I just finished reading
First Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curtis Hoffman.
Now, I'm not a proponent of reading secular management books for guidance regarding pastoral ministry. However, it is amazing to me how the best managers follow biblical principles of godly leadership. For example, the best managers are humble (Phil 2:3-8). They are are servant leaders trying to bring out the best in their workers and seeking the success of their workers and not their own benefit at the expense of their workers (Mark 10:42-45). They care about their workers and meet with them regularly - 1 on 1. That is, they know each individual worker and how best to help them succeed in their role similar to a husband knowing his wife and how best to help her succeed in her role (1 Peter 3:7).
With that understanding, some of this book was not biblical and not worth reading. Some of this book had great ideas but just needed the terms to be translated to a pastoral context, ie - talents and strengths could be spiritual gifts. And some of this book, was right on with biblical principles that could and should be applied to both secular leadership and pastoral leadership.
Without going through everything in the book, one really fascinating point that the book made was that typical managers try to focus on the weaknesses of their people so as to improve them. The latest conventional wisdom is that we should be well rounded individuals. However, their research found that this method actually discourages people and reduces productivity. Instead, we should focus on people's God given strengths (and for Christians - spiritual gifts) and help them flourish in those roles.
Granted, when people are in sin, as Christians, we should exhort and encourage them to repent. But if people simply have a weakness in an area, we should focus more of our time helping them excel in their strengths and work around their weaknesses. This was very encouraging to me personally. As a pastor, often times people want you to be good at everything and focus in on something they don't like about you or that you're not good at. As a leader, this gave me more incentive to help the people I serve with to excel at what they enjoy and are gifted at, supplying them with others who can complement their weaknesses so that as a team, they are well rounded.
This book has very valuable insight and practical wisdom for managers/leaders including lots of classic mistakes poor leaders make. For those in leadership, I highly recommend it but with the caveat that it will require some spiritual discernment.
We've already started eating our spinach...microgreens.
This year we decided to do a bunch of big old tomatoes - they were on sale 4 for $2 - plus a some cucumbers.
Our peas are coming up.
We have a ton of strawberries (way more than in the picture) coming! I can't wait!
We set up Emery first. But before we could turn around and take care of Matt, guess what struck? Do you like the action shot?
Emery pulled in the first 2 fish before we could even get the boys set up! The fish was about half as big as she is!
Andrew got in on the action next.
I think he caught the biggest fish.
It was non-stop taking fish off of hooks and putting worms on them for over an hour. I've never seen such good fishing! I guess the boys and girl know how to do it! I'm not sure how Matt didn't get any action shots, but he caught a ton of fish too. Everyone pulled in at least 7 fish.
I guess they just learned from the master...
And I almost forgot - we had a fish fry tonight! Nothing like eating your own fresh caught fish.
Praise God, He is risen! Without the resurrection, where would we be? We'd be just like every other religion in the world.
We've had a lot of fun this Easter weekend with some Easter eggs.
Andrew made a Jayhawk Easter egg and a Laker one too. We even had an Easter egg hunt today. I must admit, I was lazy and didn't do any video recording. This year, I wanted to enjoy watching the kids running around.
They seem to get more fun every year.
His name is a mouthful and in some respects so is the book but not in a bad way. The book is basically an exposition of the book of Jonah. I don't recall reading a book that was an exposition of a book of the Bible so the style was different than I am used to. But the content was insightful and convicting. I learned new things about the book of Jonah and how the Gospel applied to him as well as to me. Here are some gems:
Isn't this precious? I also took Emery to McDonalds for some "special daddy time" today. I had her order a 99 cent sundae herself and a grandma standing nearby was very impressed with how well Emery could speak at 4 years-old! She kept asking Emery questions trying to figure out how this could be. After finding out that Emery was being homeschooled, the grandma was very impressed and figured that must be the reason. I guess mom (and the sub - me!) is doing something right.
My mom sewed Emery's duvet cover. Here's the final product - thanks mom! And Emery also wanted to display her princess Bible of which she's extremely proud of - also a gift from grandma.
Our lettuce has sprouted.
And our spinach. I can taste them already!
We planted something new last year that we can harvest this summer - asparagus! I love asparagus!
We also planted our peach tree last year. Although we really shouldn't expect a crop for about 3 years, do you see the little blossoms? We might get a few peaches this year! Can you tell I'm excited?
Same shirt, same shorts, same shoes, same team, same coach, same opposing teams even.
And Matt's still having a good time too. He managed to score a few goals today. It helps that he's not the shortest kid out there for once!
Matt was very proud of his 1st year Sparks ribbon. He did a great job memorizing 25 verses!
Andrew finished his first T&T book and earned a medal! He too did a great job memorizing 40 verses. He even got to recite a couple of verses during the ceremony.
And after it was done, there was hail all over the lawn.
There was literal golf ball size hail. And here comes some more...
Now, I'm not a proponent of reading secular management books for guidance regarding pastoral ministry. However, it is amazing to me how the best managers follow biblical principles of godly leadership. For example, the best managers are humble (Phil 2:3-8). They are are servant leaders trying to bring out the best in their workers and seeking the success of their workers and not their own benefit at the expense of their workers (Mark 10:42-45). They care about their workers and meet with them regularly - 1 on 1. That is, they know each individual worker and how best to help them succeed in their role similar to a husband knowing his wife and how best to help her succeed in her role (1 Peter 3:7).