Marc Estes

Over the past few years I have posted some resource tools that are designed to help you in becoming a more effective leader. These items have been very popular and I have received many encouraging emails as to how they have helped others. I thought it would be good to put the list in front of you and allow you to download as many FREE resources as you want.

Let me know which ones have been a blessing to you!

FREE Downloadable Leadership Notes

Connecting to Community – Web Verison

Building a Thriving Team Culture – Web Version

Building a Leadership Pipeline – Web Version

Keys to a successful Volunteer Ministry- Web Version

Destroying Disabling Delusions of Discipleship – Web Version

2007_multi_site_survey

Combatting Perspectives of the Church – web

 

FREE Evangelism Resources

Irresistible Christianity Handbook

The Road Ahead Follow Up Booklet

Sharing the Gospel in the 21st Century – web version

 

FREE Pastoral Resources

Counseling in the Local Church

Water Baptism Booklet

FREE Self Assessment Tests

Identifying Your Spiritual Gifts

Defining Your Passions

Clarifying Your Talents and Abilities

Learning About Your Personal Makeup

Discerning Your Spiritual Maturity

Making Sense of Your Life Experiences

Making Priority Adjustments

 

FREE Downloadable Charts

Leader Development Chart BLANK

Leader Development Chart EXAMPLE

Growth Strategies Chart

Small Group Personal Growth and Development Chart

FREE Downloadable Miscellaneous Leadership Documents

Leadership Recruitment Code of Ethics

ENGAGEMENT READINESS EVALUATION

Most of us avoid conflict at all costs. First of all, it is no fun. Secondly, our natural tendency is to avoid confrontation. However, avoiding conflict will not solve the issue at hand, but will only multiply it.  The reality is, sooner or later, you will have to face the situation, and facing it early on in it’s conception will greatly reduce the potential of an all out war.

Here are some things you migh consider the next time you have to confront a situation or person:

1. Confront in private, not in public – Don’t create a scene, or embarrass someone. Have some wisdom and find a quiet place.

2. Don’t delay – The longer you wait, the harder it becomes and the easier it is to justify why you should leave it alone -

3. Deal only with a single iusse – Don’t bring a laundry list and attempt to address every issue that is on your mind. It may be overwhelming.

4. Don’t repeat yourself – Unless they didn’t hear what was being said, avoid be redundant. Most people comprehend the issues being presented.

5. Be careful of the words you use -  Don’t be condescending and don’t exaggerate of overstate your issues.

6.  Don’t confront issues that a person can’t change – There are some issues beyond a persons ability to control. Be sensitive to the battles you choose to face.

7.  Avoid demeaning or tearing the person down -  Talk to the person, don’t talk down to the person.

8. Help direct the person to acknowledging their problem by asking open ended questions -  You might consider asking questions that cause them to own the problem.

9. Don’t apologize for being truthful – Being sheepish will only minimize the truth that you are trying to communicate.

10. End on a positive note -  Reaffirm your support, thank them for listening and communicate your commitment to forgive and move forward.

Over the past few months our church has been investigating ways in which we might assist in combating the child sex trafficking in the Portland/Vancouver area.  Our city has been nicknamed, “Pornland” by Dan Rathers and has become one of the highest areas for sex trafficking in the entire United States.

Our journey has begun, by making a commitment to get involved and use our influence and resources to make a difference. On Sunday evening, August 15th, Pastor Frank presented our passion and commitment to get involved to the congregation at our Super Sunday Night. We asked our congregation to consider getting invovled in five different areas:

1. Commitment to Pray – We handed out thousands of prayer cards and asked people to pray. Over 300 people committed to pray daily for the cause.

2. Purchase a Care Package for Victims – Emergency Care Kits are available to any women who come into a S.A.R.C. drop in center.  Their need consisted of approximately 200 care packages for a year. We were able to commit to purchasing 246 Care Kits, thanks to the generosity of the CBC family.

3. Purchase Quilts – During the winter, most of these young girls are cold and need bedding to assist with their circumstance. The annual need is for 100 quilts. We were able to raise the money to purchase 127 quilts!

4. General Donations – We asked the congregation to donate money toward developing a ministry base in which we might be able to begin attacking the problem. The church raised over $1400 with many more commitments.

5. Volunteer to serve – Almost 200 people stepped up to the plate and made the commitment to serve in some capacity.

I am so proud of our church and their passion and commitment toward those in need. We truly do have a heart for the city and desire to make a difference.  If you are interested in helping us, you can also donate to help with the cause simply by clicking here, and selecting the ”Fight Sex Trafficking” category.

