Courageous Leadership; Chapter 11, The Leader's Pathway

Where is it that you find that intersection between your life and the love of God? That's the question of this chapter. I used to use a much simpler way of describing that intersection that might be helpful to start with. I would ask, do you experience God best through those personal, prayerful, and meditative times? Or, are you more likely to experience God more through your interaction with Godly people? This chapter does a better job of recognizing that we are not one or the other, but as a reflection of the Creator, we each reflect God's grace in differing ways. We also absorb that grace in differing ways.
Mine is definitely the relational pathway. I can find God in a natural setting and enjoy that. I can relate to God in the quiet time of prayer or reading God's word. Mostly, though, I intersect with God in my interaction with people. Give me a good and deep conversation anytime. Tell me about how you've seen God active in your life and I will know God's presence. Share with me your spiritual struggles and celebrations and I will know God's goodness.
What about you?

Courageous Leadership; Chapter 10, A Leader's Prayer

Who is your favorite Bible Character? I'm going to ask a group of 7th graders in our confirmation class that question tonight. I'm using it as a starting point to talk about the teaching value of weekly worship. So who is yours?
In this chapter Hybels picks out the characteristics of several Bible characters and prays to God to be able to emulate them.
I'm going to hold onto Peter for a while. Not the equivocating mass of bravado and cowardice we see in the Gospels. It's the Peter of the early part of the book of Acts. The one who was bold in his proclamation. He had finally gotten the point of Christ's death and resurrection and was willing to face imprisonment and death to be allowed to share the message. God make me like Peter. I wouldn't mind having the charisma to be able to speak to a crowd and find 3000 come to faith, but I'll settle for the strength of character that comes from getting hooked in the grace of God and feeling the compulsion to share it far and wide.
God make me like Peter. Who do you want to be when you grow up... to spiritual maturity?

Courageous Leadership; Chapter 9, The Art of Self-Leadership

All great leaders I've read (in the field of Christian leadership) press themselves harder than I suspect God is pushing. Read Augustine, Luther, Wesley, and now Hybels. What you'll find in each of these people is a drive to ever improve the way they honor God in all they do. So here are Hybel's challenge to each of us to be 360 degree leaders. Here are the questions he wrestles with:

• Is my calling sure?
• Is my vision clear?
• is my passion hot?
• Am I developing my gifts?
• Is my character submitted to Christ?
• Is my pride subdued?
• Am I overcoming fear?
• Are interior issues undermining my leadership?
• Is my pace sustainable?
• Is my love for God and people increasing?

How do you answer these questions? Are there other questions we should be asking ourselves?

Courageous Leadership; Chapter 8, A Leader's Sixth Sense

The line from this chapter that speaks to me the most is "I believe that spiritually gifted leaders construct, over time, a value system and experience base that wisely informs each subsequent decision they make." The point here is that decisions are based upon values and experience. Experience is time sensitive. The combination of these factors brings wisdom. While wisdom is also a spiritual gift, those of us who are not spirtually wise, can learn over time.

Sunday I want to consider our data sources. Hybels lists them this way:

• What I believe...
• What I know other leaders would do...
• Pain... (raw-edged memories)
• The Holy Spirit... (prayerful reflection)

I'll have to work on these a while to come up with my own responses to these data sources. More on Sunday evening...

Courageous Leadership; Chapter 7, Discovering Your Own Leadership Style

Be prepared to discuss the question "What's your leadership style." I think it's an important question to ask. How do you act? How do you respond in various situations?
One concern I have about this question is the assumption that people tend to have one style. What made Lincoln an excellent leader in his time, wouldn't have worked under different circumstances according to Hybels. I doubt that's true. Instead, I think a spiritually gifted leader who is also personally reflective and self aware will alter their style to meet a circumstance. I know that I have to be autocratic about some decisions in church and democratic on others, visionary at times and detail oriented at times. At times I manage, at others I motivate.
So what kind of leader am I? I think it is more important recognize what my preferred style is. I think I do best in those circumstances. I prefer to be visionary. I'm a preacher at heart, I like to present a God's eye view of where we are and point toward God's preferred future. From there I like to lead through motivation. I like to encourage people, who have grasped the vision of where God is leading, to use their Spiritual gifts to run with a plan for effecting the vision.
In the end, though, I think this chapter is helpful in pointing out that there are differing leadership styles. We are called to discern what is appropriate for a moment and live it out.

