 BY KEN BOONE“Everything happens for a reason” is a phrase I’ve heard more times than I care to remember. It is often stated during times of difficulty from well meaning people who have found themselves as the main character of a bad story. The statement suggests that because God is in control of everything the path that He has chosen has led us to a situation that we don’t understand, and most likely don’t enjoy. That what has happened to us must be the result of God’s sovereign will, and therefore if it is His will there must be some purpose behind it. The statement comes close to painting us as mere creatures of happenstance subject to the winds and waves of life while completely removing ourselves from the consequences of bad decision making. Certainly there are things we encounter in life that are out of our control. Whether or not it was God’s will is perhaps an article for another time. Outside of those situations there is a constant reality that we seem to ignore, or at the very least would like too. The truth is: you and I are very capable of making a bad decision and those bad decisions have consequences. More often than not it is those decisions that lead us into seasons of our lives where we—like others before us—find ourselves attempting to find some level of comfort by quoting the phrase “everything happens for a reason.” The danger is missing the fact that the real reason is the direct result of a poor choice, and in reality has very little to do with God’s will. I want to be honest with you, I have recently made some bad decisions. Within a six month period I resigned a well paying position, bought a house that needed complete renovations, moved into that house, started a new job, planted a church, and restructured other areas of my life. The result was nearly fatal. I find myself looking back on the situation asking myself: “what was I thinking?” It’s not that any of those decisions were necessarily bad in themselves, but the timing of lumping them all together in such a short period was foolish on my part. It has cost me more than I was willing to pay. I will be the first to admit that the reason behind this was not the will of God, but rather my will and very poor decision making. The good news is even when we make a bad decision God is still redemptive. Perhaps the reason many believers have quoted the phrase above, and have subscribed to the poor theology behind it, is because they have experienced the redemptive work of a gracious God in the midst of a situation that was caused by their own choices. What they actually experienced was God working His goodness into a situation and bringing transformation to it so that they wouldn’t have to reap what they sowed. Even though God didn’t cause it to happen, He did—and still does—have the ability to change the end result. It might be better for us to understand that God has the ability to bring reason to everything that happens. King David made a horrible decision when he chose to commit adultery with Bathsheba and murder her husband. Because of that decision the child who was conceived died, and David was rebuked by Nathan the prophet. There was great consequences to the decision David made. In response, he humbly admitted his guilt, repented, and was restored. After this event God declared David to be “a man after His own heart.” God brought redemption to a destructive decision. It was Solomon the son who was later born to David and Bathsheba that succeeded David as king, that built the temple and achieved an unsurpassed measure of success. Even though David paid a great price for his poor decision, the redemptive work of God was evident and ultimately brought about a gracious result that David’s actions did not warrant. As one who has made bad decisions, and will likely make more in the future I am in need of the redemptive work of God and quite possibly you are as well. I believe that there is some responsibility on our part that is required for the process of redemption to begin.
Although we have discovered the path to God’s redemptive work in our lives I do believe that there is also a pathway to making sound decisions whereby we can avoid the potential fallout of poor decision making.
God is good all the time. We shouldn’t credit the product of a bad decision to a God who only intends for us to experience His goodness. It would be more beneficial for us to understand that we are a key player in the outcome of life’s decisions for both good and bad. When we do make a bad decision that costs us more than we can afford to pay, we can place our trust in a gracious God. Who at His core is a good Father that will redeem the situation for our benefit.  Ken Boone currently serves as a co-host on The Alliance Podcast at boldcupofcoffee.com and founding pastor at Alabaster House as well as a public speaker, travelling equipper and writer at newbreedministries.org.
Ken and his wife Christa are the proud parents of four children. They have been married for more than 15 years. And have been in the ministry for more than 17 years, They have dedicated their lives to preaching the "Gospel of the Kingdom", and to living a life in partnership with Holy Spirit. Their desire is to see believers equipped to live a lifestyle that brings the realities of Heaven to the world that we live in, to see the culture of the Kingdom of God replace the cultures around us. And to fulfill the mandate from Jesus to: "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, freely you have received freely give." Check out more of Ken;s articles.
