2021 Global Leadership Summit Reflections

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Global Leadership Summit (GLS) at Willow Creek Church. I’ve been processing that experience and the events leading up to it and that followed it. In reflecting on the experience as a whole, there’s a couple of takeaways that I found personally significant. 

Dining Out

I’m going to start with the food. Along the trip, the group I traveled with went to some really fun upscale restaurants and some not-so upscale restaurants, including one memorable trip stop at a mall food court where we played that always fun game of “Who ordered the salmonella?”

Along with the food, I noticed something very important. Every restaurant we went to was severely understaffed. Most of the wait staff were taking care of very large groups of customers at the same time. Food took longer than one would expect it to be, waters and soda’s took longer to get refills, and many restaurants had limited menu items due to low stock.

In reflecting on this, I also observed that most of the other customers were civil and recognized this as well. I suspect this is a trend that will be happening more and more. I wonder how this will affect the future of the food industry. Time will tell.

Live versus Streaming

I’ve attended the Global Leadership Summit (GLS) before, but only at the satellite locations. During those times, I would walk into the site, grab my resources, and watch the GLS videos. The energy was always good and it was always an incredible time of learning. 

In many ways, attending the GLS in person was much the same, however, there was a greater sense of energy. The volunteers were incredible, the facilities were spotless, and every aspect of the location was setup so that the attendees could find their way easily.

One thing that was unexpected was the significant amount of available seats in the auditorium. We were told that over 70% of the people attending the conference were watching from satellite locations. I would suspect this is a trend that will increase and I sincerely wonder if the Global Leadership Summit will make some venue adjustments moving forward.

Speakers

As with any conference, there’s some incredible speakers, some great speakers, some good speakers, and some filler speakers. Here’s the speakers that I took take-away’s from along with one quote that I found significant:

  • Craig Groshell
    “It’s an honor to suffer with the savior who suffered with me”
  • Michelle Poler
    “Brave means despite the fear you have courage to take action”
  • General Stanley McCrystal
    “It’s hard to assess risk and even harder to verbalize to someone else’s who is outside of your world the risk”
  • Jamie Kern Lima
    “Personal setbacks are often Gods setups”
  • Shola Richards
    “I belong in any room I step into”
  • Ibukun Awosika
    “Who you strive to be should not be replaced by the office you hold“
  • Dr. Francesco Gino
    “[Rebels have] the ability to find creative solutions to problems within a construct of expectations”
  • Juliet Funt
    “Envision the future of how work will work within the construct of where you are now”
  • Bianca Juarez Oltoff
    “Who do you miss out on influencing when you choose not to lead?”
  • Malcom Gladwell
    “Social risk-takers see the future and make it happen”
  • Albert Tate
    “What if the Lesson is what we experienced, and NOW THIS is the Test?”

Final Thoughts

I’ll close this out with the four questions that I try to ask myself anytime I go to an event or a conference.

  • Did I learn anything for myself?
    Yes – absolutely and I’ll be able to apply some of what I learned immediately and some of what I learned will have to take time for me to apply.
  • Did I learn anything I could pass on to others?
    Yes – I think there’s several things I could pass on to others in the right situation.
  • Did I hear anything I need to pause and pray about?
    Without a doubt. There was some incredibly challenging thoughts that I’ll need to really work through if I’m going to continue to grow and develop as a person, a servant, and a leader.
  • Would I attend again?
    Yes – absolutely – without a doubt.

10 Tips for Preaching from an iPad

Like many pastors, I was trained to preach from either a manuscript or notes. One of the great gifts that I’ve received was all of the hand-written sermons my Grandfather had prepared over the course of his ministry. His “sermon barrel” was filled to the brim with messages from over 60 years of preaching. It’s a treasure trove of spiritual wisdom and insight that is life-giving in every way. I also have a sermon barrel, although my sermons are entirely digital. And while my sermons don’t have the personal connection like my Grandfather’s hand-written sermons do, they achieve the same effect.

Because all of my sermons were written on the computer, in order for me to preach from them, I had to print the sermon out. For years, I would print out the sermon, and then carefully tape them together into a sort of book that I could flip through as I preached. I would trim the booklet so it would fit neatly into my Bible so that when I started preaching, I could simply open my Bible and go. I’d even write out the scripture verses so I didn’t have to be flipping through my Bible while I preached. It was a time-consuming process and there was always a concern that I would lose the sermon booklet somewhere or worse that I would forget or duplicate a page.

