Episode 45: Moving People Forward - Part 7

Helping people grow and move forward is an essential and satisfying role in leadership. A key skill to help people grow is knowing how to appropriately challenge them. In this podcast, Lance shares essential skills to focus on in-order to learn how to help others grow through challenges.

Notes:

Leadership has to look like something. Today, as we talk about moving people forward, I want to share some insight with you about how we can challenge others as we support and encourage their growth.

Psalm 105:16-22, “He called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food; 17 and he sent a man before them—Joseph, sold as a slave. 18 They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons,19 till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true. 20 The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples set him free. 21 He made him master of his household, ruler over all he possessed, 22 to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom.

Invitation and Challenge Paradigm [1]:

  • Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. (Invitation, Matthew 11:28)

  • Let the dead bury the dead, but you go out and proclaim the kingdom of God. (Challenge, Luke 9:60)

  • Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (Invitation, Luke 1:16)

  • Anyone who wants to be first must be last, and the servant of all. (Challenge, Mark 9:37)

  • Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (Invitation, John 7:37)

  • If anyone wants to be my disciple, they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (Challenge, Matthew 16:24)

Invitation:

  1. Included in community

  2. Valued and accepted

  3. Knowing others and being known

  4. Belonging and love

Challenge:

  1. Needed by the community

  2. Significant to accomplishing mission

  3. Stretched to be generous and to grow

  4. Others focused

Ryder Carroll says, in his book, The Bullet Journal Method, “Our efforts are always fueled by some promise.” [2]

The promise I want you to consider today is that we help others move forward by appropriately challenging people to embrace the growth process.

I love what Graham Cooke says about leadership, “Being the Church in leadership is about wanting the best of one another and desiring to see them grow. It sees people for who they have become and supports them in moving into that place rather than confining them to a role that doesn’t fit them anymore. The priority is to create space for others to experience what God is doing in them. [3]

When we lovingly and patiently challenge others to remain faithful to their identity and calling, we are saying, “I believe in you and will invest in who you are and what you are called to accomplish.

Where am I on the Invitation/Challenge Paradigm?

  1. Boring (apathetic) (LI/LC)

  2. Consuming (cozy and comfortable) (HI/LC)

  3. Stressing (discouraged) (LI/HC)

  4. Discipling (empowered culture) (HI/HC)

Seven Measures for Challenging Others

  1. Stay focused on identity, purpose and the reason for your season.

  2. Speak the language of promise and correction.

  3. Demonstrate care, celebration, coaching and caring consistently.

  4. Give courage through prayer, words of affirmation and tangible support

  5. Let people struggle, but not drown.

  6. Identify what is fruitful in a difficult season.

Nine Actions for How to Challenge Others

  1. Practice the Invitation / Challenge Matrix for discovery.

  2. Start with identity and purpose.

  3. Develop a vocabulary of affirmation and challenge.

  4. Speak honestly.

  5. Love and listen patiently.

  6. Listen and clarify certainty, not assumption.

  7. Be others focused.

  8. Lead another to growth through repentance, deliverance, goal setting.

  9. Identify what is needed and establish goals for measured forward movement.

Resources

  1. Building a Discipling Culture by Mike Breen, available at 3DM.

  2. https://brilliantperspectives.com/leadership-creates-space-others-change-grow/

  3. Carroll, 2018, p. 142 — The Bullet Journal Method

Credits: Music - Pumpkin Spice by Audiobinger -- freemusicarchive.org

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