• Rule #10 Don’t Look Back

This rule is really a tough one for many people. So many times in life we end up getting caught up in focusing on either the good stuff that has happened in our past or the painful stuff that has happened in our past.  The key to following this rule is remembering what’s in the past, learning from it, and keeping the focus on the future.

That’s all there is to it.  Remembering how God has shaped your life up to this point and then focusing on where God is leading you into the future.

There you have it!  The short but sweet finale to the Spy Rules series that has taken me about a year to finish

• Rule #9 Never go against Your Gut

This is a tricky leadership rule!

I post this rule with a little disclaimer: There are two things that allow you to trust your gut, the Holy Spirit (our heart) and continuous study (our mind.)

Never go against your gut.

When a leader is in the midst of having to make decisions on the spot they should be able to trust their gut and just “go with it.” There should be no need for second guessing and trying to figure out the “wise” thing to do. I know it sounds a little crazy but when we, as leaders, are striving to follow Jesus more closely each day and we take our studying seriously there is absolutely no need for second guessing.

The Holy Spirit will guide us, we will learn lessons that will guide us in split second decision making from the many hours that we have spent with our mentors from the Bible and the lessons that we learn from their successes and failures will not fail us. This is the heart of decision making.

The mind part of the decision making if cultivated by what and how much we study. Doug Fields always says “leaders are learners.” In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell lays out the reasoning behind this. Gladwell basically says that everything that enters our mind impacts our decision making so we should be intentional about what we fill our mind with so that we will be effective in our decision making. Sounds pretty biblical to me!

• Rule #8 Assume You Are Under Surveillance

If you have been in ministry for any time at all this is one rule that you quickly learn. Not only is your church/ministry under constant surveillance, you are under surveillance.

This knowledge that we are personally under surveillance by those that are a part of our ministry and by those outside of the church that know that we are involved in ministry can many times lead to burn out. We begin to believe that any little slip-up will lead to a lack of credibility in ministry.

The truth is that being authentic, living without masks, is the only way that we can truly be effective when we are always under surveillance. Without authenticity the people around us will quickly sniff out a hypocritical spirit which they will want to run from as fast as they can.

The bottom line. Know that you are under surveillance. Live authentically.

[UPDATE: Craig Groeschel has a post about living authentically HERE]

• Rule #7 Avoid defensiveness at all costs

Any spy’s cover will certainly be exposed quickly if they fall into a defensive posture. The same principle applies to every leader. Once a leader assumes a defensive posture and tries to rationalize every decision that is made all hope of true influence has gone out the window. Here are some tips for avoiding defensiveness at all costs:

• Quickly admit when you know you have messed up.
• The preemptive strike – you are human, admit it up front.
• Remain teachable – Jabberfrog has more to say about this here.

Let’s hear your ideas…

• Rule #6 Be Aware of Your Environment At All Times

This one seems kind of obvious to me but let’s try to break this down in to some actionable items. After all, if “knowing is half the battle” then the other half is actually doing something!

• Relentlessly evaluate your programs
  • Are they still as relevant as when you started them?
• Constantly evaluate your local culture
  • Do you actually know what is relevant to the people in your community?
• Continually evaluate your facilities
  • Do they communicate what your organization is about?

  How do you make sure you are aware of your environment?

• Rule #5 Blend into the Crowd

Wow! It has been a really long time since I have posted in this Spy Rule series inspired by Mark Batterson. Well, I am back too it!

So what does it mean for a leader to “blend into the crowd?” I believe that it is critical that leaders don’t intentionally set themselves up as somehow “above” everyone else. Real leadership does not depend on position to influence. So how do you belnd in?

• Just act like yourself!
• Dress in a way that is comfortablt for you and still relevant to the people you are trying to reach.
• Don’t worry about titles!
• Stay in touch with the culture (through magazines, tv, movies, blogs)

How do you “blend into the crowd?”

• Rule #4 Vary Your Pattern

I love this spy rule! One of the things that I feel is an “unwritten core value” of my church and a firmly entrenched core value of the youth ministry can be summed up in a single word: Change.

If you are going to be a successful leader you need to change. Always doing things in the same way only leads to habituation. In other words, “the way we have always done it,” will simply become white noise, meaninglessness that will only serve to drown out your mission.

As a leader it is your job to change, it is your job to change the way you do things, it is your job to change the way you lead people, they deserve it!

• Rule #3 Maintain a Natural Pace

As a spy rule maintaining a natural pace is absolutly essential to be successful in you mission because you don’t want to draw extra attention to yourself and you want to make sure that you can sustain your activities over the entire time fram of the mission.

As a leader it is critical that we maintain a natural pace, the pace that God set up for us to live by. I think that one of the things that many leaders get caught up in is the idea that they have to be working all of the time otherwise the operation will fall apart. Well, it is just not true…

As a leader in the church it is essential that we guard our sabbath.

Things WILL go on without us.

• Rule #2 Gather Intelligence

Alright! Back to the spy rules series of posts… Gathering intelligence is a critical part of any spy’s mission, if this is not done the spy can’t be successful.

The same goes for leaders in the church! There are all kinds of different areas that intelligence needs to be gathered in, just look around at all of the places you, as a leader, have influence. Without the gathering of intelligence before we make a move we set ourselves up for failure.

It seems to me that there are two major styles of decision making, both of which Read More→

A while ago Mark wrote on The Spy Rules, you can get a little background info here.

What I want to do is take a closer look at each of these rules through a series of posts. So here we go,

• Rule #1 Know Your Mission
  • This of course is one of the basics of leadership, if you read anything on leadership you will read plenty about the importance of a mission statement and communicating it to the reast of the organization. Here is the thing, as the church we need to be connected with a much deeper mission than is communicated by most mission statements. Of course each church will have their specific mission statement but at the same time each church should, at its absolute core, be committed to revealing the Kingdom. The leaders of a church should know that their mission is in creating a subversive culture that lives out the love of God before the world.