the reluctant leader

Top 10 Best & Worst of 2012

Another year has come and gone. And with all due respect to the ancient Mayans, looks like there will be a 2013. Before we move on the next year, here's my list of the best and worst of 2012.

1. Best event: William & Rachel's wedding! Definately the event of the year. One down, two to go.

2. Best milestone: Our 30th wedding anniversary. And it keeps getting better.

3. Best tweeting toddler: The @HonestToddler. The kid also writes a hilarious blog. I admit it, I'm reading his tweets and blog to get mentally prepared for grandkids.

4. Best TV show:Duck Dynasty. Everyone has been talking about Willie, Uncle Si, and the bearded boys. I finally watched an episode last week, and got addicted. Faith, family, ducks. Plus camo, guns, and ZZ Top beards. What's not to love!

5. Best song: Unforgiven by Joe Cocker. While in Brisbane my Aussie friend, Wayne Alcorn, reintroduced me to Joe. I returned the favor by introducing Wayne to country music and country culture on his trip to Music City. Dragged him to the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry. Also bought him an Eric Church CD and a Roy D Mercer CD. He almost admitted that country music is actually legit music. Almost.   

6. Best book: The Lego Principle by Joey Bonifacio. I watched Joey live the Lego principle for many years before I read the book. My 2012 top ten books here.

7. Best conference: Asia Pastors Equipping Conference (aka APEC) in Manila. My day job takes me to lots of conferences all over the world every year, and APEC is always our favorite. Nothing compares with reconnecting with pastors and leaders friends from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Mongolia, Myanmar, and two dozen other Asian nations. This year the Middle East Strategic Summit (aka MESS) in Dubai was a close second.

8. Best movie: Les Miserables. Lincoln was good, but Les Mis is a classic. Watching the epic battle between mercy and judgment, between law and grace never gets old. It is good to remember that we all have an inner 24601 running from past sins, until we encounter grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

9. Best trip: Safari in South Africa with Deborah and our son, James. Lions, elephants, rhinos, cape buffalo, zebras, giraffes, hippos, leopards, hyenas. We saw them all, up close and personal. One of our best trips ever!

10. Worst millisecond in a sports event: Marquez no-look right to Congressman Pacquiao's jaw. I'm still trying to forget.

What were your best and worst of 2012?

10 Leadership Lessons from My 1st Global Leadership Summit

I don't go to conferences. Ever. Unless I am speaking or hosting. But I caved-in to Every Nation Nashville office peer pressure and attended the Nashville live satellite feed of the Willow Creek Association's annual Global Leadership Summit last week. I'm glad I went. I learned a lot.

Here's my summary based on my top 10 tweets during the conference. Some people take notes in meeting. I tweet my notes. What I tweeted is in bold font. Tweeted quotes are in bold italics. My comments follow each tweet.

1. "Everyone wins when a leader gets better." -Bill Hybels (Lots of winners this week because tens of thousands of leaders got better. Thank you Bill Hybels and Global Leadership Summit!)

2. "I hate cats." -Bill Hybels (I've always respected Bro Bill, but never more than this moment, which was probably the highlight of the whole conference. I felt the power when he made that statement. Wanted to stand and shout HALLELUJAH!)

3. "People in positions of authority need truth tellers... who will walk in the room and say 'YOU ARE WRONG.'" -Condoleezza Rice (My question after this session: why is this woman not running for President? Run, Condi, run!)

4. "The X factor of great leaders is not personality; it is HUMILITY." -Jim Collins (This guy said so many profoundly simple things, it was impossible to capture them all in 140 characters.)

5. "An organization is not truly great if it cannot be great without you." -Jim Collins (What level of arrogance is required to build a church or ministry around a fallen fallible human leader?)

6. "Authenticity trumps cool... Nothing worse than a 50 year old fat preacher in skinny jeans." -Craig Groeschel (Big decision: should I diet, or toss my skinny jeans?)

7. "Everything I say is simple... People need to be reminded more than instructed... Life is simple but hard." -Patrick Lencioni (Lencioni was hilarious, deep and quotable. Not enough space for all the tweetable quotes from his session. One of the rare times when a speech seemed too short.)    

8. Usain Bolt can run. Gabby Douglas can flip. Joey Chestnut can eat. John Ortberg can preach.   #statingtheobvious (After that tweet and one of the greatest sermons I have ever heard, I immediately went to the lobby and bought this book by John Ortberg. Seriously, maybe the best sermon I have ever heard.)

