Facing criticism as a young leader: 3 responses

One of the things young leaders are often unprepared for is the amount of criticism they will face. Their enthusiasm and optimism lead them to believe everyone will be just as excited and committed to their mission as they are. Unfortunately it doesn’t take long until their idealism collides with criticism. This can be a defining moment for a leader’s character, confidence and ultimately their credibility.

Mac Lake of The Launch Network, a new church planting network, describes the three ways young leaders can respond to their first taste of criticism – two unhealthy and one healthy.

Source: Vision Room

 

The Ten Commandments of preaching from an iPad

1. Thou shall turn off notifications.

The only thing worse than a cell phone ringing in the middle of a prayer is the preacher’s iPad ringing in the middle of a prayer.

Make sure to turn on the ‘Do Not Disturb’ switch in ‘Settings’. I also turn on ‘Airplane Mode’ just to make sure I don’t have anything popping up from Wi-Fi.

At one location I preached there was a very weak Wi-Fi signal that I didn’t have the password to. A Wi-Fi connection message kept popping up while I was preaching.

You don’t want any distractions from the message God has given you.

Brandon Hilgemann of ProPreacher.com gives 10 requirements for preaching with an iPad or other tablet.

Source: Pastors.com

 

What one mistake do most people make when sharing their faith?

When it comes to sharing their faith, most people aren’t strategic. Jesus, however, was very strategic in how he modeled evangelism and sharing the gospel. In fact, He gave us a template for sharing our faith—and yet most people don’t know what that template is.

What Jesus sends the disciples to do is look for the person of peace…and that method is a reproducible strategy. We see it in Luke 9 when Jesus sends out the 12. We see it in the book of Acts with Peter and Cornelius, Paul and Lidia, Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch looking for these people who are people of peace.

Jo Saxton shares the six marks of a person of peace open to hearing and responding to the gospel.

Source: Verge Network

 

How to preach like a Narnian

But lately, the best lesson I’ve learned about preaching is from a beaver. That’s right—a dam building mammal. Now, this is no ordinary beaver, he’s Mr. Beaver. The one from Narnia.

Mr. Beaver knows why he exists. He knows why he is speaking with the Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve. And while reading the tales of Aslan to my daughter, I was struck by the preaching ministry of Mr. Beaver.

J.A. Medders says just as Mr. Beaver knew his role was to take the children to Aslan, the pastor’s role is to take people to Christ.

Source: jamedders.com

 

It’s telling to see how a person handles a blessing. Character comes out both in feast and in famine.

— Tally Wilgis (@TallyWilgis) August 2, 2013

“God has a bigger mouth to speak with than I have a heart to conceive with.” -John Bunyan

— J.D. Greear (@jdgreear) August 2, 2013

I like to agree with the pastor for about a week after he comes home from a leadership conference. That way he thinks it worked.

— Church Curmudgeon (@ChrchCurmudgeon) August 2, 2013