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 BY DRAKE DE LONG-FARMERGrowing up, my family didn’t attend church very often. But one of the yearly times we did attend was Christmas Eve. It was one of our Christmas traditions. We would go to midnight mass, take in the service and head home to open our presents. This was a yearly tradition we had as a French Roman Catholic family. It was something we looked forward to, the anticipation of the service ending and heading home to find out what we got for our haul that year. The fact that we were up so far past our bedtime with no consequences was a delight as well. And being together as a family and celebrating the Christmas season was always special. It was a highlight of my childhood. Fast forward a decade and I became a child of divorce and Christmas sharply became something different. Most years it was fine. I still had two loving parents who were doing their best to make this new life work. But many times during that year, we would be reminded that our reality had changed. It could be an old item of my father’s we would find in a box, having to travel between two homes or simply moments when the difficulty of the situation would hit us and it would be hard to find any joy in the season. This new reality became something of normality in my home and we started to drift into a place where simply stopped celebrating. Now of course we still had Christmas, but as we got older and into our adulthood, we stopped decorating, celebrating, and even giving presents. We basically became Scrooges. I mean, to a certain extent, we were simply being honest with ourselves. We had more bad memories that surrounded recent Christmas holidays than we had good. What we simply wished to focus on was being together, as a family. Now, my wife’s experience of Christmas was very different growing up. Christmas was a whole month affair. There was as much excitement about decorating for Christmas as there was about the day. Christmas was one of her most anticipated holidays every year. Though Carmen did not grow up in a Christian home, the season always had a special place for them. Imagine the contrast we had as a married couple when this season came along. Carmen was always so excited and ready to celebrate and I was ready to almost forget the season all together. Add the fact that in my adult life I was either working in management for retail and sales or in ministry. Christmas was such a busy season. It took a while for both of us to understand where the other was coming from. But it wasn’t until we had kids that my motivation to change my perspective about Christmas came. Though it didn’t change the facts about my experience or past, I consciously made the decision that even though I may have had many bad memories about Christmas, I didn’t want to pass that experience down to my kids. So, we decided to start new family traditions that were unique to us as a family. We wanted to make Christmas special, because it is. Though I had no control about what my Christmases were like, I made the decision not to live in that reality and choose something better for my family and myself. See, Christmas is truly all about new beginnings, new possibilities, new realities. When the angel appeared to the terrified Shepherds, announcing the birth of Jesus, this is what he said: Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger. At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises: Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him. (Luke 2:8-14) This is jam-packed with one of the greatest announcements we find in the history of humanity. Although is difficult to narrow it down to any one thing to focus on, three things jumped out at me when I read this: Don’t Be Afraid The angel starts his exclamation with ‘Don’t be afraid”. I could only imagine what it was like to be in the presence of an angelic being, but he reminds them that there is nothing to be afraid of. This only makes me think of the way that God chooses to come to earth... as a baby. That the creator of the entire cosmos becomes as dependent and helpless as a baby. That we have a God who we can relate to, because he is a down to earth kind of God. I think many of us find it much easier to relate to the person of Jesus than the Father, but a huge part of the Christmas story is all about a reconciling of the lost relationship of humanity and the Father. Ask yourself this question: Can you imagine yourself having coffee with God the Father? Maybe a new Christmas tradition for you this year is seeing God like this. A Father who is approachable, who you could visit and have coffee and share your life with. Great and Joyful Event Jesus said that He was the way, the truth and the life. His coming is a such a joyful and great event because He came to show a better way, to set the record straight (both about humanity and who God is) and to bring new life. Jesus’ coming was a great and joyful event because he was shinning new