New York Times bestselling author and National Community Church founding pastor, Mark Batterson, discusses what many leaders—especially church leaders—have struggled with over the last two years: Discouragement.
He shares his personal ups and downs, how he’s motivated himself and stayed encouraged, what he’s learning about habit formation personally and when it comes to church attendance, and how to reframe the future.
Welcome to Episode 463 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.
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Medi-Share
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Gloo
Recently I’ve been using an app from our friends at Gloo called Thryve to add texting into my marketing, and it’s been really useful. Now, I’m really excited to teach churches how they can use Thryve to do the same thing.
Thryve makes it incredibly easy to send texts to individuals or groups. But it’s so much more than that. Thryve is made to help churches send devotional series, answer common questions, get more prayer requests, send surveys and even collect stories of life change.
And because everything is managed from one shared message inbox, you and your team can access messages from your phone or desktop. That means you can assign prayer requests, respond to messages, track new visitor follow-up, and more. Your whole team can see and respond to every interaction from one place. That means human-to-human service for everyone.
When you use Thryve with other tools you already use, it’s even better. Integrations with leading church management systems are already available, and more are being added all the time. This is why Thryve is the leading church texting solution.
Thryve also offers an extensive template library of done-for-you texts. At the click of a button, you can turn on text series for advent, new guest follow-up, your marriage and prayer ministries and so much more. The best part? It’s completely free to get started.
Go to thryve.io today to sign up for a FREE, 14-day trial so you can connect with your church community.
Conversation Links
Do It For a Day by Mark Batterson
Access Mark’s FREE Download 7 Steps to Setting Life Goals
The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson
In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
B.F. Skinner’s Theory of Operant Conditioning
At Your Best by Carey Nieuwhof
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Insights From Mark
1. As a leader, you have to set the tone and pace
Mark’s the founding pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. As one might expect, leading a congregation in America’s Capitol through one of the most contentious and divisive eras of American politics is no walk in the park. Plus, the pandemic shut down Washington, D.C. (and their church’s ability to gather) longer than most cities.
As a leader, how does one stay encouraged (and encourage others) when so many people are looking to you for direction? Mark said he found inspiration in Dr. Martin Luther King’s quote about thermometers and thermostats. “A thermometer reflects the temperature around us, but a thermostat can change the temperature.” Likewise, leaders shouldn’t seek to reflect the temperature of culture but instead should be the ones who shift the atmosphere toward something more gracious and peaceful.
2. Leaders need to be historians and futurists
Mark says optimism must be grounded in something bigger than yourself. And one way of doing that is to be a student of the past. A leader must remember the past to avoid making the same mistakes. Additionally, a leader must also keep their eyes on the future.
Mark says one of the benefits of being a spiritual leader who believes in the Bible’s authority is that Christians know how the story will end—the defeat of evil and the total victory of Christ. Therefore, looking toward the future, while being honest about the past, gives a leader context for leading in the present without losing hope.
3. Successful spiritual formation requires successful habit formation
Mark’s new book, Do It For a Day, is all about forming helpful habits while breaking bad ones. According to Mark, habit formation is more than just living a more productive or healthy lifestyle; it’s also about spiritual formation. The rhythms of our daily spirituality are dependent on the habits we internalize. Mark says there are three ingredients to developing a new habit—the behavior must be measurable, meaningful and maintainable.
If you can stick to that behavior for 30 days, Mark believes it can become ingrained into your day-to-day life. As people scramble to adapt to new routines due to our “new normal,” you couldn’t find a better time to reevaluate the habits, both healthy and unhealthy, that undergird your spirituality.
Quotes from Episode 463
We're not trying to get back to normal, we're trying to get back to the supernatural. @MarkBatterson Share on XSometimes the greatest opposition to what God wants to do next comes from those who are on the cutting edge of what God did last. - R.T. Kendall Share on XThe people we criticize today will be the people who coach us tomorrow. Share on XIf you live off of compliments, you're going to die by criticism. @MarkBatterson Share on XTruth is found in the tension of opposites. @MarkBatterson Share on XLet God be as original with others as he was with you. - Oswald Chambers Share on XNever lose a holy curiosity. - Albert Einstein Share on XA low view of God is the cause of 100 lesser evils. A high view of God is the solution to 10,000 temporal problems. - A. W. Tozer Share on XYou can please some of the people all the time, all the people some of the time, but you can't please all the people all the time. @MarkBatterson Share on XNo matter what you say, it's never enough and it's always too much. @MarkBatterson Share on XEither we're building altars to God or we're building monuments to ourselves. @MarkBatterson Share on XEvery ology is a branch of theology. @MarkBatterson Share on XIf you stay humble and stay hungry, there's nothing that God cannot do in you or through you. @MarkBatterson Share on XPart of what makes habit formation meaningful is when you do it for someone else. @MarkBatterson Share on XYour strong hand represents the gifts and abilities that God's given to you. The weak hand represents those things that don't come naturally. @MarkBatterson Share on XRead or Download the Transcript for Episode 463
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Next Episode: Simon MacRae and Darcy MacDonnell
COVID was brutal on restauranteurs, and many didn’t make it. Enter Simon MacRae and Darcy MacDonnell, who launched not one but two successful restaurants during lockdown. Not only did The Common Stove and Picnic thrive, but they launched them in a small town famous for not being able to sustain fine food ventures. They explain how they not only kept afloat, but grew, and attracted a top-level staff in the service sector in the midst of The Great Resignation.
Subscribe for free now so you won’t miss Episode 464.
