Strengthen Your Immune System

Strengthen Your Immune System

by | May 12, 2020

Wondering how to strengthen your spiritual immune system? You are on the front lines of leadership during the most extensive, swiftest cultural shift the world has ever experienced. Everything has changed. You have been rising to the challenge. Some of you share this as the most rewarding, if not demanding, a chapter of your ministry. It’s time to strengthen your spiritual immune system.

Being on the front lines of leadership and change requires particular inner strength. You know that the coronavirus is not the only thing that can bring you down. Fear of the future, exhaustion, and resisting the way things are can likewise infect you. These negative mindsets weaken the body as well as the spirit.

In this article, I will reveal a simple four-step process to fortify your spiritual immune system. I will also invite you to join me for a class I have designed especially for you. It will empower you to clear out disempowering thoughts, disarm limiting fears, and rethink no-can-do self-talk.

Here’s the bottom line: getting stuck in negative emotions won’t do for spiritual leaders like you. It’s time to boost your resilience so that you can continue to lead with agility and flexibility. Click To Tweet

Four Steps To Strengthen Your Spiritual Immune System

I’m excited to share this four-step process with you. Because here’s the bottom line: getting stuck in negative emotions won’t do for spiritual leaders like you. It’s time to boost your resilience so that you can continue to lead with agility and flexibility.

Step #1: Hear the Word

The first step to strengthen your spiritual immune system is to start with an uplifting message from Scripture. For instance, consider the simple yet powerful verse from Psalm 118:24: “This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Now, put yourself in the picture: “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” If this sounds like more of a command than an affirmation, you have picked the right one. The truth is, no one feels like rejoicing all the time. No one is always glad.

Step #2: Listen to Your Soul 

Ask your soul what is getting in the way of your rejoicing or of being glad. Consult the following list of potential barriers and note the ones that apply to you:

  • Worry
  • Self-doubt
  • Blame
  • People-pleasing
  • Busyness
  • Unforgiveness

Step #3: Clear the Pathway 

To clear the pathway back to your soul:

  1. Invite Jesus to hear your list and to listen with compassion.
  2. Read your list out loud, sparing no detail.
  3. Sense the barriers being removed as you fess up.
  4. Light the list afire and offer it up for Divine guidance.

Welcome the Holy Spirit back into the newly cleaned space of your soul.

Step #4: Start the Day Over 

Now that you have cleared the pathway back to your soul, and hopefully back to the space of gladness and rejoicing, it’s time to start the day over! Personalize and recite the psalm so that it sings. Perhaps like this: “Today I rejoice in this day that the Lord has made, I am glad to be alive in it!”

Boost your leadership resilience

To support you in the midst of these rapidly changing times, I have created a new online workshop called Leadership Resilience. These three one-hour sessions will enhance your spiritual, emotional and financial resilience, empowering you to lead these changes over the long haul. Clear out disempowering thoughts, disarm limiting fears, and rethink no-can-do self-talk. You can register here. All sessions are recorded for your convenience.

Strengthen Your Immune System

Strengthen Your Immune System

by | May 12, 2020

Wondering how to strengthen your spiritual immune system? You are on the front lines of leadership during the most extensive, swiftest cultural shift the world has ever experienced. Everything has changed. You have been rising to the challenge. Some of you share this as the most rewarding, if not demanding, a chapter of your ministry. It’s time to strengthen your spiritual immune system.

Being on the front lines of leadership and change requires particular inner strength. You know that the coronavirus is not the only thing that can bring you down. Fear of the future, exhaustion, and resisting the way things are can likewise infect you. These negative mindsets weaken the body as well as the spirit.

In this article, I will reveal a simple four-step process to fortify your spiritual immune system. I will also invite you to join me for a class I have designed especially for you. It will empower you to clear out disempowering thoughts, disarm limiting fears, and rethink no-can-do self-talk.

