder how long they stick around feeling helpless, uncomfortable and grieving for their leader, their church and their community.

Yes, there are some people that quickly pick up on the lack of vision and leave the church to find another more vibrant church, but how many people keep coming back week after week secretly hoping things will get better? Hoping and praying that the pastor will get a word from God, lead with passion, conviction and purpose. I wonder how many gifted, capable, passionate lay leaders are sitting untapped in congregations around the country. I wonder.

This past weekend I was visiting a church in Missouri and I got to see the simple church model up close. Their mission is simply to Worship, Grow and Serve. It was a beautiful thing to behold. What is your church’s mission? Have you read Simple Church? How are you living it out?

Wednesday, I spoke at Career Day at my kids’ elementary school. I spoke on my current job in social media marketing. I decided to take the angle of first teaching them what marketing is and then introducing them to how that relates to social media.

I showed these 3rd through 5th graders cards with logos from various companies and they knew every single one of them. It’s amazing to see how effective the branding and marketing efforts of major companies have been for these young kids.

What shocked me was finding out that several of these kids are already on Facebook and they all knew about Twitter. The times – they are a changing. This generation growing up knows Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and blogging. It excited me and scared me at the same time.

What are your thoughts on the prevailing influence of social media on children? What do you think about elementary school kids being on Facebook?

It happens every Sunday in churches around North America. It’s something I look for every time I visit, consult with or secret shop a church – it’s the keeper of the vibe and how he uses that position of influence. I’m talking about the FOH audio engineer and his use of pre and post-service music.

As both a worship pastor and a tech pastor, I used to intentionally and strategically (plus creatively) put together a pre-service and a post-service mix. I thought through what we wanted people to feel when they walked in the room and what we wanted them to feel upon exiting.

I dare say the most crucial part of execution on a given Sunday is the sound engineer hitting play as soon as the service ends (cued by the pastor saying, “See you next week.” or something like that). I know that sensitivity is key and knowing the vibe, feel and spirit of the service is crucial.

Maybe it’s not appropriate to rock their faces off. Maybe it’s Good Friday and you want people to leave in silence or you just finished taking communion and you want to tone it down and go with something more chill. I used to have a chill version of well-known worship songs that we used at Bent Tree a lot.

But 9 times out of 10, you want your sound engineer to hit play on something upbeat and positive as people file out. Have a great song cued and ready to go as most people will only hear that first song you play. Choose it well.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, people sit through several songs before the service begins. Choose them well. I’ve seen churches use chill versions of songs like we did at Bent Tree, well known songs from the radio, instrumental versions of songs by Coldplay and U2 (like my friends at Lake Pointe in Rockwell, TX) and anything from Owl City to DJ Andy Hunter. Something like Postal Service or the Sunsets and Sushi album from David Crowder Band can be great, too. What are your practices at your church?

Do you use the same old CD every week? Do you use the same playlist on iTunes? Do you put together a special weekly playlist? Do you incorporate songs that people will hear in the upcoming service? Do you (at the end of the service) play a reprise and bring back a key song from the set that day?

The key is to not take these special and influential moments lightly. Choose your songs wisely and creatively. Be intentional and strategic. You, my friend, are the keeper of the vibe!

Please share what songs and genre of music you use in the comment section. How loud do you play the music when people are walking in? One thing I love about visiting NewSpring in Anderson, SC is that they rock your face off during the prelude time. They honestly, have the loudest walk-in music of any church I’ve been to. They also have a female voice-over that shares a few announcements with the music still playing underneath at about a minute or two before the service begins. So… What’s the vibe like at your church?

LifeChurch.tv (through their OPEN Network) has done it again! Known for years for offering free resources to the Church, now they are helping you with your church’s Facebook page through a series of training videos.

With training videos on how to do events, extras and configurations, fan updates, insights/metrics, moderation, notes, photos, videos and wall updates – they have you and your Facebook team (which can be made up totally of volunteers) covered on how to create, manage and lead an effective and attractive Facebook page for your church.

Check out their resources and videos HERE. Now you have no excuse for not having a great Facebook presence!

The following is a guest post from Randy Elrod. Randy hosts a gathering for creatives called re:create – which my worship pastor friends tell me is their favorite conference/event of their year. Check it and him out! Here’s what Randy wrote about leadership this week on his blog:

Three professors in Harvard Business School’s Entrepreneurial Management unit who focus on the study of creativity—recognize the romantic allure of believing it’s a rare quality bestowed on a chosen few, but all agree that notion has been debunked long ago, and rightfully so.

“Creativity does have a reputation for being magical,” says Harvard professor Teresa Amabile.

“One myth is that it’s associated with the particular personality or genius of a person—and in fact, creativity does depend to some extent on the intelligence, expertise, talent, and experience of an individual. Of course it does.

But it also depends on creative thinking as a skill.

