This Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday, and that always brings about a bit of a dilemma for churches. Recognizing that most of their congregation will want to watch the game, but not wanting to appear to be compromising with the world, churches are forced into three camps. The first camp consists of those who say Sunday is the Lord’s day and there cannot be any adjustment in Sunday Services to accommodate a football game. In fact, they would say that to do so makes the church look weak and neglectful of God’s will for the church to be salt and light in their community. To these folks, to close the church doors is to raise the white flag of surrender.

The second camp consists of those who say Sunday is the Lord’s day, but it is also a day of rest and relaxation. This group would see nothing wrong with dismissing the Sunday evening services and allowing the congregation to enjoy the game, especially if the church folks would invite some of their unchurched friends over to their homes to watch the game with them. The belief here is that God is interested in families, friends and fellowship. He would see no harm in allowing believers the opportunity to watch the Super Bowl in the right atmosphere.

The third camp consists of the peacemakers. They see both sides of the issue and would, therefore, offer a compromise in hopes of keeping everyone happy. They would offer suggestions like having a church wide Super Bowl party in the fellowship hall, with the pastor bringing a short message during half-time (after all, if you’ve seen one wardrobe malfunction, you’ve seen them all). Or they might suggest that the church have their evening service earlier in the afternoon, and have everyone back home by kickoff.

I must confess that, as a young pastor, I fell into camp #1. It probably helped that I liked baseball more than football and never could understand all the Super Bowl hype. However, along with all of that, it just seemed like a surrender to acknowledge that God’s people would rather watch football than be in church. So, I really preached hard that Super Bowl Sunday was our day to shine as Christians, to show the world that we could and would be salt and light. Of course, I did all of that with mixed results. I suspect, a few folks who were easily guilt-laden came on to church because I insisted that they should; but most continued to stay home and watch the game. So finally (kicking and screaming) I moved into camp #3 and began to allow for the fact that my congregation, by and large, wanted to watch the game. So we began to do the Super Bowl events at the church, and challenged our folks to bring their “unchurched friends” to the fellowship (I’m still waiting for that to actually happen). I must confess that I always felt weird trying to preach during halftime. I felt like no one was really interested in what I had to say (including me) and, more importantly, I felt like we might be offending God more by giving Him the Super Bowl leftovers than we would have by just dismissing the services all together.

These days, I lean more toward camp #2. Not because I have a new appreciation for the NFL. On the contrary, I really don’t have much use for professional sports (Exception:MLB) and, by far, prefer college athletics. What I have come to, however, is a new appreciation for family and friends. Let’s be honest, for most of us the Super Bowl is just an excuse to get together with those we love or at least like (after all, we haven’t had a Texas team in the Super Bowl since 1995). Truth be told, we like to be together with people that we like being together with, and we like to eat all those great snacks and super bowl recipes. I’ve come to realize that, at least in my book, God’s probably OK with that. Our fast paced, hurry up world leaves us too little time to enjoy the special people in our lives. While I would never dismiss a Sunday morning worship service for any reason, I have come to believe that Sunday night is more negotiable. Especially in this present culture where many churches no longer meet on Sunday night.

How does all of this apply to leadership? It’s simple really, leaders can’t be so rigid in their thinking that they can’t see that times change and life moves on. What was once a hill to die on, can now seem to be a hill that’s not worth fighting for at all.

As my old missionary friend used to say, “Sometimes, you just have to bend with the bamboo.” That said, however, Jesus Christ is Lord, God is sovereign, the Holy Spirit is ever present in our lives and the church must be the consistent witness to the life changing power of the Gospel in this world. In that, there can be no compromise!

So this Sunday, after a 4PM service at the church where I serve as interim pastor, I’ll watch the game with family and friends. We’ll enjoy the snacks, but we’ll enjoy each other much more. I can’t really decide who I’m pulling for, but I’m leaning toward the team whose QB’s first name has three letters. Enjoy the game…more importantly, enjoy your family!

Pastor 2 Pastor Conference
at First Baptist Church in Ballinger!

 A day to examine leadership, preaching, lifestyle and more . . .

Online registration $25   (deadline Tuesday, April 17)
$30 at the door

Location, Date, and Time

• Thursday, April 19th
• 8:30am – 4:00pm (Lunch Provided)
• First Baptist Church Ballinger
  

FBC Ballinger is Located at:

Speakers include:

Several years ago, during an election year, I was having a political conversation with a fellow when he said, “I just don’t think that I could vote for a woman for president. I don’t think a woman could lead the country.” I paused a moment and said, “What about Margaret Thatcher?” He could only smile and shrug.

I have just attended THE IRON LADY. This current movie is Meryl Streep’s performance of the life of Margaret Thatcher. It is powerful and sobering. (It is particularly sobering to me because my own father has dementia.) But, even though this is a very personal approach to this leader’s life, leadership principles still come through.

