Gleanings from the Global Leadership Summit Day 2+

Now what? So what?

Any conference I've attended, no matter how profoundly impactful it feels at the time, tends to acquiesce to patterns that existed beforehand. In other words, when walking away from powerful speakers who challenged my pre-existing notions and invited me to walk a new path, application remains elusive. What does one do in the afterglow to stoke new fires for genuine change?

Grand Avenue for the Main Street of Life

Day 2 of the summit built on the themes of the previous day. There were big ideas shared by some influential leaders. Bill Hybels touched on the idea of a grand vision as major driver for individuals to excel:

There is a grander vision on planet earth with your name on it. When you find it…you’ll say I was born to do this. You’ll feel the hand of God integrated into your daily activities, and say you were born to do it. - Bill Hybels

Bill referenced the Bible again for this theme:

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

As a Christian, this verse does speak profoundly to my own personal concept of a grand vision. Below is a diagram I have created to annotate a few observations about that text, particularly highlighting the Greek word ποίημα poíēma rendered as "workmanship/creation/masterpiece" in its common English glosses in various Bible translations:

Thus, the idea of being God's masterpiece/workmanship/creation is absolutely tied to the grace imparted to the believer via faith in Christ. The result is "good works", which is the Bible's short-hand for doing those things that directly glorify God. Bringing the grand vision to everyday life is fundamentally built on the outcome resulting from salvation in Christ. Sin becomes increasingly a past-tense blight, and righteousness and hope more frequently mark the milestones of the person walking by faith and not by sight.

Power Paradox as a Foil to Self-Serving Leadership Philosophy

Ivan Satyavrata spoke of the paradox of power that exists in effective leadership, particularly when founded on Christ. It is one where, as he defined it, "a leader must be able to wield power, real power, in order to lead effectively" whilst simultaneously (herein lies the paradox) that same leader must "be genuinely vulnerable, subservient and seemingly powerless". 

God's grace is the only means by which real strength is wielded in leadership

In contrast to various worldviews that reject biblical Christianity as the overarching meta-narrative of our existence, the paradoxical principle of grace is the grandest of visions. In a song wrongly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, the counterpoint of Christian paradox is beautifully expressed:

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is discord, harmony;

Where there is error, truth;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Final Take-away
I offer no apology for my Christian faith, which is rooted in the revelation of God in the Bible. The Global Leadership Summit was a useful reminder of what is most important to me: bringing glory to God in my life as a response to all that Christ has done for me. I embrace the paradox of strength in weakness. As the coming weeks and months unfold, I will ponder the implications of grace applied and use my blog as a way to explore specific applications.

Perhaps God has answered my prayer on trying to finish my Personal Syllabus series that I began at the start of summer. It has been difficult in reflecting on a personal growth strategy, but perhaps I should work on developing those areas which underscore my dependence on God's grace in every aspect of my life. With the fall season approaching, what better time to final hit the books and study:

“Make every effort to present yourself approved to God, a worker having no need to be ashamed, guiding the word of truth along a straight path.” (2 Timothy 2:15, LEB)

Gleanings from the Global Leadership Summit Day 1

Have you ever gone to an event unprepared for its personal impact? There are many trade shows out there, as well as various business development expos from "experts" claiming they have the silver bullet for your struggling organization. I'm not knocking them. Yet seldom are we expecting a spiritual impact from them, even if hosted by Willow Creek Community Church. This is not a slam against Willow: it's just that my limited knowledge of this event was predisposed to expect feel-good chats from well-known leaders and some exhortations to improve in the leadership arena. All of this is just fine, and I certainly would expect some typical pep-talk jargon and business hoopla. Thankfully, I was disappointed today!

I'll say this up front: Bill Hybels is not my ideal pastor. Don't get me wrong, I don't despise him in any way. Some people like to crucify megachurch pastors. I'll also admit that I'm not really a fan of megachurches. There are several reasons (not really relevant to this post). What surprised me today was that, my regard for Hybels notwithstanding (again, I'm not anti-Hybels), he shared a pastor's heart today and did it with biblical integrity. Those are qualities that get my attention!

Hybels opened by defining leadership in a way I've heard before from Henry Blackaby in his book Spiritual Leadership. I've read that book years ago, so it had a familiar ring. Simply put, leaders see the future ahead of time. That's what people call "vision". Nothing really new here. He continued under the heading of humility, which did get my antenna up. You see, that's a quality we rarely find in leaders. Then he unpacked what this looks like -- my notes below are a basic outline:

A.  All leadership is ultimately spiritual in impact.

1. Objective benchmarking of the organizational culture and human impact.
2. Top leaders need to own the turn-around process.
3. Get serious about ongoing training of people management.
4. Raise level of candor in semi-annual job review. Start. Stop. Continue. Move. Modify. Motivate.
5. Ruthless commitment to resolving relational conflict no matter what. Conflict as an opportunity to deepen the relationship. 

B. Leadership must always focus on development of new leaders. See if emerging leader can be resourceful via fully engaged test case leadership opportunity - pass/fail task-force test.

C. Hireling versus good shepherd (cf John 10). Cares for the well-being of the sheep. Leaders with a legacy mindset, thinking beyond themselves.

D. Endurance. The greater the vision, the greater the price.

The point on endurance really got to me. As I listened to Hybels, I was reflecting on my journey from the time I served as an associate pastor to where I am at now. While it may be true I have some leadership qualities, I did not envision this 5 years ago. I'm not complaining and I'm very grateful for the opportunities I've been given. There is simply a profound sense of loss when I invested years in seminary and thought I would spend decades at my church as a pastor. I felt I was prepared to pay the price to stay in vocational ministry, but that's not how things turned out.

I suppose I've been thinking I had completely recovered from the trauma of leaving a church ministry post. After Bill's message the worship team got up and we started singing (I don't even recall the song). I just realized after a minute I couldn't sing -- I was completely overcome. The outpouring of emotion caught me off-guard. As my boss (and friend who knows all this) was standing next to me, I was feeling very vulnerable at that moment.

That vulnerability is actually a leadership trait also mentioned today. Susan Cain also spoke about "Quiet: Challenging the Extrovert Ideal", where she expounded value of introverted leadership. As a self-proclaimed introvert, I share this vulnerability publicly as a way to remain connected to those I know I can trust: you.

These gleanings are simply meant to continue that transparency and encourage others to do the same. Life is hard enough without feeling guilty that we threw away precious opportunities to be real with one another.