Here’s the bottom line: getting stuck in negative emotions won’t do for spiritual leaders like you. It’s time to boost your resilience so that you can continue to lead with agility and flexibility. Click To Tweet

Four Steps to Spiritual Clarity 

I’m excited to share this four-step process with you. Because here’s the bottom line: getting stuck in negative emotions won’t do for spiritual leaders like you. It’s time to boost your resilience so that you can continue to lead with agility and flexibility.

Step #1: Hear the Word

Start with an uplifting message from Scripture. For instance, consider the simple yet powerful verse from Psalm 118:24: “This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Now, put yourself in the picture: “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” If this sounds like more of a command than an affirmation, you have picked the right one. The truth is, no one feels like rejoicing all the time. No one is always glad.

Step #2: Listen to Your Soul 

Ask your soul what is getting in the way of your rejoicing or of being glad. Consult the following list of potential barriers and note the ones that apply to you:

  • Worry
  • Self-doubt
  • Blame
  • People-pleasing
  • Busyness
  • Unforgiveness

Step #3: Clear the Pathway 

To clear the pathway back to your soul:

  1. Invite Jesus to hear your list and to listen with compassion.
  2. Read your list out loud, sparing no detail.
  3. Sense the barriers being removed as you fess up.
  4. Light the list afire and offer it up for Divine guidance.

Welcome the Holy Spirit back into the newly cleaned space of your soul.

Step #4: Start the Day Over 

Now that you have cleared the pathway back to your soul, and hopefully back to the space of gladness and rejoicing, it’s time to start the day over! Personalize and recite the psalm so that it sings. Perhaps like this: “Today I rejoice in this day that the Lord has made, I am glad to be alive in it!”

Boost Your Leadership Resilience

To support you in the midst of these rapidly changing times, I have created a new online workshop called Leadership Resilience. These three one-hour sessions will enhance your spiritual, emotional and financial resilience, empowering you to lead these changes over the long haul. Clear out disempowering thoughts, disarm limiting fears, and rethink no-can-do self-talk. You can register here. All sessions are recorded for your convenience.

Strengthen Your Immune System

Strengthen Your Immune System

by | May 12, 2020

Wondering how to strengthen your spiritual immune system? You are on the front lines of leadership during the most extensive, swiftest cultural shift the world has ever experienced. Everything has changed. You have been rising to the challenge. Some of you share this as the most rewarding, if not demanding, a chapter of your ministry. It’s time to strengthen your spiritual immune system.

Being on the front lines of leadership and change requires particular inner strength. You know that the coronavirus is not the only thing that can bring you down. Fear of the future, exhaustion, and resisting the way things are can likewise infect you. These negative mindsets weaken the body as well as the spirit.

In this article, I will reveal a simple four-step process to fortify your spiritual immune system. I will also invite you to join me for a class I have designed especially for you. It will empower you to clear out disempowering thoughts, disarm limiting fears, and rethink no-can-do self-talk.

Here’s the bottom line: getting stuck in negative emotions won’t do for spiritual leaders like you. It’s time to boost your resilience so that you can continue to lead with agility and flexibility. Click To Tweet

Four Steps to Spiritual Clarity 

I’m excited to share this four-step process with you. Because here’s the bottom line: getting stuck in negative emotions won’t do for spiritual leaders like you. It’s time to boost your resilience so that you can continue to lead with agility and flexibility.

Step #1: Hear the Word

Start with an uplifting message from Scripture. For instance, consider the simple yet powerful verse from Psalm 118:24: “This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Now, put yourself in the picture: “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” If this sounds like more of a command than an affirmation, you have picked the right one. The truth is, no one feels like rejoicing all the time. No one is always glad.

Step #2: Listen to Your Soul 

Ask your soul what is getting in the way of your rejoicing or of being glad. Consult the following list of potential barriers and note the ones that apply to you:

  • Worry
  • Self-doubt
  • Blame
  • People-pleasing
  • Busyness
  • Unforgiveness

Step #3: Clear the Pathway 

To clear the pathway back to your soul:

  1. Invite Jesus to hear your list and to listen with compassion.
  2. Read your list out loud, sparing no detail.
  3. Sense the barriers being removed as you fess up.
  4. Light the list afire and offer it up for Divine guidance.

