ThomRainer.com

The death of Steve Jobs engendered a plethora of articles, presentations, and books, most notably the impressive biography by Walter Isaacson. Indeed, I was among those writers with my article on ten lessons from Steve Jobs. Though Jobs will never disappear from the annals of business history, the buzz since his death has subsided noticeably.

As I reflected on the life and contributions of this enigmatic man, I was struck by a sobering reality. We can write about Jobs’ successes and genius. We can offer leadership lessons learned. But the fact is most of us will never attain the genius nor the notoriety of this man. Are there really lessons from his life and leadership that we can apply in our seemingly mundane lives? As I reflected and read through the posthumous literature, I indeed learned six lessons for the mostly ordinary rest of us.

1. We can lead by asking questions. Jobs made most of his decisions by asking questions repeatedly. His two favorites were “Why?” and “Why Not?” We too can become leaders by talking less and listening more. It is amazing what others will teach us when we ask challenging questions.
2. We can treat employees and others with respect. For the most part, Jobs abused people verbally and emotionally rather than treat them with respect. He did get away with it because people accepted his negative interpersonal skills to embrace his genius. We have no excuse for treating people poorly. We can learn here by doing the opposite of Jobs.
3. We can make meetings strategic. Jobs hated meeting for the sake of meetings. He hated any meeting that did not have a clear and strategic purpose. So should we. Time is one of the most valuable resources we have. We should not waste our time or anyone else’s time.
4. We can build passionate teams. If you worked in Steve Jobs’ organization, you had to be sold out to the cause. He understood that intellect and experience were not enough. You had to have passion. Indeed Jobs said that the organization should be one where its employees have the opportunity to change the world. We should build passionate teams, not just competent teams.
5. We can be family-focused leaders. Except for the latter part of his life, Steve Jobs was notorious for neglecting his family. His work and his world always came first. He learned this lesson later and seemed to have regrets about his placement of priorities earlier in his life. We should not have those regrets.
6. We can improve our presentation skills. So much of the Jobs’ mystique was tied to his charismatic public presentations. The introduction of a new Apple product was an event to rival the Emmys or the Oscars. We may not be able to replicate his presentation skills, but we can learn the leadership importance of improving ours every day.

I imagine we will be reading tomes on the life and leadership of Steve Jobs for decades to come. Admittedly, it can be frustrating to be a leader who is not as smart, strategic, or charismatic as this iconic figure. But that does not mean we who are more common cannot learn from him. I hope that I will view Jobs as a great leader in many ways. And I hope I will be encouraged rather than frustrated that I can apply some of his leadership lessons in my more common life.

What has Steve Jobs taught you about life or leadership?

During any given week, I receive dozens of requests from pastors or other ministers for ministerial advice. I try to respond to as many as possible, but often find myself without the sufficient time to answer them all. 

So in an effort to better serve local churches, I'm starting a new feature here at the blog. Every few weeks, I'll post a topic for discussion on my Facebook page. Then in a future blog post, I'll answer the questions and attempt to provide direction and clarity in doing so.

The first topic we will address is church staffing. In my time as a consultant with Rainer Group, one of the most important aspects we noticed in healthy churches was the staffing of those churches. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins places a great importance on the need for businesses to have the right people on the bus. Churches are no different.

So whether you have administrative questions (personnel policies, position requirements, etc.) or just need advice on how to handle certain situations in a ministry context, the floor is yours. Ask away.

You can access the discussion on Facebook and ask your questions here.

If you have a church-specific question and anonymity is absolutely needed, you may ask your question in the comments below. If not, please use the comments section at the Facebook page.

The organization I lead is 121 years old. My sons tell me that the company is about my age. The organization has experienced many successes in its history but, like any company with a lengthy history, it tends to gravitate toward status quo. Innovation thus becomes the exception rather than the norm.

Though I would never say we have “arrived” in our cultural innovation, I must say that I have never been more encouraged. The present is healthy and the future is very promising.

The past six years have been a journey toward greater innovation. I am still learning many lessons, but I have five key lessons I have learned thus far.

