one-liners from Leadership Summit
Since I have learned that shorty, pithy statements can help in leadership, I should share some of those one-liners I picked up over the past 2 days. I do not remember all of the speakers who shared them, but when I do, I will stick that in there, too.
* Reward your best performers; remove your worst performers – Colin Powell, as quoted by Bill Hybels
* Check your ego at the door. – Colin Powell, as quoted by Bill Hybels
* The best way to get rid of your enemy is to make him your friend. Abraham Lincoln, as quoted by Bill Hybels
* He who you would change, you must first love. -Martin Luther King, Jr., as quoted by Chuck Colson
* Vision leaks. -Bill Hybels
* Get the right people around the table. -Bill Hybels
* Facts are your friends. -Bill Hybels
* When something feels funky…engage. -Bill Hybels. Or, in less pithy words, the problems that you sense aren’t going to go away on their own; they will fester and spread. You, the leader, need to step in and engage the problem ASAP.
* Leaders call fouls. -Bill Hybels
* Take a flyer. -Bill Hybels; a flyer is a calculate, but crazy risk.
* This is church. -Bill Hybels
* Wherever you go, you take you with you. -Bill George (I think)
* You don’t learn by studying; you learn by doing. -Bill George
* There are 100 cents in every dollar. -unknown
* Just because I am fascinated by something and others are following, doesn’t mean I am leading them in something that matters to Jesus. -Gary Haugen
* [In the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000], Jesus didn’t ask for what was needed; he asked for what they had. – Gary Haugen
* Jesus did not come to make us safe, but to make us brave. -Gary Haugen
* The first thing to disappear when spiritual life is diminishing…is laughter. -Dallas Willard, as quoted by Gary Haugen
* To reach people who have not been reached, you have to do things others are not doing. To do things others are not doing, you have to not do things others are doing. -Craig Groeschel
* Here’s some tweasers for when you get off that fence. -Jeff DeArment
take away from Leadership Summit Day 02
I again enjoyed the opportunity to learn from church leaders through the Leadership Summit. Here are a few take-aways from Day 02.
#1 through # a bunch. Craig Groeschel shared about IT. And we all know what IT is when IT comes to church and ministries and spiritual movements. Some churches have IT – that sense of life, of God’s presence, of IT. And some churches don’t have IT – things aren’t quite clicking or moving or tasting of life. You can’t really define IT. IT has a large part to do with God’s Spirit in a church, but there is more to IT than just that. IT is that aspect of a church that makes people walk in and be drawn upwards towards God and across to others. They can’t explain IT. But they want IT. I know I have tasted IT. I personally believe that IT is the sweet presence of God, the mercy of God expressed and poured out in a special way on a group of people.
Groeschel believes there are certain aspects that are often present when IT happens. These don’t have to be present – often God chooses to pour out His Spirit when they are not present. But most often some of these things are present.
(1) the church has a laser focus on its mission. Craig had a very insightful statement. He said, “Don’t think that more ministries = better. Think that better ministries = better.” So he asked: What are we doing that we need to stop doing?
(2) the church sees opportunities when others just see obstacles. Again, there was a nugget of wisdom: many of us believe that God guides by what he provides, but often God guides by what he does not provide. So the question is: What is God trying to show you through your greatest limitations?
(3) the church is willing to fail. And this one is difficult for me, even though I know it is true. Failure is often the first step to seeing God. For many leaders, God may have given them a vision and – in his sovereign wisdom – there are three or four steps of failure ordained before that leader really sees God’s vision begin coming to fruition. So the question is: What has God called you to do that you are afraid to do? Well, when are you going to do it?
(4) the church is led by people who have IT. Not a magic charisma, not an unexplainable attraction to a really cool guy. But the sweet presence of God that is powerful and overflowing. Leaders must have IT. Leaders must have IT before their churches can get IT. So the question is: What is God calling me to do to get IT? Not earn it. But return to it. The idea is a return to our first love, Jesus Christ (Revelation 2:4). Craig said for him it meant not reading Christian books for a year – only the Bible. It meant embracing Jesus through a time of suffering. It meant getting out of America to spend time sitting with and feeding malnourished babies and children. Through those things God renewed his heart – not just for a quick sermon, but for a long season. Through those things God gave IT back to him – the presence of God overflowing as life to others.