hope into a dark world. He was essentially bringing life into the world and was the life of the party! This is something we can celebrate and exalt because it was the fulfillment of all the promises people were awaiting:. The promise of a better way, truth coming into the world and new life springing forth for His creation. Maybe a new Christmas tradition for you this year is accepting this new life and choosing to see the effects of it all around you. Meant For Everybody Notice who the angel announced the good news of Jesus coming to: simple shepherds. Being a shepherd was not exactly an elevated profession, in some cases it was a job that was looked down upon. But why this is so important is that it highlights that Jesus’ coming heralds an invitation for anyone to join the party, that everyone is welcome at the table with God the Father, that everyone is invited to be a part of the family of God. Maybe a new Christmas tradition for you is simply accepting this invitation to join the party, to journey with God the Father and be one who BELONGS, BELIEVES and BECOMES all that God has for you. Could it be, you need to start a new tradition this Christmas Season? In the same way that I didn’t allow my past to dictate my future traditions with my family, don’t allow your past to dictate what your future holds. God is inviting us all to join his family and wishes to celebrate this Christmas season with you. Will you accept that invitation and start a new tradition this year?  Drake currently serves as the Editor-In-Chief of boldcupofcoffee.com and the Executive Pastor at gateway.ac as well as an avid speaker, writer and leadership coach/consultant at drakedelongfarmer.com.
Drake is passionate about seeing people thrive and come alive. To BELONG, wrestle with what they BELIEVE and BECOME people FULL OF LOVE, FUELLED BY FAITH, and ADDICTED TO HOPE. Drake is also a life learner and loves being challenged to think deeper and grow further. One of his favorite things to do is spend a good amount of time in a good café or coffee shop with a good book or engaging conversation. To be able to share in someone else's journey and experience is always a pleasure and honor. To view more content from Drake, simply click here.  BY BRIAN MCNARRYWhen I told my wife that Drake (our Editor-in-Chief here at Bold Cup of Coffee) wanted me to write an article about rest and had suggested the title: ‘how to not live like a zombie,’ she laughed. It wasn’t a polite ‘that’s a funny title’ laugh, it was a deeper ‘you can’t possibly write an article about that’ kind of laugh. My wife found this funny because she knows that I am notoriously bad at finding rest and being disciplined to take time off to relax and recharge. Sure I could make all the excuses about being a husband, a father to an almost two-year old, and a solo pastor, or I could talk about how many late evenings were filled doing a degree while working in ministry, or how many hours were taken up writing papers and studying for my ordination. But no matter how many excuses I could make, it still comes down to the truth that I’m bad at resting. I can’t tell you how many articles I’ve read over the last eight years of ministry about time management, creating margins in your life, taking time for a sabbath rest, and so on, but I still haven’t learned this lesson. There’s hundreds—if not thousands—of well written articles on the internet about those topics, so if you want to read about that, head over to Google and go find some. Instead I want to take a different approach to this topic. Rather than repeating that God designed us to rest and giving you a pretty seven-step plan for how to instantly make margins in your life, I’d rather talk about the effects of living like a zombie and let all those other articles give you the steps for how to move forward. Because when we turn into a zombie it is damaging. It’s harmful to you, it’s harmful to your family, harmful to your friends, harmful to your workplace, and it’s harmful to your relationship with God. Regardless of which franchise’s zombies are being used as the example, zombies have a few common characteristics that we will start to see in our own lives when we turn into one of the walking dead. First up is every zombie’s ultimate goal: Brains. Big juicy brains that (I assume) must also be rather tasty given the way that zombies go for them. A zombie will stop at nothing to get what they desire, continually pushing for their prize even if it means their own downfall. When we start becoming a zombie in our lives, this determination isn’t focused on consuming brains, but it means that one area of our lives will become magnified and consume more of our attention than everything else. It’s important to have priorities in life, but when the first thing comes at the expense of all others, then we’ve gone too far. For me this was a focus on getting results. I created certain benchmarks that I wanted to see get achieved, and subconsciously started