9. "The local church is the hope of the world." -Bill Hybels (It is a good thing I love the local church, because I am a member of not one, but two local churches. One is pretty big and the other is small but growing. One is in Manila, the other is in Nashville. Both are healthy and filled with some of the finest people on the planet.)

10. My Global Leadership Summit summary/conclusion: I get to work with amazing people at Every Nation, Victory Manila and Bethel Franklin. 

It will probably require much less peer pressure to get me to the 2013 Global Leadership Summit.

A Mosque on Every Corner, the Power of Prayer & Other Reflections on Egypt

I'm sitting in he Dubai airport on my way from Cairo to Manila. A three hour and forty-five minute layover to reflect on my first trip to Egypt. Here are the top 10 thoughts bouncing around my exhausted mind.

1. THE POWER OF KINDNESS. While boarding our Dubai to Cairo flight, Pastor Shaddy Solomon and I were behind a burka-covered woman who was struggling to herd three small children onto the plane while dragging four oversized carry-ons. As Shaddy helped her with her heavy bags she said, "you must be a Christian." The obvious implication was that no man from her religion would lift a finger to help a woman. The kindness of God leads people to repentance (Romans 4:2). I hope we do a better job of demonstrating his kindness to our "cousins" in the Middle East.

2. THE PAIN OF POVERTY. I hate to admit it, but I think I have gotten used to the poverty in Manila. It doesn't bother me like it did 25 years ago. Cairo takes poverty to a whole new level, and my eyes and heart were reopened to the brutal pain of poverty. I hope I never get over it. God's word has so much to say about the poor. And most of it is about what we should do to help them.

3. THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL. Many prosperity preachers do more harm than good. Most Egyptian believers are poor in material goods but rich in faith, and there is much the wealthy West can learn from them.

4. SAUDI ARABIA FLAGS AT TAHRIR SQUARE. Difficult to understand how Egyptians can tolerate Saudi money meddling in their national politics. I can't imagine foreign flags at a political rally in DC or Manila, but they are ubiquitous in Tahrir Square.

5. NO PRIVATE FAITH. Muslim men are not ashamed to publicly express their faith. They kneel and pray five times a day in offices, malls, restaurants, sidewalks and every other place you can imagine. They don't do the personal private religion thing. All public. No shame. I wish Christian men would be so bold.

6. THE BEST BREAD IN THE WORLD! Man should not live on bread alone, but if he does, it should be fresh Egyptian bread.

7. A MOSQUE ON EVERY CORNER. Cairo has Mosques everywhere. And many were built with Saudi oil money. This fact reality tempts me to trade my wife's gas-guzzling truck for a Prius. (I'll keep my VW.)

8. CHRISTIAN SUPORT OF ISRAEL. Christians in the Middle East don't understand the Western church's blind support of the state of Israel, especially when Israel consistently persecutes Arabic-speaking Christians. I don't understand it either.

9. CHURCH AND STATE. When the church becomes more political than prophetic it loses it's voice.

10. THE POWER OF PRAYER. When Catholics, Coptics and Evangelicals pray together, something good is bound to happen. On our last night in Cairo, we attended a 2-hour prayer meeting at a Presbyterian church in Tahrir Square, along with 1500 believers from every church flavor in Egypt. This prayer meeting has been happening every Monday for over 10 years. All this prayer probably had something to do the original revolution, which seems to have been hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood. But prayer is more powerful than protest and while thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters were outside protesting, 1500 believers were inside praying for their nation. Who do you think ultimately wins that battle?

Top 10 Books I Read in 2011

Someone really famous, important and/or smart person once said, "readers are leaders" or maybe it was, "leaders are readers." I don't know, but I hope you are a reader and a leader.

Here are some of the best books I read in 2011, in random order. (And here's the 2010 list, and a bunch of other random & interesting top 10 lists - you never know what will show up on one of my top 10 lists. Back to the books...)

1. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Amazing true story of a WWII hero. Warning: once you start reading, it's impossible to stop.

2. Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir & Michèle Fitoussi. True story of Morrocan Muslim brutality. The result of reading this book: I'm praying that the Lord of the Harvest would send workers to Northern Africa. Who will go?

3. Living a Life of Fire by Reinhard Bonnke. Just when you think you have accomplished something with your life, you pick up a Bonnke book.

4. Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney by Lee Cockerell. Recommended for all church planters, pastors, missionaries and anyone who leads people and/or organizations.  

5. The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo. One of the best how-to communication books ever. Confession: I have never seen a Steve Jobs presentation. But I still think every preacher, teacher, presenter and small group leader should read this one. Here's a review of the book, using the presentation secrets of Steve J.

