Global Leadership Summit 2012 (John Ortberg)

John Ortberg is the pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and author of several books.  His most recent and the one his talk was based on at the Global Leadership Summit is Who Is This Man?  Here is a brief summary of his talk at the Leadership Summit.

"Jesus was the most unlikely candidate to change the world"

"Jesus gave the world its most influential movement"

"Jesus changed how we think about history"

"Jesus shaped how we express compassion"

"The Jesus movement shaped education"

"Jesus revolutionized technology and science"

"Jesus revolutionized art"

"Jesus changed political theory"

"Jesus changed how we think about human rights and dignity"

"Jesus uniquely taught love of ones enemies"

"Who was this man?  The King of Kinds, Lord of Lords and the Greatest Teacher to ever life."

--Among all of these topics, John presented mountains of evidence which is included in his book.

Global Leadership Summit 2012 (William Ury)

William the author of the well acclaimed book Getting Past No, a book on negotiation.  Here are a summary of his thoughts at the Global Leadership Summit.

"When angry, you will make the best speech you will ever regret"

"The greatest power we have in negotiation is the power not to react"

"To negotiate:  focus on the interest, not the position; ask the question 'why'; and reinforce the power of objective opinion"

Abraham Lincoln, when asked how to destroy his enemies:  "Do I not destroy my enemy when I make them into my friend?"

Global Leadership Summit 2012 (Patrick Lencioni)

Patrick Lencioni is the founder and president of The Table Group as well as a best selling author and highly valued consultant.  Here are this thoughts from the Global Leadership Summit.

"People need to be reminded more than instructed"

"Organizational health is the greatest competitive advantage"

"There are 4 disciplines to make an organization healthy:

1) Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team
2) Create Clarity
3) Over Communicate Clarity
4) Reinforce Clarity"

"The vision of your firm must be something your willing to be punished for.  Working at a church should never be about the job, it should be something your willing to be punished for the opportunity to do"

"If your people aren't doing an impression of you when your not around, your not over communicating!"

Global Leadership Summit 2012 (Craig Groeschel)

Craig Groeschel is pastor of Livechurch.tv, the second largest congregation in the United States.  He is an engaging speaker and a passionate pastor of the local church.  He is a great leader and innovative thinker.  His most recent book Soul Detox: Clean Living in a Contaminated World is engaging and truth filled for those seeking to live their lives sold out to Jesus.  This is a summary of his thoughts at the Global Leadership Summit.

He began with a message to the older generation:

"Don't resist or fear the next generation, embrace them, believe in them.  They need you."

"God values maturity.  If your not dead, your not done."

"Don't just delegate tasks to the next generation, this creates followers.  Delegate authority to create leaders."

"With the younger generation authenticity trumps cool every time."

"The youngest generation feels entitled this is not their fault, they were a generation raised this way."

"Because you fell entitled, you overestimate what you can do in the short term."

"Honor publicly results in influence privately"

"Honor of God will result in honoring those around us"

"Respect is earned, but honor is given"

How do we do all this?

1) Ongoing feedback loops - message reviews and critiques with all generations

2) Create specific mentoring moments - ask the question 'will you mentor me?'

3) Create opportunities for significant leadership development.

Global Leadership Summit 2012 (Sheryl Wudunn)

Sheryl WuDunn is a pulitzer prize winning journalist and author if Half the Sky.

The two tenets of this book:

1) "Gender Inequality is the central moral challenge in the 21st century.  We are missing between 60 - 100 million women in our population today."

2) "We think women need education and jobs.  We think women and girls aren't the problem, they are the solution."

Global Leadership Summit 2012 (Jim Collins)

Jim Collins taught for many years at Stanford University and began research in 1992.  From there, he has written numerous invaluable business books recognized by the NY Times and BusinessWeek as a best selling author.  Jim is an excellent communicator and business leader.  His latest book is Great by Choice and it is this book that inspired his talk at the Summit this year.

Great by Choice measures companies that grew 10 times faster than their competitors.  Their main differences were outlined as fantastic discipline, productive paranoia, and empirical creativity.

Fanatical Discipline:

"It is important not to over stretch"  Jim tells a great story at the turn of the century of the race to the North Pole.  Its central tenet is keeping pace instead of over-extending.

"Southwest Airlines as been profitable for nearly 40 years, through everything."

"Manage yourself in good times so you can do well in the bad times.  Its about consistent, consecutive performance."

Empirical Creativity:

"Comparisons company leaders don't do enough testing before they bet all of the new creativity"

"A marriage of creativity and discipline is what sets people apart"

"The challenge is to merge creativity and discipline.  This is KEY."

Productive Paranoia:

"Understand the only mistakes you learn from are the ones you survive."

"High cash to assets ratio in the 10x companies was a consistent factor."

"It's all about what you do before your in trouble"

"The greatest danger is to be successful and NOT KNOW WHY!!"

"Greatness is not a matter of circumstance"

Great Organizations:

1) Have superior performance related to the mission.
2) Makes distinctive impact
3) Has Lasting Endurance

"Organizations are not great if they can not be great without you."

