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Stress might have six letters, but it seems like some leaders have a knee-jerk reaction to treat it like a four-letter word. While it might be nice to fantasize about an stress-free life, this is both entirely unrealistic and detrimental to your leadership. The truth is, a mild amount of stress can be helpful to you personally, as well as your organization as a whole. Join us as Greg and I unpack why you should embrace a bit of stress in your life.
[0:14] I have a brain block to start the show!
[0:59] Let’s define stress in a work environment, as opposed to simply work tension.
[1:51] An interesting study about allowing moderate stress to remain in the workplace.
[5:30] Mild stress is helpful for our brains.
[7:37] Stress expands and strengthens our team connections too.
[10:26] Can stress help increase someone’s work performance?
[13:01] Our physical bodies use a stress hormone called cortisol. How can leaders maximize its effects?
[14:38] Stress can help us rise to the challenge in a way that easy times can’t.
[16:02] I share an example of a teammate who grew through stress, as well as a supporting quote.
[18:40] Greg shares a negative example of an organization that became stress-free and drifted toward failure.
[19:30] When times are easy, we can begin to slide into apathy.
[22:40] Should we teach crisis leadership to our teams? If so, how should we do this?
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Now [Uzziah] went out and fought against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in the area of Ashdod and among the Philistines. God helped him against the Philistines.… Under their direction was an army of 307,500, who could wage war with great power, to help the king against the enemy. Moreover, Uzziah prepared for all the army shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and slingstones. In Jerusalem he made machines of war invented by skillful workmen to be on the towers and the corners, for the purpose of shooting arrows and great stones. So his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong. But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was untrue to the Lord his God, for he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. (2 Chronicles 26:6-7, 13-16)
King Uzziah became intoxicated by his success, forgetting that God had made him successful. In his pride, he tried to elevate himself into a position that was not intended for him.
This sounds just like the actions of Lucifer, who was also corrupted by his pride and tried to make himself God.
God’s laws, precepts, and commands are given to us because He loves us and wants to keep us safe. His laws keep us in a place where we can experience His abundant blessings!
I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel.
“Establishing the Kingdom of God means ending evil, which happens not through violent force or coercive threats but through loving-kindness and patient forgiveness. It’s a world compelled by love instead of fear. … This [the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost] is the beginning of a new world. The old world creates enemies and divides people, falsely claiming that some are loveable and others are throwaways, but not so in the Kingdom of God! In God’s empire, all people mutually love one another without partiality.” —Why Is Pentecost Important? reading plan on YouVersion
In the weekly Culture Translator newsletter from Axis Ministry, they had this insightful reminder about the worldview of pornography: “Pornography is not just sexual entertainment; it is a form of propaganda about what human beings are. In the same way that Scripture has a vision for humanity (that all people are God’s beloved children, worthy of honor and respect, with inherent dignity as his image-bearers), pornography also has a vision for humanity: that people (especially women) are objects to be gawked at, violated, and discarded at will. Porn offers a worldview, and like any other worldview, it shapes the way we think about what people are for—and how they should be treated. ‘Pornography teaches us lies that we ingrain into aspects of our relationships and our lives,’ argues Sam Black, Covenant Eyes’ Director of Recovery Education. These lies include the notion that we can’t live without sex, that sex equals love (or acceptance), and/or that what gives humans value is exclusively their sexual attractiveness. ‘Pornography warps our views of our relationships,’ Black continues, ‘and we haven’t even realized it.’”
“I always turn to the sports page first. They record people’s accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failure.” —Chief Justice Earl Warren
There is a very unusual story told in 1 Kings about a couple of unnamed prophets. One prophet heard from God, delivered the powerful warning God directed him to give, but then disobeyed God because of something another prophet told him that he had heard from God. I shared this commentary on YouVersion, “If God gave you a firsthand word, don’t let someone else’s secondhand word contradict that!”
“All religions are either a preview or a perversion of Christianity.” —C.S. Lewis
“If our relationships with other human beings are going to be meaningful, they will cost us something. Relationships are demanding.” —Herbert Wagemaker
I saw this side-by-side graphic and so many thoughts about perseverance, grit, and stick-to-it-iveness came to mind. It is so true: we all have moments of stumbling. Losers tend to quit when they fall down, but winners learn something from their stumble, improve, and continue to grow. And then I came across this related quote from John D. Rockefeller, “I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance.”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Is New Year’s Day really the best time to make a resolution? Well, maybe! Here are some thoughts to help you be more successful whenever you resolve to make some healthy changes in your life.