1. Speak to the need to innovate often. I keep the need for innovation as a constant issue before our organization. Our particular company has been particularly impacted by the move from print to digital. We could not and cannot afford not to innovate.
2. Give concrete examples of innovation barriers. The organization does not merely need to hear about the need for innovation, it needs to hear specific stories of barriers to innovation. For example, the silo structure of our organization has been an impediment to cross-divisional cooperation and innovation. Though we still see great value in the strategic business unit model, we now form teams across divisions on major projects. Thus the organization sees clearly the old barriers and the new opportunities for greater innovation.
3. Articulate a preferred future. Those few words are often used to describe the casting of a vision. In our innovative future, I speak often about our becoming the leader in providing digital content in our industry. The more I speak about that preferred future, the closer I see it to becoming a reality.
4. Embrace existing innovation. There have always been several pockets of innovation in our organization. Each time I heard of such activity, I tried to share the story with others. My storytelling lifted up the value of innovation by verbally rewarding it.
5. Open the doors to innovation throughout the organization. One of many things I learned in my six years at the helm is that there are thousands of very smart employees in this organization. We, therefore, recently launched an online portal that provides all employees a mechanism to share innovative ideas. We have established some initial rules and boundaries, but I am amazed already at what is taking place. Some of the ideas are incredible. Time will tell if this vehicle is our best approach, but I am greatly encouraged thus far.

The organization I lead and serve has a great history since 1891. We definitely have our challenges but, in total transparency, I must say I am incredibly excited about our future. Innovation is fast becoming our norm.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the highest), how does your organization fare as an innovator? What are some of the challenges you see? What has been done to move the organization toward greater innovation?

Dennis D Price is the pastor of Troy United Methodist Church in Troy, Illinois

I have served as pastor of the Troy United Methodist Church in Troy, IL since October 1, 1988—a long time in our system. I am grateful to have been able to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful to God for the experience of being a pastor. As I look back on these years, I think about a few things (besides the obvious disciplines of prayer and study of the scriptures) that have been helpful to me as I have led this congregation.

• Calling. I was convinced and continue to be convinced that I was called to be a pastor. I said yes to that call just before I graduated from high school. A few decades have passed since then. God’s call on my life has been and continues to be an anchor.
   
• Work Ethic.  I grew up on a farm in Illinois. From an early age I did my share of work. I’m grateful for the heritage of hard work. I have tried to carry that over in my role as a pastor. Part of that heritage from the farm included never working on Sundays. Even if Sunday might have been the only day in a given week the fields were dry, the tractors were silent on Sunday! While the demands of the pastorate are many and there’s always been a challenge for balance and Sabbath keeping, I still have felt that the church I serve deserves to get a day’s work for what has almost always been a generous day’s pay!
   
• Support of Family. I know I have been blessed with a spouse and family that have been very supportive of my ministry and the churches we have served. I’m grateful. My wife, with wisdom and grace, has been involved in the church’s various ministries but also she has (with wisdom and grace) maintained enough distance to be helpful to both me and the church!
   
• Small Group. I have been part of a clergy small group or covenant group since the early days of my ministry. I was going through a particularly rough time in my first appointment out of seminary. (I only lasted there 1 year— Iwas actually appointed somewhere else the next year by request of the personnel committee—our version of getting fired!) It was a weekly clergy covenant group that helped me get through that year. They supported me and listened as I was sorting through this learning experience. After living through that, I made it a priority to be in one or start one which I have done on a couple of occasions. The clergy covenant group I’m in now (for the last 24 years!) meets at our church on Thursdays.
   
• Best Place to Serve: Wherever I have served, I have always felt it was the best place to be. Best community, best region, best leaders, best people! I have spent very little time wondering if there was a better place to serve. It might be an overused phrase, but I have tried to practice it:  “bloom where you are planted.”
   
• Keep Superiors Informed. A piece of advice that my home church pastor gave me when I was starting out was this: “always let your District Superintendent (the supervisor in our system) know what’s going on.” I have taken his advice and have always let the DS know what’s happening in my church – both the good and the not so good. I have also invited each new DS to spend a day with me touring the community and talking through the ministry plans sothey will have a better understanding of this context. That little piece of advice has paid big dividends.
   
