It’s the week of July 4th and a vacation time for many people. I’m even taking a few days later in the week so it’s a pretty relaxed week, but here’s what’s going on that may be of interest to you:

Monday – In our various staff meetings today, we are continuing our discussion of ‘how to wow’ – I hope to blog on some of the more interesting ideas soon.

Tuesday – We generally have 3 ‘church systems’ meetings on Tuesday – each one no more than an hour. First one up is Assimilation, where we discuss how the system is running and measure our effectiveness. Second is Evangelism, and the final one is Ministry/volunteers. Three meetings may sound like a lot but actually consolidating all discussions about these BIG areas into three one hour meetings each week saves a ton of time.

Wednesday – I’m off to visit my parents in NC today. When my dad turned 70 five years ago, I made a commitment to never miss his birthday (June 10). This year, his schedule didn’t allow for a visit on June 10 so I’m hanging with him over the fourth (I think he’s busier in retirement than he was when he worked full-time. I hope to follow that pattern too).

Thursday – While I’m in NC, I’ll also be visiting one of my best friends in the world. Check out his blog here.

Friday – Happy Independence Day! Watch your email for a BIG July 4th Special from Church Leader Insights – all downloads will be on sale for $10. Why? It’s our way of saying thank you being part of the CLI family.

Saturday – Heading back to the city and doing some final prep for Sunday. No evening services tomorrow in Manhattan so I’ll only be preaching three times. We will sometimes cancel the evening services over a holiday weekend (July 4th, Thanksgiving, etc.) as a way to reward our staff and volunteers.

Have a great week! I’ll see you back here tomorrow – I’m very excited about this week’s blog posts.

Nelson

Here’s what I read every Sunday morning:

The Power of Sunday
Sunday is . . .  game day . . . impact time . . . evangelism hour . . .resurrection day
. . .prime time . . . focal point . . . the super bowl, world cup and world series all rolled in one!  Sunday matters!  THIS Sunday Matters!

I love SUNDAY!  I’m teaching live in the first three services in Manhattan this morning and then tagging Kerrick in to teach tonight.  Elliott is teaching live in Brooklyn and I’ll be on the big screen in Jersey City.  I can’t wait!

Hope you have a great Sunday!

Nelson

P.S. The quote above is from my latest church system seminar called The Worship Planning Seminar.

“You must have long-term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures.”
– Charles C. Noble

Friday is a great day to step back and take stock of your life… to look back over what you’ve accomplished during the week and evaluate some things… to think a little more deeply and ask yourself questions like, “Am I in the right place? Doing the right thing? Am I serving with joy?” Or how about this question that I recently stumbled across on another blog (paraphrasing):

How much money would it take for you to walk away from your current ministry position?

Think about it. If a multi-millionaire appeared in front of you right now and said, “Here’s a blank check. How much money will it take for me to get you to leave your ministry,” what would you say? How high would that number be? Would it be high at all?

Your answer to this question is more revealing than you may realize. It can give you great insight into your fit for your current ministry, your passion for the work God is doing where you are and your fulfillment of your calling. If you know that you are exactly where God wants you, no amount of money should be able to tempt you away. If you are passionate about the work that God is doing through your ministry, that multi-millionaire couldn’t write a big enough check. (Unless, of course, he was writing it as an offering!)

Some of you may be surprised that you have a hard time answering this question. If that’s the case, let this exercise prompt you to do some soul-searching. Maybe you need to re-evaluate the way you have been spending your days. If you can admit that you would walk away from what you are doing for more money, spend some time thinking and praying about whether or not you are truly following God’s call on your life.

When you know that you are fulfilling God’s purpose, no amount of money can come close to equaling what God is doing through you and your church!

- Nelson

Zig Ziglar may seem like an unusual addition to this Leadership Lessons mini-series. After all, he is a sales guy – a true businessman. We are not in business, much less in sales. But Zig Ziglar operates on principles that we all believe in. I have learned quite a bit from him and so can you. Many of the ideas he focuses on transcend categorization. They are just good, strong tenets for bettering yourself and anything you are part of – including your church!

Here’s a list of action steps Zig Ziglar has published on Keeping the Right Attitude that we should take to heart every day (taken from Ziglar on Selling, pp. 334 to 336):

1. Accept the fact that you CAN control your attitude.
2. Make the commitment to do whatever is necessary to take control of your attitude.
3. Evaluate each book, television program, movie and video before you start reading or viewing it with a question: “Is this going to help me in my personal, family, or business life, or is there a better use I could make of this time?”
   
4. Learn one new word each day. In less than five minutes per day, you can get amazing results.
   
5. Read something of value to you personally and professionally for at least twenty minutes every day.
6. Turn your car into the University of the Automobile (with tapes and cds that can help you grow).
7. Choose your associates carefully.
   

I will let this list stand for itself. Those of you who know me well have heard me talk about many of these principles in the past. Pay special attention to the one about making good use of your time and reading every day!

That wraps up our Leadership Lessons mini-series, but don’t let it be the end of studying great leaders for you. Those who have come before have a lot to teach us, if we will just take a few minutes and tune in!