Global Leadership Summit 2012 (Condoleezza Rice)

Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, spoke briefly at the Leadership Summit this year.  She has a classic rags to riches story that she communicated in a dynamic way.  Here is a link to her facebook page.

"Freedom and democracy are not the same, but are inextricably linked."

"Democracy can not mean the tyranny of the majority."

"If the strong exploit the weak, democracy can't be stable"

"There's a lot a government can do, but it can't deliver compassion."

"Leadership requires irrepressible optimism.  The sources of this optimism include looking at others circumstances.  Out of the struggle often comes victory."

"Today's headlines and histories judgement are rarely the same"

"Stress highlights our failures and our flaws"

She has written several books, most outlining her extraordinary life.

Global Leadership Summit 2012 (Bill Hybels)

Bill Hybels ( is Pastor of Willow Creak Community Church and a leading thinking is church life over the past 30 years.  Here is a summary of his talk on August 9, 2012 at the Global Leadership Summit.

"Everyone wins when a leader gets better"

"The seed rejection ratio in the Luke 8 parable of the sower and the seed is 75%.  3 out of every 4 reject the Gospel seed"

"If I want to see more trees, I have to plant more seeds"

"Whether you life it or not, as a leader, the whole organization takes its cue from you."

"You must learn to lead yourself and others"

"You are the most difficult person you will ever lead"

"A leaders most valuable asset is their energy, NOT their time"

"God, what would be the greatest contribution I could make?  You can sprint for 6 weeks, you can't do it for 6 months"

"God didn't build us to lead responsively but proactively."

"The greatest plan a pastor can put together is a succession plan"

"Leadership is a privilege and a gift from God"

Leadership Lunch w/ Collin Sewell

Collin is the President of the Sewell Family of Dealerships as well a developer and Public Education enthusiast in West Texas.  His current development project is Parks Legado (http://www.parkslegado.com) which is a cutting edge gathering space for shopping, eating, and residential opportunities.  He has been nominated by TIME as a 'dealer of the year' in 2011, is currently Odessa's 'Family of the Year' and 'Entrepreneur of the Year'.  His most recent mentor is John Maxwell and provides the Sewell Leadership Event annually for the community.  Above all these and many other honors that one can find out about Collin, he is committed to Jesus Christ and doing life with Him.  I had the honor of interviewing Collin over lunch as a leadership expert, and this is a summary of his thoughts.

1) What is the greatest lesson you've ever learned?

"I didn't realize how much of life is about people.  Life requires at least two things with people, earning trust and building relationships.  It's important to understand why we do what we do before we change how we do it."

Some vital questions people ask:  Can I trust you?  How do I keep from busting trust?

Collin defines Leadership as influence, as described in John Maxwell's book The 360 Degree Leader.

2) What / How are you learning now?

Submission to God's Will -- NOT MINE.  Collin is studying Andy Stanley's '4 Phases of Life'.  He is learning that "he is a nobody" and it is key to "give God credit."

3) How has failure shaped your life?

Failure is a driving force in learning.  Reviewing mistakes to generate life lessons is key to growth.  In fact, now Collin doesn't view many things as failures, but as lesson to start again as described in Maxwell's book Failing Forward.

4) What do you know that I should know?

Its important to chose to be a learner.  Read great books everyday.  No-one changes their life until they change something they do EVERYDAY.  The question is "What do you want your life to look like at 50?"

For Collin, it means rising early, real early, at 4:30.  He spends time with Jesus, outlining his day, and reviewing a checklist of goals from the day before.  Collin has a commitment to change.

5) What have you read that I should read?

Blessed Life - Robert Morris

As a Man Thinketh  - James Allen

Visioneering - Andy Stanley

Communicating for a Change - Andy Stanley

The Greatest Salesman in the World - Og Mandino

6) What have you done that I should do?

Make a list of the money you spent on personal development.  Compare it to other things you spent money on.  This will display for you the value you have of yourself.  People are assets as long as they continue growing.

7) How can I add value to you?

Collin requested prayers as he brought innovation to West Texas and sought God.

8) Anything other Keys to Leadership?

When a leader gets to busy, they miss the whisper of God.

Leadership Lunch: Dr. Chris Brammer

At every opportunity I try to have lunch with leaders from around the world, to simply learn and grow from their wealth of experience.  Here is the summary of one such event.

Dr. Brammer is the Senior Pastor of Hampstead Baptist Church, (http://www.hampsteadbc.org/) a Bible believing southern baptist congregation located in Hampstead, Maryland.  He has been serving in this capacity as Senior Pastor for 25 years and has seen countless salvations and spiritual growth of the people God has entrusted to him.  As a leader, he has impact hundreds as they dealt with the call to ministry, myself among them.  Currently HBC is thriving in the Greater Baltimore area as a multi-site church with 3 locations, all of which Dr. Brammer teaches live at.  This is a summary of our leadership lunch in July of 2012.


1) What is the greatest lesson you have learned?

--Patience, many times you can't repair a rash decision.
--We see this lesson in Job
--Adrian Rogers 'God gives everyone enough time to do everything He plans for us to do, gracefully'
--Our time needs to align with God's time

2) What / How are you learning now?

