Chuck Swindoll wrote, “Good men die young and most leaders crack up.” One of the reasons for the problem of burnout that Swindoll identified is that leaders try to do too much and delegate too little.
If ever a leader was immersed in ministry and at the same time very skillful at delegating it is Swindoll. He pastors, and produces radio broadcasts, Insight for Living, which is on more than 2000 stations, has served as president of Dallas Theological Seminary and then as chancellor. He is also now the pastor of Stonebriar Community Church, which he started in 1998. He has written 70 books and at age 79 continues to write one book each year. While his candle burns at both ends, he has not burnout.
Read moreIt helps to have a sense of humor.
Spurgeon would occasionally find a nasty anonymous letter lying on his pulpit when he would stand up to preach. There would a letter but no name. One day he got to the pulpit and there was a piece of paper with one word written in large letters … “idiot” … So, Spurgeon said, “Normally I get letters without signatures, but today I got a signature without a letter.”
Read moreA. Opposition is not the same as Constructive Suggestions
The title of chapter 4 in From Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t is “Confront The Brutal Facts.” Jim Collins contrasts two older grocery stores which responded differently the brutal facts. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company or A&P, was at one point ranked second only to General Motors in the 1950s. Kroger was one half the size of A&P.
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