Thursday, August 10, 2006

Summit '06: Session Three: Stanley

Andy Stanley is the featured speaker in session three. It's a good thing, because the after lunch session is always the hardest to stay awake for. In case you don't know, Andy is the Senior Pastor at Northpoint Community Church in Atlanta, GA. Andy is the brains behind Catalyst (which I'm going to in the fall with some very cool guys). His talk title is "Focused Leadership." I'm really looking forward to this because Andy Stanley always has something new & fresh to say. 1st off -- he's changing the title to, "The Best Leadership Decision I Ever Made." Many of us, especially those with the leadership gift, have a tendency to put our time into things where we can see results. Therefore, when home & work collide, we have a tendency to lean into work. We also are motivated by fear: "If I don't ________, then it won't _______." "The best decision I've ever made is to choose to cheat the church instead of cheating my family." (He works 45 hrs./wk, and leaves everyday @ 4:00). We are never told in the Bible to build or love the church. We are to love our wives, love our family, and allow God to build his church." It's not my job to build the church, it's God's. At the end of my life, the question is not, "did you build the church," but "did you love your wife like Christ loves the church?" The impact of Andy's decision: 1. It forced Andy to play exsclusively to his strengths -- the things that he's good at. 2. It forced him to prioritize the success of the church, over his personal success. 3. It forced the church to consider "pace of ministry" questions seriously I'm not taking a lot of notes here. If this really jazzes you, you just need to read Andy's book: "Choosing to Cheat". Seriously...this is a MUST READ -- especially for us "type A's."

1 comment:

charlesdean2 said...

As I talked to my small group about this, we talked about how this is probably easier for those that are self-employed, because they make the decisions, while if you work for someone else, you kind of have to deal with it. But then again, we all have choices to make. We simply cannot be gone from our family 1/3 of the year, be a great dad, and also be a leader in our church. It's just not possible. Somewhere we have to make some choices.

I do know this: in my last church we had people in significant positions of leadership who were often travelling with business. So, they weren't connected with what was happening in the church, they weren't connected intimately with the people, and they were never up-to-speed with decisions/discussion that was going on in the committees they were a part of.

It was a far cry from effective leadership