1. Stay true to who you are. This leader took the best from her father’s conservative, “salt of the earth” approach to life. She never strayed from the belief that hard work brings results. This kind of thinking guided her during her challenging years as Prime Minister. In her most productive season this was the leadership that Great Britain needed.
2. Do something. If you were not going to take action with a situation or an issue, get out of the way because this leader was ready to step up. She understood that leaders can’t always wait for the whole world to “get on board.” When a decision needs to be made a leader will be ready to make the call.

Stay true to who you are and do something!

Pastor 2 Pastor Conference
at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas!

 A day to examine leadership, preaching, lifestyle and more . . .

Online registration $25   (deadline Tuesday, March 6)
$30 at the door

Location, Date, and Time

• Thursday, March 8th
• 8:30am – 4:00pm (Lunch Provided)
• Park Cities Baptist Church  

Speakers include:

How do you answer that question? Having a position does not guarantee you and your leadership are recognized. The political primary season is a reminder that you can be known well by a few, yet that alone will not ensure influence. Influence can increase dramatically as you gain exposure, and people have a chance to get “up-close and personal.”

A leader must value communication more than information. When you stand before your group or organization, they need to feel you are in the trenches with them. If your team is going to move forward with you, they need to feel you understand them and the pressures they face. You have influence because they believe you understand them and the challenges that accompany the task ahead.

Open the door and let them in.

Ed Young, Sr. at the 2011 Insight Conference details the leadership of Nehemiah and how it relates to our needs in leadership today.

Whether you do resolutions at the beginning of the year or not, you are still ready to launch into 2012. You can’t help it. That’s the nature of being a leader. You want to do better. Improve your organization. Take your resources further. Encounter new people. Raise the risk level. Expand the team.

That’s what leaders do.

If you want to get better, you have to keep changing and improving. That means stepping out into new areas. If you dedicate time to new things related to areas of strength, then you’ll grow as a leader. Don’t forget: in leadership, if you’re through growing, you’re through.    –   John Maxwell

So, make your list, set your priorities, do some collaboration, and go to work.

With 2012 upon us, I decided to share a little formula that I use for planning out a new year. This formula is not original with me; in fact, I got it from prominent Texas Baptist pastor and leader, Dr. Paul Powell, some years ago. I’ve used it for many years now, and find it a beneficial tool for laying out a new year. Dr. Powell gives us seven broad areas worthy of our attention as we make goals for 2012:

1. Spiritual Goals

2. Relational Goals

3. Emotional Goals

4. Mental Goals

5. Physical Goals

6. Vocational Goals

7. Financial Goals

In each one of these areas, it’s important to begin with an honest assessment of where you presently are in these areas. Lying to yourself is like cheating in a game of Solitaire; what’s the point! After an honest assessment of where you are, then you need to think about where you want to be one year from today. The gap between “where you are” and “where you want to be” is where goal setting comes into play.

As you set your goals, they must first be realistic and achievable. There’s no use in setting goals that can’t be reached; it will only leads to frustration and defeat. Goals also need to be limited. I suggest no more than 2-3 goals in each area. It’s possible that you might only have one goal in a particular area, if it’s a big goal. Remember the old saying, “While we’re making plans, life shows up.” In other words, all the while you’re working on self-improvement, the daily grind of life, family, vocation and a multitude of other things keeps right on happening!

Once you have a few realistic goals in mind, then it’s just a matter of two questions: What are you going to do, and how are you going to do it. The “what” is the goal, and the “how” is the action plan required to accomplish the goal.

It’s really not that hard and, once you get the hang of it, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish in a year’s time. One final word, you probably won’t achieve everything on your list of goals before the end of 2012. That’s OK, that’s what 2013 is for!

With Christmas upon us, I’ve decided to share ten of my favorite movies with great leadership themes. After each movie, I’ll give you the actor and my reason for choosing that particular movie. They’re in no particular order and they might give you a stocking stuffer idea!

1. Patton (George C. Scott)-A deeply flawed person can still be a great leader

2. 12 O’Clock High (Gregory Peck)-The weight of command and responsibility can be brutal

3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Gregory Peck)-There is no substitute for doing the right thing

4. Apollo 13 (Ed Harris)-Failure is not an option, sometimes the price of quitting is simply too high

5. Tombstone (Kurt Russell)-Sometimes you have to lead, whether you want to or not

6. Glory (Morgan Freeman)-When you’re going into battle, the calm hand of maturity matters

7. We Were Soldiers (Madeleine Stow)-Sometimes the leader’s spouse has to be a leader also

8. We Are The Titans (Denzel Washington)-Win the daily battles, and one day you’ll win the war

9. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (John Wayne)-Train your subordinates well and then trust them

10. To Hell and Back (Audie Murphy)-Ordinary people can become extraordinary leaders

This is just a small sampling of great movies with a leadership theme that I’ve enjoyed over the years. I’m well aware of several more that I could have added to the list. I also acknowledge that you too might be aware of others. If so, respond below and I’ll add them to the list. Merry Christmas!!