Deal 'em Again

After I finished the Man in the Window about playing Euchre and playing the hand you were dealt, almost immediately another leadership thought sprang to my mind.    When you're playing Euchre with friends it's amazing how twisted the conversation becomes when you are on a men's weekend away.  Playfully you begin to tease your opponents about how bad they are, or about how great your card playing skill is.  You get dealt a great hand and take all the tricks and we're quick to take the credit.  We make gloating comments like this: "Give up now, you can't play with us." "Watch the master at work." "How are you guys ever gonna stop us?" "Do you guys want some lessons?" When you are playing for fun with friends, the digs and jabs are a part of the game and we laugh them off.  You see most of the time, we remember it's not the skill of the player that leads to landslide wins, it's in the deal of the cards.  Sure you have to play the hand you are dealt well, but the landslide win is often out of your control.  Put four equally good players at the table and the wins will be determined by how the cards are dealt.   Sometimes we forget that it in our ministries.  We're too quick to take the credit.  Too brag on our own abilities, our own efforts, our own work.  But it is God who is in control of the situations.  He is the deal of the cards.  He calls us to be faithful, the results are HIS not ours.  Faithfully fulfilling the call is what is required.  He brings the results so if we're going to brag, let's brag on HIM.   Paul said it this way, "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord."  1 Corinthians 1:31   Lord, make me a boaster, a boaster of all that You do and never of what I may think is my doing.   Amen!

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.

Deal 'em

 

I was playing Euchre with a group of guys on an overnight fishing trip.  Euchre is dealt in a unique way.  In sets of three, then in a set of two, five cards are dealt to each player.  The remaining four cards are set in the middle of the table and one is turned up.

 

Like any card game eventually you get dealt one of those hands that just looks incredible; you're holding both bowers and the Ace King in Trump.  And you will also get dealt some of those lousy hands, nines and tens, a queen high in four suits.

 

I was thinking about the game today and one of those leadership thoughts snuck up on me again.  When you are playing euchre, all you can do is play the cards that you are dealt to the best of your ability.  Sometimes it's everything you can do to just take one trick and stop your opponents from running the table. Other times it's a cake walk, go loner, shoot the moon and score four points taking them all.  But the truth is that in both cases all you can do is play the cards you have been dealt to the best of your ability.  

 

As a leader, there are a lot of similarities between euchre and life.  Perhaps more than we ever realize most of the time all we can do is play the hand we are dealt.  Circumstances, seasons of life, economic trends, and numerous other things are usually out of our control.  So what is required of us?  Play the hand to the best of our ability.

 

Sometimes it will seem like you steam roll the competition, results are obvious and abundant, fruit of your labors is seen on all sides.  And other times, it feels like it's everything we can do to just hang on, to see it through, to not give up and quit.

Let me paraphrase how Paul said it, "One thing I do, forgetting what is behind, straining toward what is ahead, I press on."

Been dealt a great hand recently, press on.  Play it out well.  Going through one of the seasons where it feels like you been dealt one lousy hand after another. 

Press on, play the hand well.

Deal em.

The man in the window

And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.  2 Thessalonians 3:1

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.

Easter Eggs (Again?)

 

I'm still thinking about those right now, and so are you.  All I had to do was mention them and you instantly had an image in your mind.  

 

Hard boiled, dyed, painted, or decorated with transfers and stickers, nestled amid pink, yellow, or green artificial grass in multi-colored baskets.  Or did you picture those plastic eggs that break in half with hidden treats inside.

One way or the other, your mind fixated on one of those two pictures when I mentioned Easter eggs.

 

Let's do it again-Leader

 

That one is harder.  What does a leader look like?  . . . .  That's tougher, isn't it?

 

Let me suggest an image.  New leaders are gemstones in the rough, not yet polished, but having the potential of great value.  The worth of a gem is measured in carats, a unit of measurement of mass equal to 200 mg.  We will use CARAT as an acronym for what defines a good potential leader.

 

C - Character

Potential godly leaders need to have the right inside stuff.  They are people of integrity with a passion for honoring God with their lives.

 

A - Available

Potential leaders are available, or make themselves available, for use in the advancement of God's kingdom.  They are willing to move from the sidelines to the frontlines.

 

R - Responsible

Potential leaders are willing to take on responsibility.  They accept the mantle, the weight  of roles, assignments, projects, groups, ministries in the kingdom.

