All posts in Balance
What Phil Jackson Would Say In Your Leadership Meeting
When it comes to winning championships, we often think of the great athletes that inspire us. They are the ones that, if you can afford it, you pay to go see. No one pays to go see a coach. The greatest NBA team of all time was none other than the 1996 NBA Champion Chicago Bulls team that went 72-10 in the regular season. The team was coached by Phil Jackson. In case you’re unaware, going 72-10 in an NBA regular season is right next to impossible. It’s easier to win a championship than it is to pull that off, and the Bulls did both.
When Phil Jackson, who also has 10 other NBA titles along with this one, was asked what he would attribute to their success that particular year, his response was surprising. He didn’t say, “Well, we did have the greatest basketball player ever in Michael Jordan“, or “Dennis Rodman’s rebounding is what really kept us together that year“, or “Our defense was spectacular. You know, defense wins championships.” He said, “We simply stayed healthy for a whole year. No one really got hurt. If a good team can stay fully healthy for a year, they can do wonders.”
No matter what career path you’ve found yourself on, I would suspect that you love winning, right? I think what Phil Jackson would say in your leadership meeting is, “Stay Healthy.” If you were to ask your colleagues about the culture of your organization, would they say it was healthy? You can be as talented as you want to be, and you can recruit as much talent as you want, but if your talent isn’t healthy, they can’t win. Some say that Phil Jackson isn’t just a great basketball coach, but that he was the greatest manager of talent and could coach the uncoachable. Part of creating a healthy culture is also managing personalities well.
2 Ways to Create a Healthy Culture
1. Anonymous Evaluations – You have to be able to get honest feedback from those above, around, and below you. If you’re in a Christian organization, most people, ironically, will lie to you because they want to be nice. You have to retrieve HONEST feedback to get better, and to stay healthy.
2. Staff Getaways – Find an inexpensive hotel that may only be an hour away or anything and just get away with your staff. You can’t manage people well if you only really know them in the context of ministry. Too often we find out too late that somebody’s marriage was struggling because our only conversation with them was based on how they’re small group was going.
What are some ways you think you can create a healthy culture?
Good People – April Edition, City Church Chicago
I love celebrating what God is doing all around the country. I don’t get to see everybody and everything, but there’s enough haters out there to go around. I have simply chosen to be a person that encourages people to stay in the fight. There’s one church that I’ve gotten to know of the past year that is straight up fighting for Chicago. The church is called City Church Chicago.
Brian Houston, pastor of Hillsong Church, was asked how to create culture. He responded, “You don’t create culture. You are it. BE the culture.” I have never seen the words lived out more than in Kent & Alli Munsey. They pastor City Church Chicago in a way that I’ve never seen. I’m not just saying that to brag on them. I REALLY have never seen anything like it. The church has ONE employee. And everything else that makes up City Church is ran by volunteers. And their volunteers are no joke!
I get to visit City Church about once every month if not once every other month and on one of my visits I happen to catch food poisoning. Stupid. My brother lives about 90 minutes outside of Chicago and so I went to visit him and laid sick on his couch for a few days. In the midst of my illness, I get a text from a City Church volunteer saying, “Can we bring you anything?” I responded, “No, it’s ok, I’m about 90 minutes or so outside of Chicago now. I’ll be fine.” And they responded, “Like I said before, can we bring you anything?” That was impressive to me until this next story happen.
City Church is a growing church and considering some expansion out of their AMAZING vintage theatre that they meet in. One of the volunteers, who works for a professional architecture firm downtown Chicago, was giving me a tour of the building in parts that hadn’t been renovated yet. It’s was 6:30pm on a Monday night and a guy walks in fresh from working downtown in corporate America wearing dress pants, shirt, tie, and the works. He asked the other volunteer for the keys, and I asked him what he needed keys for just because I was curious. He said, “Oh, I’m here to clean to the toilets.” A leader/volunteer heard about the expense the church was paying for cleaning maintenance and spoke up in a meeting and said, “I can get a group of guys to take care of that for free.”
What Kent & Alli are building in Chicago is incredible, but it’s not built on really great “systems”. It’s built on a heart that is willing to do anything to reach a city for Jesus. City Church Chicago… is good people.