Check out this episode of The Podcast.
If you would like to go a little deeper on this, check out these posts I previously shared:
Some of our best lessons are learned in difficult places, so let’s not be too quick to rush in and soften the blow for someone who has taken a tumble.Check out the full conversation I had with my podcast partner Greg. And be sure to check out all of my videos on my YouTube channel.
“A champion is one who gets up when he can’t.” —Jack Dempsey
Once again, archeological finds in Israel confirm the historicity of the biblical accounts of the kings of Judah and Israel. John Stonestreet shares some of the most recent finds. Jewish archeologist Nelson Gluek states, “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference.”
“The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.” —Jonas Salk
Scott Hubbard writes, “Stepping into leadership means stepping into mistakes, regrets, and many small but stinging failures. And surviving in leadership, I am learning, means stepping upward on those mistakes—owning them, learning from them, and having the stability in Christ to keep leading after them.” Read more about how leaders can fail well.
J. Warner Wallace addresses the claim that all religions are true or are essentially the same.
“The Scriptures represent the Holy Spirit, not only as moving, and occasionally influencing, the saints, but as dwelling in them as His temple, His proper abode, and everlasting dwelling-place. And He is represented as being there so united to the faculties of the soul, that He becomes there a principle or spring of a new nature and life.” —Jonathan Edwards
There is no shortage of books that define “success” in our business or ministry endeavors, but as Christians, let’s try to get a more precise definition—a biblical definition.
I did a quick search for the words “success” or “successful” in just the New International Version of the Bible, and I was somewhat surprised by two things. First of all, the relatively few times this word is used: Only 25 times in the entire Scripture. We read of prayers offered for a successful journey, or a king’s reign, or a building project, success that comes to someone because of God’s favor on their life, or success in battle.
The second thing that surprised me: The word “success” isn’t used in the New Testament. The reason this surprised me is because without there being even a close second, Jesus has to be the most successful person who ever walked this planet. No one ever taught like He did, performed the miracles He did, or willingly laid down His life and was resurrected like He was. And yet the word “success” is never attached to His life.
This means we are left to draw some Holy Spirit-illuminated inferences from the Bible on how to define success. You may ask, “Why do we even need to know what ‘success’ is?” I would say we need a biblical definition for success to avoid the inevitable feelings of failure that come if things aren’t going as well as we thought they should.
In business, we often define success as revenue growth or a healthy net profit. In ministry, we typically measure success by church attendance, the number of people launched into ministry, or the amount of money given to missions work.
But what happens if we apply these metrics to the work Jesus did while He was on Earth? We see His disciples fretting over not having enough money to buy food for the congregation, and Jesus mentioning He often didn’t have a bed to sleep in, or the fact that Jesus only had one set of clothes. As a businessman, Jesus wouldn’t be considered successful by any current metrics. Even as a ministry leader, the congregation that gathered after Jesus was resurrected back to life only numbered 120 people. So if we consider Jesus as a pastor, His church wasn’t exactly thriving according to modern metrics.
After Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) and his sermon following the healing of the lame man (Acts 3), we don’t hear much about quantitative growth throughout the rest of the Book of Acts. But in the balance of the Book of Acts, in the teachings of Jesus, and in the instructions in the epistles, we do hear substantially more about qualitative growth.
I think the clear message is that qualitative metrics are much more important to God than quantitative measurements. Specifically, I think we see the emphasis on two important qualities for godly leaders: faithfulness and excellence.
Solomon wrote, “Whatever you do, do well” (Ecclesiastes 9:10 NLT), and Paul told us, “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV). These things tell us that our best effort is always required—no cutting corners, no half-measures, no bare-minimum effort. Instead, we should always do the best that we can, always striving for excellence.
My Grandma drilled a poem into my memory whenever I wanted to stop at “good enough.” She would say—
Good, better, best
Never let it rest
Until your good is better
And your better is best
How long do we do this excellent work? Until our Master returns.
Jesus said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns” (Luke 12:42-43 NIV).