Welcome the Holy Spirit back into the newly cleaned space of your soul.

Step #4: Start the Day Over 

Now that you have cleared the pathway back to your soul, and hopefully back to the space of gladness and rejoicing, it’s time to start the day over! Personalize and recite the psalm so that it sings. Perhaps like this: “Today I rejoice in this day that the Lord has made, I am glad to be alive in it!”

Boost your leadership resilience

To support you in the midst of these rapidly changing times, I have created a new online workshop called Leadership Resilience. These three one-hour sessions will enhance your spiritual, emotional and financial resilience, empowering you to lead these changes over the long haul. Clear out disempowering thoughts, disarm limiting fears, and rethink no-can-do self-talk. You can register here. All sessions are recorded for your convenience.

How to Stave Off the Post-Pandemic Blues

How to Stave Off the Post-Pandemic Blues

by | May 11, 2020

“I’m depressed about everything that is going on,” my long-time friend Lin confided to me. I understood. After all, her state had been in a serious lockdown. Her fiancé was sheltering in place five states away. Now, she was stuck at home where once she was used to being busy. I thought I knew what she meant. Her next words, though, caught me by surprise. “But things have changed. With this sheltering in place, I feel like I’ve become a human being again. I’m not always hurrying and rushing around. I’m not at work 24/7.” She told me how she’s been sitting down to eat meals with her mother, sister, and daughter. And how much she’s enjoyed it. “Now that they’re talking about opening up the state again, I’m depressed. I’m afraid I’m going to lose everything I’ve gained. I think I’ve got the post-pandemic blues.”

Even though the pandemic and its aftereffects will be with us for several years, Lin is not alone in her concerns. As I’ve noted elsewhere, in addition to the experience of suffering, people have been blessed in unexpected ways.

In this article, I will share three steps to stave off the so-called post-pandemic blues and one bonus option to boost your leadership immune system as you venture forth. Even if you’ve been eagerly waiting for restrictions to lift, now that governors are relaxing guidelines, you may miss aspects of sheltering in place.

Three steps to stave off the so-called post-pandemic blues and one bonus option to boost your leadership immune system as you venture forth. Click To Tweet

Three Steps to Stave Off the Post-Pandemic Blues

1. Consider Your Unexpected Blessings 

Sheltering in place may have created unexpected blessings in your life. Start by considering how you may have:

  • Simplified your life
  • Spent less time working
  • Let unnecessary demands drop from your schedule
  • Paid more attention to family members or pets
  • Reconnected with your soul
  • Cleaned, organized or de-cluttered
  • Read
  • Slept in
  • Cooked and ate meals
  • Paused
  • Connected to friends
  • Relaxed
  • Helped the people around you
  • Enjoyed your yard, balcony, or time in nature
  • Started or finished projects
  • Learned new things
  • Gained a fresh appreciation for life

2.  Choose Practices You Want to Continue

Second, note the activities and practices you would like to continue. I have been walking to and from the office each day. It’s been a great way to introduce variety into my life, breathe fresh air, and watch winter move into spring. My brother and sister-in-law have been hosting Zoom dinners with friends around the country. My friend, an accomplished harpist, has been live-streaming afternoon concerts from her living room every Sunday.

3. Create Intentional Changes 

Third, plan now to continue practicing life-giving habits. Pull out your calendar and map in family dinners, garden time, or prayer, and meditation. Otherwise, the tide of busyness will pull you back out to sea before you even know it. To withstand the tide takes making conscious choices.

Even so, don’t be surprised by grief, caution, and disorientation as you emerge from a more sheltered life. You have been through some big changes. So has the world around you. The landscape around you may not look or feel like you remember it. Give yourself time to get used to the new normal.