Just Friends
I read the above and think, “That’s what a friend does.” That’s not what a Facebook friend does. That’s what real friends do. They help each other find strength in the Lord especially when they’re in a desert. You’re reading this right now and I bet you know at least one person who’s just in a dry place searching for God knows what. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
I’m challenged to be more than the average friend. Yes, let’s hang out, let’s laugh, let’s eat, let’s shop, let’s hoop, but could it be that I’m friends with the people I’m friends with right now for a reason? Could it be that God strategically placed them in my life and I in theirs for a reason? Come on. We’re better than we’ve been. We’re not meant to be just friends. We’re meant to come alongside each other and strengthen one another in the Lord to help them fulfill the mission that God has placed on their life.
Open Mic
One thing I’ve noticed in my life since I was a teenager was that whenever I encourage someone, 9 times out 10 they say, “I really needed that.” A lot of these people were strong “joyous” Christians yet they found themselves in a place of discouragement. Discouragement isn’t a sin, but what is it? I would define discouragement as the enemy replaying negative thoughts in a person’s head over and over again to get them to a place where they lose focus of what God has called them to do. Whenever I meet someone who would honestly say they’re discouraged, I would simply say they’ve believed lies.
I heard Bishop Jakes say, “Never give your stage to the devil.” He was referring to being very cautious about what outside issues you address in church and which ones you do not. When I think of discouragement, I think of a person’s mind being a stage, it’s open mic there, and the enemy is going to town. “You’re too young, you don’t have enough experience, you don’t enough swag, you’re too radical, you’re not unique and people want unique, you’re good but not great.” And here’s the deal, every single time you read the Bible, it’s like you’re giving God the mic on a stage in your head.
Stop giving your enemy a mic in your head. It’s dumb. He doesn’t belong on that stage.
Good People, January Edition: A Photographer & An Entrepreneur
At this stage of my life I get exposed to a lot of different people, leaders, & organizations. I walk away from so many meetings with one of many thoughts, “Man, they’re good people.” They have unique stories and abilities that some people aren’t always aware of, and so I thought I’d share a short list of “Good People” once a month on here. To get us started, I’d like to tell you about a photographer and an entrepreneur.
1.) Meet Meshali Mitchell. Hey, when you’re looking for a photographer for your wedding or special event, there’s a few things you look for: Someone with decent equipment and most importantly, a great portfolio. 
But Meshali brings something else to the table: an energetic personality. Any person I know that has done a shoot with her has HAD FUN doing it. Part of getting great photos is the process in which you got them. All in all, Meshali… is good people. Here’s a sample of some of her stuff.
To see more photos and learn a little more about Meshali, go here.
2.) Meet Taylor Scheer. Taylor and I became friends this summer and I’ve been Impressed with him from day one. He’s the son of mega church pastor, Bill Scheer, who pastors Guts Church in Tulsa, OK. 
Taylor was working at the church up until a couple of months ago when he decided to resign from his position to start his own clothing store. Taylor’s desire is to start multiple businesses over the next decade and then come back to work for the church and be less of a financial burden for the organization. I admire his heart for the church and for business. I visited the store last month and this dude is crushing it. I love the look and feel of the whole place. It was a total God thing as to how he acquired the space and how he was able to open so fast. He designed everything you see himself. Taylor Scheer: Incredibly talented, creative, Godly, and Good people. To find out more about the store, check out http://stylelabtulsa.com/. 
Save The Best For Now
“What’s new?”
It’s a two word question that gets us out of bed everyday to search for the answer. Back in the day… before I was a live… NOTHING WAS NEW. Everybody had their same job for 30 years. There wasn’t much to chase. I’m not intending to discourage a dream, or forecast despair upon the go-getter, the entrepreneur, or someone who aspires to be remembered, but rather, I’d like to encourage all of the above (which I’m in) in their current season.
It’s as if we’re all saving our best for a later engagement, a future event, or a fast-forwarded version of ourselves where we are really doing what God called us to do. We are saving our best for the dream job we’ll have where we feel all of our gifts and talents are being utilized. We feel the gravity and pressure of having something “new” to share, but I would propose that we take inventory of our current season and give it everything we have. For who we are in this season, is but a preview and practice for our next season.
I would even go as far to say this: There may not be a next season. We ought to give this season what we would give if it was our last. Save the best for now.