Rick Warren's Ministry Toolbox, 3/31/2004:
"LEADING LAY LEADERS – Tangible steps offered to equip small group leaders for generating ministry impact through
casting vision, modeling honesty, facilitating lessons, welcoming new people, handling tough personalities and more."
Whose vision are you following?
by Rick Warren:
"When you boil it down, there are really only two sources of vision: your
ego or the Holy Spirit.
Ego-based visions never last. They eventually wear out because human energy has a limit.
Now, how can you tell the difference? I believe every God-given vision has three characteristics:
1. When it's a God-vision, God tells you what he’s going to do.
....2. When it's a God-vision, God tells you how he’s going to do it.
...3. When it's a God-vision, God works according to his timing."
What about the tantalizing
suggestion (like a vision) the serpent used to lure Eve?
Non-threatening evangelism through bridge events:
"People, vision casting, and ownership
...
Once you decide what you kind of bridge event you want to do, the real work begins.
The first step is building a team. We start twelve months in advance as we’re developing an event. This allows people to get involved in the
idea stage. We gather everyone together who wants to help with the event and turn them loose, sharing ideas of how to make something like an egg hunt an effective bridge to the community.
As this team develops the idea, they own it. Not only that, when you put this out in front of people far enough in advance, they also help fund the event.
"Building an effective team contributes to what we call the Velcro factor: If we don’t have a group of people who
own the event, there is no one the newcomers can stick to.
The higher the level of ownership, the more they will work to make the event a success. That twelve month sequence is important because the process
allows them to catch the vision, own it, and then you have a lot of people for others to stick to as they come to the event. Never underestimate the importance of ownership."
Leading through preaching: an interview with John Maxwell:
"Maxwell: All great leaders are effective communicators. It is the vehicle for the vision. For me to know where I want to take a group of people and not have the ability to
cast that dream, preach that message, communicate that heart, makes the dream impossible.... You show me a great leader and I'll show you a person that became a great leader because of his or her ability to communicate effectively.... You have to be able to communicate the vision.
"Preaching: You talked about vision, communicating with vision. Is the
'vision thing' a problem for pastors -- having the vision or articulating the vision?
"Maxwell: Well, we really have two questions. The first one let me address, for the pastor to have a vision -- it's a huge problem. Without it the people perish. In my book,
Developing the Leader Within You (Nelson Books, 2000), I have a chapter that says that a vision is the indispensable requirement for every leader. I've never known a leader that didn't have a vision.... Now I've known people that have had visions that weren't leaders.
... So, when a pastor comes to me and says, "Could you give me a vision for my church?" I tell them two things, "First, no, I can't. Number two is you're in trouble. You are in trouble because you can't lead people without a vision."
"...your job is not to sell your vision, your job is to sell
yourself. People don't buy into vision until they buy into the leader. So
the first step is, if they have bought into you, if you have integrity with
those people, if you have a proven track record with those people, if they
trust you, they'll buy into your vision. So your first job is to sell
yourself, not your vision. ...
"...Nothing happens until there is ownership. Whenever there gets to be
ownership with the influencers -- you don't need to do this with the whole
congregation -- but if there is ownership with the influencers when you cast
the vision, you're not the only person there.
"... never cast the vision in a message until you have given process
time with that vision to the influencers. Two things will happen. Ownership
and maturity. I have never had an idea that when I shared it, that the
person I shared it with didn't compliment that idea and make it better. For
me to go to the pulpit with a vision that I've just held between God and me,
that is naive. I want to go with the vision with God and me and key
players who have the heart for this church. ...
Study: What Makes A Great Leader?
"We will look at 5 different characteristics of leadership as exhibited in the life of David....
1. INITIATES CHANGE
The most obvious quality of a leader is that he or she is going somewhere. ...
2. INSPIRES SHARED VISION Through words and actions, a leader
draws others into a common vision. He does this by sharing where he
wants to go and urging others to join him. In many situations, this may mean more listening than talking, because
each person must see that some desire or value can be better fulfilled through this common vision. However, the vision must become more than just a collection of individual desires. A common vision will raise hope and challenge us to buy in for the common goal.
...
