New York Times bestselling author, Max Lucado, talks about how he knew he didn’t have another ten years of senior leadership in him, why his passion has shifted, what causes happiness, and how to be happier.
Plus, Max shares some thoughts on the best and worst decisions he’s made over his decades in leadership.
Welcome to Episode 290 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.
Guest Links
Max Lucado | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | How Happiness Happens
Episode Links
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Ten Signs of a Leadership Crash by Stephen Mansfield
Research on the pursuit of happiness
3 Insights from Max
1.Your interests and callings might come only for a season
Many leaders hold onto their leadership positions for too long. Max and Carey both have come to the place where they needed to pass on their lead pastor role to the next generation of leaders. How did they know it was time to move on? Max described it as “when he dipped his ladle into his leadership bucket, all he heard was a scraping sound.” He just didn’t have anything left for it.
Max would also want to encourage you that just because you are called to something in one season, doesn’t mean you are called to that thing in all seasons of your life. How much of a tragedy would it be if you received all of your callings and giftings on the day of your conversion? It would make the rest of your life pretty boring. Your calling is for life but your assignment might change.
2. Advantages of staying in the same ministry for 31 years
Max has been in a place of leadership at his church for 31 years, and he has been able to see a few advantages to staying in the same place for a long time. One of the biggest advantages is that preaching to the same people for so long has caused him to preach on many of the passages and topics that pastors never preach on. This has added value to him and his congregation.
Max also loves the fact that he has a very long-standing and well-respected legacy within his community that is not only paying off for him but is paying off for his wife and kids now, too. His church has invited two of his three daughters to speak, and the community of people in their church are quick to support him and his family.
3. Happiness happens in unexpected ways
The world seems to be getting less and less happy. While researching his next book, Max learned that only one in three people today report that they are happy. So where has our happiness gone? And more importantly, how do we get it back?
One thing Max realized while researching for his book was that we become happy, ourselves, when we are making other people happy. So, when we give away something that brings joy to someone else, we too are becoming more joyful. Another unexpected way that we can become more happy is by listening. If we look at the life of Jesus, we see that he was very intentional about listening to those who were hurting.
Quotes from Episode 290
I knew it was time to pass on my role when what used to energize me about our church started to drain me. @cnieuwhof Click To Tweet It might actually be disobedient or wrong to hang on in a position to which you're not called anymore. @cnieuwhof Click To Tweet Happiness happens when we give it away. @MaxLucado Click To Tweet Everywhere I look, somebody's trying to make me unhappy so that I'll buy their product. @MaxLucado Click To Tweet Saying no to speaking or to travel is really a good yes to my wife. @MaxLucado Click To TweetRead or Download the Transcript for Episode 290
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Next Episode: David Platt
There are so many deconversion stories away from Christianity these days. David Platt has seen some of the greatest suffering on earth and has again, recently, asked some of the toughest questions: In a universe governed by a good God, is hell really a place? Will so many people born into an earthly hell really end up in eternal hell? David shares how seeing profound suffering and asking those questions hasn’t led him away from faith but deeper into his faith. And, he shares what needs to change in Christianity is really going to impact the world.
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