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Leading from a reservoir of calm

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Nancy Reece

The Trophy or The Towel: 5 Keys to Servant Leadership

Nancy Reece · Feb 15, 2019 · Leave a Comment

5 Keys to Servant Leadership

Are you reaching for the trophy or the towel? A checklist for Christian business or ministry leaders that examines 5 keys to servant leadership.

I used to reach for trophies.  I set goals that included promotions, awards, recognitions, and things designed to advance my career.  Today I have a much deeper desire to pour into others through mentoring, coaching and discipling.    I call it reaching for the towel, and it’s an important question for the Christian business or ministry leader.  Jesus didn’t reach for trophies. He reached for a towel to wash his disciples’ feet. He modeled servant leadership.

To serve others, we need to carve out time from our busy schedule to connect, listen and have in-depth conversations.  Joshua MacLeod, CEO of Growability Consulting, is someone I have done business with over the years.  Joshua provides leadership, management and marketing consultation for business leaders. He designs my websites and takes photographs for my business.  I am an enthusiastic supporter of his not-for-profit work at Watermelon Ministries.  As we meet to discuss business, we often talk about spiritual growth, our faith and servant leadership.

A couple of months ago, Joshua 5 keys to servant leadership he’d taken away from our conversations.  To say I was blown away would be an understatement.  I saw how an unplanned, but in-depth conversation can have deep fruit. It was a gift from God.   I asked Josh to share those keys to servant leadership with you.

From Joshua: Nancy Reece is one of my mentors. She asks the kind of questions that require a long walk in the woods and prayer to answer. Recently I shared with Nancy a few notes from conversations we’ve had over the years. I use the notes as a checklist for important decisions.

Emotion Check – Am I being led by emotion or truth?

  • Nancy: Feelings are not truth. So they create opportunities for satan to manipulate the truth. He specializes in stuffing the skin of a truth with a lie. That’s why you need the belt of truth buckled around your waist. 
  • Joshua – Emotions are a better follower than a leader. Truth should be the leader. 

Mission Check – Are you reaching for the trophy or reaching for the towel?

  • Nancy: Shadow mission is where pride and ego take you slightly off path toward the mission that God has set in your heart.  If you stay on that slightly altered course, you end missing your mission and calling entirely.
  • Joshua – Your true mission is the one Jesus gave you. You can abide here and produce kingdom fruit. When you get caught up in “shadow mission”, Jesus is patiently waiting for you to repent (change direction) and stop wasting time. Shadow mission brings stuff with no joy. 

Accountability Check – Who is courageous enough to speak the truth to me?

  • Nancy: We all need courageous friends who are willing to hold us accountable to the truth. 
  • Joshua – Who are the people in my life that will hold me accountable to the truth? Am I open to receiving their truth spoken in love?

Grace Check – Am I assured of God’s love or am I trying to earn it?

  • Nancy:  Your image of God influences every choice you make.   Unless you truly understand Jesus delights in you, you will make choices that deny his grace and fail to serve.
  • Joshua – Am I cheapening the cross of Christ by trying to prove my worth to God? 

Pride Check – Is this really all about me?

  •  Nancy:  The Pharisees were more concerned with image than with serving.  They chose pride over love.
  • Joshua – Am I raising the status of my product, service, position, or influence above the greatness of God? 

As Joshua shared these lessons, I was reminded of others who had poured into my life through in-depth conversations. How are you applying the 5 keys to servant leadership? Are you reaching for trophies or the towel?

The Towel Challenge:

Will you model servant leadership for the next person you encounter today by listening and taking the time have a in-depth conversation?

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Do You Want a Reservoir of Calm?

Nancy Reece · Jan 9, 2019 · 2 Comments

retreat center penuel

There’s an app for that! I recently saw a commercial for an app called Calm. When you use it, it gives you 30 seconds of calming sound and music. While it’s a short term fix for stress, I’ve discovered how to have a reservoir of calm.

Six months into starting my own business, I had taken my eyes off Jesus and was consumed by fear. The dread of having to sell my services, a lack of consistent income, and a feeling of complete incompetence were themes playing in my head like a broken record. In the midst of this toxic swirl of fear, I began looking for a place to withdraw, to be with Jesus, away from the ever-present din of work and family responsibilities.

[Read more…] about Do You Want a Reservoir of Calm?
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Saying NO to your iPhone

Nancy Reece · Mar 10, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Does this look like one of your workdays? You are at your desk, facing two computer screens. On one, the internet is open to do research, and the other screen has one of your four email accounts open (the other three notify you when a message arrives). You also have text messaging active, along with Google chat, in case someone at the office needs to connect. Around your neck is an LG Bluetooth stereo headset, ready for the next call that comes in on your iPhone; and iTunes is running in the background. Buried in the middle of all this technology is a project you are working on that’s due tomorrow. You’ve been working on it all week and just aren’t making the progress you thought you would, despite your skill in multi-tasking. [Read more…] about Saying NO to your iPhone

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Accomplish More by Doing Less – Part 2

Nancy Reece · May 20, 2015 · Leave a Comment

When I wrote about my struggle to accomplish more by doing less last month, I struck a cord for a lot of you. One reader shared this: “I travel almost weekly. To catch flights I’m up many mornings around 4 am. Last night I arrived home at 10:30 pm. The easiest thing to give up is my “quiet time” for prayer, reading or meditation or exercise…all of which I need to stay healthy and productive.”

It is a hard struggle to shut down the years of a performance driven life and to willfully choose to live your life in a way that has greater benefits – for both yourself and for those you lead. So, if you’d like to accomplish more by doing less – here are the 4 choices I made that enabled me to live with margin in my life. [Read more…] about Accomplish More by Doing Less – Part 2

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Accomplish More by Doing Less

Nancy Reece · Mar 31, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Painting by Deborah Gall

2012 was my “Hurricane Sandy” year.  Business trips found me in the United Kingdom twice and spanning the continental US from California to Texas to Virginia all before September 1st. My husband and I both agreed I was on the road too much and started praying to have more clients located closer to the Nashville area. October of that year found me boarding a plane to fly in to New York   and work with a client as Hurricane Sandy approached.   The night the hurricane made landfall found me training in a circle of candlelight – punctuated by loud explosions and blue light shows of transformers blowing up outside the window. Stuck in New York for a few days with time to reflect, I decided to take 30 days off at the end of the year to rest and reflect on what was most important in my life. I asked God to teach me His ways. [Read more…] about Accomplish More by Doing Less

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