Tag: Growth

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Start With Why Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Simon Sinek

  • There are leaders and those that lead. Leaders hold influence and inspire others.
  • 80% of people say they do not have their dream job. 
  • There’s only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or inspire it.
  • Most companies do not know why their customers are their customers, they erroneously think it’s because they have better quality. 
  • Every company knows what they do, that is easy to detect. Some companies have figured out the how. Very few companies have figured out the why – their purpose and belief, the reason they exist.
  • Every company or individual that is successful works from the inside out, they have figured out why they do what they do.
  • What a company does is obvious but the why is the real success.
  • People do not buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
  • Knowing your why is not the only way to be successful, but it is the only way to maintain a lasting success.
  • When your why goes fuzzy it is much harder to maintain the growth, loyalty and inspiration that gave your original success.
  • Detecting your why will help others that have the same feeling. 
  • A failure to communicate your why only causes frustration.
  • Great leaders start with the heart before the mind, they start with the why.
  • When a company does not know their why, it is impossible for the outside world to understand it.
  • Everything you say and do comes from your why. Your why is a belief. 
  • When a salesman believes in what he’s selling, there will be more sales. 
  • If you know the why, you’ll know what decisions to make. 
  • Trust is a feeling, not a rational experience. 
  • Leading is not the same as being a leader. 
  • Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire people who are already motivated and equip them. 
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Simple Discipleship Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Dana Allin

  • Discipleship is more of a journey than it is an event. 
  • Making disciples is the primary task to which Jesus calls us.
  • Many churches know that making disciples is a core value of the church, and will even put it in their mission statement, but are failing at doing it.
  • Discipleship, which is helping others love Jesus more, has too often been overcomplicated.
  • A reason we’ve failed in making disciples is because we do not have a clear, Biblical understanding of what a disciple of Jesus is to look like. 
  • If the church helps people love God with their heads and hands, yet not with their hearts, they’re doing a great disservice.
  • As churches, we sometimes confront discipleship as everyone needs to grow in the same areas, but that is not always the case.
  • We are not only saved by grace, but we continue to grow in grace as disciples of Christ.
  • Discipleship is so much more than dispensing information. A big misconception is that the more information we have, the more transformation will occur.
  • True discipleship is about being transformed.
  • Discipleship transformation does not happen at a microwave speed.
  • To disciple, a person should know you care for them and they’re not just a project. 
  • True growth takes time and intentional effort.
  • A mistake in discipleship is feeling you have to be a mentor, which is one who has more experience. It is good to see yourself as a coach, which doesn’t mean you are better than the other person, yet you are drawing out the best of the other person.
  • Clarify your goal as where you want the person to be after completing discipleship.
  • Be careful as you give advice. Do not try to offer solutions for everything they ask, rather ask questions questions that will help them think through what they need to do.
  • If you can help disciples, think for themselves, they will be better prepared to disciple others in the future.
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Reset Book Review by Jeff Bush

By David Murray

  • Just as a runner must set his pace or he will lose the race, so must we do as Christians. Pastors and ministry workers are getting tired and quitting way too often. 
  • We might say we believe in sovereign grace, but we yell and scream when things don’t go our way in ministry. We must realize it is God that gives the increase. 
  • Not all life or ministry depends on you.
  • Yes, it is better to give than to receive, but if we never receive we will end up drying up.
  • We must learn to slow down and pace ourselves in life and ministry. Not just so that we may live longer, but we will be more joyful, fruitful, and grateful as a result.
  • There are warning lights that are physical (insomnia, being aggravated, etc.), spiritual (still preaching or teaching, but not getting anything from it, not being touched by sermons from others, etc.), marital, mental, etc. Pay attention to these warnings. 
  • If you don’t slow down, God might slow you down.
  • God is a God of order, not of confusion, and we should live orderly lives. 
  • If you do not prioritize your life, someone else will prioritize it for you.
  • To prioritize life, we should break things up into four categories: definitely do, desire to do, delay to do, and don’t do.
  • We must learn to prune in areas. Instead of making a millimeter of progress in a million areas, it would be better to make much progress in a few areas. 
  • We must learn to say no to the nonessential so that we can say yes to the essentials. Learn to say a slow yes and a quick, no.
  • What we eat affects our mood. 
  • What energizes one person does not necessarily energize another person.
  • Replenishment is supposed to be for every day, not for once or twice a year when you get away from everything.
  • Our parenting as fathers should represent well the Fatherhood of our God.
  • Contentment in ministry is secret to longevity in ministry.
  • Sometimes God lets His children go through the wilderness university, and once broken and taught, can use us greater.  
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Real-Life Discipleship Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Tom Cheshire and Tom Gensler 