filtering all my decisions through the question: “Will this help me get the result I want?” The insidious part, is that this type of focus is usually appreciated or even rewarded by our society. We look at the people who are determined to reach their goals and we often reward people for exhibiting this behaviour instead of recognizing the damage it is doing to the rest of their life. The employee who always stays late to burn the midnight oil, and the entrepreneur that lets the rest of their life fall to shambles get rewarded for this characteristic when in reality they need someone to sit them down and say: “What are you doing to yourself?” For me, the downfall of getting desperate for results was that I couldn’t see the big picture anymore. Even though there were some amazing things happening in our church, I was too consumed with one specific area that wasn’t showing results at the pace I wanted. I missed out on recognizing places where God was doing some amazing things in people’s lives because my focus was elsewhere. That’s a mistake I don’t want to repeat. One more thing about sheer determination, when a zombie wants to get their next meal, they don’t care about the other zombies that get stepped on, clawed, kicked, or punched in their quest for brains. Think about this for a moment: Is your sheer determination causing you to trample over other people? Secondly, most zombies in movies are portrayed as being sluggish and slow. I know there is the exception of the ‘fast zombie’ archetype, but overwhelmingly zombies are slow and plodding as they go about their quest for brains. When we become zombies the same thing happens. Despite our sheer determination toward goals or results, we tend to get less effective at everything else. The simple tasks of just going through life become more and more draining and exhausting. Sometimes this can feel like you’re looking at the world through hazy glasses, or moving through the day with lead boots on your feet. This sort of feeling might even indicate that there’s something even bigger under the surface that needs to be addressed in your life. Let me summarize it this way: You might be on the path to becoming a zombie if it takes more work and effort to achieve smaller and smaller results. Now for the last point: In movies and TV shows it takes a lot to kill a zombie. You can hit it, beat it, slash it, or even shoot it, but unless that bullet goes through the brain the zombie is going to keep coming at you. It will crawl at you on stumps for arms and legs until you sever its spine and put it down for good. When we start to become a zombie, the same thing happens. The sheer determination and slow plodding nature of the growing zombie within us makes us brush off smaller wounds and warning signs that otherwise would have made us stop and pay attention to what’s going on. When a mentor or colleague tries to show us ways we could improve, we brush off their comments and push ourselves to keep going on the path we’ve already picked. We keep driving forward when all the warning signs are flashing. Usually this leads to us compromising on the things that we said to ourselves we would never compromise. Sometimes we even make the choice to compromise our own morals without realizing how far we’ve made it down this path. Sooner or later those choices will catch up to you, and usually they end with burning wreckage strewn everywhere. Living as a zombie does not have to be an inevitable part of leadership. Being in a leadership position (whether this is in the home, workplace, or somewhere else), does have a natural inclination toward becoming a zombie. But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can learn to recognize these signs in your life before they become full-blown and get out of control. You can build support systems with friends, mentors, colleagues, or your spouse that will help you see what’s happening and apply an antidote before the bite from a zombie turns into an all-out infection. The antidote for a zombie bite will have to be tailor made for each one of us. What works for me may not work for you, and vice versa. So remember this, when there’s a tiny growl that comes from deep inside you and hungers for brains, you don’t have to become a zombie. You can choose to do something about it before it gets too late.  Brian's whole understanding of faith and Christianity changed when he started to encounter what it means to live life with God instead of for God. One thing that Brian is passionate about is walking with people as they explore their faith in Christ and learning how to honestly seek God in the midst of our doubts and fears. Brian is the Pastor of Grand Valley Community Church in Brandon Manitoba. He is married to Nikki and they have one daughter named Olivia. When Brian isn't working on a sermon at a Starbucks or at home with his family, you can usually find him fly fishing or building model air planes. To read more of Brian's articles, click here.
