Creativity does not come naturally. 

New ideas, solutions, and approaches to problem-solving require times of solitude and reflection. In short, you need time to think. Margaret Wheatley, an author and consultant in the field of strategic planning, summed it up best: “innovation requires thinking and thinking requires time.”

So assuming you have set aside some time to think, what do you do with that time?

Below is a formula for innovative problem solving. It includes four questions made up of just eight letters:

Me?– the personal question
It? – The structural question
Us? – The relational question
Ah!? – The strategic question

When I first started as the pastor of my previous church, The First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton (EV Free) in 1995, the church was a healthy one. It had previously been lead by a nationally known and respected leader, Charles Swindoll. 

Pastor Chuck and his team had done a great job growing a strong, healthy church. In fact, other churches even modeled many of their programs after the successful ministries at EV Free.

So why did I come in and insist on change? 

Below are my 10 reasons that even healthy churches need change:

After the ups and downs, and successes and mistakes of the Israelites in Joshua 1-9, chapters 10-11 are filled with accounts of consistent successes.

And as you grow, you can learn the keys to consist success in your life and ministry as well. Here are four keys to consistency that we can learn from Joshua:

You may have some really big problems, but you have an even bigger God. Looking only at your problems breeds fear, but looking to God gives hope. So keep your faith in God, not in yourself.

We see this pattern as Joshua leads the Israelites into battle throughout chapters 10 and 11:

You’re a pastor. You’re supposed to have it all together, right? But if you are like many other pastors today, you feel busy, buried, and behind. You feel overworked, underprepared, and your family suffers as a result. 

It can feel lonely. After all, everyone in your church comes to you with their problems. But to whom are you supposed to turn?

According to these statistics from a recent blog post on expastor.com, you are not alone:

• 90% of pastors report working between 55 to 75 hours per week 
  
• 50% feel unable to meet the demands of the job
  
• 70% of pastors feel grossly underpaid

Contentment. It’s supposed to be a good thing right? We are supposed to be content with what God has given us; so in opposition to greediness and in relation to possessions, contentment is a good thing.

But contentment is not always good, like when you become content with who you are as an individual or an organization. This leads to spiritual or organizational complacency and spiritual inertia. It is what I call “old wineskin disease.”

What is the cause of “old wineskins disease”? Status quo leaders, like the religious establishment who frustrated Jesus, that have too little compassion and too much contentment. That’s a lethal combination that can bring about mission paralysis and the eventual death of any church or organization. 

As my youngest daughter launched from high school to college about ten years ago, I wrote her a letter of advice reminding her that her eternal life and impact will always flow out of the internal life of her heart, and I gave her 8 challenges.

I recently cleaned out some files and came across this letter. It struck me that the same advice I gave to her, is relevant for you as you launch into this next year of ministry! So I have rewritten the letter as a charge to you for 2014:

Dear Fellow Leaders,

Guard your affections. Make sure your love is well placed. Jesus said it best when He said that all of life is summarized in two commands, “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22). Make sure that your first love is not your spouse, parents, work, friends, not even your own life,  but your God. It is only when that love is focused that you will be able to discern how to love the other important people in your life. Listen to God and His Word and obey it carefully and you will never, never be disappointed.

October was a month I will never forget, seventeen days devoted to travel and teaching leadership to African pastors and leaders in Tanzania and Rwanda. Of course, the surprise was not what I left behind, but what I brought home… out of Africa. As on previous trips to Rwanda, I learned as much as I taught. Here are some of the lessons brought “out of Africa”. 

God uses the weak to display real strength. Rwanda is small by African standards, but leading as an example of a country seeking to do it right. Perfect? Of course not. But on October 13th I was honored to address a monthly gathering of national Rwandan leaders from business, government and the church. I watched as the new leader of their Parliament sat with her well-worn Bible open, taking notes as I spoke. She wasn’t there for a “photo op” but to pray and seek God’s help as she assumes her new role as one of the five most powerful leaders in the nation. It was refreshing to see Christians from business, government, and the Church together; eager to learn how to lead like Jesus in their homes, ministries and government.

*Choice 9 of 10 in the Take Back Your Life blog series.

Sometimes life makes no sense, tragedy hits and God appears not to care.  When life gets cruel and God seems distant, silent and unconcerned, can you keep the faith? Can you trust in God’s promises and his revealed character?

To take back your life requires a perseverance of faith. I like to call it, “sanctified stubbornness.” It is faith that stands strong in spite of the circumstances, not because of them.

Years ago I heard a parable that illustrates what I mean by sanctified stubborness:

Once upon a time, there was a farmer who owned an old mule. The old mule fell into an abandoned well. The farmer came home and heard the old mule bellowing at the top of his lungs from the bottom of the pit.

After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer realized there was no way he could get the old mule out of the deep, dry well. Realizing the old mule had seen its best days many years ago, and knowing the well was worthless as a source of usable water, he decided to “kill two birds with one stone.”

He decided the wisest thing to do was to bury the old mule in the well, hence putting the mule out of its misery and eliminating the hazard of the abandoned well at the same time. So he began to haul dirt and shovel it down on the mule to bury it. Initially, the old mule went crazy, thrashing and braying even louder!

*Choice 8 of 10 in the Take Back Your Life blog series

Paradoxically, the urgent is seldom important, and the important is seldom urgent. In order not to get distacted by the unimportant, but urgent responsibilities, we need to learn the discipline of focus. Florence Chadwick learned this the hard way.

Florence was born in 1918 and started swimming at a very young age. At age 10, she became the first person to swim the San Diego Bay channel. A few years later, she became the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways. And on July 4, 1952, she set out to swim the twenty-mile distance from Catalina Island to the coast of California.

Florence got an early start that morning. Even though it was summer, the water was cold, the weather was chilly, and a heavy fog hung in the air. Part way into her journey, some curious sharks began to follow her. People in a nearby boat—including her mom—fired gunshots into the water to scare off the sharks.

*Choice 7 of 10 in the Take Back Your Life blog series

At my church, we have a new members’ class for people who want to join the church. Often, when I visit this class, I ask everyone in attendance: “How many of you want to join this church because you like it?” Obviously, I get a unanimous show of hands. After all, why would they join it if they don’t like the church!

Then I surprise them with this promise: “ Because you like this church the way it is, my promise to you is that I will change it.”    

The room gets real quiet and I see some confused faces staring back at me. I can tell what everyone is thinking: Huh? We just said we like this church. Why are you promising to change what we already like?