Here is a recent video that was also posted on Facebook, by a close friend, Tanell Morton. It will give you a fresh perspective at the challenges ahead.

 

I am sitting alone in Lake Tahoe at Alpen Sierra House sipping a fresh cup of hot coffee thoroughly enjoying my first day of summer vacation. I am not alone because I have no friends, it is just what I do while I wait for the rest of the family to wake up at the ‘crack of nine.’  I am reading one of my new magazines that I have wanted to read, but have had little time, and came across a statement that really got my attention.

Charles Swindoll is quoted from a conference saying, “One of my greatest goals in life is to live long enough to where I am in the pulpit, preaching my heart out, and I die on the spot, my chin hits the pulpit – BOOM! – and I am down and out.  What a way to die!”  Let that one germinate in y0ur thinker for a moment. Where is this guy coming from? Great goal in life? What about climbing Mount Everest or sailng around the world, or going on a safari, or even riding your bike in the Tour deFrance? But hitting your chin on the pulpit while preaching and dying?

I gulp another cup of my depth charge and sit back and realize, “Here is a guy that I can relate to. Maybe I am not crazy. Maybe it is o.k. to think about God and church all day long (obviously in between surges of thoughts and emotions about my great wife, kids and grand kids).  Maybe being passionate all the time about something purposeful is not an indictment on your refusal  to read Louie Lamore books on vacation (what is the point?). Some might call it being a work-a-holic, I might just choose to call it passion for God’s kingdom.

Don’t get me wrong; I am going to go to the beach, hang out with the wife, kids and grandkids and LOVE every second of it. I am passionate about my family. We are going to build sandcastles, go on hikes, play Marco Polo, and I will even let them win…most of the time. It is possible to have a passion for your family and ministry; they don’t have to conflict. In addition, recreation and relaxation have their place and finding balance is a true to key to ministry longevity.  But having a constant flow of passion pumping through your veins is not all that bad, in fact in might just be God.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said quite poignantly, “A man is what he thinks about all day long.” The inference here is that what you are passionate about is exactly the thing you have the greatest potential of becoming.

God intended passion to be all-consuming, “[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight” (Phil. 2:13, AMP). God intended all-consuming passion to be for His good pleasure and delight. Passion is and must remain God-centered and God-focused.

So where is your passion focused? That passion you have for golf … where is it leading you? What about your passion for success … is it for God’s good pleasure and delight, or your own?

Passion directed by God is an unstoppable force. But make no mistake, the devil conspires to arrest your passion and redirect it to futile motives. Passion that isn’t carefully understood for its motive and regularly monitored for its effect has the potential to send anyone, even the most disciplined person, careening off course. This detour is, at minimum, a distraction and, in some cases, quite devastating.

John Maxwell said, “One of the greatest sins we commit against God is not reaching the potential he has placed in us.” Every person has been chosen, then given a purpose and a measure of passion. How you direct your passion in everyday life will greatly determine whether you are successful in fulfilling your purpose. Like a sharp knife in your kitchen drawer, passion can be extremely helpful or extremely harmful. It must be carefully directed and used for its intended purpose.

For many, being able to articulate a passion may be difficult, even though most of us have pursued our passions in some form or another. But have you ever taken time to define how God made you or to assess how your passions play a role in your overall makeup? Finding this important component just might be the thing that will propel you to a life of fruitfulness and fulfillment.

Well… my coffee is almost gone, and it is off to the beach.  It is going to be a great day.

I had a great weekend speaking at our services at City Bible Church. Our focus has been on reviving our spiritual passions. The series is entitled, “ALIVE.”  My focus was on reviving our strength in times of weakness and really felt that it was a word that helped many people. I looked at the life of Jehoshaphat and dealt with four critical steps to turning our desperate situations into places of strength:

1. Understand our Condition

2. Realize the Enemy’s Position

3. Embrace God’s Position

4. Solidify Our Decision

Here is the message. Why don’t you take some time, sit back with a cup of coffee and see if God might show up and really help you in your time of need:

Sermon 7/25/10 from City Bible Church on Vimeo.

All of us are familiar with the story of the frog in the kettle. A frog placed in boiling water will immediately jump from the pot. A frog placed in room temperature water where the heat is gradually turned up will fry in the boiling water and never jump. So it is with a nation.

The Bible is filled with the repeated history of man following this unfortunate, yet predictable pattern. We seek God, He shows up. We get complacent in our success and forget God and he removes His blessing.  If you ever want to see just how many times this scenario repeats itself, just open up your bible and underline every time it says, “An Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord.”