Many years ago, I made the decision to start preaching from an iPad. There was obviously some challenges to this, but for the most part, it’s made it much easier to deliver the message. Over the course of the years, I’ve learned a few things that help make the transition from preaching from a physical document to a digital document easier:

  1. Convert the document to a PDF before putting it on your iPad so that as you are referring to it – you can easily adjust the font size. You can also change font colors and highlight or markup the PDF easily to assist as placeholders and way-markers throughout the message. Also – as a PDF – you can easily adjust the layout so it works best for you.
  2. Save the PDF into a folder in Dropbox or Google Drive and make sure that folder is setup so that it is available offline. You need to be able to access the PDF quickly and easily without having to think about it.
  3. Make sure you have a charged iPad. I have an iPad Pro and if I have at least 15% – I can make it through about a 20-30 minute sermon. I’ve also used iPad Air’s and iPad’s – and those take a little more battery, but it’s relatively comparable. That said – having a full charge eliminates any frustration.
  4. Along with making sure the iPad is charged, make sure that you’ve closed out of all of your apps except for what you need. Those eat up battery life and you don’t really need your Hulu account open when your preaching.
  5. Cases are primarily going to be a personal choice. For me – I use the Magic Keyboard case from Apple so that I can leverage the iPad as a true laptop alternative. Which means – when I want use my iPad – I oftentimes just pull it out of the magnetic keyboard case and set it on top of the case – which grips the iPad just fine so it doesn’t slip or move. You can also get a flat case for the iPad. Just pick something that works best for you.
  6. Make sure you are using a current update of the iOS software and that your iPad is backing up to iCloud.
  7. Along with that – NEVER UPDATE ON A SATURDAY NIGHT OR A SUNDAY MORNING. That’s just playing with fire and you WILL get burned.
  8. In Settings, do the following:
    1. Turn on Do Not Disturb so you don’t get interrupted
    2. Under Display & Brightness, change the following:
      1. Set brightness where you want it.
      2. Change Auto-Lock to Never (It’ll drain your battery – but it’s worth it)
      3. Turn off Lock/Unlock
    3. Under Notifications, change the following:
      1. Show Previews: Never
      2. Turn off Announce Messages with Siri
  9. Make sure your hands are clean. Nothing worse than having a sticky finger from a donut or a wet finger from coffee/water that makes the iPad stick or not work. I always keep a micro-fiber rag close by so I can easily wipe the screen down if that does happen.
  10. Lastly, remember that it’s technology – so it will fail you. If it’s too hot and in direct sunlight – the iPad will turn off, if it’s too cold, it’ll take longer to scroll and won’t respond as well. Just do the best you can with it and if and when it fails – just keep pointing people to Jesus and you’ll be fine.

Exploring Church Budgeting Alternatives

When it comes to discussing church budgets, it’s often a difficult process. No one really wants to talk about money and the ones that do often seem to have only one way to budget.

What if Budgeting could look different? What if budgeting could be centered more around how to use the financial resources to accomplish the goals of the organization rather than simply paying bills and making ends meet? There’s four basic types of budgets that are worth exploring.

  1. Zero-based budgeting
    Every ministry of the church starts with zero and must justify every single expense. No expenses are automatically okayed and every budget must go through a cost containment analysis to weed out the extras and focus on the essentials. It’s basically a bottom-up budgeting and is extremely time-consuming.

    There are a few churches using this, but because it is so demoralizing and it restricts the budget so significantly, it’s not used widely. Only in cases of a restarts and other restructuring efforts is this appropriate.
  2. Incremental budgeting
    We spent X amount on children’s ministry last year so we’re going to spend X amount +/- a % amount (determined by last year’s income) on this year’s children’s ministry. This is how most churches seem operate. It’s good and it’s bad for a variety of different reasons.
  3. Activity-based budgeting
    We want to have a really good worship experience and to accomplish that we need to invest in our creative team and their needs. That’s going to cost the church XXX amount of dollars and so that’s how we budget for it. Again – lots of churches operate this way – for good and bad reasons.
  4. Value-based Budgeting
    We want to have a church that is focused on connecting with the community. Because of this – every item in the budget must focus on the community. No single item should cost more that the value it adds to the community. Every budget item should be focused on the community. And because the community needs are ongoing, every effort must be made to avoid unnecessary expenditures that don’t deliver value for the community.

If you’re goal is to set a 3-5 year budget – then you really need to consider value-based budgeting. It’s provides the only option that, in my opinion, a healthy mission-centric church should consider. Money isn’t the focus – accomplishing the vision according to the values (mission) of the church is.

The Problem of Persecution

For decades the church has been praying for revival. However, for revival to take place, change must happen. Change, by its very nature, is always disruptive and creates tension. This tension is problematic at times, but necessary, if the change desired is to take place. Which means, if we truly want revival, then the Church must be willing to accept and embrace the change necessary to bring about revival.

If revival is the goal, then there has to be some elements of persecution in place in order to accomplish that goal. As pastors, we are called to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ. If the work of the ministry is discipling individuals to Know God and share the hope and good news of Jesus with the world, then it is also necessary to equip the individuals that make up the Church to identify and adapt to the tensions necessary to bring about change. In short, individuals need to be discipled and prepared, both in seasons of revival and in seasons of persecution, to know God and share the hope and good news of Jesus with the world.