Courageous Leadership; Chapter 6, Developing Emerging Leaders

This is why you're reading this book. Do you think you have what it takes to be a church leader? Hybels gives us this list:

• Influence
• Character
• People Skills
• Drive
• Intelligence

Pretty simple. But I'm surprised the word "gifted" didn't enter into his thinking. It was among the top on my list.

Courageous Leadership; Chapter 5, The Resource Challenge

Hybels calls himself the CRR (Chief Resource Raiser). I agree with that assessment of the job of the lead pastor of a congregation. I accept that responsibility, but not without doing a great deal of drafting of others. It's may be the job of the lead pastor to make sure that funds are secured and properly used for the sake of the ministry, but it is the responsibility of all members of a church to provide the funds for the ministry. Those two tasks are not separated but instead united through the casting of a vision for ministry and the subscription to the vision.
The book lists three resource truths, six resource principles, and three staff resource guidelines. I don't feel the need to expand on these. Instead, let me say that I agree with them wholeheartedly and recommend your consideration.

Courageous Leadership; Chapter 4, Building a Kingdom Dream Team

I like the three "C's" presented in this chapter and wonder how we measure for these. The idea is that there are three characteristics that we should bear in mind when we are hiring church employees. The first is Character. I had an employee that we thought was doing a great job. We later found out he was providing smut videos to teenage boys. How do we check for it ahead of time. I'd like to believe it is possible, but in a world of litigation it may not be. I could call references and former employers, but they would likely be cagey with their answers. "Yes he worked for us." "No, she wasn't fired." Beyond that employers these days just can't say much. I suppose you could get permission to ask former pastors, current friends, or friends in other locations. This is one that is just going to be difficult to assess.
When it comes to discerning the character of volunteers in positions of leadership I ask three things. (1) Are they worshipping regularly. Inevitably someone will nominate a person for a position who isn't regular in their worship. The reasoning is that if they were leading they would have more interest in attending. I'm from Missouri. "Show Me" that you have an active faith and then I'll know something of your character. The second is (2) a record of regular giving. I wouldn't want a member of a board of directors for a company in which I'm invested to be making decisions that affect my investment if they are not vested themselves. The final is (3) they are in a learning situation. Whether it is a small group, bible study, Sunday school, or other discipling ministry, people need to be continually learning to be followers of Christ.
The other two characteristics of leaders are Competence and Chemistry. Competence has some measurable attributes, but again, chemistry is a bit more elusive. Hybels quotes another by saying "never invite a person onto my team who doesn't have a positive emotional effect on me the minute he or she walks into my office." (p.84) I know that I have hired people in the past who made me a bit uncomfortable and regretted it. I long for the day that a person really knocks my socks off in an interview so that I can hire them.

Courageous Leadership; Chapter 3, Getting it Done Leadership

I think you could sub-title this chapter "Practice What You Preach." Hybels points out that those leaders who don't take their congregation from vision to completion will "eventually lose credibility." (51) On page 57 Hybels brings up the book Built to Last by Jim Collins. In that book Collins talks about Big Hairy Audacious Goals, or BHAGs. You might remember that I traded that name for what I call God Inspired Grand Ambitions or GIGAs.

But who sets the GIGAs and who follows through with their completion? Enter "Champions". Once the vision is set, traditionally by the defacto leader, these are the people who are leaders willing to grasp a vision and to see it through.

I like the part where he realizes that there was still something missing. It was where they recognized that everyone was pulling, just not all in the same direction. Alignment needed to happen. Everyone had to be on the same page and about the same ministry vision and goals. How do we bring about unity of goals as church leaders?

