March 9, 2010
Every workplace (secular or sacred) can become a real CIRCUS after while. From flying monkeys to acrobatic elephants, these days, there’s very little that separates the BIG TOP from the BIG CUBICLE.
I’m sure you’ll agree that no circus is complete without at least one lion and of course, a lion tamer. Interestingly enough, the same is true for any common leadership environment. There are essentially only two kinds of leaders:
Lions.
And Lion Tamers.
There are those who, in order to demonstrate their full potential and gifting, must be UNLEASHED to do so, while there are others who thrive in setting the parameters by which others will be UNLEASHED within. While the first is focused on conquering, the latter is primarily focused on managing.
While both are equally necessary to put on a good show, when one is absent or when one is outnumbered, it can produce a very dangerous and counterproductive environment. Discovering which leaders are which within your organization is extremely necessary.
March 2, 2010
A rather funny thing happened on yesterday. I received an email from a pastor inviting me to speak at a leadership event his church was scheduled to have later this fall, and he wanted to know what my honorarium was.
Couldn’t help but smile as I read it since I wrote about honorariums in my book, 83 Things I Wish The Black Church Would Stop Doing.
For those of you have not yet read it, thought I include that
particular excerpt today for you to enjoy:
I personally have no problem with churches who provide guest speakers or artists with some form of payment for the services they render.
That is more than honorable.
Hence the word.
However, just not sure if many of our churches know what the word ‘honorarium’ actually means.
Honorarium derives from the Latin word, honorarius, which means a payment for a service (like public speaking) on which custom or propriety forbids a price to be set.
Simpy put, honorariums were a bestowed honor, not the payment of a prescribed fee.
Big difference.
Honor due upon request is not honor at all.
Honor due and given without request is honor indeed.
If an artist or speaker requests a church to pay them a specific amount of money to render a particular service, then that exchange should not be called an honorarium.
That’s called a bill.
And just in case you were wondering what my response to that church was, I told him that I do not charge an honorarium to speak. After hearing that, the pastor decided to buy a copy of my book for every leader on his team.
Needless to say, I was truly honored by that.
