I recently posted an important leadership and life principle I have learned the hard way. When you get a brilliant idea, before you quickly rush to complete it, sleep on it. You can read that post HERE. I want to continue that thought process with another principle that builds from that one. Let me illustrate it with a practical example:

There’s a competitive spirit in most of the leaders I know. I saw mine kick in while running recently…

It was 6 AM and already 76 degrees with near 90% humidity. I was casually running, listening to our formal worship pastor Daniel Doss’s song Masterpiece, when out of the corner of my eye I sensed someone trying to pass me. I looked around and it was a girl! She’s the wife and sister of two good friends from college, and a dedicated athlete, so I may have normally been okay with her passing me, but something snapped in me. I said a few nice things and then I gradually picked up speed. I killed myself…but I won! YEA!!! Not that it was a race, and I’m sure she could have taken me had she wanted to, but there was the thrill of victory when I pulled ahead on the road.

I have written this before and I know it creates controversy to talk about, but what if we used that competitive spirit in a way that helped grow the Kingdom?

One of the responsibilities of a leader is to be consistently looking forward for the organization. A leader has to continually be asking the question: What’s next? That’s a critical key to continued growth of the organization.

The problem for me in completing this task comes with the immediate demands on my time. The now cliché statement goes “Sunday’s coming” is always true for a pastor. There are always immediate needs of people in the church. It seems there is something that continually occupies my immediate attention. Still, if our church is to continue to grow and face the challenges of a changing community, I must discipline myself to pick my head up from the daily routines to think long-term for our church.

With that discipline in mind, here are 8 ways I keep myself looking forward:

Recently, actually in the same week, I had a statement made to me and a question asked of me that made me stop and reflect. Does that ever happen to you? Can one word or phrase someone says jump out at you and challenge you to think about your life for a moment?

Perhaps that’s your story today. The journey has gotten much harder than you expected and the days ahead seem unbearable. Some days you would just rather quit trying.

Leadership development begins with an understanding that the success of any organization depends greatly on the leader’s willingness to delegate responsibility to others in the organization. The more a leader tries to control, the less likely others will be to help him or her accomplish the vision. Without people willing to follow a leader, there is no leadership development.

Today I have a fun dream stretch. I am curious what some of these dreams will be. At my church, Grace Community Church, we are seeing God do amazing things. This post is a result of that activity of Go

This video blows my mind. I love big dreams…I love mind-stretching exercises…this one helps me think bigger than I might normally think. It’s 18 minutes long, but it’s worth watching. Whether you agree with this line of thinking or solution to global problems is not the issue here, but feel free to share them. I’m sharing this because I love how big Paul Romer is thinking.

Moses was used of God to do incredible things for God’s glory, yet Moses, more than many leaders I know, questioned his own abilities. He lacked confidence and would have probably never volunteered for the job. His reasons might have been:

I believe dreams help us heal from negative emotions, stretch our imagination, and encourage us in the midst of difficult times. Sure dreams alone won’t solve the problems we face, but they may help point us towards a positive direction…and who knows…we may just head our life towards attaining some of them.