Our devotion to these qualitative metrics of faithfulness and excellence can only truly be judged by listening to the Holy Spirit each day. He alone can speak to each of our hearts about our level of excellence and faithfulness for that day. He alone can help us know what true success is. We need to listen to His voice so that we don’t get distracted, disillusioned, and possibly even de-railed by trying to measure up to others’ quantitive metrics of success.
After all, ultimate success for any leader is to hear the applause from nail-scarred hands as our Master says, “Well done—excellently and faithfully done—My good and faithful servant!”
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In my book Shepherd Leadership, I have a chapter entitled ‘The Wrong Ladder.’ Let me share two short paragraphs with you to set the stage—
Maybe, like many people, you’ve been working on a plan to climb your own ladder of success. You’ve been careful to get the best education, meet the right people, and put in the right amount of time on each level, all while keeping your eyes and ears open for the next “rung” of the ladder.
Perhaps this is successful in the corporate world, but I wonder how this idea has crept into the ministry world. Make no mistake: this mindset is prominent in our churches and nonprofit organizations. We may dress it up in churchy language, but the attitude is still there.
On the pages of Luke’s Gospel, we read a very unimpressive but praiseworthy resume of a vital ministry leader: John the Baptizer.
His first ministry job begins when “the word of the Lord came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness” (Luke 3:2).
A word from God had already been spoken about John’s life that was pretty impressive (Luke 1:13-17, 76-77). From birth, John knew that he was to be the forerunner of the long-awaited Messiah. John could have walked around with quite an ego, but instead, we read, “And [John] grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel” (1:80).
No special education, no ladder-climbing positions, no getting to know all the right people who could open doors for him. He was simply alone with God in the wilderness for nearly 30 years!
Then just as quickly as he burst on the scene, God took John off the scene (Luke 3:20; Matthew 14:3-11). John knew this would happen—that he was merely a herald, and that his ministry would decrease as Christ’s increased. John shows us that it’s not about how many people are in your church, how big of a budget you’ve raised, or how long you’ve been in a particular position. It’s about faithful obedience.
It’s about being comfortable with anonymity, if that’s what God chooses. It’s about allowing God to place and remove him when and how He chooses.
Assuming that John began his ministry shortly before he baptized Jesus, it lasted about a year and a half. Thirty years in seclusion, one and a half years of public preaching, a year and four months in prison—and then the final curtain.
This is the resume of the man who ushered in the Savior of the world, and of whom Jesus said there had not been born anyone greater (Matthew 11:11).
In ‘The Wrong Ladder’ chapter, I concluded with this—
God frequently picks people we would consider the least qualified. He sometimes has one in an unglamorous position for years, and sometimes He catapults somebody immediately to the top. Sometimes God will keep His hand-selected individual in a prominent leadership position until death, and sometimes He will remove that person to a place of obscurity after only a short time.
God’s ladder of success is nothing like ours!
May all of us in leadership positions make this our prayer: Father, this is for Your glory, not my advancement. I’m not here to build my following, my resume, my fame. I only want to live and lead and minister for Your glory and for Your fame. Holy Spirit, help me keep this example of John at the forefront of my mind anytime I think about building my own resume. In the name of Jesus I ask. Amen.
The Holy Spirit can speak to us through other people. Be sure to check out all of my videos on my YouTube channel.
“A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.” —Charles Spurgeon
“It is possible to adopt an outward demeanor of great meekness, while inside our appetite for applause is insatiable. . . . Oh, what a constant companion, what a tyrannical commander, what a sly, subtle and insinuating enemy is this sin of pride!” —John Stott
“Every word from God comes with the power to make that word happen.” —Kevin Berry
“The question is not, ‘Should we pray for the lost people of our community?’ The question is, ‘Will we?’ Will we pray for our neighbors, our community, our nation, and our world? Will we seek the peace of the world and the wellbeing of all our fellow humans before the Lord in prayer? [Jeremiah 29:7]
“If we will not, then we must face up to the fact that we are disobeying a divine mandate, abandoning our neighbors to their folly, and stoking the fires of indifference—if not outright scorn—for the unbelieving world around. But if we will pray, who knows what God might be willing to do?