 By: Kevin SeguinMatthew 7:1 ("Judge not!") is one of the most often quoted verses by people who aren't Christian. Also, that whole last sentence is a trope used by pastors and Christian bloggers alike. Accurate perhaps, but trope nonetheless. Thankfully for those who have heard enough of Matthew 7:1, I don't want to talk about it; not today at least. I would much rather talk about the next verse, Matthew 7:2. Matthew, the author, is quoting Jesus and encouraging the church in how they ought to exercise judgement. Verse one is not a blanket statement about all judging in all circumstances for all time, it has to be read in its context and in light of the rest of the passage. Immediately after he says "not to judge" he explains to us how to judge. If he was trying to convince people not to do something at all, this is perhaps the worst way to do that. "Don't do this thing! Here's how to do the thing correctly!" That's just foolish. What's Your Measure? Matthew talks about "the measure you use" being "measured to you." Without getting into too much of a sermon here, I'll just say that since in the first century there was no such thing as government regulated measurement standards when you were at a market buying an omer of flour, for instance, the measure that the vendor used to calculate an omer might be different than the measure you had used to calculate payment. They didn't have Mettler-Toledo telling them what a Kilogram was. What would happen, then, was that the vendor and the buyer would agree on who's measure they'd use for the whole transaction. Simple, fair. Matthew's point is the same: When you exercise judgement, expend Grace and mercy, because that is the judgement that will be used on you. Essentially, the measure God will use when you are judged by Him is the same measure you used to judge others. In a sense, God uses your standard. That's really intimidating, but is doesn't have to be. The Measure of Grace. You judge people; you judge people every day. We all do. We judge other drivers on the road, other parents in the playground, our colleagues at work; we judge the barista who just "can't get my order right!" and they judge the customer who "doesn't know how to order!" We all do it. Matthew's point, put in its simplest terms, is that when we judge, we ought to do it in the same way that we want to be judged, because the measure we use, is the same measure that will be used on our lives. Fair isn't it? So Matthew calls us to use the measure of grace. Give people the undeserved benefit of the doubt. Judge with grace, that driver probably wasn't trying to cut you off, maybe they just didn't see you there; that parent on their phone might be texting a relative about their sick parent; your co-workers might be having a bad day, or be struggling at home; maybe the barista didn't hear you correctly, maybe you really are ordering incorrectly. At the end of the day, I endeavour to judge with grace and mercy, because, God is a far more perfect judge, and when I am judged, I want Him to use the measure of grace on me.
 BY KEN BOONEBlessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:10 Righteousness is much more than just doing right. Righteousness is the nature and character of the Father. Righteousness is living out of the heart of God. When our actions are righteous it is only because we are doing what the Father would do. When Jesus declared that He could only do what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19) He was revealing to us what true righteousness looks like. When Jesus healed the blind, He did it because that’s what the Father would have done in that moment. When Jesus had mercy on the woman caught in adultery, He did it because He was responding from the righteousness of His Father. When Jesus fashioned a whip and drove the merchants from the temple, It was the appropriate righteous response. When Jesus knowing He would be rejected declared in His own home town that He was the anointed one, He did it because it was righteous to do so. Jesus was not persecuted because He was doing what was right. He was persecuted because He was producing the heart of the Father in whatever situation was put before Him. Wherever the heart of God is reproduced the Kingdom of God will be manifested. When the Kingdom is manifested the results are often supernatural. The Pharisees did not hate Jesus just because He did good things, they hated Him because the good things that Jesus did were producing supernatural results. Jesus instructed us to seek first God’s Kingdom, and God’s Righteousness knowing that that the manifestation of those two things would lead to persecution. But the persecution is for our benefit because when the righteous are persecuted it produces a violent resolve to live from His nature and see His Kingdom manifested.  Ken Boone currently serves as a co-host on The Alliance Podcast at boldcupofcoffee.com and founding pastor at Alabaster House as well as a public speaker, travelling equipper and writer.
