faithrunner

I enjoy running, climbing and cycling. I do not win any medals nor do I finish first in my age group, so if you are wanting lessons from a winner, check out Runner's World Training or training and racing at Ultrarunner Online . But, I have discovered connections between my running and leading an organization. I also make the connection between physical wellness and spiritual maturing in my book A New Way of Living . (I figured if Paul, the Apostle, made those connects, I could too.) Here are three lessons I have learned from my 15+ years of running that I shared with our Board of Governors and Hub staff at B. H. Carroll as I have begun my new role as President of the Institute . 1. Your core determines your strength . A runner's core is key to provide the strength to complete whatever distance he or she chooses. Most people have lower back problems because their abdomens are week. In running, when the core goes the back and legs go, and you are done reaching your PR. ...

This past Sunday I announced my retirement from the pastorate with Legacy Church . After 26 years of partnership with the people who are Legacy to help people trust Jesus , I am humbled to step onto the trail with B. H. Carroll Theological Institute in June to equip "men and women called to serve Christ in the diverse and global ministries of His church." B H Carroll was formed in 2004 , and I have been been a Resident Fellow with them since 2005. Soon after that, Legacy partnered with Carroll to join its nexus of Teaching Churches . In 2011, I was elected to the Board of Governors for the Institute . So, you see, I have been on the journey with them for some time. Their core strategy to return ministry training and theological education to the local church has made it possible for me to equip current and future church leaders while providing biblical and leadership studies for the local church community and the members of Legacy. Why would we make suc...

This Side Up! I write and teach about leadership. There are as many definitions of leadership as there are those who try to define it. But, if the essence of leadership is influencing a group of people to reach a shared goal, then Sarah Morris, the Director of This Side Up Family Center is a leader . She is what I would classify a servant leader because her leadership is clearly for the benefit of the families the Center serves, not herself or her family. How do I know this about Sarah and her small group of volunteers and partners?   Liberty Mutual, Dallas, hosted for a second year their Like My Community social responsibility project. Through the use of social media, local non-profits, who were nominated by the agents of Liberty Mutual, invited their supporters to "like" them on the company's facebook page .  Sarah and her dedicated band of supporters out "liked" all the other non-profits , and This Side Up Family Center walked awa...

One of the hardest parts of leading is admitting you made a mistake, living with the consequences of that miss-take, and keeping followers on mission after you make it. Leaders are human, and no matter our training, experience, or talents, we can't see everything and we can't be right 100% of the time. This truth is why I appreciate the story about Joshua in in Bible . In Joshua 9 , we read how the leader of Israel was deceived into making a treaty with an enemy whom he would have destroyed. While the cleverness  of the enemy to survive is interesting, the better part of the story is how Joshua exhibited character in the midst of his failure as a leader . Read the story here . Here are some leadership lessons from this experience in Joshua's life. Take responsibility for your actions. Joshua did not play the blame game or whine he had been deceived, nor did he get into the politics of blame and point his finger at the elders who ratified the treaty by oath. ...

Ruth Haley Barton I teach leadership courses for DBU and B H Carroll at both the Masters and PhD levels. I have extended bibliographies for each course, but if you were to ask me for one or two books on leadership you should read, I would recommend (other than my book on leadership ): Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership , by Ruth Haley Barton and Leadership on the Line , by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky. Heifetz and Linsky   Why these two out of all the others? Both resonate with my personal experiences (and those of leaders I respect) of leading a freely formed group of followers around a perceived common mission toward a new goal or reality.  Both provide practical and spiritual ways to survive the Mt. Rainier climb of leadership. Leadership on the Line contains the wisdom of leading I wish I had known twenty years ago when I started this leadership adventure at Legacy Church . I wish someone had told me the price of lead...

There is a (very long) blog in the Dallas Morning News that asked several theologians if we need a "Steve Jobs of Religion".  This question is based upon a NYT article titled "Americans Undecided about God?" by Eric Weiner who is a self proclaimed "None" (people who chose None under Religious affiliations when surveyed). Weiner writes: "We need a Steve Jobs of religion. Someone (or ones) who can invent not a new religion but, rather, a new way of being religious. Like Mr. Jobs's creations, this new way would be straightforward and unencumbered and absolutely intuitive. Most important, it would be highly interactive. I imagine a religious space that celebrates doubt, encourages experimentation and allows one to utter the word God without embarrassment. A religious operating system for the Nones among us. And for all of us ." Cynthia Rigby , W. C. Brown Professor of Theology, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, suggests...