--If God provides an opportunity, pray for it and go for it, until he closes the door.  This 'going for the door' rational is about the attitude, it must be done humbly.

--Go for it, and check the motive.

3)  How has failure shaped your life?

--Failure has produced surrender.  Failure as defined by the world that is.  If we are a child of God, its important to recognize that everything is going to be alright.
--Dr. Brammer has had to learn to live with unfinished tasks.

4) What do you know that I should know?

--Most likely your wife will be your greatest helper, in an area you don't really want help.

5) What have you read that I should read?

Christopher Hichens - God is not Great 

http://www.amazon.com/God-Not-Great-Religion-Everything/dp/0446697966/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346528371&sr=1-1&keywords=christopher+hitchens+god+is+not+great

6) What have you done that I should do?

--Always atempt to be a personal verbal witness.  Live out each message.
--Practice Personal evangelism and extended fasting.

7) How can I add value to you?

--Pray for Wisdom and Boldness

8) What is your personal definition of success?

--Gage success by being at peace with God...Colossions 3

9) Any other question that I should ask others like you?

--Perhaps pose a specific question about a life situation, or something you are currently going through in ministry.

Anything additional to add?

--Learn to live with mistakes
--Leave to live with unfinished tasks
--Not about what you did but how you did it.  MOTIVE drives.

Final Catalyst Post (Durate, Goff, Noble)

The final day of Catalyst proved eventful yet packed with speakers.  First Nancy Durate, a professional communication expert, share some thoughts of verbal communication:

*A mediocre message with an excellent communicator will be accepted.

She advocated a 3 part structure, with a beginning, middle, and end.  She believes a hero is required, and somehow the audience needs to be that hero.

*People will always remember the last thing you say.

Next Bob Goff was a silly guy, but had some interesting thoughts for the crowd as he discussed posers:

Things that make us posers:

1) Fear
2) Not being who Jesus wants us to be

**We leak the stuff we love**

*Many of us stalk Jesus, studying from afar and never really have much of a relationship*

Finally, Perry Noble spoke in the afternoon with some great thoughts on leadership from John 11:1-30.

*If things aren't going the way you planned them, ask these questions:

1) What are you asking God for? - many time were afraid to ask God for big things...

2) What am I willing to go through? - God is asking church leaders mild or wild

3) Am I seeing Him clearly?  - when we understand who He is, we will do ANYTHING

--Instead of God get me out, we need to ask God, LET ME SEE YOU.

4) What am I willing to believe? (John 11:38-40)

If you believe, you will see the glory of God.  His promise is greater than your problem.

Matt Chandler (Catalyst Dallas)

Probably the most impacting speaker at the Catalyst Conference this year in Dallas was Matt Chandler.  He spoke words into my life that I needed to hear as Melissa and I have been trying for 8 months now to sell our house in South Carolina.  We have lowered the price and done plenty of other things to make the house move, yet God hasn't seen fit to sell the home.  As the months pressed forward, bitterness and anger began to build up.  That is until I was reminded of the truth of God's Word that Matt shared that night at Catalyst:

Problem:  We are not obsessed with God like those in previous generations.  We struggle for strength and to have faith.  We struggle to be in union with Christ.

Some of the reasons we struggle include:

1) Failure to believe in justification by grace -> Faith Alone!
     FAR TO MANY PEOPLE WANT APPROVAL.

1 Cor. 15:1 - Paul is passionately possessed with the importance of the Gospel.

***Ministry is a STUPID trade off for a real relationship with Jesus Christ***

2) Aversion to suffering and Struggle

--All of us want to be Joshua and not Moses.  Sometimes the greatest mercy of God can have on you is to wound you.  Suffering might not be a struggle to be solved, but a gift from God.
--When we blame God, we make him the sinner and us the victim.  We can "victim status" with God.

3) Failure to understand the doctrine of adoption

-in adoption you are CHOSEN
-Judicial picture of forgiveness we always get, adoption is the struggle
"To be right with God the judge is a great thing, to be adopted into His family is  a greater thing" J.I. Packer - Knowing God.


God is not frustrated waiting for us to grow up!!  GOD DELIGHTS IN ME!

Catalyst Dallas (Jud Whilhite & Kirk Franklin)

Day 2 at Catalyst was as jam packed as the first.  The quality of the speakers remained the same, and with day one continuing late into the night, day 2 was difficult to engage in at first.  However, the speakers lined up were excellent, and had some great thoughts.  Jud Whilhite is a pastor in Las Vegas and taught on the 'rollercoster of leadership' from 2 Corinthians 5:11-12.  Here is his outline:

¹¹ Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, we seek to persuade people. We are completely open before God, and I hope we are completely open to your consciences as well.¹² We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in the outward appearance rather than in the heart. 

1) Do a gut check.
     Why do I do the things I do?
     NOBODY cares about your ministry scorecard on your deathbed, only if you've been obedient to God.

2) Stay a little crazy for God.
     Ministry is messy because sin is messy.
     This is a great thought, we have to keep the energy and zeal for serving God that we had the first day we started.  Because ministry is so messy, we must be prepared to get dirty.