# final take-away. The relationships with other leaders in Omaha. I love spending time with other church leaders, hearing their hearts, connecting with them, and learning from them. I was blessed to meet leaders from the Abide Network, serving North Omaha somewhat close to our house. I loved meeting our County Treasurer, John Ewing, again. He is serving in public office with the heart of Jesus for our city. I briefly met Les Beauchamp, lead pastor at Trinity Church in Omaha. And I really enjoyed having multiple conversations and interactions with Ken Dick. Ken is the dad of one of the young men in Core; he has been director of the Home School Network in Omaha; he teaches computer science at UNO; and he is an elder at Christ Community Church. He has many connections and lots of wisdom. I was able to ask him lots of questions and learn a lot just in our short times together. Hopefully we can continue connecting in the future. Thank God for older, wiser men who love Jesus and are willing to invest in young leaders.
As a whole I am thankful to Jesus for the 2 days spent with The Leadership Summit. I learned a lot and experienced a lot. It isn’t the same flavor I normally seek out, but it is an important help in developing leadership in Jesus’ church. May God use these things in my life with Core.
take away from Leadership Summit Day 01
I had the privilege of spending yesterday wtih Jeff DeArment (a staff member for our church) attending the Leadership Summit simulcast. Leadership Summit is an outreach of Willow Creek Association. I am not a big fan of Willow Creek, but I have learned that I can learn from just about anybody. Yesterday was a day of good, refreshing, encouraging training in the area of leadership. Willow Creek is unashamedly Christian, and many of the message were laced with Scripture. I left very grateful for the first day of the event. Today is Day 02. Here is the take away from Day 01.
#1 – Shorty, pithy axioms can actually be helpful in leadership. Sometimes I get tired of short maxims. They seem just a little removed from the urgency of today’s reality, the mess on my desk, or the decisions staring me in the face. But Bill Hybel’s talk on the “high drama of decision-making” helped me realize where such maxims come from. He outlined a 4-step process of decision-making that goes like this: (1) what does the Bible say about this decision? (2) what do wise counselors say about this decision? (3) what does my past pains or past gains or past experiences speak into this decision? (4) how is the Holy Spirit prompting me concerning this decision? I found this simple outline quite helpful. Then he said that over years of experience and years of tracking through this process over and over again, things like axioms emerge. They emerge out of the Scriptures and wise counsel and experience and prayer. They don’t replace them, but they emerge out of them. And I can use them.
#2 – God’s justice is beautiful. The talk I was looking forward to most was Gary Haugen’s. He is the President of International Justice Mission, and I had learned about him when I was reading Not For Sale (a phenomenal book, I might add). Gary’s description of the justice of God being driven and motivated by the goodness of God was incredible. The age old question of Why Does God Allow These Horrible Atrocities? – things like 2 million children being in forced prostitution, according to UNICEF – was answered quite differently. Gary said the problem in that question is not God. The problem is that God’s people have not shown up on the scene to show God’s goodness to those children, those women, those families in poverty or hunger. God’s people have tasted God’s goodness; now God’s justice should drive them with relentless passion to take God’s goodness where injustice now exists.
I particularly found that this goes hand in hand with parts of Habakkuk and Amos. Both of these prophets were given messages of God’s justice. And it seems that God isn’t demanding justice because he is a stiff-necked, old codger in the sky who likes to get mad. Instaed, God is demanding justice because he is good and loving. It is true that God’s righteousness and God’s justice is meant for his glory, to display who He is – not just to alleviate humanity. But part of God’s glory is the redeeming and renewing of humans…and the removal of injustice. The most potent passage in my mind right now is Amos 5:21-24. God reveals that he is hating the religious motions of the Israelites; instead he demands justice rolling down like a river!
And here is what I have to own, to take responsibility for. Right now, God’s plan for removing injustice in our world…is…the church! It is us! One other talk yesterday – from Efrem Smith – said that, “Until Jesus comes back in full justice…it’s just us.” May God give me the grace to break for 2 million children in forced prostitution. May God give me the grace to lose my comfortable life for the sake of his name among slaves. May God give me the grace to give so that others might live – those others who are at life and death moments around the world right now, those on the brink of starving, those who can’t find clean water, those who can’t get basic help, those without a mom or dad. May God give me and my family the grace to love God’s justice.
And I want to do this with the Gospel of Jesus for the glory of Jesus and for the joy of all peoples. The goal is not the end of injustice or the end of poverty or the end of hunger. The goal is the glory of God through the end of injustice, the end of poverty, and the end of hunger. That would be beautiful. He would be beautiful.
#3 – The final take away from Day 01 is that a good old fashioned African-American preacher who loves Jesus is always the best way to end a day. Thank you, Efrem Smith.
Off to Day 02.