“The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it’s in the arts, sciences, or business,” she says.

So what can leaders, managers and entrepreneurs do to promote a healthy, positive inner work life among employees?

Sure, a pat on the back or a company Ping-Pong table is always welcome, but what these Harvard Business School professors discovered was much simpler:

People have their best days and do their best work when they are allowed to make progress.

So…

1.) If you are leading, give your team room to make progress.

2.) If you are in a situation where your progress, your creativity is stifled, don’t hang on just for the paycheck.

Instead, look for the place where your passion intersects a need, and there you will find opportunity—that job, that calling—that will give you deep satisfaction while being personally challenging which results in the highest creativity.

Leaders that recognize this simple fact almost always have extraordinary teams!

Thoughts? Takeaway?

*** This is Greg and this blog post from Randy plays well into what I was trying to get across in my recent blog post about StrengthsFinder2.0. If you haven’t read that post, read it HERE. When you know your strengths, talents and how God has created and wired you, you can find a job that suits who you are and let your employer know how to best manage you.

Recently, I decided to go back and read some classic books that it had been years since I first read. I figured that if I can read my Bible continuously, why not go back and re-read some books that were foundational in my ministry and life?

One of the books that I decided to re-read was Simple Church. I can’t express to you how much that book resonated with me the first time I read it. It was a breath of fresh air and struck a chord deep within me. So, I dusted it off and started to read it again this Monday.

Here is an excerpt from Chapter One – The Simple Revolution Has Begun:

Simple church leaders are designers. They design opportunities for spiritual growth. Complex church leaders are programmers. They run ministry programs.

Church leaders who are programmers focus on one program at a time. Their goal, though never stated, is to make each program the best. Church leaders who are designers are focused on the end result, the overall picture. They are as concerned with what happens between the programs as with the programs themselves.

The simple church leaders we surveyed were expert designers. They were not the producers of spiritual growth and church vitality. Only God is the producer of the growth. But like the apostle Paul, these church leaders are expert builders (see 1 Cor. 3:10). They have skillfully designed an environment where life change is likely to occur. They have designed a simple process that moves people through stages of spiritual growth.

To have a simple church, you must design a simple discipleship process. This process must be clear. It must move people toward maturity. It must be integrated fully into your church, and you must get rid of the clutter around it.

Maybe you never thought of yourself as a designer. Maybe you’re more comfortable with the description of a builder. I urge you to strive for both. To my programmer friends, maybe you really resonated with the statement: “Their goal, though never stated, is to make each program the best.” Maybe that stings a little. We’re supposed to strive for excellence, right? Sure. Dig deeper!

A designer is focused on the end result and sees the overall picture – that’s the key difference that I want us to chew on today. Maybe you’re too busy being busy and His yoke is not easy for you. Maybe you’re in a system that is unhealthy. Maybe you need to go away on a retreat and prayerfully read through Simple Church as a leadership team.

I don’t know what your particular situation is, but I felt led to share this challenge with you and encourage you to be an INTENTIONAL and STRATEGIC (my two favorite words) designer. Work hard on a simple discipleship process that is clear to all. If I visited your church, would I be overwhelmed? Would I know my next step? Would I be given the opportunity to grow in Christ?

So, dear friends, are you a designer or a programmer?

One of the books that shaped me and my philosophy of ministry is The Purpose Driven Church. Another way of identifying or describing a purpose-driven leader is as an intentional or strategic leader. It’s no accident that Jesus instructed us to be “shrewd as serpents” (Matthew 10:16). Purposeful, intentional and strategic should be words in the vocabulary and arsenal of every church leader.

I don’t think what I’m about to say is black and white or cut and dry, but in my experience and travels, the biggest difference I see between small church leaders and mega-church leaders is grasping this concept of equipping others.

I know I’ll take some heat for this, but most small church leaders are doers and that’s why most churches in America never grow beyond 200 people. I mean really – how many people do you think one person can handle? 200 is it. Mega-church leaders know that they have to multiply themselves, understand Ephesians 4 and the equipping style of leadership and lead accordingly.

The reason I say this isn’t cut and dry is because as I’ve blogged about before, another huge difference between small churches and fast-growing churches is fast-growing churches are externally focused – that’s another issue all together, but for the purpose of this blog series, I want to focus on the leadership style of a doer vs an equipper and how that affects one’s capacity for leadership.

Moses is a revered leader in our Bible and seen as one who accomplished much in his time, but even he had to learn this lesson from his father-in-law Jethro.

