February 8th, 2010 by Tim Moore

This weekend we are going to be talking about authority in the home and especially in the marriage relationship. I can’t wait for this weekend. It might create some really uncomfortable moments for husbands and wives.

My hope is that both husbands and wives will realize that God’s role for authority in a marriage is for the protection and peace of a home.

If you want to get a jump start…read Ephesians 5:22-25

February 5th, 2010 by Tim Moore

Another lesson I learned at C3 about Delegation was that we must “Delegate not Relegate”.

Relegate means to send or cosign to an inferior position. We can’t just throw something we don’t want to do “away” to someone else and forget about it. Good leaders don’t just dump on people and walk away.

Delegation includes inspection and inquiry. We must show people that we even though we have delegated something important, we are still invested in them.

Don’t just dump and leave. Inspect, Inquire and Invest in those you delegate authority.

February 4th, 2010 by Tim Moore

I’ll never forget the words that Ed Young spoke when at the C3 conference years ago. He had this to say about delegation:

“You must INSPECT what you EXPECT”

I remember a story Ed told about how he INSPECTED what he put in place. They set up new guidelines for follow-up in the church for first time visitors. The volunteers and staff were to call them within a short period of time. To make sure they were doing it, Ed setup a fake answering machine on an unidentified phone number and he turned in a visitor card. He left a fake greeting and wanted to see if the follow-up process was being followed. INSPECTION!

Get this, you can’t just delegate to someone and pass on your expectations for them and never INSPECT what they are doing. How will you know if the organization is being run the way you want? How will you know if things are falling through the cracks. How will you know if your vision is being followed?

I told our staff a few weeks ago that I wasn’t going to stand for “small church” thinking when it came to our facilities, print material, decor or anything else (no offense to small churches, but often the quality is not there). If we want to be a church of the next level, we must act like it. So I laid out some expectations. Every Sunday when I arrive at the church, I walk around and look for things that are out of place or should not be out. I inspect the kids rooms to see if they are clean and put together. I inspect the bathrooms to see if the trash is emptied. If I see something, I address it and make a note of it. It will come up in our next staff meeting!

Whatever you delegate, you must inspect. That becomes your role as you delegate.

February 3rd, 2010 by Tim Moore

A great definition for delegation could be: Giving up something important so you can focus on something even MORE important. A lot of leaders I know struggle with delegation. I did for many years and still find myself wanting to hold on to things that I shouldn’t. I am continually learning that delegation is one of the most important tools a leader has if he/she wants to become more effective.

Let me point out a few reasons we tell ourselves we can’t delegate something.

1) No one can do this better than I can…
This is something I’ve always said. Until someone comes along who can do it better than I can, I won’t let it go. I imagine that perhaps there is a bit of arrogance behind that statement. I have begun to view this a little differently now. Now I’m trying to find someone who has the POTENTIAL to do it as well as I do it and I’m willing to invest in them. I believe excellence should mark everything we do for God. But maybe our desire to hold on to something is not allowing someone else to grow to that level of excellence. We have to be willing to give someone a chance!

2) But he/she might mess it up…
Another fear we often have to keeps us from delegating is that if we give something up, someone will screw it up. The problem with this is that we put too much trust in ourselves and not enough in God and other people. People will make mistakes. Heck, we all make them. In order to deal with this effective, we must deal with this BEFORE anything is delegated. Before you delegate anything completely, you must be very clear about your expectations UP FRONT! Let people know how they will be successful and what will happen when they are not. It helps avoid any surprises you have to deal with down the line.

3) If I give this up, my responsibility goes down and my stock goes with it.
Perhaps you won’t let go of things because you think it gives you better job security. In truth, the exact opposite happens. Because you take on so many duties and refuse to give up the important ones for even more important ones - your overall performance suffers. Your stock goes down because you aren’t as effective as you could be.

These are just some of the reasons we struggle with delegation. If you want to become more effective, focus on that which is more important. The only way you can do that is through delegation.

Do you struggle to delegate? If so, why?

February 1st, 2010 by Tim Moore

Over the past year and a half, as our church has seen incredible growth. I thank God for it! But with that growth has come a growing responsibility for leading the church. My leadership knowledge and style has been challenged on every level. One area that I have grown not only to understand but to embrace is Delegation.

You never know the importance and power of delegation until you are in a place where you NEED to delegate. I remember going to a conference in Dallas, TX years ago and hearing about the importance of it from Ed Young. But it didn’t completely click with me then because I didn’t have as much of a need. Today, I understand more of what he said than I did back then.

As long as we continue to hold on to the control or power, we will never become as effective as we want to be. We must wade through the false excuses in our mind about why we can’t let go of the some things to do what is MORE important.