2 Corinthians 5:13-14


¹³ For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we have a sound mind, it is for you.¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then all died. 

3) Be Compelled by Christ's Love

Your responsibility before God is not to a spectacular ministry, but to faithful obedience and a sincere heart.

Kirk Franklin, the grammy award winning singer and songwriter spoke for a brief time on perils in leadership.  He covered 1 Samuel 11:1-27, which is the story of David and Bathsheba.  He gave some good thoughts such as "David forgot his position and lost his focus" and "David took a long time to understand that what I do is NOT who I AM".

However, the most powerful portion of Kirks story came from a personal illustration.  He recalled the story of his attendance at the AMA's one year, a secular award ceremony.  He recalled that when he went to award ceremonies, like the Dove awards (the Christian version of an award show), he was always the main event.  People wanted to talk to him and get his autograph and be a part of his world.  However, in contrast, at the AMA's Christian artists are not on that large of a stage.  He was announced  by his publicist and no-one moved to him to shower him with the attention that he was accustomed to.  Kirk told the story, that at this point, God spoke to him and told him, that He wanted Kirk to feel like the Holy Spirit does everyday!

A great illustration if you don't think to far into it, like any illustration, but the thought is good:  We tend to ignore the Holy Spirit in our life.  Have you acknowledged his presence today?

Catalyst Dallas (John Maxwell)

Catalyst was filled with great young leaders communicating truth and leadership principles.  However, John Maxwell, the organizations founder, and greatly experienced leadership guru also took a few moments to share with those in attendance.  He outlined the importance of learning lunches and gave the following 7 questions that one should ask when inviting someone:

1) Whats the greatest lesson you've ever learned?

2) What are you learning now?

3) How has failure shaped your life?

4) Who do you know that I should know?

5) What have you read that I should read?

6) What have you done that I should do?

7) How can I add value to you?


John talked about one key to being a growing leader is to define a personal definition of success.  Generally for me, that equates to serving God and my wife as best as possible and taking as many people to heaven as I can.  Different phases of life may require a little more specific definition but overall, this is an important aspect of maintaining a personal growth plan.

John also outline the importance of doing 5 things in your life everyday that help you accomplish this goal.  For me, writing is one of them.  It is so important to continue growing daily as a leader, or one will fall victim to the stagnate nature of life.

Jon Acuff "Stuff Christian's Like"

At Bent Tree Church in Dallas, where Catalyst Dallas was held, Jon Acuff captivated the audience with his humor and mockery of mainline Christian culture.  Jon is a blogger whose blog and book have gone viral as a result of his creative thought process.

Here is a link to the book we will be referencing:

http://www.amazon.com/Stuff-Christians-Like-Jonathan-Acuff/dp/0310319943/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341839659&sr=8-1&keywords=stuff+chrisitans+like

I was very engaged in Jon's talk for two reasons.  First, I love humor, and love to study dynamic communication.  Second, he mocked Christian culture...and I can't stand cheesy Christian culture.  Much of what he talked about was simply an application of his book, but here are some highlights.

He mentioned the "Jesus Juke" which is simply the Christian version of 'debbie downer'.  If your not familiar with Rachel Dratch's character on SNL,  here is a terrible quality intro clip to the skit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9zJHvCsmOI

But the "Jesus Juker" is someone who comes in with an awkward spiritual comment that they clearly haven't thought through.  For example:

(Mike) I can't wait for Saturday!  We are going to get to the stadium like six hours before the game.  I'm bringing my grill to cook up some burgers, we can play washers, and then as soon as the gates open, we can head on in. It is gonna be awesome!

(Todd) Yeah... But I was just thinking... What if we spent those six hours that we were going to tailgate and watch the game by going down to the homeless shelter and serving food?  When is the last time we got this excited about spending six hours in prayer? 

The problem is it communicates nothing but shame.  Its a pathetic power play attempt for people who just want to make others feel worse so they feel better.

Jon also gave some great spiritual wisdom:

***To wreck your ministry, attach your identity to your accomplishments.***

I would add that this is a the fastest way to wreck your own spiritual health.  I've been there.

Further, going to the 'pulpit' or 'stage' to engage your identity is an incredibly dangerous place for a pastor to be, and for the church to be.

*Fame is the worst drug in Christianity.*  - Christians desire to be the next big thing, but the reality is Jesus hasn't called us to be the next big thing, but to obedience.  Its really quite simple.

Overall, Jon is an outside the box thinker that I really enjoyed hearing.  His book has been added to my 2012 reading list, which is getting quite long, but I hope to finish it!

Catalyst Dallas (Andy Stanley)

Catalyst Dallas was a great event that I attended alone as a personal retreat.  Retreating to a place where no-one knows me (in theory) to spend time with God has been a practice of mine for several years.  People typically look at me like I'm strange, and it probably is a little strange to go off by yourself, but I know that its a vital part of my spiritual well being.



Anyway, Catalyst Dallas was a great event this year, and over the next few days I want to share the notes I have received.  These are from Andy Stanley's first session, and the first session overall.