I am finishing up a manuscript that I am writing with my friend, Dr. Norman Blackaby. We have facilitated a PhD seminar for three different cohorts at Dallas Baptist University called Biblical Servant Leadership . As part of the work in the seminar we ask the candidates to write case studies on biblical servant leaders in order to discover that leader's strengths and weaknesses as he or she led. We also look for principles and practices we can apply to current leadership theory and practice. As we guided the seminar we observed the importance of character as a person called by God led and how character squarely centered on his or her relationship with God . Outward appearance, skills, and personality were not enough to lead effectively under God's guidance. Character matters. We also observed that not much had been written about character in leadership studies . So, we decided we would address the need and write something of our own. As we began to talk to the publisher a...

Daily News What is a leader to do when the bottom falls out? How is he or she to respond when people panic and look to their leader as the one who should know how to get them out of the mess or crisis. I'm no expert on leading in a crisis, but I do have some personal experience as a pastor and what I observe from the life of Jesus, the ideal servant leader. First, a servant leader reminds everyone that no matter the changing circumstances, the mission remains the same . For my family and those I serve as Legacy Church, our mission to help people trust Jesus as the church, at home, and in the world does not change no matter what goes on elsewhere. This stance allows the leader to be what Edwin Friedman called the "non-anxious presence." Knowing and sticking to the mission is the rudder and course in the storms of life. Good leaders call those they lead back to the reason for the group in the first place . Jesus continually reminded his closest followers that al...

We have returned to reading through the Bible this month at Legacy Church . We began this week by reading the story of Daniel , the exiled Israelite whom God used during his Babylonian captivity to reveal many things about the future. Daniel's prophecy has captured more attention in these uncertain days, but I have always been intrigued with his character . Daniel was chosen from among his peers to serve in the king's cour t. We all like to be chosen, and in those days this was a big deal. Enemies of the state were to be groomed to be servants to the king . No one in his or her right mind would refuse the opportunity. Daniel accepted the offer, but refused to be like everyone else. ( Daniel 1 ) This is where the story gets good for me. Daniel resisted the all-you-can-eat-and-drink buffet of the king and stuck to the diet he had known from childhood -- a diet that honored his God and the traditions of his family's faith . That would be like telling the President of ...

The three worst letters in the alphabet for a runner are: DNF , which mean, "did not finish." There are a variety of reasons why runners don't finish races but, if you train to finish and enter to finish, DNF is not what you want to read on the final result list. You also don't want these three letters on your spiritual epitaph, but I'll get to that in a moment. This past Saturday, I entered the 20-mile length of what Tim Neckar calls, The Toughest n' Texas trail run . I completed the first two 50K runs Tim hosted on this course, and I thought I'd take on a shorter distance in the sixth running of the event. I love the run because it winds through Cameron Park in Waco . I believe these trails are the best kept secret in Texas . Multiple elevations, terrain, and different stands of trees (and bamboo) make it a trail runners delight. It is, however, a butt-kicking combination of rocks, roots, climbs, and washes. The course begins at Redwood Pavilion ,...

I don't post much on this blog about the servant leadership of Jesus . (I need to start a separate blog, I suppose.) I spend more time teaching the principles and model of Jesus' leadership in the courses I teach for B H Carroll Theological Institute and Dallas Baptist University as a Teaching Fellow and Adjunct Professor (MACE and Ph.D.) respectively. That doesn't mean I don't keep up with the dialogue around my life's message that if we are followers of Jesus we who are called to lead will lead like Jesus . The dialogue around servant leadership and Jesus, which I am pleased to monitor and enter into regularly, has become a mainstay of leadership discussions in Christian schools and seminaries , . Bethel Seminary has with a D.Min. in Servant Leadership and Gonzaga University recognizes itself among "servant leadership schools," who train leaders to be servant leaders. I appreciate serving DBU's mission to "produce servant leaders" th...