Ken and his wife Christa are the proud parents of four children. They have been married for more than 15 years. And have been in the ministry for more than 17 years, They have dedicated their lives to preaching the "Gospel of the Kingdom", and to living a life in partnership with Holy Spirit. Their desire is to see believers equipped to live a lifestyle that brings the realities of Heaven to the world that we live in, to see the culture of the Kingdom of God replace the cultures around us. And to fulfill the mandate from Jesus to: "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, freely you have received freely give."  BY DRAKE DE LONG-FARMERNot to long ago, I was sitting in a friend’s office, and he made a very telling statement. “I mean, when would I find the time to do that?” He was struggling with the dispersing of time spent doing what he felt he should be focused on, or even called to do, time spent putting out fires, answering calls, replying to emails and dropping anything when someone walked into their office. Sound familiar? Now, don’t get me wrong. We are called to serve those we lead, but also we need to remember that we can only effectively do so much and can only be as effective as we choose to be. You have the choice to be in charge of your schedule or your schedule will be in charge of you. There is this law of leadership: Spend your time on the 20% of things that will get 80% of the results. Or spend your time on the 20% of people who will give you 80% of the results for your organization. You may think to yourself “but that isn’t fair, what about the 80% who are wanting my attention?” This doesn’t mean we never connect with people outside our inner circle or that we become unapproachable, the reality is that the effectiveness of our investment will always be limited. If you choose to be the one who invests in everyone you will only be limiting the effectiveness of your organization to reach people, because there is a limit of people you can connect with. Furthermore, we need to break free from the idea that we are the only ones who can serve, connect, and invest in people. There are people who are ready to be given this responsibility and truthfully, you may be robbing them of this and in many ways could be better equipped to do so. Even Jesus himself invited 12 and spent the majority of his time investing in those twelve. Think of your time as currency. When I first got married, we were broke! Much like anyone starting out, we needed to budget our money very closely so we would have enough money to get us through the month. We needed to decide how we would spend it, how much we would spend on each thing and prioritize the needs and wants we had. When you are working on a budget, you need to figure out how to spend that money in the most effective way possible, because when you spend it all, it is gone. In the same way, everyone only has 24 hours in a day. It is up to you how you decide how to spend that time and if we are going to be most effective with that time we should be as diligent in how we spend it as we would our money. You wouldn't simply hand out cash to anyone who asked every time someone asked. So why do we do this with our time? In the end, we are the ones who answer the phone calls, dictate when and how we answer emails, who we invest in primarily, and are in charge of what we spend our time doing. Maybe you are in an unhealthy environment with unrealistic expectations. Maybe your job description was written for Superman. Maybe you even feel trapped in your position because there is nothing on the horizon. I don’t know what you face in your daily lives, but I can assure you of this: Things don’t have to be the way they are. You can’t control all the external pressures you face, but you can control your internal decision to be pulled by them. Ultimately you have two options: 1) Continue down the path you are going and burn-out, quit or even put yourself into an early grave, or 2) you can choose to make a change. Half the battle is in our own minds. How do we actually find this balance? How can we take control of our schedules and not continue to allow our schedules to take over our lives? It all starts with the principle of threes. I have heard the analogy in a various different ways. Three plates that get filled with food, three buckets filled with water, three meals to be eaten, etc. But no matter what the picture is being depicted, the principle is the same. These three pictures represent three areas of attention of time and energy spent and these three things range from low capacity to high capacity: 1. Things that only I can do (low capacity) 2. Things that I can delegate but involves training and investment of others (medium capacity) 3. Things I can delegate with next to no or no training or invest or invest by others (high capacity) When I say capacity, what this means the amount of energy that you expense accomplishing something. Think about it like the buckets being filled. A smaller bucket has less capacity to hold water than if it was larger. The easier the task (like delegation with low investment) would be represented as a larger bucket, because you can fill it easier and with more. Or think about lifting weights. The heavier the weight, the more