“Those prayers may be prayers of anguish and anger at times; but they must also be prayers for God to work in the hard hearts of our unsaved neighbors, just as He has worked in ours, to bring new life, forgiveness, and hope to those who now live apart from God in a world full of rebellion and sin.” —T.M. Moore
Axis is a great resource to help parents communicate effectively with their pre-teen and teenage children. In the wake of the school shooting in Nashville, Axis posted this: “We have created resources to help parents and caring adults have conversations about violence and school shootings. Consider our Conversation Kit on Violence, our Parent’s Guide to School Shootings, our Parent’s Guide to Talking About Violence, and our Parent’s Guide to Anxiety, for starters.”
“Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it.” —Hank Aaron
There is something very important that mature leaders need to remind themselves of so that they can help emerging leaders become successful. You can watch out this full conversation about mulligans and do-overs on the most recent episode of The Craig and Greg Show. Be sure to check out all of my videos on my YouTube channel.
In my sermon on Sunday, I talked about the sovereignty of God over world affairs and world leaders. This is a great reminder from John Newton:
Sovereignty is but another name for the unlimited exercise of wisdom and goodness.
Merat Sultan was born in the shah of Iran’s palace in 1876. He became the chief of police and of the army in Tabriz, Iran. When the Russians invaded and occupied that area, they made plans to execute Sultan. How he escaped actually led him to a relationship with Jesus as Sultan became a Christian. Check out this fascinating story from the website Praying For Muslims. I would also urge you to check out their weekly prayer guide.
“No voice. No contribution. No significance. No meaning.
“Invisible.
“That’s the way many women probably felt at the time Jesus lived. And every person with an illness—cancer, leprosy, epilepsy, mental disabilities—every one of those people were marginalized. In Jesus’ day, what careers were on the lowest rung of the corporate ladder?—fishermen and shepherds. Yet when you read every account of Jesus, who do you see Him hanging around? Fishermen, shepherds, women, and people dealing with health issues.
“Jesus wanted it that way. He took every opportunity He had to bring people in from the fringes and give them His full attention. He saw them. He listened to them. He loved them in ways they’ve never been loved before. They had never experienced anything like it.”
T.M. Moore wrote, “We are becoming so accustomed to the forsaking of traditional values, the undermining and fragmenting of long-established institutions, and the breakdown of morality and civility that we can begin to think that these conditions are the new normal, the best we can hope for in an age in flight from God. Everywhere we look in our day, the prophetic words of William Butler Yeats, in his 1919 poem, ‘The Second Coming,’ seem to be coming true: ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world./The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/the ceremony of innocence is drowned.’ But the appearances, which press upon us daily, are only a matter of perspective.” Check out the rest of his post.
When things are going well, how can we talk about our success in a way that glorifies God? John Piper had a thoughtful answer to a businessman who asked how he could talk about the success of his business and make God look great while he was doing so.
One of the best pieces of advice if you’re looking to regulate your emotions is very simple: SLOW DOWN! Constantly having your game face on or being “on a mission” can cause your emotional regulation to suffer, and seriously hurt your leadership. Be sure to check out all of my videos on my YouTube channel.
You may have heard the oft-repeated line that human beings and chimpanzees share 98-99% of our DNA with each other. This simply isn’t true, and yet it will not die. John Stonestreet has an idea of what is behind this claim in his post Of Primates and Percentages.
“The unprepared mind cannot see the outstretched hand of opportunity.” —Alexander Fleming
John Piper asks, “Why is anxiety about the future a form of pride?” Check out this faith-building post that concludes with these words, “The way to battle the unbelief of pride is to admit freely that you have anxieties, and to cherish the promise of future grace in the words, ‘He cares for you.’ And then unload your fears onto His strong shoulders.”
“Hold fast to eternal salvation through the eternal covenant carried out by eternal love to eternal life.” —Charles Spurgeon
“Celebrate what you’ve accomplished, but raise the bar a little higher each time you succeed.” —Mia Hamm
Stress might have six letters, but it seems like some leaders have a knee-jerk reaction to treat it like a four-letter word. While it might be nice to fantasize about an stress-free life, this is both entirely unrealistic and detrimental to your leadership. The truth is, a mild amount of stress can be helpful to you personally, as well as your organization as a whole. Join us as Greg and I unpack why you should embrace a bit of stress in your life.
Craig T. Owens 