6. Contempt of Court: The Turn-of-the-Century Lynching that Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism by Mark Curriden and Leroy Phillips. A gift from my friend, Melvin Malone. This tragic story reads like a Grisham legal thriller. Summary: In 1906, an innocent black man was found guilty of raping a white teen & sentenced to die in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Two unknown black lawyers took the case all the way to the Supreme Court & won a surprise stay of execution. Local rednecks responded by lynching the innocent man. The result forever changed the way the Supreme Court views the authority of state courts.  

7. The Confession by John Grisham. Speaking of Grisham legal thrillers, gotta love it when a law-breaking pastor is the hero.

8. Where Has Oprah Taken Us: The Religious Influence of the World's Most Famous Woman by Stephen Mansfield. I have never watched an episode of Oprah, but I am glad I read this book. It is not so much about "Pastor Oprah" as it is about modern religion. Every pastor who preaches in the West should read this insightfully scary book by my friend.

9. Decision Points by George W Bush. No matter what you think about Bush, Republicans or American foreign policy, this is a great leadership book. Not the typical presidential memoir, this is a book about leadership decisions. Bush tells us the why behind decisions including why he stopped drinking, why he ran for governor of Texas, why the surge, why he hired and fired certain people, and other difficult decisions both personal and political. He also freely admits many mistakes, which in presidential memoirs, is rarer than a Sasquatch sighting. If you are a decision-maker, you should read this one.

10. Pacific Rims: Beermen Ballin' in Flip-Flops and the Philippine's Unlikely Love Affair with Basketball By Rafe Bartholomew. Written by a young American basketball fanatic while on a Fullbright schlarship in the Philippines. I don't know the author, but I do know several people who show up on the pages of his book. Fun book for all who love the Philippines and the PBA. 

2011 Snubs: Other good books that did not make my list include works by Tim Keller, RT Kendall, Philip Yancy, Vince Flynn, Gavin Menzies (interesting views on history) and lesser known writers. And, I read and snubbed that book about love by a former pastor (glad I read it but not glad he wrote it).

Next year's list will include the Eric Metaxas Bonhoeffer book which I started last week but will not finish until 2012, and Joey Bonifacio's "Lego Principle" which I read in 2011 but will not be published until fall of 2012.

What good books did you read in 2011?

Almost forgot, one more book you should buy - would be good to read it too - but you definitely should BUY 1 or 2 or 10 copies of THIS BOOK.

 

 

 

Top 10 Things You Need to Know to Succeed in Campus Ministry

I am speaking tomorrow at the Every Nation School of Campus Ministry in Manila. So much to say, but I finally narrowed it down to the 10 things you must know in order to succeed in campus ministry long term. Here they are:

1. You must know that God loves you & accepts you because of who he is & what he did for you, not because of who you are & what you do for him.

2. You must know that God called you to do campus ministry, no matter what other opportunities are offered.

3. You must know that God will provide.

4. You must know that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, otherwise you will resort to all kinds of goofy & powerless ministry gimmicks designed to attract people to meetings.

5. You must know how to forgive. The longer you do ministry, the more opportunities you will have to practice this one.

6. Because you will face endless needs & countless open doors, you must know how & when to say NO. Knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what to do. Focus is necessary for success.

7. You must know how to ENGAGE your culture & community. You had to know that one was coming, and the next three also...

8. You must know how to ESTABLISH biblical foundations, or your disciples will be temporary.

9. You must know how to EQUIP believers to minister, or you will end up doing all the ministry, resulting in either burn out or very little fruit.

10. You must know how to EMPOWER disciples to make disciples, because that is the whole point of being a campus missionary.

In summary: honor God & make disciples.

Top 10 List: Martin Luther King Jr Quotes

There are enough MLK quotes to easily make a top 100 list. But, here are my current top 10 with my brief comments:

10. A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. (That helps me.)

9. Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. (Reminds me of that Raiders of Lost Ark scene.)

8. Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness. (Easier said than done, but important to do.)

7. A man who won't die for something is not fit to live. (Reminds me of that Ninoy quote about Filipinos being worth dying for.)

6. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood. (This is what I love about Bethel.)

5. An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. (Powerful!)

4. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. (Read that one again, slowly.)

3. I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. (Simple, but profound.)

2. In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. (I never want to be a silent friend.)

1. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. (Character!)

Top 10 List: Best Books of 2010

Read lots of books this year. Some good. Some bad. Some life-changing. Some painfully boring. Here’s my 2010 top 10:

10. Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunis

Former MTSU prof, Nobel Laureate, Bengladeshi national hero – this guy really did change the world.