• Consultants/Coaches. I have used coaches/consultants to help me and the leadership of the church discover God’s direction for the church. These consultations were often around the issues of ministries, staffing, and facilities..Objective opinions and new eyes have helped us chart a way forward. While I have depended on a couple of different coaches, I do want to thank Dr. Ken Callahan, for the onsite consultations he has led for me as well as periodic telephone coaching sessions.
   
• Starting Something New:  One of my personality traits is to be more excited about starting something than maintaining something. This may seem strange having been in one place for quite a while. However, as I look back on it, much of the time I have been involved in actions that would fall in the “starting” column verses the “maintaining” column: meeting and welcoming new people, starting new worship services, new building projects, new staffingpositions and/or configurations (very little paid staff when I came here), and starting new ministries. All of these things are energizing for me.
   
• Remembering Names:  I know there might be a limit to this, but so far I have been able to remember people’s names. I don’t want to boast about this, but it has been a characteristic of mine that is often mentioned. I work at it. I listen carefully to names. I’m not afraid to ask if I don’t know their names. People love it when someone remembers them. I know I do.
   
• No Coasting:  I read somewhere one time that pastors get to a certain point and because they feel they can’t do anything else, they just coast to retirement. After reading that and observing it occasionally, I have been determined, with God’s help, not to be one of those pastors. So I’m still at it. While I’m convinced of my calling, I feel I have some options of doing something different if I ever find myself coasting.

I’m grateful for the years in ministry – elsewhere and here. I’m grateful for the past years in ministry and God willing, grateful for future years as well.

I would love to hear from you. How important is pastoral tenure to the health of the church? What are your observations? What does it take to have a longer tenure?

Pastor to Pastor is the Saturday blog of ThomRainer.com. Pastors and staff, if we can help in any way, contact Steve Drake, our director of pastoral relations, at Steve.Drake@LifeWay.com. We also welcome contacts from laypersons in churches asking questions about pastors, churches, or the pastor search process. 

My giveaway this week is a group of books related to recent films from Sherwood Pictures.

Sherwood and LifeWay have partnered many times over the past few years. Earlier this week on the blog, I featured the upcoming Men of Honor Simulcast.

The books I'm giving away this week are The Love Dare, The Resolution for Men, The Resolution for Women, and Courageous Living.

Featured in the popular movie Fireproof, The Love Dare by Stephen and Alex Kendrick is a 40-day guided devotional experience that will lead your heart back to truly loving your spouse while learning more about the design, nature, and source of truth.

The Resolution for Men challenges men of all ages to become bold and intentional about embracing their responsibilities as leaders of their homes, marriages, and children. Priscilla Shirer's The Resolution for Women challenges all women to be intentional about embracing and thriving in God's beautiful and eternal calling.

Finally, in Courageous Living author Michael Catt brings fresh insight to "stories of people in the Bible who displayed great courage when it would have been easier to play it safe ... (who) challenge me to keep moving forward. They demand that I examine my priorities and deal with anything that brings fear to my heart."

To enter today's giveaway, tell us your favorite movie of all time.

The deadline to enter is midnight CST this Saturday. We will select one winner from the entries on Monday morning.

A Family Update -- Ed Stetzer

As many of you might know, Ed's daughter, Kaitlyn, has been in the hospital this week with a yet-to-be confirmed illness. Ed has been providing what updates he can from the hospital. The LifeWay family has been praying for Ed, Kaitlyn, and the family, and we ask that you join us.

Leadership Training That Works -- Geoff Surratt

Geoff provides nine quick examples of leadership training from the life of Jesus. May we be this intentional and precise in our leadership on a daily basis.

11 Pieces of Advice for Assistants -- Rick Hawkins

In my post earlier this week on email management, I mentioned how my assistant helps manage my speaking requests. A good assistant makes a boss more efficient and more productive, and mine does that for me. These 11 pieces of practical advice will help any assistant better serve their boss and, in turn, their organization.

5 Ways I Break Out of My Introversion -- Ron Edmondson

I've written extensively here at the blog about my introversion. Ron and I share this characteristic. In this post, he gives his five techniques of forcing himself to perform as an extrovert.

8 Tips for the Free Agents and Consultants -- Brad Lomenick

As the leader of a large organization, I am constantly approached by outside consultants looking to o business with LifeWay. We have had some great experiences with outside consultants, and some not-so-great ones as well. Brad provides some advice and perspective for those in the industry.