3. EXEMPLIFIES WHAT IS NEEDED
Good leaders not only dream dreams; they model the values and actions needed to make the dream come true. By living and working consistently according to the values required to
accomplish the vision, leaders engender trust.
...
4. ENABLES OTHERS TO CONTRIBUTE
The real test of a leader's success is how many of those following become a success too. A good leader will prioritize helping others succeed, even if
they get the credit.
..
5. ENCOURAGES THE HEART
Leaders complete the work by encouraging the hearts of those who share the vision.... They encourage others by
believing in them when difficulties arise.... They celebrate when a victory is won.
Quotes On Positive Thinking
:
Norman Vincent Peale: Quotes On Positive Thinking
When you wholeheartedly adopt a "with all your heart" attitude and go out with the positive principle, you can do incredible things.
Spirituality for KIDS
:
The Spirituality For Kids Foundation is the umbrella organization that provides the funding, research, development, support, implementation, and management for all of the spirituality for kids programs...
...Three key spiritual concepts that the children learn in the Spirituality For Kids program.
1. Cause and effect—the non-physical law in the universe that sets the tone for every aspect of our lives.
2. The two forces within us. There are two forces that exist within us simultaneously. the positive light that has no limits, that shares with others who believe in the good, and the opponent within us, the limited, destructive, uncaring, selfish part of us that we came to overcome. By knowing about the existence of the two voices in each of us, by differentiating between the two and by using their light to overcome the dark, children develop self-esteem and understanding of their own brand of light, and empowerment that they can control their destiny.
3. The structure of the universe. SFK provides an understanding of the universal spiritual rules that we can live by. By learning and understanding the system children develop a hope and enthusiasm for life and for the future. -- The key is to the whole system is to share.
....The Spirituality For Kids program began 10 years ago in Toronto, since then these tools have been offered to children all over the world, including the Kabbalah Children's Academies
Quotes by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
:
"Through persistence, self-knowledge, prayer, commitment, optimism, a resolute trust in God, and the building of your own personal moral strength, you can enjoy the blessings of a deeper faith, and face the difficulties of life with courage and confidence."
...
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
:
Dr. Peale was acclaimed as one of the foremost ministers and motivational speakers and writers of the 20th century. While serving as minister at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, he spoke to 100 groups a year and authored 46 books.
By far the most popular of his books was The Power of Positive Thinking. Published in 1952, that book immediately became a best-seller and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 186 consecutive weeks. Still available today, the book has sold more than 20 million copies in 42 languages. Positive thinking, Dr. Peale often explained, is faith in God and belief in oneself.
Norman Vincent Peale a man who made up his mind:
Norman Vincent Peale, was a 33-degree Mason. ... He was a member of the Woodbridge Lodge in Brooklyn, grand chaplain of the grand lodge in NY, life member of the crescent shrine temple in Trenton N.J. and past imperial grand chaplain of the shrine. Peale wrote in the Masonic Magazine, stating, "Men of different religions meet in fellowship and brotherhood under the fatherhood of God."
....
Robert Schuller attributes Peale to having the greatest influence on his life.... Schuller calls Peale "the man who has impacted and influenced my thinking and my theology and my life more than any other living person .... ". ("The Plus Factor," published excerpts from a Peale talk on Schuller's "Hour of Power,' copyrighted 1985 by Robert Schuller, p. 3.)
It was Peales positive thinking that gave birth to Schuller's ever popular secular possibility thinking. Schuller turned Peale's, positive mind control into "Possibility Thinking," "Possibility thinking makes miracles happen.... The greatest power in the world is the power of possibility thinking" (Schuller, Your Church, p. 85.)
Peale's spirituality is not Christian but New Thought and are embraced among evangelicals who have not discerned its origin. Peale's message was the power of the mind.... Your unconscious mind... [has a] power that turns wishes into realities when the wishes are strong enough.'(Norman V. Peale Positive Imaging p.77)
....Peale's has acknowledged that his theology of positive thinking came Ernest Holmes, founder of New Age/Occultic Church of Religious Science (Ernest Holmes, The First Religious Scientist, James Reid, p. 14). The phrase "Positive Thinking" came originally from Charles Fillmore, but it was Peale who made it a cultural icon. (of course Robert Schuller used it as well)
Peale's view of the universe as God as an "energy," and of "prayer" as the scientific technique for releasing God-energy according to definite "laws."
