Leaders challenged to become people of influence
Beth Moore challenges leaders to be likeable, honest and
devoted to their spouses.
By Rob Cunningham
Leaders can choose to stick with the familiar and comfortable, or they can step out in faith and believe God will do something far beyond their abilities.
“It happens when we have the faith to dream the ridiculous dreams and believe that God is going to show up in a big way,” Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C., said during Monday evening’s opening session of the Influence Leadership Seminar.
Batterson was one of five speakers who delivered passionate messages designed to inspire leaders to grow in their influence and impact on their churches, communities, culture and world.
Drawing on God’s miraculous provision of quail for the Israelites in Numbers 11, Batterson challenged attendees to obey God’s call and vision and dreams for their ministries and their lives — especially when it seems impossible to attain.
“His arm has not lost its power,” he said. “The question is, are we able to believe big enough for what God wants to do, because those are the moments that will determine our ministries.”
Upgrade for the next generation
Too many leaders “sabotage” their mission by failing to make necessary changes to help churches effectively minister to children, teenagers and young adults, Reggie Joiner, founder and chief executive officer of The reThink Group, said during the Monday evening session.
“If (people in the next generation) miss God, and they walk away and lose the wonder of who he is, then we’ve dropped the ball,” said Joiner, whose organization helps congregations maximize their influence on younger generations.
With a 24-year-old Macintosh Plus on his right and a new Macintosh Air laptop computer on his left, Joiner drew analogies between upgrades and relevance in technology and those same principles for local churches.
Leaders who want to build things that last must be willing to change what they’re building. Some leaders are slow to upgrade because the change seems too costly. The best way to keep a team moving forward is to frequently upgrade your systems.
Every change gives a leader a chance to explain the differences between “core” values and “cultural” values. Without upgrades to a system, a leader and a church will lose the capacity to support a more relevant approach. And an effective organization creates a culture that is intentional about upgrading critical systems.
“There’s a way for churches to recapture the imagination of the next generation and move them forward in a systematic way,” said Joiner. “But we have to be willing to pay a price for change.”
Influence one life at a time
One of the greatest ways to yield profound influence is through one-on-one relationships, said author Beth Moore, using the example of Paul’s interactions with a centurion named Julius in Acts 27.
This passage reveals that Paul was a likeable person — and that’s OK, Moore said during her Tuesday morning session, noting other portions of the New Testament where Paul’s presence was valued and appreciated.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a godly person and having people also like us out there,” she said. “Some people think the mark of true spirituality is this idea that people out there don’t like us or that we should share the Good News in a bad mood.”
Leaders also can develop influence by being honest about real-life issues and recognizing that other people may have better answers in some situations.
“The more we present ourselves as unbreakable to the people around us, the more untouchable we appear,” Moore said.
She offered a direct challenge to leaders whose marriages may not seem “easy” or “ideal.”
“We are leaders,” Moore said. “People are watching us. We cannot wimp out on our marriages. We owe the Body of Christ our devotion to our spouses.”
Seek transformed lives
Just because someone is leading people doesn’t necessarily mean those people’s lives are being transformed, Keith Craft said Tuesday morning.
Many leaders settle for transactional leadership — where relationships focus on an exchange of valued things — instead of seeking transformational leadership — where relationships ultimately lead to a greater quality of life.
Transactional leadership desires such things as competence, performance and delegation, while transformational leadership values creativity, growth and empowerment, said Craft, the founder and lead pastor of Celebration Covenant Church in Frisco, Texas.
“It’s time for the church to not just be the great hope of the world, but for the church to lead the world,” said Craft, president of the Leadership Shapers Institute, a leadership development organization.
Everyone is a creative genius
The Bible isn’t boring. Church shouldn’t be either.
“I believe a church should be the most exciting and dynamic entity in the universe,” Ed Young Jr. said during the Tuesday afternoon session. “God is not boring. People believe God is boring, but it’s us — we have just made Him boring.”
Young defined creativity as “being consistently inconsistent” by stopping things that aren’t working and starting new things that will work. Being creative means being willing to take risks and implement change, which may create conflict but will ultimately lead to growth.
God invented creativity, Jesus modeled it for us, the Holy Spirit empowers us to be creative people, and our world needs divine, godly creativity.
Young challenged attendees to take such steps as praying for God to unleash creativity in their lives, getting involved with a creative team and making time for margin in life and ministry.
Other seminar highlights included an afternoon concert with Shane and Shane, and a presentation from Scotty Gibbons, director of Realife Student Ministries at James River Assembly in Ozark, Missouri. Seminar attendees received a copy of Gibbons’ book Overflow, a resource to help teenagers discover God’s principles for stewardship.