Tim Stevens is a great leader that we can all learn a lot from. He is the executive pastor at Granger Community Church in Granger, IN as well as the author of Pop Goes The Church. For more excellent leadership insight, check out his blog at leadingsmart.com.
Go to the Summit Next Steps website and click on Session 3 to find photos, videos, relevant links, session Q&A, and many more resources.
Session 3 with Bill George:
Bill may have been the fastest talking speaker of the day, but packed his session with some great content. I think it would be fun to sit down with Bill sometime and pick his brain. I'm sure I'll never have that opportunity, so I'm grateful for the gift of his leadership today. Here are my top three take-aways from his afternoon session...
1. Bill was working so hard to become the CEO that he said, "The company was making me into someone I didn't want to be." My first thought upon hearing that: It happens all the time in churches as well. You don't have to be working for a huge corporate giant to sell your soul for the organization. Just about every week I hear of another pastor who has sacrificed his or her family or health in pursuit of a dream of a bigger or better church.
2. Bill said: "You should follow your compass and not your clock. Where are you going in life? It's not how fast you get somewhere...it is the direction you are heading." This gets confusing, doesn't it? We are working really hard and moving really fast-and we rarely take the time to consider whether we are accomplishing our objectives. In fact, "What objectives?" We can't slow down enough to consider the goal.
3. Bill has had a small group he has met with every week for 33 years. He says, "The time to build a support team around you is now. Don't wait. It's too late if you wait until you need it." Ouch. This one hits close to home for church leaders. We are so often telling people they need to "get in a small group" yet how many pastors have a support structure built around them?
Bill was speaking of our paying attention to the core of who we are. Who is the man (or woman) behind the mask? That is where we need to put our focus. If we want to make an impact for the long-term, it's not about climbing the right ladder or jumping on the right opportunities. It's about knowing who we are, what we want to accomplish, and building a support structure around us.
It reminds me of Jesus words for the church leaders of his day: "You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You're like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feed down its all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh" (Matthew 23:27, The Message).
Jesus didn't look so highly on church leaders who are inauthentic. He wants us to be real, true, willing to admit we are fallible.
What do we do with all this? Here are a few thoughts...
1) Build a support team around you, people who know and love you for who you are. A group who will stand with you when the junk of life hits you square in the face.
2) Take some time to journal on the question that Bill posed: "If you live to be 100 years old, what do you hope to have accomplished by that time? What do you want your legacy to be?" Great questions to ponder. Take the time to do it.
3) Ask some of your closest friends, "Am I selling my soul for the church?" They might not understand the question, so another way to ask, "Do you ever feel that the church is more important to me than my spouse? My kids? My faith? My closest relationships? Take some time to ask the question, and then even more time to reflect on the answers you hear.
Tim Stevens
Executive Pastor, Granger Community Church
www.leadingsmart.com