Moses’ father-in-law said, “This is no way to go about it. You’ll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can’t do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you. Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God. Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. And then you need to keep a sharp eye out for competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They’ll be responsible for the everyday work of judging among the people. They’ll bring the hard cases to you, but in the routine cases they’ll be the judges. They will share your load and that will make it easier for you. If you handle the work this way, you’ll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people in their settings will flourish also.” Moses listened to the counsel of his father-in-law and did everything he said. – Exodus 18:17-24 (MSG)

Thanks to Moses’ father-in-law speaking the truth in love to him and opening his eyes to effective leadership, Moses learned a valuable lesson and because it was recorded in Scripture, it’s there for us to learn as well. Moses became an intentional and strategic leader.

I use these words in the context of our discussion on Equipper vs Doer in order to bring clarity to our calling as pastors and in light of the Ephesians 4 passage we looked at earlier. If we are intentional about what we do and don’t do and strategic about who we delegate to, empower and free up to lead and take risks, we can experience unbelievable fruit in our ministries and the joy that only comes from doing what you were created and called to do. Not only that, we get to watch others get to use their gifts and talents for God’s glory, too.

My prayer for and encouragement to  you is to be intentional and strategic in your leadership. Ask yourself daily, “Is this something I alone can do? OR “Is there someone who is more passionate and gifted to do this that I can hand this off to?” So, with our 3 day look at being an equipper vs a doer, where do you see yourself now? I’ll ask the original question: Are you an equipper or doer? And today’s question: Are you intentional and strategic as a leader?

I introduced this discussion of Equipper vs Doer yesterday. If you haven’t read that yet, please go back and read that first, as it sets up what we’ll be looking at today.

First let’s talk about what leadership is: “Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”. (Wikipedia)

I see leadership as both influence and a process, meaning you have to be intentional and strategic – two words I use often in my consulting and work with churches, organizations and businesses.

“Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen.” - Alan Keith of Genentech

Now on to the title of this blog post: “Why a hard worker is not always a good leader.” Am I against a strong and hard work ethic? Absolutely not. I have a very strong work ethic myself, but I’d rather work smart than hard. I’ve seen way too many leaders that are burned out and frustrated in their life and job and often times they are reaping what they have sewn. Andy Stanley’s book The Principle of the Path is a great read for more on this.

There are many hard workers across the country in churches, organizations and businesses that are working their tail off, but not experiencing health, growth, joy and the unmistakable test of being effective at what they do. If you’re flying solo in your area of ministry and playing the lone ranger, I can guarantee you that you’re not being as effective as you could be. You’re not reaching your full potential and worst yet, your organization will never be all it can be until you make some intentional and strategic changes in how you work and lead. Let’s look at this in more depth: In Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges book Servant Leadership they say:

“One of the quickest ways you can tell the difference between a servant leader and a self-serving leader is how they handle feedback, because one of the biggest fears that self-serving leaders have is to lose their position.”

Insecurity is at the root of many doers. Pride is at the root of other doers. Let’s look at both: First, insecurity is the downfall of many leaders from senior pastors to executive pastors to mid-level leaders and beyond. I’ve told several leaders over the years: In a small church, job security is “I’m the only one that can do this.” Think of that one sound man that runs sound every week, makes no effort to duplicate himself and thinks “They couldn’t make it without me.” Leaders in many small churches, do everything themselves because they think that secures their job. Leaders in large churches lead others to do the work of the ministry and empower those under their authority- that’s their job security.

*Please understand when I say “small churches”, I’m talking about small-minded churches and churches that have stopped growing. I work with many church planters and love churches of all sizes. Church plants won’t be small forever – they’re hungry and highly evangelistic and seek to grow. I’m referring to churches that have been small for decades.*

The other reason for a doer is pride. They think that they can do it better than anyone else and relish in the fantasy that they are the only one qualified to do a particular task or function. In truth, we all have a handful (maybe 3) of things that we alone can do. The majority of what you are in charge of can be given over to a team of volunteers to serve the church in that area of ministry. If you’re a senior pastor, obviously you don’t delegate the weekly preaching and sermon prep; however, you could put together a teaching team and start to share the pulpit with others, as many growing churches are doing.

The key is to not lead from a place of insecurity or pride – both are wrong. If you are to grow as a leader and be effective in your place of service, you must deal with these two issues head on. Emotional Intelligence is another great read that someone asked me to read in my 20′s. There’s no room for insecurity or pride in the church. This is a matter of character and knowing your identity in Christ as a Christ-follower first and leader second. In the beginning of Ken Blanchard’s Lead Like Jesus book he says,

“Every leader must answer two critical questions:

1. Whose am I?
2. Who am I?

The first question answers “Who am I trying to please?” The second question deals with your purpose in life. My encouragement to you is to wrestle with these two questions and two sins of insecurity and pride and leave them at the foot of the cross. You’ll be a better leader for it and those you lead will be glad you did. We’ll continue down this path tomorrow. For today, how do you handle areas of insecurity and pride as a leader? Do you ever sense them creeping into your life and ministry? Have you answered Blanchard’s two key questions? Where do you find your identity?