Top 10 Lessons from 2011 - Part 3 (FINALLY!!)

Just about scuttled this blog, still getting interference from sun spots or something on the Interweb, so I'm hoping this is the start of regular posts again. In the meantime, finishing what I started here and here, the top 3 are:

3. People take themselves too seriously and God not seriously enough - It's a hazard of the job that when you stand up and talk about God in front of people, there will be people who will take offense at something (read: just about anything) you do, and occasionally fire a verbal assault cannon at you. As a recovering people pleaser, I'm better at absorbing and deflecting those missile missives and sifting them for actual constructive criticism that can help me grow. But this past year I've been reminded that some folks take themselves so seriously that no one and nothing will make them happy unless either they thought of it or had some part to play in approving of it ahead of time. My teaching style includes as much humor as I can fit into a message on the weekend. It's on purpose, it's intentional, and it's strategic, but it's also a reflection of my personality. I like to laugh, and I like to make other people laugh, but beyond that, humor helps to get the point across, even a difficult point, in an agreeable way. And especially to men, who are largely absent in churches in America. Men like to laugh, and they listen better when they laugh, so I like to make men laugh so they will listen. So when others decide my "comedy routine" is not serious enough for worship, I'm really okay with that, because everyone is entitled to their opinion. When they blast me for it, or demand I change who I am and what I do to please them, I giggle and remind myself that I don't have to please everyone. And especially not the cranky people. God likes laughter, and God likes it when people use their gifts to serve in His church, so I'm pretty sure what He thinks trumps what cranky people think.

2. NEVER. STOP. LEARNING. - No one knows it all, and the person who thinks they do is in for a rude awakening. I'm convinced that as fast as the world around us is changing (the Arab spring, the elections, the economic roller coaster, etc...), if you're not actively learning what you can about what impacts your world, you are being left behind at light speed. The church is no different, and as a pastor and leader, I need to be reading, listening and asking questions of leaders from all types of backgrounds and all kinds of points of view. Reading business and leadership books as well as church ministry books is huge for me. The privilege of sitting with some great leaders in a small group setting or going to a conference to hear big name preachers are both vital to gaining fresh perspective on what I do and what we as a church can accomplish for God's Kingdom. Having a personal coach and a group of leaders to learn with in community are also a major piece of gaining not only knowledge but WISDOM in my life. I'm smart enough by myself to know that I'm not smart enough by myself. As Rick Warren says, "All leaders are learners. If you stop learning, you stop leading." Truth!!

1. The more I am myself, the more effective I am for Jesus - One of the struggles in my life has been the idea that I need to be someone else, that just being me is not enough. As a kid, being me wasn't cool enough for the crowd. As a younger adult, being me wasn't hip enough for the hipsters. As a younger pastor, being myself wasn't quite good enough to please people in the congregation: why can't you be more like ____________? The pressure to be someone other than myself was often overwhelming for me. However, here in the role I have, in the ministry I am privileged to lead, I get the opportunity to be myself with very little pressure to be anyone else but me. And what I've found is both astonishing and obvious: the more I am who God made me to be, the more effective I am. When I try to be someone else, I am far less effective or impactful, but when I am who and what God made me to be, without reservation and without apology, I see the impact of what I do not just grow but multiply. I am the best me there ever will be, and I will be a lousy Billy Graham, or Bill Hybels, or Rick Warren, or... you get the point. The closer I come to being the Bill McCready that God imagined when He knit me together, the more joy, more peace, more energy, and more effectiveness flows in my life. For the record, I WANT THAT!!!

Okay, what did you learn last year?