 

9. The Blessed Life by Robert Morris

I’m probably the last pastor on the planet to read this one, but better late than never.

 

8. Before I Am 30: Testimonies of a Life Transformed by World Missions by “Jack”

Only 47 pages, but one of the most inspiring stories I’ve ever read. “Jack” is a young leader in the Chinese church. I am honored to call him my friend.  ("Jack" was one of our featured speakers at EN2010 in Manila, but because of our security protocols we were not able to podcast his message.)

 

7.  The Devil in Pew Number Seven by Rebecca Nichols Alonzo

A true story that reads like a hard-to-believe novel. A movie begging to happen. If you know anyone struggling with forgiveness issues, give them Becky’s book. Her message will crack open the hardest of hearts.  (Becky & her family are members of Bethel, Every Nation’s church in Nashville.)

 

6. Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Church by Soong-Chan Rah

Anyone attempting to build a multi-ethnic church or do cross-cultural missions should read this one. Also recommended to all in a cross-cultural or multi-ethnic marriage as well as those who have adopted foreign children. Should be required reading in all mission schools. 

 

5. How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins

This small book scared me real bad. As far as I know Bro Jim is not a believer, but he sure has a prophetic message for pastors and ministry leaders – especially those who lead a growing church or ministry.

 

4. Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore

Another true story that should be a movie. I read it straight through. Could not stop. Enough said. Buy it. Read it. Live it.

 

3. The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose

Randomly bought this one while looking for something else in Borders. Laughed, cringed and repented as I read an outsider’s undercover  experience inside the Evangelical world.  Every pastor and campus missionary should read this. I have bought and given away at least 20 copies.

 

2. The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns

Painful, but necessary look at the gospel demands regarding our responsibility to the poor.  

 

1. Movements that Change the World by Steve Addison

My book of the year. Most reading this blog want to change the world. Here’s how.

 

What books did you read in 2010? What was the best?

Top 10 Christmas Movies

Getting in the Christmas spirit is easy in the Philippines, because we hear Christmas music and see Christmas decorations starting in September. So, for those of you not in the land of eternal Christmas, who need help getting into the spirit of the season, I suggest watching a Christmas classic. Here are my current top 10:

10. Jingle All the Way (1996) - Sinbad goes postal.

9. Die Hard (1988) - Some doubt this is a C'mas movie, but the whole thing took place during an office Christmas party.

8. White Christmas (1954) - I'm still dreaming.

7. Elf (2003) - Opening scene with Sr Elf, Bob Newhart, reading the intro story is worth the price of the DVD.

6. Home Alone (1990)- The "Wet Bandits" are some of the best bad guys ever.

5. Christmas in Connecticut (1945) - Black and white classic that never gets old.
 
4. The Nativity Story (2006) - The REAL story of Christmas.

3. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) - A new addition to my list. Had not seen this one for about 30 yrs, until last year. Wish they still made them like this. Special bonus: one of my fav soundtracks ever. Schroeder plays a mean piano.

2. Miracle on 34th Street (1947) - another B&W classic. The color version does not make my top 10.

1. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - THE Christmas classic of all Christmas classics.

What's on your list?

Thanksgiving '09 Top Ten List

Thanksgiving. America's national day of gluttony. And football. And family reunions.
I'm visiting the family - brothers & sisters, in-laws, cousins - at the Murrell family lake house in Mississippi.

Here’s my 2009 top ten Thanksgiving Day list:
 
1.   My Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ
2.   My wife
3.   My 3 sons
4.   My parents - both deceased
5.   My friends all over the world - mostly alive
6.   My home churches - Victory-Manila, Bethel-Nashville
7.   My job - Every Nation Churches & Ministries
8.   My U.S. passport
9.   My Philippine Permanent Resident card
10. My 1200GS - finally!
 
What are you most thankful for?

Tuesday Top 10 - Best Universities in the World

Today's Top 10 List is inspired by my son's search for the perfect grad school.
Here they are, the best universities in the world, according to TopUniversities.com

10. Columbia University, USA

9. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA 

8. The University of Chicago, USA

7. University College London, UK

6. Imperial College London, UK 

5. California Institute of Technology, USA 

4. University of Oxford, UK

3. University of Cambridge, UK

2. Yale University, USA 

1. Harvard University, USA

NOTE: This list is obviously flawed, since they left Mississippi State University off.

- Do the graduates from these top 10 have a better chance of success than the others?
- Is it worth the money to send your kids to "top" universities rather than middle or bottom universities?
- When will we have campus missionaries on all of these campuses? Who will go?