 

A - Affable

Potential leaders possess the social skills, the people gifts to motivate, involve and influence others without being micromanaging tyrants.   

 

T - Teachable

Potential leaders are constantly learning; submitting to the Holy Spirit's teaching in whatever form it comes.  Each success, failure, challenge, encounter, book, or relationship is fertile ground for their ongoing development.

 

What do you think of when you think of leaders?  I've learned to think of them as Gems defined by carats.  

 

The Man in the Window

 

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.

IN Search of . . . Easter Eggs?

Been thinking about them today.  Yes it's Lent.  Yes we're moving toward Easter.  But that's not why I was thinking of Easter eggs.  Actually I'm thinking of Easter eggs because of I've been thinking of Easter egg hunts.   

 

We had one every year at our home when  our kids were young.  Searching, looking, finding.  It was so much fun.  We often did it over and over on Easter weekend.  Each of us would take turns hiding the eggs while the rest of the family waited for the hunt to begin.  Then we'd walk through the house looking for every egg.  Some were easy to find, some took great patience.  We knew the eggs were there just waiting to be found.  We knew if we didn't give up, we'd eventually find them all.  Every new egg discovered was cause for celebration.

Easter egg hunts.  I never looked at them as being a challenge or frustrating.  I never dreaded the search.  I never procrastinated.  I entered in and had a blast.

 

It got me thinking about leadership.

 

What would happen if we viewed the search for other leaders, workers, volunteers, like Easter egg hunts?  What would happen if every time we needed another youth sponsor, another house church leader, another children's worker, another elder, a board member, a volunteer, we viewed it like an Easter egg hunt?  They're already there, hidden somewhere in our midst.  Some are easy to find, while others are more challenging.  But if we're patient and diligent, we'll find them.

 

What if when we needed another youth sponsor, our heart was filled with the joy, the excitement of the search?  What would happen if when we needed another children's worker, volunteer, or teacher we believed that they were in our church just waiting to be discovered?   What would happen if every time we discovered that new worker, leader, teacher, sponsor, or volunteer we celebrated the discovery of a treasure?

I think I know.  "In search of" becomes a joy. 

 

the man in the window

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

Prayer is not preparation for the battle, it is the battle.

R__________ to A____________: The S______________

I was looking at my calendar and trying to decide when to make a trip home to see my dad.  Lent starts in less than a we

ek.  21 days to Spring, 40 Days to Easter.   Board meetings, Coaching Clusters, meetings, Kingdom Advancement events, new sermon series, writing deadlines, staff decisions.  Wow does the calendar fill up fast.   

 

I discovered something about my calendar.   Something that is a trap, a snare, a stumbling block.  Something that can easily occur that can have a huge impact.  I know it's a trap that others face, I hear them talk about it all the time.  It's that trap of just being too busy, too many things scheduled, too many items on the to do list. Overloaded, overcommitted, we complain about the schedule (often as we're adding this to it).  For many of us that busy schedule is inescapable, as much as we may want less commitments, the calendar of events with family, kids, work, church seems to be a cruel taskmaster, demanding more and more.

 

So what do we do?  What does a leader do when faced with an overloaded schedule?  I've heard many answers, but for many of us it seems coping with the overload looks like this:  what you can't delegate to others, drop or ditch.

 

Delegate, drop, or ditch.   

 

I've been reading again in the old books, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and that 'Deut' one and as I've been reading a word has been jumping off the page at me.  A word that is a reminder of another choice in the face of the overloaded schedule. 

 

Sabbath - That seventh day, that day of not working, the day of honoring God.   

 

It made the top ten list of Commandments

. . . but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.   Ex 20:10-11 NIV

 

It was a perpetual holy practice to be observed.  Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Ex 31:14 NIV

 

Leviticus and Deuteronomy echo the commands (Lev 23:3, Deut 5:12-14).   

 

But it was in reading Exodus 16:29 that I was reminded of another important truth about the Sabbath.  Yes, it was holy, yes it was commanded, yes it is a reminder of how God created, yes keeping the Sabbath honors God, but Exodus 16:29 reminds us of something else about the Sabbath.

