All posts tagged Craig Groeschel

Creating a Culture of Self-Awareness :: Craig Groeschel, Catalyst One Day

by Tim Schraeder on 11/17/2011 in Catalyst One Day with No comments
  • How many of you have a significant problem with self-deception?
  • Those who don’t know don’t know they don’t know.
  • You can go through you entire life only seeing from one perspective.
  • As leaders it’s difficult for us to get an objective view of our leadership.
  • The higher you rise in an organization, the more difficult it is to get objective truth about yourself.
  • The problems you don’t know about are the problems you can’t fix.
  • In the church world, there are problems we don’t know about that unchurched people recognize… whether its in our culture or environments.
  • You have a lot problems that need fixing but you don’t even know about them.
  • You have a lot of problems as a leader and you’ve got to make an effort to find out what you need to fix.
Three Principles of Self-Deception
1 – We as leaders have a limitless capacity for self-deception.
  • Example: King David and Bathsheba.
  • Healthy can mean the absence of problems.
  • When there are no problems at all, healthy can be a way of saying, “we aren’t doing anything right now.”
  • It’s not OK when people outside of our church doors are going to Hell.
2 – The longer we believe lies, the harder it is to hear truth.
  • Psalm 36:2 – For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin.
  • There are a lot of us in Christian leadership that are so flattered with our ministry that we fail to recognize significant sin in our own lives.
  • Previous generations did us a disservice by telling us that we are good at everything.
  • When you are teachable, there is greatness in you.
3 – The leader’s lack of self-awareness is the leader’s greatest barrier.
  • It’s our greatest barrier to forward movement in the Kingdom.
  • The self-deceived leader can always find someone or something else to blame.
  • Don’t you ever say that people won’t… take ownership.
  • Own your own limitations.
  • If you delegate tasks, you create followers.
  • If you delegate authority, you create leaders.
  • If you just tell people what to do you won’t attract, build or release leaders.
  • Your self-deception is the barrier to what God wants to do in your church.
  • Know where you need God in every area of your life.
Uncovering the Truth About You
1 – Pray
  • Search me O God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. – Psalm 139:23-24
  • We cannot overcome a challenge we cannot identify.
  • If there was something that was limiting your effectiveness, you would want to know about it.
  • PRAY.
2 – Listen
  • He who listens to life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise. He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.  - Proverbs 15:31-32
  • Listen to the Spirit of God and listen to people.
  • The more convinced you are that you are right about something, the more likely you are wrong.
  • Whatever you do, build a team that craves and gives helpful feedback.
  • Can you give and receive correction?
  • Implement annual 360 evaluations for every team member.
  • Everyone around you gets the opportunity to critique your leadership anonymously.
  • What has God been trying to show you? Write those things down.
3 – Change
  • Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. – James 1:12
  • Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. – John 8:32
  • The problems you have in your organization aren’t someone else’s problems, they are your problems. It’s a leadership issue.
  • Some of you are too proud, deceiving yourselves, and ignoring your sin by ignoring your problems.
  • Are you having an affair with your phone?
  • Are you a workaholic?
  • Is your body in trouble?
  • Is your marriage or family suffering?
  • God wants you to do more than survive.
  • You can’t lead people to life and life more abundantly if you aren’t experiencing abundant life yourself.
  • Pornography is a big deal.
  • It’s time to get help.
  • It’s time to get honest.
  • It’s time to come clean.
  • Confess to God for forgiveness.
  • Confess to people for healing.
  • There is a world that needs Jesus.
  • So do you.
  • The more we rely on God for His forgiveness and power the more we can lead other people to experience it for themselves.

Craig Groeschel Interviewing Bill Hybels :: Catalyst One Day

by Tim Schraeder on 11/17/2011 in Catalyst One Day with No comments

What would you say to a new leader?

