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Michael Dolan: The Impact of GTD on Groups

Michael Dolan has a great article at David Allen's Coach's Corner entitled, The Impact of GTD on Groups (I would strongly encourage you to add this feed to your RSS reader if you haven't already). Dolan's point is that when groups collectively implement GTD, "they typically experience benefit in three key areas: Accountability, Focus, and Adaptability."

Oddly enough, I initially adopted GTD for myself for precisely this reason. Having left a church planting endeavor that lacked these elements in the realms of direction, organization and implementation, I saw the team-unifying potential of GTD-- especially for church planters and pastors.

Here is how Dolan sees the benefits of collective implementation paying off for groups:

Technorati Tags: Church Planting, churchplanting, DavidAllen, GTD, GTD CHURCHPLANTING, Leadership, lifehacks

Andy Stanley Cheating the Church

Tony Morgan is blogging the sessions from Willow Creek Leadership Summit.

Andy Stanley's session dealt with church planting in "45 hours a week." This concept was born out of deal Stanley made with God:

God, I don't have time to build a ministry and take care of my family. I'll give you 45 hours per week as a church planter. If you can build a church on 45 hours, I'm your guy. I'll let you build has big a church as you can with that 45 hours, and I'll be satisfied with that. But I'm not going to cheat my family.

Read how this impacted Stanley's leadership...

This is an excellent approach and doesn't "cheat the church" one bit in my opinion. Sadly, the place where countless pastors and planters do "cheat the church" is when they hide behind this mantra and give the church 20 hrs a week.

Technorati Tags: AndyStanley

Matt Chandler: Alpha Males & The Messiah Complex

Matt Chandler is now blogging @ Resurgence. Read: Alpha Males and the Messiah Complex (and, obviously, NO-- the Kevin he is referring to is obviously not me...)

Technorati Tags: MattChandler, Pastors, Resurgence, young leaders

What Volunteers Want

Ted Harro has an excellent article in the Summer 2006 Leadership Journal, entitled, What Volunteers Want. Essentially, Harro asserts that volunteers want two things:

1. Make it mean something...

Give me a clear, compelling purpose. Happy volunteers are crystal clear on their ministry's purpose. They can tell you not only why their group exists, but also why that cause is important. For an important cause, they will give selflessly, and thank you for it.

Quoting Andy Stanley:

...volunteers want answers to the following questions:
1. What is the problem?
2. What is the solution?
3. Why are we the ones to solve it now?

2. Make it positive...
Harro unpacks this point in three stages: 1) Don't waste my time; 2) Don't waste my time; and 3) Stop the ball-hogging

Piper on Spiritual Leadership

Spiritual Leadership is: "Knowing where God wants people to be and taking the initiative to get them there by God's means in reliance upon God's power"

(Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry, 11)

Technorati Tags: JohnPiper

BOOK REVIEW: Mark Driscoll's Confessions of a Reformission Rev.

Three months ago, I agreed to review Mark Driscoll’s latest book, Confessions of a Reformission Rev. (Zondervan, 2006) in exchange for a free copy from the publisher. I am thankful both for the free book and the opportunity to share my opinions regarding the book in this venue.

Technorati Tags: Driscoll Confessions, MarkDriscoll, Mars Hill Church

Pastorhacks Launches

Bob Hyatt has just launched PastorHacks Dot Net.

Productivity? How do pastors measure productivity?
They don't, but...
Less time on tasks, more time with people. That's the goal...

Check back regularly or subscribe to the RSS feed for helpful tips that may or may not help... but will probably be fun to give a whirl...

A great site and a phenomenal idea. Snag the RSS feed.

This may just get me motivated enough to post my thoughts on the interpersonal benefits of GTD for pastors and church planters.

Technorati Tags: GTD, lifehacks, productivity, pastorhacks

Decisiveness vs. Decisions

Fast Company: Decisiveness Generates Momentum

Contrary to popular belief, your decisions don't drive your long term success - your decisiveness does. Said another way, when you reach a crossroads on any issue, the act of choosing creates power, not the choice itself. The issue is momentum. No matter what you choose, when you commit boldly with conviction, you create momentum. When you hesitate you don't. And success is built on momentum.

David Allen: GTD For Church Planters

I have been catching up on a pile of stuff I have to read, and finally read the Autumn 2005 Cutting Edge. Cutting Edge is a church planting magazine produced by the Vineyard.

This issue, entitled "The Effective Pastor," is dedicated to time management in the service of piloting change. The issue includes an interview with David Allen that I found particularly helpful.

RELATED//
Bob Franquiz has recently posted a brief review of Jim Collin's book Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

Technorati Tags: church, Church Planting, churchplanting, DavidAllen, GTD, productivity

Avoiding Henry VIII Syndrome

Mark Dever posts some excellent advice on leadership at T4GBlog in the form of historical reflection: Pitying Henry VIII

CONTEMPORARY APPLICATION TO US: Avoid the Henry VIII syndrome. Do not simply surround yourself with people who will never challenge or correct you. People want to please pastors (I know not everyone does, but a lot do). Therefore, unless we would be like Henry VIII, we must cultivate a humility, a correctability (corrigibility) that will encourage others to speak truly to us. Creating an atmosphere of encouragement (where people feel loved), criticism and feedback (by yourself and others), and serious engagement with each other will help this. Too many leaders end up in the pitiful position of having no one around them to give them honest feedback, advice, correction, instruction, because we in our self-protective pride don't seek it out, and even punish it when it is given. So much more I could say on this, but this is just a blog. I'm sure you understand what I'm saying.