Facebook Infographic

Facebook is set to launch a historic IPO this week. Below is an infographic detailing the staggering size of the world's largest social network.

It’s Thursday morning. Pastor Doug has a clear calendar, an aberration in his busy schedule. Actually, the calendar is not really clear; he has set aside time to finish his sermon for Sunday. His Bible is open; study aids are nearby. He begins to study.

Then the phone rings.

His assistant tells him about a car accident involving a family in the church. The ambulances are already on the way to the hospital. Doug leaves all of his study material on his desk and jumps into the car.

On the way to the hospital, his assistant calls him again. The entire Godsey family of five was in the car. None are seriously hurry except Gary, the father and husband of the family. His condition is grave.

Pastor Doug walks into the emergency waiting room. The family has just been told that their husband and father did not make it. They see their pastor and run to him sobbing, in total shock. Doug is there for them. He stays with the entire family for three hours until he is certain that enough people are around to care for them.

The Afternoon

He stops by his home to see his wife and grab a quick sandwich. It is now afternoon. He’s not sure if he can return to his sermon preparation, but he knows he must. He must fight the emotional exhaustion of the morning, and finish the message. But as he walks back to the church, his assistant apologetically tells him that two people need to speak with him. They consider it urgent.

Doug meets with the two men. One of them is the worship leader of the church. He is struggling with his ministry and is considering giving up. For two hours, Doug listens, consoles, and attempts to encourage the staff member.

The next visitor then catches Doug off guard. George is one of the key lay leaders in the church. Doug considers him a friend and an incredibly vital person in the overall leadership of the congregation. George struggles to speak: “My wife is having an affair . . . “  There are no more words for 15 minutes. Just tears and sobs.

Doug stays with George for over two hours. They pray together and talk about next steps.

It’s nearly five o’clock in the afternoon. Doug is too drained to attempt to get back to his sermon. Instead he begins to look at his crowded email inbox. He cringes when he sees one of the senders of an email. But he cannot stop himself from opening the message. It’s from one of Doug's most frequent critics in the church. She has two complaints. The first irritation was something he said in last Sunday’s sermon. The second complaint addressed Doug’s failure to visit her sister-in-law who had minor outpatient surgery yesterday. The sister-in-law is not a member of the church. And Doug knew nothing about the surgery.

And Now Evening

Pastor Doug shuts the laptop cover and moves to his car slowly. He’ll stop by the house to grab a quick bite to eat. He needs to check on the Godsey family. He will stay with them for a while, but he must leave prior to 7:30, when he is to give the invocation for a local high school basketball game.

Several people get his attention at the game, so he doesn’t get home until after nine o’clock. He goes to his small study in his home, shuts the door, and begins to cry.

Gary Godsey, the father and husband who was killed in the car accident, was Doug’s best friend.

This was the first chance Doug had to grieve.

A Call to Pray for Pastors

The story is true. Only the names have been changed.

In a few weeks, I will be initiating a call for church members to pray five minutes a day for their pastors. Will you make a commitment today, even before the initiative? Will you commit just five minutes a day to pray for your pastor? Will you ask others in your church to do so? Will you pray for their strength, protection, wisdom, and families?

Will you pray for just five minutes?

As president of LifeWay, I am so proud of the partnership we have with Sherwood Pictures. Many of you know Sherwood as the creative force behind the movies Flywheel, Facing the Giants, Fireproof, and Courageous.

I'm excited to announce the Men of Honor Simulcast. This event is specifically designed to equip men to take courageous living to a new level in their walk with the Lord.

More about the event:

This two-hour simulcast will be filled with solid teaching, inspiring worship, and powerful stories to challenge the men of your church and community to become strong men of honor for Christ and for your families. Hosted live at Sherwood Church in Albany, Georgia, and broadcast to churches around the world, Alex and Stephen Kendrick, the writers of Courageous, Pastor Michael Catt, the author of Courageous Living, and Ed Litton, who played Pastor Hunt in Courageous, will be teaching on God's design for fathers, winning your children's hearts, and how men can make a stronger commitment to Christ. Then, the actors who played Javier, Nathan, Adam, Shane, and William Barrett in Courageous will be doing an inspiring roundtable session where they share personal stories of how God is working in their lives and in men across the nation.