  • You can’t give away what you don’t possess.
  • If you were in a room of people and asked them about discipleship, almost everyone of them would refer to a person that helped them in their life.
  • Preaching is essential, but your preaching is not discipleship. 
  • Discipleship is 2 Timothy 2:2 in action.
  • Discipleship is the process of spiritual growth.
  • Jesus was not just telling disciples to be like Him, He was showing them how to live God-centered lives.
  • Discipleship is one individual investing in one or more other individuals on a consistent basis.
  • Which results more in your children listening — what you tell them to do or what they see you do? And this is what discipleship is about as well. 
  • You can and should be a disciple, as well as a disciple maker. 
  • You need to know who you are, but you also need to know Who’s you are. 
  • If you want others to follow your example, you must have been discipled and be discipling others.
  • Discipleship is not about perfection, but about progress.
  • Luke 6:12–13 teaches that before Jesus chose the disciples, He spent time in prayer.
  • Jesus always spoke to His Father. We would be wise to realize we cannot do anything on our own, we need God’s help. 
  • Discipleship is more caught than taught. Do not overcomplicate discipleship; recognize how Jesus walked and spent time investing in others.
  • Much of what you need to do with those you are discipling is to love them. 
  • In Luke 8, we see only 25% of the seed sown bears fruit. We should not be surprised that not everyone we disciple will bear fruit, but we still do our duty. 
  • The growth of an individual is not like a mushroom that shoots up quickly, rather like an oak that grows over a long period of time.
  • Discipleship is relational, it is life-on-life. 
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Planting by Pastoring Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Nathan Knight 

  • Don’t look at the best business models, look to God. 
  • We love size and speed, but a church can grow and be healthy without those. 
  • Most authors and church planters say that size and speed are important in church planting, but when we go to Scripture, the narrative of God is more on slowness. Consider Abraham and Sarah who were childless for 25 years after being told they would have a child. Consider Israel who was is in slavery in Egypt for 420 years. Or consider the coming of Christ in which thousands of years have passed.
  • The essence of a church is not their financial stability.
  • Multiplication does not come at the expense of depth. 
  • Planting by pastoring is glorious and grace filled, but it is not efficient. It takes time and energy. 
  • Evangelism is not the finish line in church planting. 
  • We want to know names, not just see numbers. We want to know stories, not just statistics. 
  • We plant churches to pastor people individually so we can worship Jesus collectively.
  • What if Jesus did not intend for churches to look like McDonald’s serving a billion people, rather look like your kitchen to serve your family and friends?
  • Pastor’s sacrifice for their sheep
  • Jesus knew His people and His people knew Him. He pastored them as names and not numbers.
  • The foundation of the church is Jesus and His Gospel. If you are a church planter, you should ask yourself what lies at the foundation of this thing that you are spending so much time building. 
  • Let the size and significance of the church you are planting take care of themselves. Slow down and press the Gospel into the lives of the people just as Jesus did.
  • The people need to know that you are wanting to help them, not get something from them. You are a pastor, not an entrepreneur.
  • Jesus gathered men before He ever held a public campaign or evangelistic effort.
  • A planter pastor must have character, competence, and compassion. 
  • Charisma might attract people on the front end, but it rarely endures. Your love for Jesus will keep you there, not your charisma. 
  • The power is in the Gospel. A magnetic personality and eloquent composure is nice to have, but they are bonus, extra, and unnecessary. 
  • If you are planting churches to be respected, heard, and esteemed, you are doing so for the wrong reasons.
  • Plant churches for the identity of Jesus, not to find or focus on your own identity.
  • Our areas do not need community centers and places of entertainment, they need a church where Christ is preached.
  • If you’re going to plant a church you need to be sent out by a church. A church that will love you and lead you.
  • A church planting team will minimize weaknesses and maximize effectiveness. Throughout the Bible, we see teams going out. Paul and Barnabas, Jesus and the disciples, and even many letters that Paul signed included a team of people.
  • In planting a church, we can get so involved with a list of what needs done and neglect our own souls. 
  • A team helps you with encouragement and accountability.
  • Prayer is your lifeline to God. Prayer is essential.
  • You should allow people to challenge your thinking. Is the place you are wanting to go truly a place of need? 
  • When, choosing a city, ask yourself if you are reflecting the need of Romans 15:19–20.
  • Preach, pray, love, and stay in a community. 
  • Love people, not programs.
  • Use as many evangelistic tools as possible, but one of the best tools will be the church members’ influence on other people.
  • Church planters can rest in God’s fruit as they faithfully scatter the seed.
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Planting a Church Without Losing Your Soul: Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Tim Morey 