Courageous Leadership; Chapter 2, The Leader's Most Potent Weapon

Proverbs 29:18, "Where there is no vision, the people perish," has become the clarion call to all church leaders as of late. I think the verse is in danger of falling into the colloquial abyss, but if the meaning can be maintained it has deep significance for the church's future. Vision was what drove Abraham in Genesis 12 to leave his home and head for a "land flowing with milk and honey." Vision is what allowed the people to follow Moses into the wilderness until they once again crossed over the Jordan and into the land promised to "Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph." Vision is what drove the leaders in the book of Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple after it had been laid to waste some 100+ years before.
In the book of Luke we read the vision of Christ's ministry as He reads from the Book of Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Luke 4:18-19 (NRSV) It was a picture of the future that people in Jesus' day could embrace and appreciate.
Hybels tells us that "Vision is a picture of the future that produces passion." (p.32) I love preaching vision, because I enjoy it when people catch a vision of what God is doing and where they might fit in. They say "You know when you talked about X, I was thinking, that's something I can really get excited about." That's the power of vision. People hear the possibility, feel the stirring in their heart, and begin to see their place in making it come to pass.
Hybels also talks about embodying vision. I've always wondered what it is about leaders in radical cults that they can get others to strap on a bomb and board a bus, but they aren't willing to lead by example? I think this differs from calling. I don't feel I'm called to custodial ministry, but I will gladly clean a toilet, mop a floor or take out trash if it furthers the Kingdom and provides and example for others to follow. I do not feel called to youth ministry, but I do two weeks of summer camp each summer since I know that kids are more likely to come to Christ in a natural surrounding than in any other venue. Ministry that embodies the vision that God has provided is called incarnational ministry. Much as Christ incarnated (showed the vision through his flesh) God we are called to incarnate Christ in how we embody the vision.
This chapter is chock full of pertinent teaching on vision and I think Hybels thoughts are well worth reading. A word of caution that all this brings to mind and a very important issue for leaders; make darned sure that the vision you are projecting is one that has come to you from God. If your prayer life, Bible study, and small group interaction don't absolutely confirm that your vision is Godly, abandon it. A vision that isn't of God is one born out of needs and desires to satisfy yourself. Such a vision is quickly and easily perverted by others and by the evil one. It's a downward spiral that holds nothing positive for the Kingdom of God.

Courageous Leadership; Chapter 1, The Stakes of Leadership

We're reading a new book now. It's Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels. Hybels is lead pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. I have to admit being skeptical about this book at first. What does a pastor of a church of 22,000 on Sunday worship have to say about my church of about 500? Is there really anything that can translate that will help me understand what it takes to be a leader? Having read the book I have to say "yes." Let's look at what Hybels has for us.
His first chapter begins with the worst tragedy and act of terrorism ever perpetrated on humanity, the events of 911. Out of this he came to realize what he knew all along... "The local church is the hope of the world." (p.15) That's a pretty brash statement. But what I hear him saying is that God has chosen to work through these bands of people who come together in hundreds of thousands of street corner chapels, in order to effect the kind of change God desires. If God's Kingdom is to be realized here on earth, then God's people working through the local congregation are truly the hope of the world! Now that's a tall order to fulfill, but exactly what is at stake when we consider where we're called to take our church.
Hybels realizes through another event in his life that it isn't the government, it isn't the schools and it isn't the self-help guru's that are going to change the world and the people in it. It is the people of God sharing the love of God portrayed in Jesus Christ. The church not only has that mission, but I believe God has enabled us and empowered us to have that kind of change potential. Why, because it changed me. I'm no where near perfect, but through Christ and my devotion to him I find that I am far more loving and focused on making a difference in the world than I would have been. Without Christ I would be a successful businessman making a real difference in my bank account and my 401(k). That would better feed and clothe me and my family, but what long term effect would it have on the world.
Hybels concludes this chapter with..."And they must insist with pit bull determination that
the gospel be preached,
the lost be found,
the believers be equipped,
the poor be served,
the lonely be enfolded into the community,
and God gets the credit for it all.
OK, we've got our marching orders... read on.