energy it takes to lift and less amount of reps you can do which equals less capacity to lift that heavier weight. For example, when delegating small tasks, you actually have a high capacity in this area because it takes much less energy than tasks you have to give a lot of your vital attention to. It might be time for you to sit down and write out a list of all the things you do in a day, week, and month and start to put them into these three categories. Start with things and areas that can fall into category three and can be easily given away. Ask yourself: why are you still holding on to these? Who is already before you that has a passion to take something like this on and doesn’t need much or any training? Then let them go. Release people to use the gifts and talents they have and want to use and flourish in them. You will be amazed how easily people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves and will be happy to help when it engages their gifts and talents. Next, look at the areas that would need to build up teams of people and start looking for the right people for you to engage, mentor, and release. This will take more energy and don’t let the excuse of not having time get in the way. Besides, after you release some of your section three stuff, you will have more time for what matters most. Remember, in the short term it will be hard work, but in the long term, it will pay off. It will be in this second stage where the battle will be won. There will be areas that you could and should be building leaders up to take on. This is the hardest area because it involves a lot of extra energy in the front end; mentoring people—especially leaders to take on key areas—takes a lot of work, But trust me it pays off in the end. Too often we say we don’t have the time to invest in the this area, but, in the long term, we don’t have the time not to. What this means is you need to look at the things that your organization is called to do and explore what needs are being met, and what things need to get done? As an added bonus you will be mentoring people who will in turn mentoring others. Is this not the call… the dream? Think about it: The second stage people can mentor the third stage people who in turn could become second stage people down the road. It is leaders mentoring leaders who mentor leaders. In turn you will also have created a mentoring culture where people are being fed into as people, equipped and released to do what they do best, fulfilled and passionate. In the end you will no longer be doing it alone, but equipping people to do the mission of your organization, and see a robust culture of multiplying mentorships. (And by the way, this is also a little thing called discipleship too.) After you have laid out all the things that you can give away, it leaves you with a short list of the things that you should be focusing your main attention. You release people to do what they are passionate to do so you can focus your attention on the things that only you can do. Remember, this has low capacity, because it is a small list and should be as they are the big things that take the majority of your time and shouldn’t be overtaken by high capacity stuff. The things left over should be the things that give you the 80% results in your organization and you will be freed up to focus your attention on those leaders who will have 80% of the effect on the organization and the people/teams you serve. It isn’t about hard work at this point, but smart and effective work, and as the leader you are not called to do it all, but gather a dream team to accomplish it together. It becomes a team effort now and you are shouldering the work together. It is all about inviting people into the mission before you all. All of this will only work if you stick to your guns, don’t allow yourself to fall back into old habits (even if the transition means waiting for the right people), and cast a vision of why this matters.. This shift is important and this shift will cause your organization to be more effective in it’s mission. I will leave you with the words of Andy Stanley: “Don’t strive to be a well-rounded leader. Instead, discover your zone and stay there. Then delegate everything else. ...Everybody in your organization benefits when you delegate responsibilities that fall outside your core competency. Thoughtful delegation will allow someone else in your organization to shine. Your weakness is someone’s opportunity.”  Drake currently serves as the Editor-In-Chief of boldcupofcoffee.com and the Executive Pastor at gateway.ac as well as an avid speaker, writer and leadership coach/consultant.
Drake is passionate about seeing people thrive and come alive. To BELONG, wrestle with what they BELIEVE and BECOME people FULL OF LOVE, FUELLED BY FAITH, and ADDICTED TO HOPE. Drake is also a life learner and loves being challenged to think deeper and grow further. One of his favorite things to do is spend a good amount of time in a good café or coffee shop with a good book or engaging conversation. To be able to share in someone else's journey and experience is always a pleasure and honor. You can also connect with him at your personal page at drakedelongfarmer.com. To read more articles by Drake, simply click here. |
