Tonight, I had the distinct privilege of hearing Myah (she's 3) first funny joke. She was sitting at the dinner table eating the Mac-n-cheese that I made (Sheila was at MOPS) when she said "Daddy, why did the cow cross the road? He wanted to go to the mooooovie theater."
Now, I know it doesn't have you rolling on the ground... and she certainly won't make the next blue collar tour with that material (although cow jokes might fit in... who knows), but for a dad that values funny... this was a big moment!
I don't know about anyone else, but I guess I think most anything should have some kind of funny moment... or at least an attempt.
I have said this to as many people as will listen to me for more years than I can remember... if there is not a comedian at my funeral someone is not listening to me! (btw - not a Christian comedian - I mean a funny comedian... he can be a christian and he can be clean... just no churchy jokes - theologial humor is neither theological, nor humorous)
Anyway... I often wonder how important is "funny" in the big picture. If I am honest, I came by my desire to make jokes and be an idiot out of necessity to survive Junior high... if they were laughing at me... they weren't laughing AT me.
5 reasons I think humor has a big place in our lives because...
1. it makes us realize that we aren't as big a deal as we think.
2. it takes like a million more muscles to frown than it does to smile (I will leave the exact number of muscles to the geeks... you guys probably don't even understand what I am talking about anyway... too busy flexing those frowning muscles and freaking out over my bad spelling, punctuation and capitalization)
3. it relieves stress
4. it reminds us that things will get better... and then get worse again... and so on
5. I am still happy that people sometimes laugh at me rather than AT me.
Jeremy
Monday, September 8, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
Leadership in the Making: "Allow others to lead or fail alone"
I have been keeping a leadership journal of sorts... nothing big... just a document that I write in as I learn lessons about leadership (I figure it will be pretty cool to look back on them 10 or 15 years from now). Anyway, as I learn them... I write them... from time to time, I will post one (when the lesson is not too embarrassing). Here is one that I called "Allow others to lead or fail alone"
When I got to the point where I was supported by talented leaders (not just led by them), it became very obvious that the only thing that was going to keep them from succeeding was my ego.
About 2 months ago, we hired Nate Bristol as the “Student Ministries Assistant Pastor” at New Hope. It became obvious within a couple of weeks that my biggest challenge working with Nate was not going to be getting him started on things – it was going to be slowing him down! While we were in Honduras, I told another of our leaders who was commenting on Nate’s ability, that my worst fear in hiring had come true… the only thing that stands between Nate and success at New Hope is my ego. I questioned then – and continue to do so – how long it will take me to develop the skill of releasing leadership to those around me rather than simply delegating tasks and treating the leaders around me beneath their ability and skill level.
I choose those words carefully – “how long will it take for me to develop the skill of releasing leadership.” I think that there are very few of us who spend years building anything (a business, a ministry, etc) and then willfully hand off the significant parts of leadership in that setting to the first guy that you hire (or who volunteers) without thinking that it would just be easier to do it myself.
This kind of delegation is a skill that I will need to intentionally develop – one that I am thankful other men in my life have chosen to develop. As I look back at the last 15 years in ministry, I am thankful for men like Mike Mihich, Bill Jetton, Mark Wilkins and George Kreger who have seen something in me that they felt confident in developing – confident enough to develop the skill of letting go of their “baby” and letting me cut my ministry teeth on their platforms or in their pulpit – risking not only their reputation, but all of the risk that you run when you let someone else step in.
This past Wednesday night, I failed at this. We knew it would be a big night. We booked American Idol finalist Chris Sligh and knew we would have around 200 students. To make a long story short – guess who took the stage to deliver and under-prepared talk? You guessed it… me. Why? Because “it would just be easier for me to do it myself.” After all, I would need less time to prepare… I already have a relationship with the students… and a half dozen other crappy excuses. In the end, I traded quality and effective leadership for ego – something that I hope to see happen less and less as I develop this skill.
When I got to the point where I was supported by talented leaders (not just led by them), it became very obvious that the only thing that was going to keep them from succeeding was my ego.
About 2 months ago, we hired Nate Bristol as the “Student Ministries Assistant Pastor” at New Hope. It became obvious within a couple of weeks that my biggest challenge working with Nate was not going to be getting him started on things – it was going to be slowing him down! While we were in Honduras, I told another of our leaders who was commenting on Nate’s ability, that my worst fear in hiring had come true… the only thing that stands between Nate and success at New Hope is my ego. I questioned then – and continue to do so – how long it will take me to develop the skill of releasing leadership to those around me rather than simply delegating tasks and treating the leaders around me beneath their ability and skill level.
I choose those words carefully – “how long will it take for me to develop the skill of releasing leadership.” I think that there are very few of us who spend years building anything (a business, a ministry, etc) and then willfully hand off the significant parts of leadership in that setting to the first guy that you hire (or who volunteers) without thinking that it would just be easier to do it myself.
This kind of delegation is a skill that I will need to intentionally develop – one that I am thankful other men in my life have chosen to develop. As I look back at the last 15 years in ministry, I am thankful for men like Mike Mihich, Bill Jetton, Mark Wilkins and George Kreger who have seen something in me that they felt confident in developing – confident enough to develop the skill of letting go of their “baby” and letting me cut my ministry teeth on their platforms or in their pulpit – risking not only their reputation, but all of the risk that you run when you let someone else step in.
This past Wednesday night, I failed at this. We knew it would be a big night. We booked American Idol finalist Chris Sligh and knew we would have around 200 students. To make a long story short – guess who took the stage to deliver and under-prepared talk? You guessed it… me. Why? Because “it would just be easier for me to do it myself.” After all, I would need less time to prepare… I already have a relationship with the students… and a half dozen other crappy excuses. In the end, I traded quality and effective leadership for ego – something that I hope to see happen less and less as I develop this skill.
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