  • Do you really know what it is that you are setting out to build?
  • Is it build out theologically?
  • Is it robust enough to match the New Testament vision of what a church should be?
How would you define what you are trying to build?
  • Who are  you trying to reach?
  • Once someone is reached, what are your intentions with them?
  • The “who we are trying to reach question” has evolved in my mind over the decades.
  • We used to say late 20, early 30s non-churched people.
  • The assumption was middle class, white, college educated… someone like ourselves.
  • Over the decades that has changed.
  • Now they think about the “theology of the footprint.”
  • God planed us in a community, so we acknowledge there is a footprint around us.
  • Willow Creek defines that as a 30 minute footprint… everyone in their 30 minute footprint.
  • They believe they have the responsibility to communicate the Gospel to everyone within a 30 minute footprint.
  • They also try to define what needs they are called to meet.
  • When it comes to the demographics, we don’t want want to neglect anybody because they are different.
  • We don’t write-off certain people groups or people who are different than them.
In 36 years of ministry, Willow Creek has maintained high integrity and been without scandal or accusations. What should we know? What was behind that?
  • “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it…”
  • I have not been temptation free.
  • I have made many mistakes in my ministry.
  • I’ve made decision that have hurt people.
  • I haven’t gotten it all right.
  • We have had a culture of accountability around Willow.
  • When organizations grow larger, accountability seems to wane.
  • Willow has maintained the opposite.
  • As they were taken from a local to a global ministry, they have felt they have something more to protect.
  • They pay more attention to governance, not less.
  • Bill has 81 executive limitations.
How do you develop accountability?
  • In a conventional Elder situation, you will get to moments where there’s a need for a judgment call where it’s not clear if it’s an Elder decision or a leadership decision.
  • Through policy governance, we try to make it blindingly clear who’s responsible for making key decisions.
In the past you’ve said, “the  way I was doing the work of God was destroying the work of God in me.” What advice would you give or what have you learned?
  • Are we merely trying to survive something?
  • Do you want to be someone who is breathless and exhausted most of the time?
  • Or do you want to be someone who takes discipleship holistically…a body, marriage, life, children, finances, friendships, etc that all honor God.
  • Who’s job is it for you to thrive before God?
  • It is YOUR job.
  • If you are exhausted and cranky most of the time, it’s your job to fix it.
  • If you are consistently irritable, over-eating or over-spending… if there are patterns repeated in your life, someone needs to take responsibility.
  • Something is driving something. You’ve got to look under the hood.
  • Christian counseling can help immensely.
  • Ministers need counselors.
  • There’s a reason why you are the way that you are.
  • The Discipline of Replenishment – what is your strategy for replenishment.
  • You need a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly strategy for replenishment.
  • How do you stay replenished most of the time.
  • When you are finally at the place of total depletion that’s when you freshly realize it’s your job to fix it.
  • Put your replenishment strategy together when you are quasi-normal.
What are you most excited about in the next generation? What are you concerned about?
  • It’s innate in them to be missional.
  • We used to have to do whole series to get an average Christian to think about the poor or to become active in some way to overcome some injustice.
  • It used to be hard work to convert people to a conscious of combating injustice.
  • They’ve got mission all over them.
  • They feel it… it’s in them.
  • I celebrate that more than you know.
  • That’s a huge change from the day I was first starting out.
  • What I get a little concerned about is the theology of a lot of young pastors.
  • There’s such odd varieties of theologies out there these days… everyone that has a blog can have one.
  • There’s a piecemeal, call-it-what-you-will, name-it-what-you-want theology that is not coherent and is not consistent with the New Testament.
  • There is a need for theological rigor, inspection and reflection.
  • What’s your message?
  • What 5 words get to the core of the Christian message you are trying to communicate?
    • Love – God is recklessly in love with us.
    • Evil – there is evil loose in the world and inside of all of us.
    • Remedy – CHRIST!
    • Choice – we have a choice to make.
    • Restoration
  • I have no use for the cheap theology that says we are here just to save people.
  • We are restored and are called to join God in His work of restoring the world
  • I’m concerned about the level of clarity that young leaders have with their message.
  • We need to get words on the table to decide what language we are going to use.