/He believed, "There is a powerful and mysterious force in human nature... a kind of mental engineering ... a powerful new-old idea.... The concept is a form of mental activity called imaging .... It consists of vividly picturing, in your conscious mind, a desired goal or objective, and holding that image until it sinks into your unconscious mind, where it releases great untapped energies ....When the imaging concept is applied steadily and systematically, it solves problems, strengthens personalities, improves health, and greatly enhances the chances for success in any kind of endeavor. the ideas of imaging has been around for a long time and it has been implicit in all the speaking and writing I have done in the past (Norman V. Peale Introduction Positive Imaging p.1 )
/His father, a Methodist minister, came to the rescue and persuaded him to continue saying, "You have evolved a new Christian emphasis out of a composite of Science of Mind, metaphysics, Christian Science, medical and psychological practice, Baptist Evangelism, Methodist witnessing, and solid Dutch Reformed Calvinism."(Spirits in Rebellion, p.391).While his dad recognized what an eclectic mishmash he had he failed to recognize how this was a departure from the Christian faith.
/In his book Power of Positive Thinking the teaching and theme is "Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities!" (p. 1) The Bible states to have faith in God, abide in Christ, because apart from him we can do nothing (Jn.17). Peale's teaches the opposite, that we can do all things through "our mind," Not Christ. This is what the human potential movement (part of the new age counterfeit) teaches. It is also has ties with the positive confession movement in the church.
/In the book the Power of Positive Thinking, the advertisement reads "There is a deep tendency in human nature ultimately to become precisely what you visualize yourself as being. If you see yourself as tense and nervous and frustrated, if that is your image of yourself, that assuredly is what you will be. If you see yourself as inferior in any way, and you hold that image in your conscious mind, it will presently by the process of intellectual osmosis sink into the unconscious, and you will be what you visualize."
/"Who is God? Some theological being? He is so much greater than theology. God is vitality. God is life. God is energy. As you breathe God in, as you visualize His energy, you will be reenergized!" (No More Stress or Tension, Plus: The Magazine of Positive Thinking, pp. 22-23, May, l986)
/Norman Vincent Peale's understanding of god was "God is energy. As you breathe God in, as you visualize His energy, you will be reenergized!" (Norman Vincent Peale, PLUS: The Magazine of Positive Thinking, 37:4, May 1986, Part 11, 23.) How many in the faith movement have you heard the same philosophy echoed?
/In 1984 Norman Vincent Peale was interviewed on the Phil Donahue program, said, "It's not necessary to be born again. You have your way to God; I have mine. I found eternal peace in a Shinto shrine ...I've been to Shinto shrines, and God is everywhere:" Shocked by this, Phil Donahue responded, "But you're a Christian minister; you're supposed to tell me that Christ is the way and the truth and the life, aren't you?" Peale replied, "Christ is one of the ways. God is everywhere." (Christian News, May 12, 1997, 11.)
American Unitarian Conference
:
Emmet Fox tells us that, if our prayers are not being answered, 99% of the time it is because we have not demonstrated Divine Love. He urges us to treat ourselves for Love everyday: to watch our thoughts, our tongue, and our deeds that nothing contrary to Love finds expression there. Scientific Prayer consists in visioning God—or aspects of God—in places of trouble, damage, or illness. Affirm the correction, just as you might affirm 2+2=4. Give thanks aloud for the correction. Then keep the intentions of your prayers secret.
Possibility Thinkers Coaching Network
:
The principles of Possibility Thinking are classic, timeless and global. Possibility Thinking is a living faith that can change our families, churches, community and world. Through your involvement in the Possibility Thinkers Coaches Network you will be given biblical principles that will deliver power into Possibility Thinking.
...
Are you ready to develop the leader within you? Are you ready to build into the lives of those around you? If so, we invite you to become a Possibility Thinking Coach. Being a leader is a role, leadership is about influence. Make a decision today to join us in fulfilling a vision to develop godly, innovative, spirit-filled leaders committed to fulfilling the Great Commission through our positive faith!