If this is true, then why does it seem that so many pastors are anxious and worrying about the potential threat of persecution?

Have these pastors been derelict in their duties to equip the saints and instead been placating the masses with easily consumable life lessons that have no eternal impact?

Have these pastors failed to equip the saints under their charge to process information correctly with a Christian mindset in order to filter out the nonsense and to discern the best way to share the hope and good news of Jesus with others in any situation?

Have these pastors emasculated themselves from the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives and subjugated themselves to the whims of the perceived cultural and societal needs for the sake. maintaining a status quo, of placing “butts in the the seats”, and procuring consistently increasing tithes and offerings?

Have these pastors embraced a “victim” mindset that has created an “us versus them” framework that’s allowed various cult ideologies to exist rather then a “victor” mindset that creates an “all have sinned” framework that correctly positions Jesus as the hope and salvation for the world?

Why are so many pastors worrying about the potential threat of persecution instead of focusing on the hope of Jesus?

Thoughts on being Tracked…

I thought maybe I’d comment on this just because this is going to be a sensitive subject for many and it’s going to become even more sensitive as time goes on.
 
First. If you have a cell phone of any type. You are being tracked. It doesn’t matter if it’s a smart phone, it doesn’t matter if it’s the oldest cell phone ever made, if you have one and you use it, you are being tracked. It doesn’t matter if you turn it off after every use, the minute you turn it back on your location is triangulated by the cell towers and your location is being recorded.
 
Second. If you are on Facebook, even if you are using it only on your computer, you are being tracked. If you are using it on your phone, then every move you make is being tracked. If you log out and then login every time you use it, which would be a great practice to get into, it still has embedded cookies into your computer that track every website you go to.
 
Third. If you have an email address by any provider, you are being tracked. If that email address is connected to your phone and you receive email updates, you are being tracked.
 
Fourth. If you purchase anything online, look at any shopping website such as Amazon.com or Walmart.com, what you are looking at is being tracked and used to create predictive analysis of your behavioral patterns which are then used to market items to you that match your behavioral profile. This is happening right now and most people aren’t even aware of it.
 
Fifth. If you drive a car, no matter the age, no matter the model, no matter how fast or how slow you drive, you are being tracked. There are cameras everywhere documenting your every move. You are seen every time you go into a store, every purchase you make, every location you drive by.
 
All of this is happening with or without your permission and most likely without your knowledge.
 
So then… what should we do?
 
Should everyone create posts like the one you shared? It might provide some personal assurances, but in the grand scheme of things, your permission to record or not record your every move, doesn’t really matter. Whether you post this or not, you’re still going to be monitored and tracked and watched.
 
In reality, there’s really only two choices that you have if you wish to not be tracked and monitored.
 
The first choice is to abandon technology all together, slip out of your home in the middle of the night, walk to some hidden and unknown location, and spend the rest of your life hiding from people and living off whatever nuts, berries, and animals you can collect and trap with whatever tools and resources you brought with you. Even then, you’ll have to constantly be on the move and be vigilant in covering your tracks to ensure no one spots and reports you.
 
The second choice is to recognize that you have been given the opportunity to truly live your life above reproach. Everyone is watching, so what will you do? I hope the answer will be that you will be gracious and kind to everyone you encounter. That you will treat people with fairness and honest. That you will be kind and considerate to those less fortunate to you. And that you will be bold and ferocious in dealing with those who marginalize and take advantage of the least in our society.
 
Now… some might say that there’s a third choice to be made. A choice to live caught in the absurdity of fear and paranoia. A choice to live angry and frustrated and scared and offended. A choice to hate and blame one group of people while turning a blind eye to the imperfections and flaws of another group of people. But that is not a choice that I would believe adds any value to life, it simply bleeds life away worrying and fretting through whatever the angst and emotion of day brings. Who would want to live like that?
 
So, I contend there are two choices to be made and I sincerely believe that one of these choices will lead you to a heavenly reward, the other one most likely won’t.
 
And I hope, that someday far off into the future, when God calls you home, that He will say to you “Well done, you lived a life above reproach. You have been a good and faithful servant even when the world lost it’s mind and fear ran rampant through streets. You stood strong in faith and trusted me. Welcome home child!” I sincerely hope those are the words you hear.
 
God Bless, stay safe, love Jesus – and… maybe just turn off the TV and ignore the news for a few weeks/months/years because that form entertainment is rarely helpful and oftentimes destructive.