Values and Culture :: Craig Groeschel, Catalyst One Day

by Tim Schraeder on 11/17/2011 in Catalyst One Day with No comments

Craig Groeschel is the founding and senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv.

Craig, his wife Amy, and their six children live in the Edmond, Oklahoma area where LifeChurch.tv began in 1996.

Craig’s creative leadership is changing the way church is done worldwide. Under his leadership, LifeChurch.tv has become one of the country’s first multi-campus churches, with over 70 weekend services at 15 locations. LifeChurch.tv also partners with 200 Network churches that view its messages every weekend.

Craig is the author of several books, including The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living As If He Doesn’t Exist, It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It, Chazown: A Different Way to See Your Life, Confessions of a Pastor, Going All the Way and his most recent, Weird: Because Normal Isn’t Working.

For more information about Craig Groeschel and LifeChurch.tv, visit www.lifechurch.tv.

  • Every organization has an unlimited number of intangibles that create its culture.
  • It’s impossible to recreate an environment.
  • Culture is way more than buildings, environments, signage or cleanliness.

Values and Culture

  • Healthy cultures never happen by accident: they are created.
  • The number one force that shapes your cultures is your values.
  • What you value determines what you do. 
    • What you believe determines how you behave.
    • Matthew 9:10-12
    • If we value survival we will focus on keeping people happy and be overly-focused on making money.
    • If we value tradition, we will focus more on the past than on the opportunities for ministry that are right in front of us.
    • If we value evangelism, we will focus more on those we have not reached than those we have.
    • A strong, effective church is made up of people unified around a strong set of values.
    • We need healthy, God-honoring culture in our churches.
    • If you want a different kind of culture, you’ve got to change your values.

How Do We Allow our Values to Shape our Culture?

1 – Determine honestly what your actions say you value.

  • Every ministry values something.
  • Not all values are intentional or clearly articulated.
  • Your actions determine what you value.
  • There’s often a big difference between what you claim to value and how you behave.
  • Your actions speak louder.
2 – Identify the values God has put within YOU.
  • Don’t copy other people’s values.
  • We can’t be good at being somebody else
  • What do you passionately love in ministry?
  • What breaks your heart or makes you righteously angry?
  • What makes you say, “NOT ON MY WATCH!”
  • Be honest about what you value.
3 – Narrow your values to ten or fewer.
  • If everything is important, nothing will be important.
  • If you value everything, you’ll value nothing.
4. Once you’ve clearly definite your values, describe them in short, life-giving statements.
  • If can’t be tweeted they are too long.
  • They should be statements that strike emotion and motivate people to action.
  • Some of LifeChurch.tv’s values…
  • We’ll do anything short of sin to reach more people for Christ.
  • If we want to reach people no one is reaching we’ve got to do things other people aren’t doing.
  • We aren’t a mega-church, we are a micro church with a mega-vision.
  • If your values don’t move you, they won’t move other people.
  • Don’t put your values on a wall, put them on your heart and let them bleed out.
5 – Shape your culture and build your people around your values.
  • Lead toward your values as if your future depends on it… because it does.
  • Organizations don’t change, people change.
  • When people change, the organization will follow.
  • If you want  a different outcome, you’ve got to change the people.
  • Hire and recruit for your values.
  • Remove people from your organization with distinctly different values.
  • If you don’t like where your ministry is going, change directions.
  • If you want you’ve always had you should do what you’ve always done.
  • If you want what you’ve never had, you should change.
  • If something’s not right in your ministry, quit your whining and fix it.
  • You have what it takes.
  • Use your gift of leadership.
  • God put you where you are for a reason.
  • God cares more about your church than you do.
  • Go and do what only you can do.
  • God will empower you to get it done.

Craig Groeschel :: Catalyst 10

by Tim Schraeder on 10/08/2010 in Catalyst 10 with No comments

Craig Groeschel is the founding and senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv. Craig, his wife, Amy, and their six children live in the Edmond, Oklahoma, area where LifeChurch.tv began in 1996.