Healing in a nation starts with God’s people.  2 Chronicles 7:14 states, “If MY PEOPLE, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.” It starts with us! Change in a nation starts with change in us, in you, and in me.

It is time that we, as His people, examine our lives, our cities and our nation, and recognize that there is more that each of us can do to increase the spiritual atmosphere in our cities. The scripture is clear, if we exchange some spiritual activity for our carnal activities, stuff happens.

Here are some practical things you can DO! Not read, meditate on, study, but DO! God’s Word guarantees us a great reward!

1. Ask God to reveal to you any un-confessed sins or wrong behaviors in your life.

2. Ask God to forgive you of any wrong doing.

3. Seek forgiveness of anyone you have wronged. Humble yourself and repent.

4. Pray for Holy Spirit to fill you and help  you to walk a “Spirit-filled” life, not a “Natural-minded” life.

5. Resist complacency and apathy at all costs.

6. Surrender EVERY area of your life to Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all, or Lord not at all.

7. Ingest the Word of God in large doses. Fall in love with His voice.

8. Increase your times of prayer. Don’t settle for the amount of your current prayer times. Seek Him more.

9.  Add a day of fasting to your schedule.

10. Make a list of prayer needs for you, your family, your church, your city and your nation. Pray without ceasing.

11. Be prompt in your obedience to God. Don’t delay, obey Him in every situation and circumstance!

Let’s not remain content with our lives, situation and condition of our nation. Let’s step up the heat on the Devil, crucify the ‘flesh’ and give God the opportunity to move in us and through us. Exciting days are ahead!

 

One of my favorite authors is John Maxwell. He always has a way of inspiring you to greatness. A few weeks ago, I came across a blog post of his that I just couldn’t help but to pass on to you. It is just a great approach to dealing properly with criticism. If you are in any level of leadership, criticism will be close behind. Read and be inspired!

Greek philosopher Aristotle said, “Criticism is something you can avoid easily—by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” Obviously, that isn’t an option for anyone who wants to be successful as a leader.

The past year has brought extra pressures on us all. For many of us we have had to learn to live with less. This challenged has positioned us at the crossroad between thankfulness and murmuring. On one hand you might feel justified to complain about all the things you don’t have and how life has dealt you an unfair blow. On the other hand, you can also choose to look at all the things that God has allowed you to have and be overwhelmed with a sense of thankfulness. The choice is really in our hands.

Paul the Apostle sums it up in Philippians when he says, “ I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.“  The Message : The Bible in contemporary language (Php 4:11-13).

I heard a great story that gripped my heart and reminded me once again to be thankful for all the wonderful blessings that God has poured into my life and even if I have a little less, to be sure to have some margin to pass it on to others.

A harried waitress approached the table where a young girl was sitting by herself. She quickly asked the girl what she wanted. “How much is an ice cream sundae?” the little girl inquired. The waitress snapped, “A dollar seventy-five.” The girl looked at her fistful of change and then asked, “How much is a dish of just plain ice cream?” “One-fifty,” retorted the waitress. “Then I’ll take the plain ice cream, please,” said the young customer. The waitress returned with the bowl of ice cream but delivered it in rude silence. After the little girl finished her ice cream and left, the waitress went to clean off the table. To her shame, she found two dimes and five pennies. Her tip was the exact amount the little girl needed to get a sundae rather than just plain ice cream. In each of our lives, others have made sacrifices for our well being. May we be grateful for even the smallest gesture of kindness we receive.

You might consider doing a little exercise to boost your thankful meter:

1. Make a list of all the things in your life that you are thankful for.

2. Take some time to pray and thank God for his provision on your life.

3. Ask him to forgive you of any attitude of ungratefulness toward him or any other person.

4. Let all your future needs in His hands.

It is a challenge to not allow worry to invade our lives in the pressure cooker world in which we live. It seems that there is little certainty in every sector of society which can cause us to be anxious about tomorrow.  As a leader, I attempt to get a proper perspective of the who is really in charge every morning before facing the circumstances of the day. Laying everything in God’s hands has always seemed to be a better approach to my personal challenges; He has never lost a battle yet.

Furthermore, when you really look at what we worry about, we begin to see that our worry just might be overstated. Here is a breakdown that shows the outcome of the things we worry about:

• Things which never happen: 40 percent.
• Things past which can’t be changed or corrected: 30 percent.
• Needless worry about our health: 12 percent.
• Petty miscellaneous worries: 10 percent.
• Real and legitimate worries: 8 percent.