Andy spoke to an audience of 3500 church leaders, all who if you ask are a part of a growing church.  (Church leaders don't face reality well)  But if light of this perception and the reality that many church represented at this conference are growing rapidly, he directed this message toward leaders in that growing church environment.

*The more successful you are, the less accessible you become.

You have two choice when facing this:

1) Refuse the face this reality and burn out.
2) Use success as an excuse to be more inaccessible.

-the overwhelming nature of awareness to world problems has destroyed our ability to simply 'be present' in the moment.

There is a 3rd option.

3) Not burn out, or check out. Gal. 6:9-10, 6:2

You must realized:

1) You can't shut it all out
2) You can't take it all in.

***Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone***

This is a counter culture statement.  From out childhood life has been about fairness, but the reality is, life is not fair.  DON'T BE FAIR!!!

-If fairness existed, it ended in the garden.

*Fairness is not a Christian value. Be ENGAGED.

*Trying to be fair leads to always being disengaged.

Tips to leading 'unfairly'
1) Go deep rather than wide in relationships
2) Go long-term rather than short-term
3) Go time, not just money


The reality is *When you do for one, you often end up doing for more than JUST ONE*

3 Laws of Personal Growth (via Maxwell)

Maxwell's informed the Odessa, TX crowd in April of 2012 that his next book released this fall would be about the laws of personal growth.  He gave a preview of a few of these laws:


1) The Law of the Mirror

-You must see value in yourself to add value to yourself

-Self-image can be the LID to your potential.

-Confidence gets you moving, and it moves you faster and sooner than without it.

-Fastest person doesn't always win the race, the person who starts first does!!


2) Law of Reflection

-Learning to pause allows growth to catch up with us.

*Experience is not the best teacher, evaluated experience is the best teacher!


3) The Law of Environment

-Growth thrives in conducive surrondings

-spend time with successful people!

-read great books, attend great events, and learn how to nourish yourself


In applying these laws to my personal life, I'm found that application is difficult.  Its hard to see value in yourself.  Its hard to pause.  And depending who you are, its really hard to find successful people to spend time with.  However, the hard work pays off in the end, and the reality is, as a leader you will grow.

Leadership Event Lou Holts

I was sitting in a staff meeting one day, in the glassed in conference room of CrossRoads Fellowship, when I saw a giant body guard looking fellow followed my a familiar looking shorter fellow.  Anyone would have looked shorter compared the the first man.  As the mans face came into focus, I realized that the great football icon Lou Holtz had just walked past my conference room.  My brain melted.  Though it should not have, he was scheduled to speak the next day at our church, and share his thoughts on leadership.  Summarized below are his thoughts through my perspective eyes:

*Players will determine if your the leader of the team or not.

There are several parts to a plan of Self Examination:

1) The attitude you choose

     -no chance to succeed if you don't believe in yourself

2) Passion to Succeed

     -can you live with losing?  Are you willing to make the sacrifices it takes to win?
     -Many people focus on what they could do instead of why they could do it!

3) Focus on your purpose

    *Can't win when we pull against each other
     - Every member of the team has a roll.  As the challenge escalates, the need for every person to fulfill that roll increases and the team must improve to win.
* YOU can't have a weakest link.

4) Be a dreamer - every person is either growing or dieing...depends on them.

5) Make Good Choices

-Do whats Right, even when its hard

- Everything at the best of your ability in the time allocated to do it

-Always show people you care, people ask three questions to themselves to determine this:

1) Can I trust you?

2) Are you committed to excellence?

3) Do you care about me?

Overall, Lou Holtz had some great wisdom of leadership from a football perspective, which can be applied to several different facets of life.  An excellent communicator and entertainer, Coach Holtz engaged the crowd and taught lasting principles of leadership.

Sewell Leadership Event - Alan Mullaly (CEO of FORD)

When Alan started at Ford, Ford had 97 brands, and ALL of them were losing money.  There was very little that was profitable at Ford, and this was a difficult task to encounter for a man who had been working for Boeing for the previous several years!

An agressive turn around for Mr. Mullaly comprised of several items:

1) Agressive Re-Structure to meet current demand.

2) Accelerate Development of New Products

3) ONE team moving forward, instead of isolated departmentalism.

HOPE was not one of his strategies, there was a relentlessly communicated action plan.

In a more general sense, there are several changes required in a turn-around:

1) Deal with Reality

2) Know where you are, and where you are going

3) Create the best in class environment, this may require a culture shift

4) The leader of the turn around sets the standard for whats acceptable and whats not

It is the leaders responsibility to define reality, identify the issues, and create a plan to fix it!

Sewell Leadership Event - Maxwell's Laws of Personal Growth

To wrap up the lessons learned in the morning of the Sewell Leadership Event, John Maxwell identified some laws of personal growth.

1) Law of Intentionality - Growth doesn't 'just happen'

You can tell if your on the road to success, its uphill the entire way!

*Most people don't lead their life, they accept their life!!   What a sad reality!
"People want to improve their circumstances but not themselves, so they stay forever bound." - James Allen.

The reality is, the secret to success is contained in your daily agenda!  Its not about doing alot of things, but doing the RIGHT things!!