 

Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath. . .   Exodus 16:29

 

How huge is that in our overworked, overloaded scheduled weeks, there is a gift waiting to be unwrapped, embraced, enjoyed, and treasured!  A day when the rat race is not run, when the rut is left behind on another road, a day of rest, renewal, recreation.   

 

The Sabbath.  I have been reminded of a powerful truth in recent days.  The best way to deal with my ongoing overloaded often thin margin schedule, my ever increasing to do list is the weekly retreat to advance-the Sabbath.  A day unlike the others when renewal is found so that we might advance again.

Have you allowed the schedule, the to do list, the everything of life to keep you from the Gift-the Sabbath.

 

Retreat to advance, the gift of the Sabbath, embrace it again.

 

the man in the window

Another Lesson by the Stream

This last week I was meeting with a group of pastors I coach. It was a time for me to lead a group of leaders in a good self-evaluation, challenging them to press onward and inward. We met at a trout club in front of the fire in a man cave of a lodge. Lots of dead fish and game mounted on the walls. Rustic décor. Natural setting. It’s a great place. We talked about calling, the posture we take before God, how the Holy Spirit is speaking to us. We compared how we prepared sermon notes, how we preached, and talked about getting input on our preaching skills from an associate or a trusted elder. We committed to asking an open-ended question to our wives about future dreams and hopes. We prayed earnestly about our callings, our roles, our character. It was a valued and powerful time.

But the greatest lesson I learned that day, the greatest reminder of my calling didn’t come at the meeting. It came by the stream. After lunch before I settled behind the computer for a little work I hit the trout stream. Threw a pearl luminescent streamer, silver bead head, red tread. I caught ten trout in an hour. I then went in and tackled some computer project by the fire.

Around 4pm I wanted to hit the stream again before I left. When I left the lodge, I discovered that another group (salesman on a district sales training day) were having a team competition fly fishing on the streams. 20 + adults who had no experience fly-fishing. With my fishing vest on I was mistaken right away for a worker at the lodge. “Hey lost my fly can I get another?” Not wanting to watch this group just be frustrated, I set my rod aside and for the next hour retied lines, taught casting, put individuals on good spots and holes, coached how and where to cast to and worked the stream.” An hour later a group of rookies had caught 16 trout. 14 were caught by individuals I was coaching. I didn’t catch any. I didn’t wet a line.

Driving home it hit me hard. That was the real leadership lesson of my day. Leaders come alongside others, share their knowledge, they encourage, they challenge, they equip, they coach, they direct others that they might succeed. Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” THE LEADER, made leaders. Leaders pour their lives into others. That they might succeed.

Who are you coming alongside? Who are you teaching to fish?

So how do you think of yourself?

I had one of those incredible moments in the Word the other day.  One of those moments when something so often overlooked jumped off the page at me.  It was one of the defining leadership moments.  One of those moments when all I could do was say,  “yes Lord I hear you.”

Most leaders have a clear understanding of their calling.  Some are called as pastors, some as entrepreneurs, some as international workers, or children’s workers, youth leaders, labors, doctors, elders, administrators.  For many leaders they become accustomed to identifying themselves by their calling.  I’m a pastor.  I’m an international worker.  I’m a banker.  I’m a businessman.

I admit I do that all the time.  Every Sunday I introduce myself to our congregations as the “Lead Pastor of Norwalk Alliance Church.”  

So on Thursday in the window at the coffee house I’m focusing in on a new devotional study I wanted to undertake.  Seeking insight into Paul’s leadership I planned to do a slow and deliberate study, pouring over the Book of Romans.  Using the English Standard Version I dove in.  I managed to get all the way through the first verse before the Holy Spirit opened my eyes.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,  (Rom 1:1 ESV)

There it is.  Huge isn’t it.  

Do you see how Paul thinks of himself?   Look at his introduction.   It isn’t “Paul, the Apostle, the carrier of the Gospel to the Gentiles.”  No it’s “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle.”  

Apostle was what God choose for Paul.  It was the calling he laid upon him.

Servant was what Paul chooses for himself.  It was the posture, the identity he assumed.

Wow!  Paul identified himself first as a servant.  Not just a servant a slave, a doulos, a bought for and owned bond slave.  How Paul thought of himself was vastly different than how I normally thought of myself.  If you’re like me it’s easy to think of yourself as leader with a calling.  Paul saw himself as a servant with call.

How do you think of yourself?