Craig’s creative leadership skills are changing the way church is done worldwide. Under his leadership, LifeChurch.tv has become one of the country’s first multi-campus churches, with over 50 weekend worship experiences at 13 different locations throughout the United States.

Craig is the author of five books, Chazown: A Different Way to See Your Life, Confessions of a Pastor, Going all the Way, It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It and his most recent, The Christian Atheist.

  • The enemy divides the church into denominations so we aren’t a unified church.
  • The enemy divides the church generationally so we don’t work together.
  • When it comes to the generations in ministry, division is bad but the tension can be good.
  • We absolutely and desperately need  each other.
  • We need what God is doing and the wisdom, energy and passion between generations.
  • What we are able to today is a result of those who believed in us in the past.
  • We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.
  • God puts people in our lives who believe in us and help pave the way.

To the Older Generation

  • If you ask if you are in the older generation, you are!
  • I would beg you not to resent, fear, or judge the next generation of ministers… believe in them, invest in them.
  • Find it as one of the greatest callings of your life to pour your life into the next generation.
  • They are not the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today.
  • They are not the the church of the future, they are the church of today.
  • They are different just like you were different.
  • Don’t get off on the style or appearance, believe in them and invest in them.
  • One of the reasons why it’s difficult for the older generation to invest in the younger generation is because of insecurity.
  • When you lead from a place of insecurity, things don’t go well.
  • Don’t delegate tasks, that creates followers… delegate authority, that creates leaders.
  • Give people freedom to make mistakes.
  • Don’t be cool, be real.
  • The next generation craves authenticity.
  • Be yourself, show up and listen.
  • Your age and experience is not a liability, it’s your greatest asset.
  • If you’re not dead you’re not done.
  • Embrace the season you are in.
  • One of the greatest honors we can have is to become like a spiritual parent to the next generation.
  • Don’t be cool or be a coach, be a parent.
  • Embrace that you can be like a parent to those who are to come.
  • Psalm 71:18 – “even when I’m old and gray, do not forsake me until I declare your power to the next generation…”

To The Younger Generation

  • You need those who have gone before you.
  • The #1 word used to describe the next generation of workers but the older generation is the word entitled.
  • It’s not our fault, it’s because how we were raised.
  • We’ve been protected.
  • The challenge in ministry is that we feel like things should come very easily for us.
  • We tend to overestimate what God wants to do through us in the short run.
  • We feel disillusioned.
  • Because we overestimate, we simultaneously underestimate what God wants to do with us in the long run.
  • Do not underestimate what God wants to do through this generation.
  • There is spiritual greatness in us.
  • Thing bigger, bigger, bigger, and bigger in the long run.
  • Because we feel we feel so entitled we don’t show honor.
  • “Honor publicly leads to influence privately.” – Andy Stanley
  • If you want influence those above you, honor them.
  • Mark 6:4-6
  • He could not do any greater miracles because he was without honor and there was no faith.
  • One of the reasons God isn’t doing much in our churches is because there is not much faith in the leaders above us.
  • One of the reason there is no faith is because there’s no honor for God in our lives.
  • When we truly honor God we will honor the authority of the leaders he put above us.
  • If you want to be over, learn how to be under well.
  • Be in a position where you are under authority and submitting willingly and humbly.
  • Honor – value, respect, highly esteem, treat as precious, weighty or valuable.
  • Honor lifts up; dishonor tears down.
  • Honor believes the best; dishonor believes the worst.
  • Honor values; dishonor devalues.
  • If you ascribe honor to people they will rise to it.
  • Honor the leaders God has put above you and watch what God will do.
  • There’s a big difference between respect and honor.
  • Respect is earned; honor is freely given.
  • When we ascribe honor people they become honorable.
  • We need to repent of our lack of honor towards the previous generation.
  • Repent because you’ve been dishonoring.
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