Shoot … Perry Noble is brilliant. He has some super-high expectations of his team, and I love it. Here’s a clip of Five Things You Should Never Hear From A Staff Member, a recent post on his blog:

#4 – “Recognize Me!”
Beware of the staff member who is always telling you how much work they did, how many hours they put in and how tired they are.

HOLD ON…as a leader it is our job to make sure that staff members are not sacrificed on the alter of ministry. We should pay them well and make sure they have adequate time off. More often than not we have to FORCE people around here to take time off.

BUT…when someone is always demanding attention for the work they’ve done then you can be sure that either pride or insecurity is coming out…and neither are good!

#5 – “My ministry needs BLANK to…and if we don’t get it then…”
When a staff member begins to focus on his/her ministry more than the church as a whole…trust me, you have a HUGE problem.

A good staff member does have passion and vision for their particular area of ministry; however, they have an even greater passion for the church as a whole and will gladly lay aside their plans if it means that it is best for the church.

The church will either operate as a loosely organized group of sub ministries…OR ONE BODY with many parts…and if a staff member cannot be a part of the body then they most likely do not have a kingdom mindset.

JG

Thought this article was an interesting take on security related to the church shootings this week. A clip of it is below, I also appreciated how Perry reacted to the incident:

“There was chaos,” Assam said, as parishioners ran away.”I saw him coming through the doors” and took cover, Assam said. “I came out of cover and identified myself and engaged him and took him down.”Assam had several years of experience in law enforcement and is licensed to carry a weapon.

She attends one of the morning services and then volunteers as a guard during another service.”I give credit to God,” Assam said. “God was with me. I didn’t think for a minute to run away.”

Christianity Today mentions how Saddleback handles this, too. These are GREAT guys, and Sunday they were more serious than I’ve ever seen them. Good article here, too.

JG

You’ve watched Star Trek, right? You know someone is about to die when a no-name actor, no name character boards the shuttle down to the planet accompanied by two main stars. Sure enough, a few moments later the star actors are OK and somehow the low ranking, forgettable character ends up dead.

He has become to be known as the “expendable crewman.”

Thought Perry had some noble thoughts on the subject today as it relates to pastors and the church, here’s an excerpt:

One night I was in my bed and began to worry about the church–what would have happened to it if I would have died? Who was going to lead it during my time away? Were all the things that needed to take place going to happen? What if someone forgot to do something and I wasn’t there to make it all better?

I had fallen into the trap that so many pastors fall into–I thought the church could not function without me.

So…God put me flat on my back for several weeks in a row to show me how AWESOME He is and how unimpressive I am. During the course of my freaking out about the church He just kept telling me, “Hey Perry, the church is MY Bride, not yours…and I will take care of her!” I came face to face during my hospital stay that me being used by God is because of His grace and kindness–NOT because he just could not get things done without me.

Since then I am very up front and honest about the fact that the church does not need me to succeed, it needs Jesus. I have said from the stage many times, “Do not put your trust in Perry Noble because that will lead you straight to hell…the world does not need me, it needs Jesus!!!”

Remember today that you are nothing, Jesus is everything. Humility never loses.

JG

I’ve had some interesting conversations about this topic this week – there can be a lot of pain in ministry. The highs are really high but sometimes the lows can be really low. I heard one person suggest that being a pastor sometimes means you have a target on your back. Friends, being in the ministry is so worth it. Is it difficult? Yup. Will it test you in ways you don’t want to be tested? Oh yeah.

Perry had some strong thoughts on it today worth the time to read. Here’s a clip from the beginning to get you started:

One of the things I have been both complimented and criticized for is my willingness to be vulnerable and honest, so today’s post is going to be just that. Let me NOT begin with a funny story or illustration, but with the bottom line of this post, All pastors, whether they want to admit it or not, are carrying around with them intense amounts of pain…sometimes it’s more, and others it’s less–but it is always REAL.

(NewSpring–this is NOT some sort of message from me to you…this is a post where I feel incredibly led to minister to pastors who may be hurting! AND God has an amazing sense of humor–this article was actually written last Thursday, before the local “excitement” from this past weekend.)

I have a heart for pastors and so today I would just like to share the three areas that I believe cause the most pain in a pastors life.

#1 – Pain From Loneliness

I served on staff for nearly a decade at two other churches before starting NewSpring Church, and I can remember thinking about the pastors I served under, “I do just as much as they do, and I don’t think they deal with any more junk that I have to deal with.” I made those assumptions because I was arrogant, stupid and wrong. Trust me when I say that only a pastor can understand the pain of a pastor.

JG