Join the movement as churches across the country seek to honor their men and fathers!!  This is a great opportunity to encourage men to live courageously as men of honor.  Pray, prepare, and expect great things!

Here's a short video from the Kendricks about the event. I pray you and your church can join us.

Email is the bane and blessing of modern communications. It is an extremely efficient form of communication. Each additional email has no incremental cost. You do not have to wait a few days to send or receive emails. Indeed, most leaders would rather have email than not.

But email can also be a time-consuming burden for leaders. I have seen the inbox of some leaders with hundreds of emails. I know those particular leaders are unlikely to get most of those emails handled, some of which could be very important.

One of my research projects this week was on email efficiency for leaders. I read a few dozen articles that offered sagacious insights into effective use of this communications tool.

I also offer my own personal experiences. I receive a voluminous number of emails every day. On most days, I get my inbox to zero. Many of the ideas I gleaned from the research were ideas I was already implementing.

There, of course, is no magic formula for dealing with emails. But I hope these eight summary insights can prove useful to many of you.

1. Clean your email inbox every day. If an email is worthy of a response, it is worthy of a same-day response. Several email efficiency experts noted that next day email, and those older, rarely get an adequate response, if one at all. Some experts recommend setting aside two to three 30-minute increments to deal with email. I personally look at my inbox as I have time during the day.
2. Delete emails quickly. Some of them, like unsolicited marketing emails need not be opened. All of us receive those forwarded emails with a long string of recipients on it (Have you noticed that a number of them begin with “I don’t usually send emails like this”?). So there are many emails you can delete quickly. That makes your inbox look more manageable.
3. Get an email provider that has a good filter. I am grateful to be in a company that has email filtering that gets rid of 99 percent of the “bad guys” in email. A good email provider, at the very least, will provide some filtering, and it will allow you to mark any email in your inbox as spam.
4. If you have an assistant, use that person wisely with emails. When I first came to my organization six years ago, I had three assistants. Today I have one, and she is the best. She is constantly monitoring my inbox to see what she can handle herself. She has developed her own filtering system for me where key words in an email automatically send that email elsewhere. For example, any email that has the words “invite” or “invitation” goes to my assistant who will check my calendar, get facts on the person requesting, and make recommendations to me.
5. Get emails out of your inbox quickly. If you don’t delete them, forward them to someone else to handle, respond quickly, or place them in a file or folder. Most people will read an email in an inbox repeatedly, a true waste of precious leadership time.
6. Avoid sending negative information by email if possible. Because you can’t read non-verbal clues in an email, they can be misunderstood. If you have negative information to convey, call or tell the recipient in person. Negative emails tend to create a life of their own. I know. I have stupidly sent them on more than one occasion.
7. Avoid email loops. Many leaders will respond well to an email, and the recipient will then respond again with another question. Like some over-talkative people, there are some email writers with just too much time on their hands. It’s okay to bring an email loop to a close after you have responded well the first time.
8. Understand that many emails represent a person who really seeks and deserves a response. It is poor leadership to ignore those types of persons. Those who ignore well-intended senders of emails do so at the risk of hurting themselves and their organizations.

Do you struggle with email? What problems and challenges do you encounter? What email efficiencies have you developed?

I am blessed, simply blessed.

For Nellie Jo Rainer, my wife and mother of our three sons. I can not imagine a more selfless and loving mother than she.

For Erin Rainer, Sarah Rainer, and Rachel Rainer, my three daughters-in-law. Nellie Jo and I prayed for them from the moments each of our sons were born. Our prayers for godly wives and mothers were answered beyond our greatest hopes in each of them. I watch as each of these young ladies parents their children, our grandchildren. I stand amazed, simply amazed.

For my late mother, Nan Rainer. She always believed in me. If I have accomplished anything of note in this life, she is one the key reasons. She always told me that, in God's strength, all thngs were truly possible.

And I remember so many people for whom Mother's Day brings bittersweet and even painful memories. So many have suffered losses, and so many have been unable to conceive children. The pain is real and often intense.

May this Mother's Day, for all of you, be a blessing well beyond your expectations.

I know that I have been blessed by the mothers in my life, and I love them so very much.