You’ve heard the concept of Cause and Effect, let me introduce Cause and Affect. The difference in the words affect and effect is that one is used as a verb, one as a noun. Affect, usually used as a verb to create an effect (noun) in another’s behavior. Effect is the result or consequence that occurs due to specific cause. It is what happens as a result of the cause.

Leadership is not predicated on a title. Everyone is a leader. You have leadership responsibilities in some areas of your life. You have influence with your children, spouse, neighbors, friends, church, and others. You may not be in a leadership position at work, but you are in a position of leadership (influence). What you do, how you carry yourself, every action is influencing someone. If you are showing disrespect to your leaders or organization, you are influencing others. If you have a habit of talking about others, positively or negatively, you are influencing those around you, maybe not in a positive way.

Many definitions of leadership include the word influence, and I agree that in it’s simplest definition Leadership is Influence. If you cannot influence someone, you cannot lead. Leading is guiding, not forcing, not coercing. Influence in leadership is having an affect on another in a way that inspires him/her to action. Is your influence in the lives of others inspiring them to positive action? If not, are you not leading them down a wrong path?

What is needed to influence or motivate someone? Two traits answer this question – trust and respect. You affect people at the level of trust and respect they have for you. You cannot lead people to accept another person if you are never showing your trust and respect for that person. The trust others put in you is dependent on the trust and respect you display for others.

As believers we are called to build trust and respect for God Almighty and for His created beings. When we talk negatively about God’s greatest creation, Humans, we are reflecting not God’s image, but a negative image of that person and His creator. For those we disagree with, we are to pray for and use our influence to positively affect the behavior of those listening to us.

Think on examples of how you inspire others to action in the following areas of life. Family: Spouse, Children/siblings; School or Work; peers/friends/coworkers; at the grocery, bank, or doctor’s office.

You have opportunities all day long to inspire and influence people around you. What affect are you causing in the lives of those around you? This week, strive to live as an influence in leadership, having an affect on others in a way that inspires them to action.

If influence was currency, how are you spending your influence?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

The story is told of a man who was hired to paint another man’s boat. While prepping the boat for paint he found a small hole and repaired it without saying anything to the owner. When the job was finished the owner paid for the work done as agreed upon and took the boat.

Later, the owner returned to the man who had painted the boat and handed him a check for a large sum of money. Puzzled, the repairman stated, “You already paid me.”

The boat owner shared, “I returned home yesterday afternoon to find the boat was gone. I knew my sons had taken the boat out fishing. I became terrified, because right then I remembered the boat had a small hole in it, and feared the worst for my two boys.

In a little while I saw my boys returning in the boat from their fishing adventure. Upon inspection I found the hole had been repaired under the paint job. I knew you had repaired the hole. What you did, repairing that hole, you saved the lives of my children and a lifetime of grief for my wife and me. I do not have enough money to repay what you did for me.”

In this life you have many opportunities to repair small holes in the lives of people God places in your path. Do not disregard them. Sometimes it is sitting with someone in silence. Other times it might be simply a listening ear, opening a door, a cup of coffee, a kind greeting, or providing a small need. Every kind gesture could be repairing a small hole in someone’s boat.

You never know when someone around you needs that quiet repair or how many lives you will save due to your watchful eye and listening ear. God places these people in your path so He can be a blessing through you. Neither do you the size of blessing you will receive for your actions.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

People want to Succeed. It is inbred in each one of us. Have you ever known anyone to get out of bed in the morning stating, “Today, I want to fail.”? People want to succeed. No one gets out of bed determined to fail. Since man’s basic nature is to succeed, there are many ways you can help others be more effective and fruitful. One of those is to assist by asking the right, encouraging questions.

Too often the questions we ask one another are more discouraging, and demotivating than uplifting and encouraging. Perhaps unintentional, and more out of a protection for the other person, yet they often serve to stifle one’s motivating forces to move forward. The questions we ask need to be encouraging. The following are the type questions needed to encourage others in effectively moving forward toward goals and achieving fruitfulness in his/her endeavors.

Instead of, “What are you doing?” try using, “I’d like to hear your end goal, or what you are desiring to achieve?”

Instead of, “And how are you going to do that?” Utilize, “What steps are you taking accomplish your desired achievement that might benefit others?”

Instead of, “What makes you think you can succeed?” Ask, “Based on your definition of achievement, what could lead you to achieve even greater success and fruitfulness?”

How can I help you be as effective and fruitful as possible?

While these questions are not all inclusive, they are meant to give you a positive approach to assisting others in reaching for goals and “success” (fruitfulness). How can you improve your line of questioning to assist and encourage others in reaching for the fruitfulness God created them for.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

There is a lot of information being floated around about Discipleship. Many books have been written, conferences offered, and videos accessible. Most have good quality material and information for churches and individuals willing to be discipled or to disciple others. However, as with any major topic, we must be cautious and good stewards of God’s resources and in the way we lead those God has granted to our charge.