There is a legend which says that there was a mouse who was very afraid of cats. She wished she could become a cat, her wish came true and she turned into a cat. Then she saw a dog and became afraid again and wished she were a dog. Her wish was granted and she turned into a dog. Then she saw a lion and she was terrified by his power and strength and wished she could become a lion so that she would not have to be terrified of the lion. Her wish was granted and she became a lion. Then she saw a man with a gun about to shoot her with his gun. You can imagine what happened next. She wished she could become a human and she did. But when she was sitting in her house she saw a mouse and she was scared of the mouse. The little mouse frightened her. She then realized the problem was with herself.

Maybe that’s why Jesus said, “Don’t be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.  (See Matthew 6:34.) When we can learn to lean on him and not on our own undestanding, He will direct our paths.

Here are some simple, yet important steps you might consider to overcome worry:

1. Recognize God is in control – He has everything under control. He knows your needs before they existed, and he will never leave of forsake you and promised to supply your every need.

 

2. Recognize your worry will never change your circumstance – The only thing worry will give you is an ulcer. Change the way you think.

 

3. Realize prayer is the best weapon for overcoming fear – An old Jamaican proverb does a good job of summarizing the biblical view of worry and prayer. It states, “If you’re going to pray, don’t worry; if you’re going to worry, don’t pray.” Make it your aim to pray and ask God for breakthrough.

 

4. Confess your worry to a friend who can challenge you – One of the greatest ways to break the attack on your mind and emotions is to confess it and allow others to rally around you to encourage you.

 

5. Take steps in the direction you desire to go – Don’t let worry paralyze you. Get a plan for change and move torward it.

 

6. Realize that seasons come and go – You made it through the last challenges, and you will make it through this one. The best is yet to come.

 

7. Find God’s promises in His Word – God’s promises are true and will build faith in your life. Find scriptures that speak faith into your circumstance, write them on a card and recited them every time you feel yourself starting to worry.

 

8. Give Thanks to God – Regardless of your circumstance, find things in  your life that you can be thankful for. Let God know how appreciative you are for what He has done. Taking your eyes off of the negative and focusing on the positive will help you to have a better perspective of the day.

 

Let’s not waist another ten calories on a worry thought, but utilize your energies to think through the great things that are in store for you. The end result is that you will live a happier and more productive life.

 

I recently read an interesting story regarding the way people in Italy are attempting to skirt around an important law. When Italy’s mandatory use of seat belts went into effect, enterprising Claudio Ciaravolo cashed in. Dr. Ciaravolo, a psychiatrist in Naples, invented a “security shirt.” It consists of a white T-shirt with a diagonal black stripe designed to deceive the police into believing the motorist is buckled up.

What is interesting about this simple story, is that these creative swindlers don’t realize that the law is established for their own safety. The government’s motive is not to evoke further controls on their lives, they are simply establishing a consequence for simply not obeying a principle that may very well save their lives. Although we might laugh at Claudio’s ingenuity, we must stop and recognize there is a little Claudio in all of us!

Our society today has lowered the bar of honesty and have allowed the “White Lie Bar” to be the excepted norm. We have even reduced the term lie, to “ethically challenged” to minimize the offense we might cause by catching someone from being dishonest.

The book, The Day America Told the Truth, came out in 1991. In this work, research showed 91 percent of Americans lie routinely, while 36 percent confess to dark, important lies. Eighty-six percent lie regularly to parents, 75 percent lie to friends, 73 percent to siblings, 69 percent to spouses, 81 percent lie about feelings, 43 percent concerning income, and 40 percent about sex. Psychologist Michael Lewis of Rutgers University says there are three types of lies: (1) Lies to protect feelings, such as saying a gift is nice when you actually hate it; (2) Lies to avoid punishment; and (3) Lies of self-deception. Our behavior repulses others, but we lie to ourselves and blame the rejection on something or someone else. A woman gives herself a breast exam and notices an unusual lump but tells herself everything is fine. Lewis feels these lies of self-deception may be the most frequent lies. That could explain why so many people reject the gospel. They’ve lied to themselves about their need for forgiveness and God’s requirement of commitment to Christ. In this age of obsessive lying, remember who is the “father of lies” (John 8:44), and who promised to give the “truth that shall make you free” (John 8:32). C. S. Lewis noted, “We often err either by ascribing too much or too little power to the father of lies.”

How is your ‘honesty meter” on a scale of one to ten. Are you more concerned about what people think about you than what God thinks about you? Have you been so entrenched in certain lies that you have now even deceived yourself into knowing who you really are, not who you want to be?

I think it is time that we tell the truth, and aim to set the bar of honesty at an all time high. The result will be epic!