All posts in Leadership

Saying No

by Ryan Marcum on January 18, 2012 in Blog, Leadership, Ministry Helps with No comments

So, the first blog of the year comes eighteen days after the fact….

There are all sorts of leadership blogs, breakout sessions and books devoted to the art of saying, no. Most leaders will advise people to say, no every once in a while, in order to be more effective. However, in this short blog/thought, I would like to pose a different perspective on the matter. Imagine if you were a leader trying to accomplish a given task, and all you hear is, no… Now, imagine that you were the staff or someone directly involved with the task and all you heard from the leader was, no… Continue reading →

3 Thoughts from Acts

by Ryan Marcum on June 8, 2011 in Blog, Leadership, Ministry Helps with No comments

I have been preaching through the book of Acts and wanted to jot down a few observations through the first three chapters.

1. Acts 1
The first chapter of the book of Acts gives us insight into the What, Where & How the community of believers (the church) is to go about impacting those around them. We see in 1:8 the the What, Where & How:

Acts 1:8 (NIV)
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Continue reading →

The Leader Who Prays

by Ryan Marcum on September 6, 2010 in Blog, Leadership, Ministry Helps with No comments

I recently wrote an assignment for a seminary class on pastors and prayer. The book I refer to is The New Guidebook for Pastors. Here is snippets of the paper that I thought would apply for those in leadership.  Read. Respond. Resound.

Have you ever noticed a newborn baby? Have you thought about all the ways the parents of that baby act/react to every need of the infant? The baby without the parents is helpless. The baby wakes, the parents are there, the baby cries and the parents provide. The baby is hungry the parents feed. And the baby is dirty, the parents wash. The baby represents the believer. We like the baby are dependent on a heavenly Father. He provides for our daily needs. Without God, we are helpless. Jonathan Edwards said, “Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life.”

The authors expressed two venues of prayer which are personally and collectively.[i] The authors provided 2 passages of Scripture to support their writing, however I have provided to passages that I feel better illustrates the importance of personal and collective prayer.

Personal: Matthew 6:9-15, “This, then, is how you should pray: ” ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.[ii]

Proper prayer gives the pastor proper perspective on the larger picture. We are dependent on God for our needs, our guidance, our forgiveness and the hope of things to come. Without perspective we are doomed to follow our aspirations and goals instead of a godly purpose and path.

Collectively: Acts 2:42-47, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”[iii]

They devoted themselves to prayer. The early believers were together and had a common goal and devotion to the teaching of the word, communion and to prayer. Prayer not only provided a connection point but it was also a magnifier of God’s glory. The believers were one in spirit and purpose. And the Lord added to their numbers. Prayer for the pastor should be first personal and should be applicable to the collective.

The authors end this section of prayer with a powerful statement. A pastor who fails to make prayer a priority in his ministry robs himself of the Holy Spirit’s anointed power, robs the church of personal contact with God, robs the lost of an opportunity to hear the gospel… robs the world of an awakening.[iv]

[i] Bryant, James W., and Mac Brunson. The New Guidebook for Pastors. (Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing, 2007) 45.

[ii] The Holy Bible, New International Version, Matthew 6:19-15

[iii] The Holy Bible, New International Version, Acts 2:42-47

[iv] Bryant, James W., and Mac Brunson. The New Guidebook for Pastors. (Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing, 2007) 49.

If Leaders are Learners… Failure vs. Success

by Ryan Marcum on May 11, 2010 in Blog, Leadership with 2 Comments

Hey everyone, this post is called Failure vs. Success. This morning a came across a video from an ad agency ceo and he says something interesting about his company and how they deal with failure. Watch this:

Most of us have grown up hearing that we learn from our mistakes/failures and in-turn become better people or leaders. Alex Bogusky, says that his company doesn’t even acknowledge failure. Think about it, what if your boss, or if you are the boss, goes around and simply erases all failures from the company walls, files and memories.

To me, this sounds like a GREAT boss to work for! However, if my boss never allows me to understand my failure, and just erases them all, what have I learned? What will I learn?

So the QUESTION is: Do YOU believe that leaders learn from success or failure? (LEAVE A COMMENT)

To me this topic is oozing with spiritual meaning. Do we, as believers, know someone who takes our failures away? Do we have a book that gives of understanding of our failures? This would be a great illustrating video for a sermon on the Gospel and our continual growing knowledge of ourselves in light of the Gospel.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14

If Leaders are Learners… Traits

by Ryan Marcum on May 7, 2010 in Blog, Leadership with 1 Comment

…then what are they EXPECTED to LEARN?  This is the second post in the series, if leaders are learners… In this series I will explore the art of leadership and what exactly leaders need to know to be effective. I will examine common practices of leaders, a few traits of leaders and what happens when a leader stops learning. In this post, I will be defining leadership from a Christian perspective, feel free to join the conversation and post your experiences in leadership in the comments section.