While I do not consider myself to be “The Expert” or the only voice to listen to, let me offer three thoughts to consider as you examine your church’s Discipleship process – something every church should evaluate each year. – or as you design/redesign a more effective Discipleship process for Christlikeness.

1. Discipleship is more about conduct than content. Content is extremely important in building disciples. Jesus spent better than three years pouring content into His Disciples. Yet, more than content, Jesus poured out His conduct every day in each situation He found Himself. His conduct displayed the importance of living out the content. When our words and our actions do not line up, people take note and we in turn are building Disciples of a different source, following our actions, not our content.
2. Discipleship is more about process than program. Disciples are not built through programs. Churches and denominations tried this for years without great fruitfulness. Certainly, you can have certain studies or activities expected of everyone in your church. Yet, not everyone will advance or mature at the same pace or based on a number of studies completed or activities engaged. Discipleship cannot be measured by studies completed or how many activities a person has been engaged in through a process. Discipleship can only be measured through heart-felt evidence of Christlikeness.
3. Discipleship is more about individuality than uniformity. Jesus’ twelve Disciples/Apostles were certainly not cut from the same mold. Neither did they each adopt Jesus’ teaching in the same manner. Peter was impromptu, off the cuff, spontaneous. John was likely more laid-back, subdued, and watchful. Each one acquiesced in his own manner based on upbringing, character, and background. God creates each person individually and places us in environments that help mold us into His useful instruments. Growing Disciples is not building robots. It is building individuals into Christlikeness for their purposed assignments from God.

Certainly, these three ideas are not all inclusive of a healthy Discipleship process, however, they are three areas where many churches falter. A healthy Discipleship process is part of the calling of the church and of The Great Commission. Faltering in one of these areas may produce weak Christians and misleading Discipleship beliefs. Let us be prudent and devoted to God’s calling to be truly effective in Christlike Disciple making.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

When all teaching components are committed to the learning aspect, the outcome is about true life-changing learning. Every teaching opportunity should be accompanied by an invitation for application of the learning experience.

While the classroom setting may not be the most conducive for application, application should be discussed and a challenge to apply lessons learned should be issued. Some application challenges will be specific, others may be broader. Examples: “How will you go out this week to be a better servant to others?” or “Who is the one person you will send a note of encouragement tomorrow?”

Much of the Christian teaching in our churches today focuses on delivering information, history, facts, and figures. While it is important to have knowledge of the scriptures, knowledge does not produce disciples. Information, history, facts, and figures may provide knowledge, and knowledge may produce a few trivia buffs, producing trivia buffs is not our calling.

Every time Jesus asked a question, offered an object lesson, or illustration, He was inviting His listeners to engage in the learning experience. He invited them to not only learn the facts and history, He invited them to apply in their individual lives the truth of His teaching. It was always about the learning experience transforming lives.

Content and application are both necessary in our disciple-making and “teaching them to observe all things…” Content without application leads to trivia buffs. Application without content leads to what many call “social gospel” in which an atheist could serve right alongside us.

Content pertains to knowledge, information, facts, figures, and material. Application pertains to transformation, wisdom, and discipling maturity. It is imperative that we give our listeners along with the information, the means to use the information to transform their lives, through applying it into their daily living. But are we? Would our answer be acceptable to God when so many that He has called us to are dying? What are the unwavering evidences of true application to a lost and dying community around us?

Not only in the classroom, opportunities for application come from the various ministries of the church, from the pulpit, and from the needs of the community around your church. People will always learn more from doing, applying, than sitting for weeks listening to someone speak on the need to serve. Application will always cement a learning experience. Plan application opportunities with an explicit thought of cementing biblical truths through each person’s engagement.

Every opportunity to serve and engage in ministry within the church and in the community should be a steppingstone to the next level of serving and engaging in discipleship maturation. Lives are changed, transformed, through application of biblical truths and principles.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

In the church we hear the term Discipleship more than any other setting on earth. If Discipleship is the acquiescence of the teachings, disciplines, and practices of another, what should be our objectives as believers in Christ? Would you agree the purest form of Discipleship is imitation? If so, and we are to make disciples of Christ, can we follow His example? We might call it Disciple Making 101. Perhaps in simplified terms we could follow Jesus’ process;

Jesus’ course of discipleship

• choose your disciples
• know your plan of action
• teach the way Jesus taught
• tell them the why (in a relevant manner to them)
• send them out (let them practice it and put into practice)
• Debrief
• Teach them more, deeper
• Commission them and send them out to be learners and practitioners

Using Jesus’ example what are the objectives of a fruitful, Discipleship ministry?