This week I will talk about how delegation has set me free to do more of what I love and some of the challenges I’ve face learning to delegate. I will share my own insights as well as some of the things I learned years ago in Dallas, TX. Whether you are a mom leading a handful of kids at home or a person in a place of leadership at work, these posts will be invaluable to you.

Do you struggle to delegate tasks or control to those around you? If so, why?

January 29th, 2010 by Tim Moore

I am stoked about this weekend. We are launching a new 4 week series called Authority Issues. I first heard this concept years ago from Fellowship Church. For many years I have wanted to communicate a message on Authority to our church, because most of us simply don’t understand it.

Let’s be honest, in our society today most people have a real issue with people in authority over them.

Kids don’t respect their parent’s authority.
Adults don’t respect their boss’ authority.
Citizens don’t respect the authority of their government.
Criminals don’t respect the authority of the law.

This series will touch everyone. This series is for everyone. Whether you are a parent struggling with a teenager or work a job where you report to someone else - you need to know the truth about authority. So, bring someone with you for this relevant message series.

See you on the Weekend!

January 27th, 2010 by Tim Moore

I believe that most people recognize areas in their life that needs to change. I don’t think we need someone to point them out to us. In fact, I bet most of us even WANT the change.

You might see that your finances are upside down and debt is piling up. You don’t want the debt.
You might see that your career isn’t moving forward. You want forward motion in your career.
You might see that your life is too busy. You want more down time.

If we can see it and even want it…then why not change it! Why stay in debt? Why stay in a dead end job? Why not slow down?
Because on our own…we CAN’T.

Many try to get out of debt, but that motivation only lasts until you see something you have to buy!!
Many work hard to get a head in their career, but become discouraged when things don’t happen soon enough.
Many want to slow down, but keep saying YES to everything.

The truth is, you probably won’t be able to create lasting change in your life. After all, you got yourself into the place your in now. What you probably need is a greater power than you possess.

Chew on this verse today and ask Christ to HELP you make a real change.

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13

January 26th, 2010 by Tim Moore

Well, this past weekend I shared some exciting news about our next step as a church. As we are wrapping up our current construction project in the next 3 months, we are already poised to take our next step as a church. We are going to expand our auditorium to make more room as we continue to fill our current auditorium.

As long as we continue to reach people with the Gospel, I believe we will always be growing. Which means we will have to expand to meet that need. Here we find ourselves again with a bigger vision than our bank roll. It creates another situation where our need is greater than our resources.

But isn’t that where faith lives? Faith lives in the gap where our need is greater than our resources. Actually, I am excited about another opportunity to see God’s provision for His vision!

I thank God for what He has done through our church to this point, but I know that what He has called us to is not over. We cannot rest. We cannot put it on cruise control and just take it easy! God won’t let me do that and I won’t let our church do that.

If your vision will allow you to rest and take it easy…it is WAY to small!

January 21st, 2010 by Tim Moore

Where there is no word from God, people are uncontrolled,
but those who obey what they have been taught are happy.
Proverbs 29:18

How important is vision?

Without it, you can’t thrive.
Without it you can’t accomplish anything significant.
Without it you feel restless inside.
Without it you are lost.

Vision is vital to living the life God has called you to live. Do you have vision?

I am so excited about this weekend. I am going to be sharing some great news with our church about the direction we are taking in 2010. I love casting vision, because we have a vision to cast. You don’t want to miss this weekend, it is going to be an inspiring event!

January 20th, 2010 by Tim Moore

I want to take a moment to brag on our church. Not because we are great or better than any other church…but because our church is learning to become generous!

Within 1 month, our church has taken up 2 special offerings. These were taken up over and above our current giving of tithes and offerings (which has not declined).

We took up a special offering on December 20th to help meet the needs of people in our church and community. We recognized that many families were struggling due to the economic situation and we wanted to show them we cared!

I was shocked when our church gave more money for the offering that we took in for our regular giving. We brought in over $8500 for this one special offering. For a church averaging 400 in attendance that rocks!! And guess what…we gave it all away!

This past weekend, I challenged our church to give again for Haiti Relief. I know this is a tough time of the year. Everyone is trying to pay their way out of the hole they created for financing Christmas. But our church still gave generously. In fact, our church gave $5,000 for Haiti relief with almost no notice (again over our regular tithes and offerings).

Can I just say that for a church our size, that spells GENEROSITY.

God has been leading me to be more generous this year. He challenged me to step out in faith with my giving. I realized that if I wanted to lead our church to be generous, I must be generous. God is still working this into my heart, but I can’t believe how quickly our church is following suit.

I’m so proud of you Crossroads. We are contacting some faith based organizations today to find out how to get this money to relief ASAP.

If you have not given anything to help those in Haiti, might I challenge you to watch this message.