  • Spiritual competencies are as important, if not more, as other competencies.
  • You as the pastor are not meant to hold all of the church problems. If you try to do what only God can do, you will live anxious and exhausted. Be the Pastor and let God be God.
  • When Elijah was discouraged, God spoke to him about the physical: food, water, and sleep. The physical is connected to the spiritual.
  • Overeating and unhealthy eating is common for those in ministry, but it is not good.
  • Don’t wait until you break. Let God and others help you with your emotional needs.
  • Many church planters started a church, hoping for the story of someone else, but God might want to write your story differently.
  • God doesn’t always meet us in the way we want or expect, but He does always meet us how we need.
  • The number one problem of pastors is isolation.
  • The main thing you will give your congregation is the person you become – Dallas Willard 
  • Church planters become professionals at “winging it.” The problem is you cannot “wing” your spiritual life.
  • The church’s strengths and weaknesses mirror the pastors strengths and weaknesses.
  • Suffering contains the seeds for success.
  • Church planters often have a mixture of confidence and self-doubt. Humility is needed.
  • Suffering keeps me humble and aware of the things I do not know.
  • We fear suffering, but we should probably fear more the absence of suffering.
  • It seems in 2 Corinthians 12 that Paul’s greatest asset was his greatest weakness – and that very likely could be the case with each of us.
  • Are you able to embrace the difficulties as a gift from God? 
  • Without suffering, how could we develop empathy – helping people in an understanding way.
  • Power without love is reckless and abusive. Love without power is sentimental and anemic.
  • According to a survey at Duke University, 43% of US churches run less than 50 people. Another 24% are between 50-100 people. 21% are between 100–200 people. 10% are between 250-1000 people. And 2% are 1000 or more.
  • A study from Harvard Institute for religion says the median size of a church in the US is 80 people. Only half of 1% of churches in the US are mega churches (2,000 plus people). 
  • We should focus more on making big Christians instead of trying to make big churches.
  • We must move from being superheroes to equippers.
  • If you as the pastor are doing the bulk of ministry, you are doing it wrong. Ephesians 4 teaches that the pastor is to equip others, not just do all the work.
  • Teaching others to do what you do means you don’t get to be the hero. 
  • Before we deal with difficult people, we must face the issues with the man in the mirror.
  • If you lose your family, you lose your ministry as well.
  • Do you want your kids to grow up loving church or hating church? Do you want your spouse to be thankful they married someone in the ministry, or regret it?
  • To succeed in church and fail in your family is to fail.
  • As a church planter, you will likely not have as much money as the people in your church, but you do have more power over your schedule than others do. You can use this to your strength to make sure you have time for your family.
  • Most church planters feel like they can’t get away, but a healthy church needs their pastor to be absent so they can learn to take care of areas. Your family and your church need you to get away.
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People Can’t Drive You Crazy If You Don’t Give Them The Keys : Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Mike Bechtle 

  • Drama free doesn’t mean ridding of the drama, or the people that create it, rather the affect it has in you.
  • When it comes to drama, you have three choices: 
    1. Get the crazy person to change. 
    2. Live with the craziness. You can learn to accept it. 
    3. Get the crazy person out of your life. You can leave the situation.
  • Your relationship with God will help your relationship with others. 
  • When you determine to grow in spiritual maturity you’ll be able to better deal with drama and craziness.
  • We all have drama in our lives, but some people are controlled by it.
  • Our emotions are based on assumptions. The problem with assumptions is that we are basing solely on the facts that we have. 
  • Proverbs 18:17 teaches that our arguments make sense until we hear the other side.
  • False hopes destroy a relationship. While you’re expecting the other person to change, they likely are hoping for the same thing.
  • 5 truths about relationships:
          1. People with the most drama are the ones we spend the most time with (friends, family, coworkers, etc.). 
          2. Relationships take work.
          3. Relationships take time.
          4. The past doesn’t have to dictate the future.
          5. You don’t have to be the victim. 
  • When people are angry, they do not make logical decisions. 
  • The key to surviving crazy people is determining what we can and cannot control. We can control ourselves, but not others.
  • If each of us try to see how the other person sees, we’re laying the foundation for a good relationship.
  • If we want to best know how to use our car, we read the instruction manual. If we want to best know how to deal with other people, we read the instructions from the One who made people.
  • The key to managing our emotions is learning to manage our thoughts. 
  • Feelings come and go but love remains, and we are commanded to love. 
  • Realize that people are not accountable to you.
  • Reactive people focus on the problems while responsive people focus on the positive.