A Discipleship ministry…

• teaches believers the disciplines that can lead to a spiritually transformed life in Christ.
• Causes believers to accept the disciplines (not forced, but creates a desire to accept)
• teaches believers how to pray, meditate, and worship; and to practice these disciplines daily.
• trains believers to share their faith with unsaved people and builds confidence as they witness on a regular basis.
• provides believers with opportunities for fellowship and the development of strong and lasting relationships within and outside the group.
• equips believers to identify their spiritual gifts, choose a worthy ministry, and do ministry with compassion and competence.

The Apostle Paul stated, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil 3:14. May we, each press on in our own maturation into a Disciple of Christ as we lead others into and through his/her Discipleship journey. This is our Calling and should be our compelling desire. May God bless your Discipleship journey as you assist others in theirs.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

When viewed as a continual learning process, life can take on wonderful, greater meaning for each of us. Life is to be a continual learning process. Some learning experiences come unexpectedly through our actions and experiences. Others come from our striving to learn each day. Striving to learn keeps the mind alive and life juices flowing. Without striving to learn, our brains stagnate, and as stagnated water breeds the stench of death, so will the stagnation of our brain cells.

 I searched for years trying to find an occupation where after your initial orientation training, you never had to do any further training. Not that I was looking for work, I simply thought surely there were jobs like that. No one has ever been able to point to any job where there is not additional training from time to time. There is always safety training, new technology, new systems or procedures, always some new or next level training.

Every job in the corporate world has continual training to better your work, and the organization’s production rate. Each one of those jobs’ deals with the temporary, the here and now. In the church we deal with the eternal. Doesn’t it make sense that we should also have continual training to be more efficient and proficient at carrying out our tasks? Yet in the church we often neglect to train and equip for Kingdom work. Very little training is ever offered to new position holders and less continual training.

It should be imperative in the church; we should always be on the search to improve our service to God for His Kingdom. God has created us to be life-long learners. This includes being better equipped to serve Him by serving others.

The third tenet of the Great Commission is “teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you…” Notice the word “teaching” is present tense. It is a continual action. It does not suggest a stopping point. It is not about the past. Also, note, how the Disciples knew what to teach? Jesus had been teaching them throughout His ministry – and would continue to teach through His Word and The Holy Spirit.

We may not have Jesus walking physically beside us, but we do have His written Word. We also have men and women God has taught to be able to train and equip us. Today’s advancement in technology gives us greater capability for equipping than any previous generation. 2 Timothy 2:2 states, “And these things you have seen and heard from me, commit to others, so they may be able to teach others also.”

Jesus taught His disciples, who taught others, who taught others, who taught others, through the ages, until someone brought His teachings to you. You and I have an obligation and a privilege to thirst and hunger for more equipping as long as there is breath in us. Drink in His teaching, and teach others as well. This is fulfillment of The Great Commission.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

In one church I interviewed and hired an administrative assistant, LeeAnn. At the time LeeAnn had never worked in a church office or any office with a computer. In fact, she was in a sense intimidated at the thought of using a computer. Her trepidation came as much of her work would require the use of a desktop computer. While she had her concerns, I saw the capacity in LeeAnn to succeed and overcome her computer challenges. In the end I could not have asked for a better Administrative Assistant. She was a partner in ministry. Everywhere I have moved since leaving that church, I have always looked for the next LeeAnn.

LeeAnn was a person of capacity. Whether it was using the computer, or planning and organizing an event, LeeAnn always carried our plans to the next level. When you have the right persons in the right positions, the ride of ministry is much easier and so much more fun.

People with passion and drive are people of capacity. They are willing to go the extra mile to get the job done. People of capacity have a giftedness of competence, ability, capability, and aptitude to accomplish what they are assigned.

Everyone has capacity. It is the responsibility of leaders to help unearth and develop that capacity. Instead of filling empty slots with the first person to say yes, look for capacity in individuals. Helping people find and engage in his/her highest level of capacity is one of the most stimulating and rewarding areas of leadership.

Some people are like Lee Ann and are ready to learn and take on a challenge. These people have a drive within him/herself to uncover and unlock his/her abilities, giftedness, and capability, especially in the work of God’s Kingdom. Others are not so eager to leave their comfort zone to grow. As a leader you can guide each one into increasing in his/her God-given, greater capacity.

People of capacity create fruitfulness. The more you can influence the God-given capacity of each individual within your church/organization, the greater the fruitfulness will be evidenced. Every person in your organization has unique contributions to make according to his/her God-given capacity. What processes do you have built into your culture to influence people’s unique contributions to advance God’s Kingdom?

Promoting, supporting, and encouraging individuals to serve within his/her unique capacity, contributing as God has enabled them is asking them to work from his/her personal strength. Doing so, you will see much more than work being done. You are honoring each one for his/her individual contribution to the Kingdom of God.

Allowing persons to develop and serve out of individual capacity you release untapped potential enabling people to become fully engaged in God’s Kingdom work at their fullest. What will you do today to begin building a culture of recognizing and deploying individual capacity of all members?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.