2) Law of Awareness - you know yourself to grow yourself.

What would YOU like to do with your life?  Successful people usually don't know the line between work and play.  If you don't love what your doing, you should be doing something different!

Maxwell offers the suggestion to do a learning lunch every month.  This is an incredible idea, and I'm going to follow up in a later blog what great questions can be asked at this sort of lunch.

Maxwell's 5 Levels of Leadership

John Maxwell during the Sewell Leadership Event back in April of 2012 was teaching material from his new book the '5 levels of leadership.  From the conference, I actually took the opportunity to review the book and read its 280 plus pages.  While Maxwell is not brief, he does do a good job of organizing the information so that it can be easily reproduced and outlines.  Below is a general outline from his book with some key insights:

Five Levels of Leadership:

5 Pinnacle
4 People Development
3 Produciton
2 Permission
1 Position

Keys to Understanding the 5 Levels:

1) Leadership is a process.  No-one 'arrives' or is 'born'!
2) Leadership is a verb.  It is not sitting in a golden office.


Level 1 - Position:

Here people follow because they HAVE to.

KEYWORD:  Rights

This level will never give you what you need as a leader.  People following at this level do the very minimum to get by.  Low energy and low effort are prominent.

Level 2 - Permission:

People follow at this level because the WANT to.

The level of energy increases immensely, and the leadership style is based on relationships.  People don't go along with you if they can't GET ALONG with you.  It is the responsibility of the leader to connect with people, not vica versa.

KEY QUESTION:  How well do you know your people?

Leaders love people, and as a result, they listen to people.  If you a leader at the top all alone, your not a leader, your a hiker.  If you don't love people, you don't lead them.  A leader also serves and observes his people.  He knows about them, and maturely serves them.

Level 3 - Production:

People follow here because of what you have done for the organization.

KEYWORD:  Results.

This level leaders are reproducing who they are.  They are tour guide style leaders rather than the travel agent style.  People don't want to follow a failure, they want to follow someone successful.  Credibility as a leader starts with leading yourself well.

Key Points:
1) Lead by Example.
2) Generate momentum.
3) Attract better people.  - Law of Magnetism -- you attract who you are!

Level 4 - People Development:

KEYWORD: Reproduction

People follow at this level because of what you have done for them.  Most important investment you will ever make is into the people of your organization.

Key Questions:
1) What are you doing to develop yourself?
2) What are you doing to develop your people?

*If you wouldn't invest in yourself, why would someone else invest in you?

Summary Points:
-Recruiting becomes KEY
-Positioning becomes KEY - getting people into the right places in the organization
-Equipping (5 steps)
1) I DO IT.
2) I DO IT, YOUR WITH ME.
3) YOU DO IT, I'M WITH YOU.
4) YOU DO IT.
5) YOU DO IT, SOMEONES WITH YOU.

Level 5 - Pinnacle

KEYWORD: Respect

People follow you because of who you are and what you represent.

- As you climb the levels, people you share that level with decrease.  It is very difficult to become a level 5 leader with any particular individual.

-People respond to vision based on the level of leadership they are on.

-Great leaders take vision and apply it to the level of the leader!

-Cast vision individually because you are leading individuals.

5 Types of Church Visitors (via Ron Edmonson)

One thing pastors love is church visitors. Really, what we like even more is church visitors who become regular church attendees, but that process begins with visitors. It’s always a mystery why some visit a church and never come back. Those reasons may be the subject of another post, but one thing I’ve learned, much of the chance for return depends on why the person chooses to visit in the first place.

I have discovered there are basically five types of visitors to a church:

1. Testers

These visitors are just looking around…perhaps for a new church…perhaps because they are dissatisfied where they currently attend church. They may feel they are not growing at their current church, or they aren’t completely satisfied with the leadership, the programs, or the opportunities for service available. If testers find what they are looking for, they’ll be back, but most likely there is a specific fit they are seeking. I wouldn’t suggest altering things to keep them, but make sure their questions are answered.

2. Pleasers

These visitors are usually coming to appease someone who asked them. They have less interest in attending church than they have in satisfying the request of a spouse or friend. This is not a bad way to get them at first, and I’m always happy to have them, but it is harder to get them to stick unless God moves in their heart for attending church to become their personal desire. For these visitors, the person inviting them is just as important as the visitor in keeping them, but help the pleaser feel welcome, don’t make them feel uncomfortable, and you’ve got a good chance of seeing them return.

3. Seekers

These are people who know they are missing something in life but aren’t sure what it is. Church may simply be another option, or it may be the only option, but these are the true unchurched. These visitors are a mission field. If we introduce them to Christ, they become forever loyal to the church where they found Him.

4. Jumpers

These visitors seldom stay long at one church. They get upset at something the church does, the church enters a building program that scares them away, or they simply grow bored. Likely they’ll only stick for a while at the new church, too, so don’t be take it personally if they disappear, as it may not be anything you did or didn’t do. Enjoy them while they are with you.

5. Investors 

Most likely, these people moved to your community or some major issue caused them to leave their current church. These visitors are active church attendees looking for a new long-term home. They are ready to quickly commit and serve. It’s important to plug these people in as soon as possible.

