July 31st, 2009 by Tim Moore

I love the story in the N.T. when Jesus approached his disciples by walking on the water to them at night. They freaked out and thought they were seeing a ghost. But when they heard it was Jesus, Peter asked, Lord, if it is you, tell me to come out on the water with you. (Matthew 14:22-31)

Jesus said to him, “Come”.

Walking on water was like stepping into uncharted waters for Peter. He had never done anything like that before. But Jesus said to step so he did.

In leadership, we are going to face times when we will feel God leading us to step out in uncharted waters. It is scary and we have all these thoughts going through our minds about failure. What if it doesn’t work and people stop believing in me? What if I fail because I make the wrong decision? What if it really isn’t God prompting me to do this? What if it really is just a ghost and not Jesus saying, “Come”?

These are all real fears. But a true leader is someone who keeps his or her eyes on Jesus rather than the questions, fears, waves or the wind. So Peter stepped out on the water and began walking on it. How incredible would that be? But then he took his focus off his mission (walking toward Jesus) and the wind and the waves, the fear and the doubts, caused him to sink.

What can we take from this? If Jesus leads you to step into uncharted waters, go for it. That might mean trying something no one else is convinced will work. It might mean taking a risk! If you fail and start to fall, don’t worry Jesus will be there to keep you from drowning. And you learn from it and you do it again. That is the definition of leadership!

I pray that God would lead us all to uncharted waters rather than playing it safe in the boat.

July 28th, 2009 by Tim Moore

This post is for Crossroads Church attenders. The variance hearing for our new addition was originally scheduled for tonight, July 28th. We have been given word that it is now changed to August 11th @ 7pm. If you were planning to show your support tonight by attending the meeting, please do NOT show up.

However, you can continue to pray for the hearing and if you wish to show up to support us on August 11th, we’ll be there.

July 28th, 2009 by Tim Moore

Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 9:37 that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. No, Jesus wasn’t talking about agriculture. He was talking about people. In other words he’s really saying, “There are people all around us who are ready NOW to be reached with the Gospel.” (my paraphrase!)

When I think about how many people live in the communities around us and how few of them we are reaching…it troubles me. Do you realize that probably most of the people living on your street are headed to eternity in hell! Does that motivate you? What if you could be part of stopping it from happening?

I truly believe there are many people around us who are “ripe” for the Gospel. But unless we go to them…they will not hear.

I am praying for a BIG harvest this fall at our church. I am asking God to use us to reach many people with the Gospel. We are working on a big message series and we need to get busy laboring in the harvest field. We need laborers. We need people who will go out into the streets and bring them in to hear the Gospel. Will you labor with me? If so, then pray and pray often for it and bring as many as you can.

I am pumped about this message series we are kicking off on August 30th. You will hear more about it in the upcoming weeks. Church get ready!

July 24th, 2009 by Tim Moore

I went to Tennessee this past week and our entire family stayed in a big house for a little family get together. We had a great time! While there, my wife and I stayed in the “Dream” room. I called it that because in big letters over the bed it spelled “Dream”.

I love dreaming. Not the kind you do when you are unconscious at night. I’m talking about the type you do when you think about what your “perfect” life would be like.

We are incredible dreamers when we are kids. But somehow the responsibilities and limitations of adulthood seem to rob us of our dreams. Instead of dreaming to be a doctor, veterinarian or super hero, we hope to one day climb the ladder to “middle” management. We take a job to pay the bills rather than chase a dream to be someone we want to be! Too often in life we simply settle!

Every great vision begins with a dream (something that seems almost out of reach). Visionaries always start off saying, “One day…” Most people will laugh and often write them off. But they are the ones who change the world.

Don’t we realize that God can do ANYTHING? He CAN bring our dreams to life! Will he though? Perhaps He will…if we are dreaming of the same things he is. What are you dreams about? What you can build for yourself or what you can do for Him.

July 21st, 2009 by Tim Moore

For those of you who attend Crossroads Church, you got to hear some news that we are moving forward finally with our building expansion. We are closing on the loan this coming Monday! God is so FAITHFUL! We have one more important meeting on Tuesday for a variance. (So keep praying church)

Sometimes I can hardly believe we are at this point less than 1 year after buying our current building and spending every dime as a small church to follow our vision. God is so faithful when you are willing to risk it all for Him and the vision he has given to you. I remember telling my wife as we were taking the plunge last year that I would rather go BIG and chase the vision God has given me and FAIL than to remain where we are! You can never get to where you want to be if you aren’t willing to risk something.

What are you willing to risk for God? Maybe he has called you to start a new business. Are you afraid to leave your safe job to do it? Maybe God has called you to reach your family for Him, but you are afraid they will resent you. If God is leading you to do it…JUST OBEY.

Remember: the greater the risk the greater the reward.

July 18th, 2009 by Tim Moore

Knowing what to delegate is almost as important as knowing who we should delegate to? That is so important. As I continue to lead a growing church I realize I must embrace delegation even more. But everyone who knows me knows one of my core values in life is Do everything with EXCELLENCE. I hate doing things half way. I would rather take twice as long and get it done right. Doesn’t help that I am somewhat of a perfectionist. (Praying God will free me of that curse!)

I shared with my staff this week some thoughts on delegation as we all lead areas of ministry with many volunteers. I told them you must make sure you have 3 things well defined before you “release” someone with a responsibility in delegation!

