I have learned through the years to look for four qualities in leaders, whether they are men or women. I look first for a searching mind: a person who is mentally alert, who has curiosity about life, who wants to learn all the time. Such a person is always reading, always listening, always thinking about what he or she hears, and trying to reason out what is behind it.

-Ray Stedman

This year’s inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame included arguably the best receiver ever to strap on a helmet: Jerry Rice.

I wonder…

(more…)

Life Long Learning

One of the values we have corporately is the value of Life Long Learning. To live out this value corporately it means that we as individuals must be committed to personal learning.
This week I had the opportunity to attend the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit. I intentionally carved out time in my schedule to be in a place that I could learn more about leadership and get perspectives from fourteen leaders around the world. The speakers were men and women I had heard or read about in the last year.
There was a common theme in all of their talks – never, ever, ever, ever, give up!
We as leaders face all kinds of trials (actually problems) each and every day. They are people issues, client challenges, we wrestle with an overreaching government bureaucracy, and on and on it goes. These trials can derail us from reaching our goals and being the company or person we envision.
I too face these kinds of situations and actually at times say to myself – is this really worth all this effort, pain and heartache? Is this really where God has me to serve? Am I really helping leaders be better leaders or helping churches strategize and envision their future well?
This week I had the opportunity for leadership development. I intentionally put myself in a place that challenged, encouraged, intellectually stimulated me, and gave me many tools for meeting the challenges I personally face. The result is that today I am renewed emotionally, spiritually and can move forward with new energy and conviction – to never, ever, ever, ever, give up!
All this happened because of a value in my life of Life Long Learning. Our values do matter!

Seems like every time I pick up a new book on ministry or read a magazine article on the same, someone mentions leadership development. While everyone is talking about it, I would love to see some examples of what that looks like in a church. I’m not so sure it’s happening as much as we would like. Bill Hybels says, “The church is the hope of the world, and leadership is the hope of the church!” If this is the case, and I think it is, then the Church needs to focus in a big way on making leaders as well as making disciples. Maybe the lack of leadership I’ve observed is key to the decline of the church and thus Christianity in America? Regardless, we at the Malphurs Group are focusing on leader development in the church and beyond, hoping to stem the tide of church decline.

Aubrey

Does anyone want to get that piece of mail that invites you to jury duty? I have postponed this inevitable day for months for one reason or another. But today I sit in a large room with about 30 other people waiting, waiting for another court to need us. The first was a criminal court and when we got there to “report for duty”, they said the case had been resolved. So we wait.

There are those times that we believe our time is much more important than this. That is exactly how I’ve felt knowing this day was coming, but as only God can do, he appointed this time for me to sit here and find that a dear friend I had not seen in a couple of years was just a few rows away. We caught up very quickly and found that she had faced some very hard issues over the past two years with one of her children. It was hard to listen to her story. I hugged her and let her know I loved her and would pray.  Then she was gone to due her “duty” as a juror.

So, this was not wasted time, this was God’s plan for me to meet her and for us to mutually encourage one another. It reminds me to be aware of what’s going on in the spiritual world around me. How selfish we become when we can only see our own needs. I am sitting here waiting and so thankful for the fact that God chose this day for me to be here to meet my friend. Perfect timing.