The Maxwellian Leadership Model Origins

Oftentimes in the church, I hear the phrase, “Leadership is Influence.” “Leadership is Influence” is a distinctive of the “Maxwellian Leadership” model that has been so pervasive in the church, especially the Wesleyan Church, by our own John Maxwell. Both Kevin Myers and Dan Reiland, extraordinary leaders and thinkers in their own right, are strong supporters and communicators of the Maxwellian model, as are many of our current district and denominational leaders. It is a good model, but I don’t believe it to be a Biblical model, despite being supported by Biblical leaders.

Based on my research and best educated guesses, here’s how the Maxwellian model came to be and how that phrase came to hold such significance. We know that in 1968, the merger between the Pilgrim Holiness and the Wesleyan Methodist church occurred forming what we know as The Wesleyan Church and Fishers, Indiana became the headquarters.

The Greatest generation, the generation that had fought in WWII, was now firmly entrenched in the leadership. There was still some of the Silent Generation, but the Greatest’s were seen as the future and the ones who would hold the standard until the Boomers were mature enough to take over.

Since the end of the Great Depression and WW1, the Silent’s had revolutionized the business world. They brought the structure and discipline they had learned in the war, into the boardroom. It was brutal, ruthless and took no prisoners when it came to creating and establishing market control and dominance. By the time the Greatest came into power,

But that didn’t sit well with everyone. In particular, there was a Silent named Robert K. Greenleaf who worked for AT&T who started teaching an unpopular ideology that “the organization existed for the person as much as the person existed for the organization.” This positional statement lead to the formation of the “Servant Leadership” organizational model.

The Servant Leadership model was then co-opted into the Church world and began to gain traction. Silent’s began actively recruiting Greatest’s who had business backgrounds to lead church and eventually placed them in positions of denominational leadership. Still, talking while leadership traits were encouraged, talking about leadership in the church was not.

Maxwell changed all of that. Maxwell, one of the first Baby Boomers to really have substantial influence in the Church, recognized early on in his ministry that in order for him to connect better with the business leaders and people in his congregation, he needed to discover ways to develop his own leadership abilities.

Now, this part I have no actual evidence of, but based on what I’ve read in Maxwell and in Greenleaf, there’s a high probability that Maxwell, in seeking to develop himself, was exposed to Greenleaf’s servant leadership model early on. Greenleaf was from Indiana and visited and spoke there regularly, Wesleyan Headquarters was in Indiana, and we know Maxwell served as a pastor in Indiana. It’s not much of a stretch to see the probability of Maxwell being influenced by Greenleaf. And to take it one step further, If you read Greenleaf’s book, “Servant Leadership: A Journey Into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness”, it’s relatively easy to see Greenleaf’s fingerprints in the various teachings and writings of Maxwell. Simply put, there are far too many similar concepts, theories, and practices for it to be a coincidence.

Regardless, Maxwell’s now intentionally developing his personal leadership skills, which was a new idea to pastors who were only focused on developing their Bible skills. When Orval Butcher retired from Skyline, Maxwell brought those leadership skills with him and began teaching what he had been learning in staff meetings. Those staff meetings were recorded on cassette tape and somehow got leaked to pastors outside the church. Once pastors heard about this, they began calling and asking for these tapes and Maxwell, recognizing an opportunity to share his knowledge for a fee, began selling subscriptions to what became Injoy, which is now known as Equip. (Fun fact, when I was just starting out in ministry, I was told that I needed to listen to these Injoy tapes so that I could learn how to be a “real” pastor) :).

From here, most of us know Maxwell’s trajectory. He left Skyline with the sincere belief that his ministry was teaching leadership to pastors and Christian Business people. He’s gone on to become the foremost Christian leadership expert in the world.

Everyone in ministry today has, in some part, been influenced by Maxwell’s commitment and dedication to teaching leadership principles. We should all be aware and extraordinarily grateful for Maxwell’s willingness to be used by God to forever change the landscape and expectations of what it means to be a pastor and to pastor a church.

But your original question is, “Is there a better way to think of leadership?” And the answer is absolutely yes. The Maxwellian model opened the eyes of many to the need for Christian Leadership, however, few have actually explored a Biblical understanding of leadership. That’s not a criticism of pastors, but rather the reality that we are influenced by our personal experiences and the experiences of those around us. And if those around us have experiences based in the Maxwellian model of leadership, well then it’s highly likely that’s where our experiences will be based out of as well.

And that, in my opinion, is the problem that the Church and pastors are running into. Far too many of us have embraced a Maxwellian model of Leadership or a co-opted Servant Leadership model designed for business and incorrectly, and perhaps inappropriately, applied it to the systems and processes of the church.

The unintended result being that the church now looks and operates more like an Organization where success is defined by numbers and growth rather than the Organism that God created it to be where success is defined by the transformational power of Jesus and the life-giving attributes of those who follow Jesus to the communities and individuals around them.

What do you think?