Build Your Resilience

As you begin to spend more time in the public arena, life will change again. If there were things you enjoyed about sheltering in place, it’s entirely possible to bring some of those gifts with you as you emerge. As you take these three steps, consider your unexpected blessings. Choose practices you want to continue, and create intentional changes—you’ll find that you won’t need to get a bad case of the post-pandemic blues.

As I said before, transitioning from mid-to post-pandemic won’t be a quick or easy process. Especially if you have been on the front lines of care, be gentle with yourself and the people around you. None of us have been here before. Remember that even in these difficult times, you are not alone. Draw upon the comfort of community, the strength of faith, and the guidance of God as you navigate these times.

When Worship is No Longer Building-Based

When Worship is No Longer Building-Based

by | Apr 23, 2020

Christians believe that out of death comes resurrection. Even Christians have been hard-pressed to believe that new life could arise out of this pandemic. Yet that’s what’s happened. Take church buildings, for example. Their size, shape, and cost have shaped our ministry and mindsets for millennia. They have been both a blessing and a burden.

Yet once church buildings had to shut down, congregations found something quite surprising. The change in the nature and scope of worship changed freed people from building constraints.

This article will discuss the shift that has happened and three ways to turn this unexpected gift into a long-term culture shift.

Once church buildings had to shut down, congregations found something quite surprising. The nature and scope of worship changed and freed people of building constraints. Click To Tweet

Pre-Pandemic Mindset: Building-Based Worship 

For many congregations, the building has defined ministry. The building’s upkeep may have been your de facto ministry, and a concept Bishop Robert Schnase calls a shadow mission. When buildings set the parameters, it can be challenging to break free of historical precedents. Ghosts of worshiper’s past, as much as the building’s structure, play a part in reinforcing conventions.

The coronavirus has done for many churches what they could not do for themselves. Not only have congregations been forced out of their buildings, but the size and scope have also changed. Congregations are now moving from building-based to relationship-based worship.

Mid-Pandemic Mindset: Relationship-Based Worship

Now that worship is a distributed experience and is no longer centralized in one building, and can be reinvented. Worship takes a new feel when people worship with mailed bulletins, emailed orders of worship, pre-recorded videos, Facebook Live, or some other fashion. Instead of being solely building-based, worship can become more intimate, more immediate.

When the structure of a sanctuary does not confine, the dynamics of worship can organically morph. Suddenly, the building gives shape to relationships. Those relationships include both person to person and person to divine connections.

Interactive Church can be far more interactive this way. For instance, at an online family Passover Seder I conducted, everyone got up from their seats to open their respective doors for Elijah. If you send out printed bulletins or create home-based worship, be sure to include actions and reflections to engage worshipers.

Authentic When you Livestream worship, gone is the distance between the pulpit and the pew. A camera’s immediacy means the message must be genuine to connect with people, especially for people whose attention spans have shortened due to screen time.

Organic Evangelism Boulevard on Broad UMC, whose “storefront sacramental” worship services formerly attracted a full house of 30, has expanded to 50+ online. Evangelism is so much easier and organic online. Led by Rev. Drew Willson, this congregation has also found that distributed worship has released them to fulfill their vision: “Extending God’s table.”

The shut-down of churches has forced quick shifts in congregational life. There is no guarantee that these quick shifts in mindset will automatically translate into culture shifts. Let’s talk about how to intentionally transform these rapid shifts into positive, sustainable culture shifts.

Turn This Quick Shift Into A Culture Shift

  1. Frame the online experience in favorable terms. Yes, you and your people may be missing each other much. Yes, you may miss your building. Yes, you may miss the freedoms the pandemic has momentarily restrained. However, framing the online experience with gratitude will help you keep this option alive once social distancing has eased.
  2. Expand your options. Once people have online options, they treasure them. Online ministry means your people can participate while traveling, indisposed, sick, or feeling lazy even when face to face worship is once again available.
  3. Extend your shelf life. Unlike starting an additional worship service, which depends on a certain number of people to be considered viable, online worship has an entirely different shelf life. It can be experienced hours or months later and still be fresh.