 

Again, churches love visitors. In fact, we like any of these five types. Knowing why someone is visiting your church, however, often helps the way you respond to them and gives you a better chance of keeping them. I wouldn’t recommend you ask them which of these they are, but it’s good to have these in the back of your mind as you get to know them.

Sewell Leadership Event (April 2012)

A few weeks back several leadership guru's came to our Church for the Sewell Leadership Event.  Collin Sewell brought these men in and provide an event for both his employees and the community to learn leadership.  Of course, leadership is a major focus for me in my stage of life, so here are the cliff notes from John Maxwells first session in the morning.

John believes that the greatest gap in the world, is that between KNOWING and DOING.  He purported that we so often have the knowledge, but not the 'know how.'  I took away a great principle from this session in my communication style, asking the questions 1) What do you want me to know, and 2) what do you want me to do?

Some other quality quotes from John:

"Most difficult thing to do as a leader is LEAD ME"
Success for the day is defined by the change that happens to you.  If you wouldn't follow yourself, why should anyone else?  Everything rises and falls on LEADERSHIP.

"The Law of the Lid"
It is so important to surround yourself with high capacity leaders.  Only problem is the law of the lid.  Those high capacity leaders won't stay around if they are a higher capacity leader than the leader they are working for.  The law of the lid says that if I'm a level 5 leader, then my employees will all be below that. Improving yourself is a key component in leadership.  This is perhaps the most important aspect of leadership to focus on if your in your mid 20s like me.  The reality is without a growing leader, people will leave or limit themselves.

Finally, John Maxwell began on the 5 level of leadership.  I took so much from this talk, and was inspired to read the book my Pastor had given me.  I will save that for my next post.

Catalyst 2012 (Andy Stanley)

I had an incredible opportunity to attend Catalyst Dallas in May of 2012 and it was an incredible event.  There will be several posts with my notes on the speakers who had the most impact on me personally.  Andy Stanley gave a talk called "It takes One to Know One."  He taught primarily out of Luke.

Luke 5:27-28, Luke 6:12-16  - Andy pointed out that Jesus selected his disciples.

1) Defining Terms:
     A. Apprenticing selecting, modeling, and coaching for the purpose of replacing yourself.
     B.  The NT calls this process discipleship.
2) Jesus' Approach:
     A. He began with succession in mind.
     B. He handpicked those to whom he would entrust his mission.  He didn't as for volunteers.
     C.  He rarely did ministry ALONE.
    D. He gave his disciples opportunities to do ministry alone while he was still around to debrief.
3) 'But' Removal
     A. "But I'm not an expert"
           1) You will never feel like you are adequately prepared to apprentice another leader.
           2) You are not responsible for :  knowing everything, or knowing more than anyone
           3) You are responsible for passing along what you know to somebody else.
           4) Your responsibility is to empty your cup!
     B. "But what will I do?"
            1) In a healthy organization, if you replace yourself, you will always have a PLACE.
            2) In an unhealthy organization...GET OUT.
4) Two Outcomes:
     A. You become multi-site leader.
     B. You become a multi-generational leader
5) Application
     A.  Hire for the future.
     B.  Don't Work alone.
     REPLACE YOURSELF.

In general, Andy was teaching about succession.  Many churches with Baby Boomer generation leaders are not in a process where they are training the next generation and as a result, in a few years, after they retire, we will have leadership problems.  If leaders in Christianity didn't believe this, why would there be such a push for leadership training?  I think Andy is right, but the push-back as usual, is sin, this one in particular, the sin of PRIDE.

A kingdom minded pastor willing to swallow his pride and train a young leader to take his place one day. There are plenty of us willing to be trained!

Modern Poor

Recently I was at a conference, and like many conferences, in order to make the participants feel like they get their moneys worth, they give you ton's of 'free stuff.'   Don't get me wrong, I like the 'free stuff' and I like the conference, but lets just cut the junk and call it what it is, "my conference price is paying for a bunch of magazines, along with keynotes and bands."  But anyway, thats not what this is about, this is about an article in one such free magazine.  This article was detailing statistics about the modern poor in America, and if you look above, the graphic is staggering.  99.6% of America's poor have a refrigerator that they can keep food in!  This indicates America's poor are all eating well enough to keep food from the day before!  63.7% are well entertained, because they have a satellite dish to watch quality HD television.  Combined between the iPhone and the iMac, 92.7% own an apple product, which is by far the most expensive item a person can purchase in the electronic world.  No slight on Apple intended.
Here is the issue.  We cry out about needed to redistribute wealth to the poor, but there aren't poor people in our country anymore.  I don't have an iMac or an iPhone and i'm not considered poor by the standards of this article!!  What the bottom line?  Some sort of financial training should be required before we start giving out money.  These stats simply indicate that our 'poor' will always be poor because they don't know how to save up and build wealth!  Why would they, they don't have to do much to get more than I have!

Now don't hear what I'm not saying.  While I believe there are plenty of people capitalizing and profiteering off of generous Americans, I know there are those who need our help as Christians and/or generous people.  I'm not opposed to giving a hand up, just frustrated with what people are doing with their handouts.  It has not always been this way, the 'poor' used to be 'poor' and it was a noble thing to offer assistance.  Now, you have to wonder, what device will this person be purchasing that I don't even own yet!

