Eric Taylor

Talking Leadership

Got a chance today to speak to a group of Pastors in our area.  I've been a pastor for less than 2 years, some of those guys have been pastors longer than I've been alive.  So, what could I say to them?  I taught about what I love... Leadership... not just leadership but leaders connecting with other leaders.  I told them as a relatively new pastor, I needed them to partner with me and help me along the journey.  So many pastors and church planters get so bogged down in DOING Church every week that we forget sometimes that we need to "sharpen the saw" (an old Steven Covey term).  I need to get around other pastors and church planters and be stretched and challenged, encouraged and inspired.  I need my lid lifted and I need to lift someone elses lid.  I'm glad I've got some friends like Mike, Shawn, David, Matt, Joey, Andrew, Zach, Chris, Mark, Dick and Gary that stretch me as a leader.  Some from right here in Auburn and I talk to every day and others I only see every once in a while... but I'm becoming a better pastor and church planter and leader because of their influence.  Thanks guys for investing in me!

Sermon Prep Hell!

I had to take a break!  I'm in sermon prep hell... that place where you know you should have something more than you have... You've prayed and prayed and listened and listened and read everything you can get your hands or web browser on... (yes, even sermoncentral.com!)  That's where I am right now.  Sitting at Panera, reading Matthew 5:17-20 for the 83rd time... Loving everything it's saying, but not sure how to communicate it on Sunday.  Have you ever been in one of those places?  Church planters help me out!  I know it's going to come together... I'm pretty sure some of my church planting buddies haven't even started thinking about preparing a message yet!  But, I hate this feeling... whatever it is... so here's what I do whenever I get stuck-- do something completely different.  I'm going to read the passage one more time and then let it simmer in me for a while... then, after a while I'll come back to it. I may go shoot some hoops with my son, maybe I'll head to Books a Million and head to the magazine rack, maybe I'll take a nap.  (that sounds really good!).  Sometimes we just need to hit the refresh button. 

Even in the middle of all this writer's cramp... I got some cool news... a pretty prominent executive pastor is writing a book and told me today he's using my story in his book!  I'm pretty excited.  I always wanted to write a book... now I can say I've written one page in a book.  It's a start!

Ninja Leadership

Yesterday I finished reading the book "Deadly Viper: Character Assassins"  by Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite.   They were giving them out at Catalyst and just happened to snag one... It is a great book that speaks hard truth in a way that's incredibly fun to read.  It was more like having a conversation with Jud and Mike.  It deals with protecting yourself from the things that will corrupt and even cripple a person's character.  (yes, I'm a preacher that can't get rid of the illiteration thing!  sorry!)  It deals with everything... sex, lust, workaholism, materialism...all the stuff that can bring us down as leaders.  At the end of the book, there is a quote from Rabbi David Wolpe that I think should go on every leader's desk... no... every leader's heart. He says:

"Every leader has burdens and difficulties and complaints, but nobody forces you into leadership.  It's your choice and if you are given it--it's a privilege and a gift.  And if you don't feel that way you should step down."

WOW!  That hit me square between the eyes!  There are times I want to complain... there are days I feel overwhelmed by the burden of being a pastor... There are days I wished someone else would make the hard calls... but ultimately, God's called me to lead.  I can do like the old saying goes-- "Lead, follow, or get out of the way". Every day as a leader, we have that choice.  If God has called us to lead,  whether that's leading a church, a business, a family, or yourself... realize it's a privilege and an honor to shoulder the burdens and deal with the complaints because it's in those difficult times that our leadership is being tested and stretched and strengthened to bear even greater burdens and face greater challenges. 

First Day of Catalyst

What an incredible 24 hours.   I headed out last night to Atlanta to the Catalyst Conference with my friend, MIke Mozingo.  Mike pastors Journey Church in Millbrook, AL.  We got a late start and got to Atlanta around 1am... that's when the fun started.  Our hotel that I had booked over 2 months ago and guaranteed with a credit card had given our room away... but they apologized very well, still... we thought we might be sleeping in the car.  However we found a hotel and after a couple hours of sleep we were up... well, we were out the door.  The worship was incredible as always and we heard from Andy Stanley, Pat Lencioni, Francis Chan and Rick Warren and others.  I usually try to take good notes and process the stuff later, but I found myself caught up in the experience of Catalyst.  God really moved and stretch me in a few areas.  I'll share them later... some of the BEST time I had was connecting with some of my favorite people.  I got to spend some time with Tadd Grandstaff, Jeffy Murphy, Shawn Lovejoy and the Mountain Lake Team (Casey, Louie, Chad and David).  Just spending time with them asking them the right questions helped me to know a few things we need to do to get past a few barriers.  This is always a great conference, but I miss my family like crazy and I'm dog tired.  I think I'm going to bed. By the way, I hate Eastern time! 

StrengthsFinder

The past few weeks I've been a madman trying to get some things done that will get us ready for the fall.  One of the things I'm committed to doing is giving away as much as I can... empowering people to use their gifts and strengths to help take Journey to the next level.  A while back I was turned on to Marcus Buckingham and his books on leadership.  In them he has a resource called "StrengthsFinder".  As I've read a couple of his books, (Now, discover your strengths and Go, put your strengths to work)  Each has a code for the StrengthsFinder test.  I took the test and it gave me my top 5 out of 34 strengths.  My strengths are:  1)Futuristic; 2)Strategic; 3)Maximizer; 4)Belief and 5) Communication.  I thought it was pretty cool because those are the areas where I have the most passion... I made Sonja take it and her Top 5 were Harmony; Belief; Arranger; Responsibility; and Developer.   It's cool because she said... "that's exactly who I am."  We gave the test to Abby and Seth (they have a kid version called StrengthsExplorer) and they discovered their strengths as well (Abby's was Relating (strength with people), Presence (up front telling stories, taking the lead) and Acheiving (strive for sense of accomplishment);  Seth's were Competing (no mystery there!); Presence and Relating. 

If you're a parent, I'd highly recommend doing this with your kids... It's fun and they even throw in some activities to build on their strengths.  I'm going to make all of our ministry team take the test so that we can know each other's strengths and that will help as we empower people to act.

Like I said, I'm giving away a bunch of stuff... because I want to focus on my areas of greatest strengths... that will help us do what Jim Collins said in "Good to Great" :  "...put the right people on the right seats on the right bus." 

Don't be surprised, Journey folks, when I ask you to take this StrengthsFinder test... We simply want to help you get plugged in to the ministry where you can operate at full capacity.

You Gotta Read This...

I read a few blogs every morning and one of the guys I read is Steven Furtick (I'd really like to meet this guy).  He's getting it done at Elevation Church in Charlotte.  His post on April 16th pretty much sums up the way I feel most of the time.  Church planting is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life-- period.  It's the scariest time in our lives... I admit I struggle with this every week.  But it's also the most fun I've ever had in ministry because I'm watching people move toward becoming a Passionate Christ Followers-- That's why we started Journey Church in the first place!