Before we begin with traits of a leader, we must define what we call, traits. There are three broad types of traits, Biological, Cultural and Physical. Biological traits, involve genes and characteristics of an organism. Cultural traits encompass the characteristics of a culture group. And Physical traits are specific to an object and its characteristics. There are many other types of traits, however we will look at Physical traits. So, if physical traits pertain to ones characteristics, then what characteristics are needed to be an effective leader?

When talking about leadership, the question that always arises is when is one a leader? To put it a different way; Does one learn to become a leader? Or is one a born leader? Personally I believe both, a leader is born and one can learn to be a leader. Born leadership is seen in many ways, for instance, my daughter is a leader in the sense that she can command my attention at any moment of the day. My daughter is also learning leadership when trying to do the right thing if other boys and girls are disobeying the teacher.

Culture tells us that leaders are good-looking, charismatic and generally out-going people, however when we look at Scripture and even history, leaders come from a myriad of backgrounds and experiences. The Bible gives many examples of unlikely leaders from Moses, Gideon, a Prostitute to Peter. Even History tells of ordinary men shaking the cultures around them from Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman and many more!

For the purpose of this post let’s look at some KEY traits that are essential for effective leadership. Here is a list, non-exhaustive, that I have come up with.

Traits: (Some people are born with these naturally and others can LEARN these.)

Integrity: The NUMBER ONE trait in leadership, and life, is integrity. Integrity is in its simplest form is practicing what you preach. Who you are when no one is looking defines your integrity. Are you consistent in how you teach the Scriptures and how you live out the Scriptures?

Humility: Leaders are often seen as cocky or over-bearing. A humble leader accepts mistakes, instead of passing the blame on to those under them. Humility, when practiced produces godly leaders.  Matthew 23:12 – For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Teachable: Do you know it all? A leader who thinks he knows it all will be an ineffective leader. Those under your leadership will begin to seek counsel/advice from someone willing to learn with others. LEADERS ARE LEARNERS!

Passion: Are you passionate about what you are leading? There are many in positions of leadership who have become apathetic to what they are leading. If you are not passionate about where you are, maybe it’s not where you are supposed to be. Your leadership will be effected if you are not passionate about your area of leadership. P.S. those under you will see how passionate you are, or how not passionate you are about your leadership.

Communicator: This one is debatable. Before I realized that I had been running from my call to the ministry (for another post), I was not a good communicator. In fact, I was deathly afraid of getting up in front of anyone to speak. But when I get up to preach a sermon, or teach a Bible study class, something clicks. I KNOW that God has called me to teach and my ability to do so is FROM HIM ALONE. With that said, should I neglect to practice teaching? NO, just because I have the gift of teaching doesn’t mean that I should not practice and hone my speaking skills.

Creative: Another debatable trait. Most leaders would say they are creative; however they do the exact same things every year expecting the same results (definition of insanity, Albert Einstein). There are some leaders with natural creativity and others who surround themselves with creative people; both of these scenarios are good. Even if you are not creative you can learn! Go to creative places, a park, coffee shop, movies, listen to indie music etc.

Flexible: This is a broad trait that I am using for not only flexibility but for also embracing change. Things CHANGE. If asked, most ineffective leaders will tell you that, if you don’t keep up with the changing culture around you, you’ll be left behind. It’s especially true in ministry. Have you ever been a part of a church or an organization that is playing catch up with the culture? Flexibility in leadership is a must to keep up with change.

Encourager: Plain and simple if you neglect encouraging those around you, they will leave. Leaders encourage not discourage.

Servant hood: The best leaders are servant leaders. Serve those around you instead of making those around you serve you. A professor of mine, from Boyce College, taught me an invaluable lesson. 1. Show up early to help set up, 2. Engage those around you through service, and 3. Stay late helping clean up. Thanks Dr. Adams!

Confident: Be confident in what you are leading not arrogant. If you believe in those you are leading you can be confident that they will be more apt to follow. If you’re not confident, your followers will begin to wonder if you are the right person for the job. Check out Philippians 1:6.

Visionary: Do you have a clear vision for your leadership area? If not, seek first the kingdom of God and rely on Him to provide the vision. There are many leaders who have vision but lack certain abilities to that particular vision through. This does not disqualify you as a leader. It is merely a chance to learn and grow in your leadership. Find a mentor or coach in the ministry and learn all you can about specific ways to facilitate the vision you have.

If you have other traits that you would like to share add them to the comments section below! The next post will be; What if Leaders Stop Learning?

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