Fellowship One (the software conference)

     Recently I had a chance to go to the Fellowship One conference, at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas.  Before going, I asked myself the question 'why would I want to go to a software conference?'  However, soon after learning what the software was capable of, I began to see great value.  While I'm still not a Fellowship One 'evangelist' per-say, it has worked for CrossRoads and I believe it can be a great ministry tool.
     Interestingly enough, at this conference, it was more than just software, there were theory tracks which covered the 'why' behind the 'how to' of the more practical classes.  Its the summary of these classes that is  contained below.
     Eric Soon was the communicator of this information and began by outlining the Systems Trinity.  People, Process and Technology.  Process is where software system comes in, but it is what you use to make your systems efficient.  The goal is to be centered in the 'systems trinity' with a solid balance on the value of people, process and technology in your organization.  Eric reminded us of a great story about meatloaf.  A new wife was making meatloaf and cut off the ends of the loaf and threw it away.  The husband thought it was a waste, so he challenged her thinking.  Other than that was the way she as taught, she didn't have answer, so she asked her mother, who also didn't have an answer, other than thats the way she was taught.  They together went to the next generation above them, the mothers mother and asked her why they cut the ends of the meatloaf off, and Grandma informed them it was because it didn't fit in the oven otherwise.  All these there, mother and daughter were following a process simply because it had always been done that way.  This is the danger in process and why it must be revisited and reviewed.
     Eric then proceeded to dive into the 'process of processes' which is a never ending cycle.  It begins with 'define' -> 'document' -> 'communicate' -> 'implement' -> 'evaluate' -> repeat!
You always want to get more out of a process then you put in.  Further, it is important to begin with the end in mind.   Finally, Eric wrapped up with some observations that are quite valuable:

• Change is a process NOT and EVENT.
• The goal is not to innovate the MOST (goal is efficiency).
• Its not enough to have the best ideas (must have implementation)
• You need to redefine the resistance.
• Re-culturing is the main subject of change.
• Relate, represent, and reframe.  Work the relationship you have and cultivate new ones!

Preaching Rocket Wisdom

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to tune into a 1 day web-inar that was really the kick off for The Preaching Rocket (www.preachingrocket.com).  It was a great opportunity to gather nuggets of preaching preparation wisdom from several of the nations top church communicators.  Below are some of the nuggets I picked up on that I will be applying to the next message I prepare this weekend!

Perry Noble: (Pastor at NewSpring Church)

     "If you want to communicate for change, you need to have ONE main point....most of my content ideas for my sermons come from my quiet times....it is important to utilize other peoples creativity in message preparation in order to ensure the most creative gospel presentation that can happen..."

Jud Wilhite:  (Pastor at Central Christian Church)

     Three phases of a message communication:
     1) Grab the attention of the audience.
     2) Establish the problem that the audience needs to know about
     3) Address the issue with scripture

Jud doesn't see any problems with using life stories in your message.  In fact, he encourages it, "no life related stories are ineffective..."  Preaching is simply truth through personality.  The key is honest communication, and a solid understanding of truth.  Its not a revolving target.

Andy Stanley:  (Pastor at North Point)

     Andy grabs the attention of the audience by generating a creative tension in the first few minutes, and he believes in order to get better, you MUST watch and critique yourself.  He uses the following message structure:

Me - This is what I think is going on, and the tension that I bring to the table.
We - This is how it relates to you, and how you are involved
God - This is what God has to say about the issue.
You - What are you doing to do with this new information, its a personal decision point
We - What are we going to do with this information as a body?

Jeff Foxworthy

Jeff believes that integrating humor into sermons is very important.  He believes you should always trim from jokes, and never add to them.  This will leave them always wanting more. Start you joke with the end in mind, where do you want to take them.  And remember, making an impact is a good thing, making an impression is a great thing.

Leadership Essentials

     Recently in staff meeting at CrossRoads, Lead Pastor Griff put in front of us some teaching from Andy Stanley, a pastor out of Atlanta.  He was teaching on creating and maintaining a culture of trust in your organization, as well as the importance of that culture.  The reality is, in our world, so many fellow employees are always at each others throats, arguing and fighting about things that are usually insignificant.  Worse such, church staff members who are attempting to complete an ultimate purpose are completely unaware how to work together in a manor worthy of their purpose.

     Andy makes a few suggestions.  Employees need to take up two positions 1) I'm going to trust you. 2) I'm going to be trustworthy.  Its simple, basic Christianity.  As employee's we must choose to fill the gap between what we currently know about a person, and what we are discovering with trust.   Unity is a must to create this positive culture and extinguish suspicion.  These are the highlights of Andy's talk:

• Being trustworthy does not mean being flawless.
• We must committed to do what we say were going to do, and if something changes, commit to be the one to notify of it.
• Harboring suspicion and mistrust will eventually poison the culture of your organization.
• People know who you have a hard time trusting based on your attitude. This is impossible to hide.