Vision – Do they understand and know your vision? Before you empower someone to take on a responsibility make sure they have a clear picture of your vision. Before I released some of my core leaders I spent time with each of them talking about the vision I had for each area. Once I knew they shared my vision – I felt at ease with releasing them to LEAD it.

Competency – Are they competent to handle this? Too often we just look for warm bodies in the church rather than gifted and qualified candidates. If we are going to take the church or any organization to the next level, we have to move beyond availability to competency. Give this person a smaller task or two and see how they perform. Continue to evaluate their competency level before fully delegating the responsibility.

Expectation – Do they know what you expect? Expectations must be clearly set early. If someone understands that they are expected to perform or work with excellence then they will strive to meet that standard. If not, you more than likely will constantly struggle to raise the bar with this person.

If you have done your work up front in these three areas, then you typically can feel confident that what you are delegating will get accomplished! Leaders or managers, keep the VCE in front of you when thinking about who you will delegate to. Don’t be afraid to disqualify people you can’t answer “Yes” to all of these questions.

July 17th, 2009 by Tim Moore

I just finished reading through the New Testament and now I’m back around to the Old. I was reading one of my favorite OT stories ever…the creation of man/woman and the first sin! I love that story. Not because they sinned, but because it tells so much about God, us and our roots.

One of my favorite lines in the Bible comes in Genesis 3:17 when God is handing out the “discipline” for Adam and Eve’s sin. God says to Adam:

“Because you listened to your wife…”

It appears man’s very first mistake was listening to his wife. (Haha) I love that line. It will preach! But this time God spoke something different to me. This time I saw it from a failed leadership perspective. Adam’s first sin was not only disobedience to God but also a failure to lead his family.

God has called men to be leaders in the home. To lead their wives and families in the right direction. When Eve took the fruit and ate it, the Bible says that she also gave some to her husband, WHO WAS WITH HER. Adam was with his wife and not only did he go along with her sinful snack but he didn’t try to stop her. He was a follower…not a leader.

A leader is someone who is not afraid to stand up for what is right. If Adam were truly leading his wife, then he should have stopped Eve from ever taking the first bite. I want to be that kind of leader. One who knows that if I don’t speak up…something bad might happen.

When you see someone about to engage in something sinful (which is quite harmful to us), do you say something or do you passively let it go?

July 14th, 2009 by Tim Moore

One of the biggest challenges that leaders face when considering delegation is, “what should we delegate?” Some delegate the tasks that are easier to do because they think they are the only ones who can handle the “tough” stuff? Some try to delegate everything so they can just sit back and “manage”, which is laziness. Some delegate the important stuff so they aren’t to blame if it all goes wrong. Neither of these are healthy approaches to delegation.

A better way to discover what you should delegate is by first discovering what you should NOT delegate. If you are a lead pastor one thing you should never delegate is Vision. Your role is to receive vision from God and cast it to the people God has given you to lead. Vision is something you should never waiver on. It is not something that you can give up, because it was delegated to you from God. If you delegate vision or vision casting you are likely to end up with another vision!

The same principle applies if you are a leader in business. Your organization or department looks to you for direction or vision. If you give that up to someone else, then you may end up somewhere you didn’t want to go. You must set the vision, cast the vision and protect the vision.

If you first discover the crucial things you must never delegate, then you can safely figure out what things can be delegated. I know that preaching the Word and vision casting are 2 things I can never delegate. (I can get help doing these things, but they must always stay on my radar!) I was hired and more importantly called to do these things. But counseling, event planning, running the sound, fixing the lights, playing guitar and other areas of ministry can and should be delegated to the right people. If you discover your greatest gifting and calling, then you will know what you must keep. Everything else is negotiable.

July 13th, 2009 by Tim Moore

A lot of people think that delegation is something you do when you want something off your plate. If we could all delegate the stuff we don’t like to do we’d be bored most of the time. That is not delegation, it’s relegation. I remember hearing Ed Young speak at a church leader conference challenging us leaders to delegate but not relegate. I’m not sure how he stated it, but this is my definition of the two.

Delegation is when a leader empowers others to share in what he is doing so he can focus on what he is called to do.
Relegation is when leaders simply give up the “stuff” they don’t want to do to anyone they can find.

To be a good leader you must embrace delegation and not resort to relegation. If you want the ministry or organization that you are leading to grow you must learn to delegate properly. You must be okay with “giving up” control of everything to qualified people so that you can do what you need to do. If you find yourself drowning because you are doing too much…then you probably aren’t delegating enough or the right things.

Over this week I’ll let you in on some of the things I have struggled with in regard to delegation and how I am learning when to delegate and when to NOT delegate. That is just as important.

July 10th, 2009 by Tim Moore

I must admit that I have been taken it a little easy with the blogs these past couple weeks. I have been incredibly busy with our upcoming building, messages and a wedding! But I am poised to get back to regularly blogging. Next week I am going to talk about something I have been working hard to understand and implement…delegation. Delegation can be a leader’s greatest tool…or it can be his worst nightmare.

NEW FEATURE:
We just recently launched our new website and I wanted to tell you about a new feature we have on this site. If you miss a weekend at Crossroads and you are going through withdrawal, you can now keep up by going to our “Looking back” post on our site and watch last week’s message and any video announcements we did. If that doesn’t do it for you and what you really want is to hear the band…well you’ll have to wait a little while longer for that.

Don’t forget we launch our series “Viral” this week. I’m pumped up about it and yet challenged to the core at the same time!