Category: Check it Out

Camp Survival Tip #1

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Summer is upon us. As I go through my summer, I thought today I would share a tip from a couple years ago. The tip comes from a very personal place, so before you click over, here’s a glimpse:

I have one simple rule for surviving camp. It’s a personal rule, and not one that I share. It does not affect other people. It does not make me a better leader. Quite the contrary: it’s a survival tip.


So, here’s my survival tip for camp: use the same shower each day and learn which way the knobs turn. Simple enough?


Years ago, early on in my camp ministry, I learned the painful lesson that the hot water doesn’t always turn the same way to shut off. Simply put, I changed showers one day and instead of turning off hot and cold, I turned the cold water off and cranked up the hot, resulting in a scalding.

If you want to see how I was saved from taking cold showers for a week, click here to keep reading!

Communicating Expectations

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There are a few things ideas that keep popping up for me as I ponder leadership ideas and principles. Today, on the back end of a trip and the front end of an event, I wanted to share a couple posts that are on the forefront of my mind.

First, learning to communicate expectations proves a continual struggle. In this post, I share how I came to the realization on a trip.

Second, as with anything, learning to communicate expectations well goes a long ways to further your leadership influence.

Whether you’re new here or have been with me for a while, take some time to check these posts out today.

The Difficulty of Leadership

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Ministry is difficult. One of the challenging parts of ministry is how to cope with the reality that our spiritual lives and our relationships are often intertwined.

As a minister, I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes when someone pushes away from church, I take it personally. I view it as a personal failure. I wonder if there’s a mistake I made in the relationship. Sometimes, I can point to something, sometimes I cannot.

So, how do you cope? How do you make that adjustment so you don’t take things personally? Honestly, I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know if I have any answers–I’m still pretty new to this. So I lean on the wisdom of other people.

Yesterday I read a post by Carey Nieuwhof that hit home, and I wanted to share it with you. Carey has a 30+ year history in ministry, is a podcaster, blogger, and pastor. He has an uncanny ability to tackle the tough issues in truthful ways, regularly challenging me.

So, as I read his post yesterday, I couldn’t wait to share it today. Here’s a snippet from his post “7 People You Can’t Afford to Keep in Leadership“:

And as someone (or several people exit), the discussion at the leadership table will end up with someone saying:
Look, we can’t afford to lose people. 
Trust me, there’s always someone at the leadership table who thinks we can’t afford to lose anyone.
That’s simply not true.
There are a few kinds of people you can’t afford to keep.
In fact, sometimes the people you are most afraid of losing are the people you can’t afford to keep.
Here’s the strange paradox of leadership: some of the people you think you can’t afford to lose are the very people you can’t afford to keep.
So how do you know the difference?

I think you’ll be surprised by what follows, so give it a read!

Check It Out: Redefining Leadership Potential

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Developing student leaders is a tricky subject. Today, I thought I’d re-share a post I published previously on Redefining Leadership Potential.

Here’s a snippet of it:

I treat teenagers as though they are capable of taking a leadership role, regardless of their age. Why? Because, they are capable of leadership regardless of age.

There is so much to develop in this discussion, but we can leave it at this post for today. Click over and give it a quick read.

Check It Out: Stack Your Leadership Pipeline

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Every time I sit down to write, my hope is that as you read this you start nodding your head in agreement, thinking to yourself, “This is really good stuff.” I would even take a, “hmmm…that’s interesting.” And I would be thrilled with an audible “A-ha!”

Well, on Tuesday, I had one of those reactions to the post below. I have linked to some Carey Nieuwhof blog posts before, and if you’re not connected with him through his blog or podcast, you really should check him out.

But, a few days ago, he posted a blog titled “How to Stack Your Leadership Pipeline With The Best Volunteers and Team Members.” If you are a leader, specifically a church leader, and even more specifically a Youth Ministry leader, you need to check it out.

Towards the beginning of the post he talks about the two kind of team members: leaders and doers. Here’s a clip:

Leaders gladly rise to a challenge and can take others with them.

Doers, on the other hand, prefer to do what you tell them and little more.

Effective organizations build teams of leaders, not just teams of doers.

Carey Nieuwhof

Following that, he sets out five steps to tell the difference from the recruiting stage, and it’s worth the click over to read it.

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