-Nelson

How much time do you spend with great leaders? I suggest that you spend at least an hour or so a day learning from them, however you can (through books, tapes, seminars, etc.) That’s why I’m doing this “Leadership Lessons” blog mini-series this week. I want to encourage you to be proactive about learning from some of the strongest leaders of our time. Hopefully, you’ll use these blogs as a jumping off point for your own study of influential leaders and their leadership principles.

Today, let’s take a look at what Dale Carnegie has to say about Listening to Learn:

“The secret of influencing people lies not so much in being a good talker as in being a good listener. Most people trying to win others to their way of thinking do too much talking themselves. Let the other people talk themselves out. Listen patiently and with an open mind. Be sincere about it. Encourage them to express their ideas fully. They will never forget it. And you will learn a thing or two. Nobody is more persuasive than a good listener.”

- Dale Carnegie (The Leader In You, pp. 92-93)

This is great advice for those of us who talk for a living. We get into the habit of using our words to persuade people, when really we would do well to step back and listen to what others have to say. Interestingly, when you let other people talk and you truly listen, you gain much more influence over them than you realize. If you are willing to hear them out, even if you don’t agree, you earn their respect and trust. Take a few minutes today to think about how well you listen to those around you. Are you doing all the talking or are you listening to your staff, your members, your family? Remember, the best leaders are the best listeners.

- Nelson

P.S. – If you want to spend some time reading Dale Carnegie, I suggest How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking and The Leader In You.

For the next few days, I’m going to be doing a blog “mini-series” to highlight some of the important truths I’ve taken away from the time I’ve spent studying great leaders – namely, Stephen Covey, Dale Carnegie and Zig Ziglar. All three of these men have a lot they can teach us about being effective with people. And let’s face it: If we aren’t effective with people, we aren’t effective! Let’s get started today by taking a look at what Stephen Covey says about learning to Synergize:

“As a principle-centered leader, effective delegation takes emotional courage as you allow to one degree or another, others to make mistakes on your time, money and good name. This courage consists of patience, self-control, faith in the potential of others and respect for individual differences. Effective delegation must be two-way: responsibility given, responsibility received.” – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (pp.171 -179)

You’ve probably heard me talk about lone-ranger leadership before… So many of us – especially lead pastors – want to do everything ourselves. If we do ever get to the point of trying to delegate, we usually want to keep a pretty high level of control over the things we put others in charge of. But look at what Stephen Covey is telling us here – to create synergy and to raise up leaders, we have to be willing to hand over the responsibility for what we are delegating. We can’t expect those we are calling on to take responsibility for what we are asking them to do if we refuse to let go of the reigns ourselves. You have to trust your people, which really does take courage. But as you truly give responsibility, they will receive that responsibility and impress you with their success. Don’t deny others the chance to step into deeper levels of responsibility. The synergy that results will take you much higher than your lone-ranger leadership could ever take you on its own.

- Nelson

P.S. – If you haven’t read Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I HIGHLY recommend that you do!

I’m looking forward to another great week here in the greatest city in the world:

Monday – Today is staff and worship planning meetings. One exercise we are doing today as a staff is asking the question “How do we WOW people when they first walk into church on Sunday?” I’m looking forward to this brainstorming meeting – I’ll post the ideas later in the week.

Tuesday – Watch your CLI email as we are introducing The New Testament Challenge Campaign Kit today. This is unlike any resource we’ve ever done – it’s a full campaign to lead your people to read and study the New Testament in 3 months. Includes everything you need for Sunday services and small groups.

Wednesday – My day off. A big secret about NYC is the quality of the beaches. Long Island here I come (I’ll be the guy with the three books -ha!).

Thursday – I’m interviewing some prospective staff members today (seems like I’m always recruiting! In fact, we have a number of opportunities so are you looking to join our staff? Seriously, send me some info with your thoughts on what you are good at.). I’ll be praying a lot on Thursday . . . not only because of the interviews but because I have a dentist appointment in the afternoon (does anyone else hate the dentist?!).

Friday – Message run thru for Sunday’s sermon. My goal is to preach Sunday’s message at least once before Sunday.

Saturday – I’ll be working most of the day but heading out a little early to take Alexander to the Nassau Coliseum Fair . . . nothing I love more than watching my son have fun!

I’m also very excited about a series of posts that we are doing this week on the blog – so check back each day, it will be with your time.

Have a great week!

Nelson

Received this question from David Henderson, Pastor of Eagle’s Landing Church in Port Richey, FL.

“In a recent Time Management post you mentioned that you have automated your cell phone voice mail ‘by having voice messages automatically sent to me as text messages.’  How are you doing this?”

Thanks David!  Here’s two websites that do this for you:

www.YouMail.com – their conversion of voice mails to text message is almost instantaneous but its not 100% accurate since its still in beta and is done by a computer, not an actual human.  They also will send your voicemails to you as an email.  This is the service I currently use.  The only charges (at the time of this post) comes from the ‘call forward’ feature on your cell phone.

www.spinvox.com – this is a great service too but doesn’t work with all phone carriers.  I used them before YouMail and there are some great advantages.  Very accurate.

Hope this helps!  For more, use google to search “voice mail to text message.”

If you have a question, please use the Ask Nelson button on the right!

Your friend,

Nelson

“Character is like a tree, and reputation is like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” — Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States