Top Five Prayer Pet Peeves

Prayer is an essential part of our walk with God. Our Christian faith. Becoming more like Jesus. I love prayer.

Prayer can also be a funny thing that we each end up creating some pretty bizarre and unique idiosyncrasies around.

I wanted to highlight a few of those today on a Sunday, the Lord’s day.

These happen in the context of corporate prayer- when you and others are praying out loud in a group setting. Which can create some pretty unordinary moments where we say and do things we wouldn’t normally say.

This is meant to be funny. So please… no one has the right to be offended!! Good light-hearted thoughts here.

1. using the word “just” as a transition at all times. “lord we just want to ask… and just please be here… and just give us wisdom… and “just” be with us…. JUST Stop it!

2. uhhhh….. uhhhhh….uuhhhhh. Some people do this when they are nervous, or not sure what to say next. It becomes a pet peeve when it’s used in a very pensive and serious way with a deep voice so it sounds very spiritual. Again, stop it.

3. naming all the names of God within 20 seconds. “Father God El Shadih Jehovah Jirah Holy One Maker of all Things…. I’m pretty sure God understands our prayers with a simple “Father” or “God” thankyou very much.

4. Calling out the sins of others in front of others as part of your way of praying for them. This one drives me crazy. It’s the equivalent of gossip.

5. Continual asking of God to “be with us.” Again, usually said when not sure what else to say. It’s the go-to statement or ask. A second cousin is the statement “bless us Lord.” Nothing inherently wrong with these statements, but a little lazy in my opinion.

BONUS: Revealing your entire knowledge of the entire Bible in prayer. Lots of pastors like to do this, or especially Seminary students, where they go through the entire Gospel story from Genesis to Revelation in one prayer.

What other prayer pet peeves are you aware of???

What are you scared of?

We are one week away from our Catalyst West event. March 2-4 at Mariners Church. Over 3000 leaders together. Love to see you there.

Our theme for Catalyst West is “TAKE COURAGE.” Encouraging leaders to boldly step into all God has created them to be. I can’t wait.

Reality us, we all need courage. Especially leaders. Courage to overcome. Courage to break through barriers. Courage to face fears. Courage to conquer and control fears. Fears. Yep.

Many times what holds us back is fear. Being scared. Living scared. Leading scared.

Today, what are you scared of? What is holding you back from all that God has created you to be?

For me, my biggest fear is failure. Occasionally it creates some very unhealthy leadership landmines and roadblocks that I have to work through. And is paralyzing, because when a leader is afraid to fail, taking risks then gets moved to the side, and maintaining status quo is the focus. Reality is, for many type A leaders, we are scared to death of failing. Afraid of what our friends will say, what our families will say, and how it will impact our next career season. And afraid of potentially losing what we “feel” like we’ve helped build or create.

And many of us incorrectly assume that in failure, the leader should take all the blame and is responsible no matter what. Not true, but something that still evokes fear.

Fear and failure don’t have to go together. Failure is not something to be scared of. We should respect failure, but not fear it.

Bonus: here are some things I’m been scared of throughout my life:

1. Storms- up until I was 13 0r 14, I was absolutely petrified of storms. I mean scared out of my mind. If there were clouds in the sky in the morning with a chance of storms, I would get physically sick I was so scared. And have to stay home from school. Literally petrified. And in Oklahoma, storms are for real. Tornadoes all the time.

2. Certain Dogs. This one still haunts me because of being bit by a pit bull when I was 5 or 6 years old. Still have the scar on my shin to prove it.

3. Bugs and Snakes. Not a fan at all of spiders or snakes. Actually, pretty much all small bugs shake me up a bit. Bees and wasps as well. I’m sweating just thinking about it…..

52 quotes for this Generation of Leaders

A big thanks to Ron Forseth and the Sermon Central team for helping put together this article I wrote:

“52 Quotes for this Generation of Leaders.”

Head on over to the Sermon Central site and check it out.

Hope it’s helpful!!

Leaders need a Confidant

Leaders are called to be courageous. And confident, yet humble.

Being Confident is important. But change out the “e” for an “a” in confident, and this is also a huge need for leaders: A CONFIDANT.

Dictionary.com defines Confidant as “a close friend or associate to whom secrets are confided or with whom private matters and problems are discussed.”

A few thoughts on having a confidant:

1. This is not someone on your team who reports to you or is a peer.

2. This is not your boss. And for non-profit and church leaders, this is not someone on your board.

3. This is probably not a family member, since family members seem to only see one side and not the whole picture.

4. Make sure it’s someone with Honesty and integrity, who you are 100% sure won’t talk to anyone else about what you are sharing. Loose lips sink ships.

5. It is someone you can rely on, share with, lean into for tough decisions, gripe about things, and receive counsel from.

6. There are lots of executive coaches out there. And I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea for your executive coach or life coach to potentially be a confidant. But ideally, your confidant is not someone you pay to help you.

7. A confidant doesn’t make decisions for you, they ADVISE you. Don’t allow your confidant to be your final decision maker.

8. Nothing to gain- make sure your confidant is not motivated one way or the other by the outcome of your decisions. For example, as a professional athlete, many look to their agents as their confidants- but ultimately that can be a bit risky, since the agents job is to get more money for the athlete, thus gaining more money themselves.

What are you Walking towards?

Heard a great sermon yesterday from Kevin Myers at 12 Stone Church.

Talking about the principle of walking towards/away.

As leaders, this is a simple yet powerful illustration to constantly think through. We all are walking towards things in our lives- whether things that make us better, or things that distract us or bind us or pull us away.

It’s possible that many things you and I are walking towards or leaning into right now are things we should be walking away from.

What do you need to walk away from right now?

And what do you need to start walking towards?

End of the week links

A few things to check out:

- check out the new Catalyst Podcast featuring an interview with Scott Harrison of charity: water and Jamie Tworkowski of To Write Love on Her Arms. We also catch up with Danny Wuerffel, former Heisman Trophy winner and current leader of Desire Street Ministries.

- Catalyst West is only 10 days away! Still time to register.

- Two great new albums out this week. Hillsong United‘s new Aftermath CD, and Bethel Live’s new Be Lifted High CD. Both great albums.

- My top five favorite Business blogs to read: Seth Godin, Mashable, Fast Company, Drudge, and TED.

- This video cracks me up. A great moment with Tripp Crosby, who was recently in Miami and got some interesting footage….

Leadership reminders

1. Be responsible. If you say you are going to take care of it, then take care of it.

2. Be professional. Arrive on time. Actually be early. And be organized.

3. Be the best. Get better every day at what you do.

4. Be humble. Talk less. Listen more.

5. Be proactive. Not reactive. Respond and initiate before being told to or asked to by your boss or peers.