Courageous Leadership Chapters 7-9

As mentioned in earlier posts, I believe Bill Hybels brings up some very good ideas. It is hard to pick out just a few points because there are so many.
Chap 7 - Discovering and Developing Your Own Leadership Style. He brought out 10 leadership styles in this chapter. Before reading the chapter I probably would have only come up with a few. If I had to choose the style or styles that I fall into, it would probably be The strategic leadership style - taking something and breaking it down into smaller pieces. Another category may be the shepherding leadership style. This type of leadership takes place over a period of time and doesn't happen quickly. At the end of the chapter he lists 4 steps to help lead and provide a high impact. Step 4 - Commit yourself both to developing your strong leadership styles and growing in your weaker leadership styles, really stuck out to me. The point of growing in your weaker areas may be the driving point. With how things are changing so quickly in society today, if you don't try to keep up, or at least be aware of the changes around you, you will find yourself on the outside looking in. Mr. Hybles made the point - No matter how strong leaders are in their particular leadership style, totally overlooking the areas in which they are weak will eventually compromise their ability to lead.

Chapter 8 - A Leader's Sixth Sense
In this chapter he discusses data sources that we use to make decisions. Knowing these sources and being aware of them will help us understand better why we make some of the decisions we do. What I believe - what are my core values and beliefs. What I know other leaders would do. This would go back to who I surround myself with - people who I allow to speak into my life, mentors, friends, etc,. Pain or probably another way to say it is past experiences. Hopefully we have learned things in the past and don't repeat the same mistakes. May we be able to see where an idea or program will lead even if it is "packaged or wrapped" a little different. The Holy Spirit. We always need to be open to the Holy Spirit's leading. At times this may seem to go against, or not line up fully with some of the earlier points just discussed. He brought out some very good questions that I need to ask myself in this area: Is there enough quietness in your life for you to hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit? Do you have the guts to carry out promptings, even though you might not understand them fully, and even though your team might question your wisdom? Are you willing to walk by faith? Will you commit yourself to allowing the Spirit to fully inform your decision-making?

Chapter 9 - The Art of Self-leadership
I thought his compass analogy was good. It reminded me of being an all around team player. So many times it is easy to just focus on those who you are responsible for. He brings up the point of the toughest leadership challenge - yourself. It is so easy to get focused on a goal or mission and overlook your own needs or areas of weakness. One thought comes to mind - you can't lead someone where you haven't been yourself. Or you may be on a journey with your team and don't have all the answers, but you at least have God's peace while going on the journey. In this chapter he goes on and lists many questions that we as leaders need to ask ourselves from time to time. Some that stuck out to me - Is my character submitted to Christ? Everytime time you compromise character you compromise leadership. In a round about way I am reminded of a former boss - he would never ask any of his workers to do anything he wouldn't do himself. Am I asking those I am a servant leader to, to do things or have expectations of them that I am not doing myself? Is my pride subdued? There probably are better ways of doing things than just my way. Am I overcoming fear? This can keep me from doing things or making changes that need to be done. Is my pace sustainable? I think that this is one question that is not asked enough. So many times we take our family and our physical bodies for granted. The topic of burnout comes into play. In the "church" community and even other areas in our life, if things get going to fast and get out of hand and lead to a mental, physical, or family breakdown, that is not good. He makes the point that we in large part are responsible for the pace at which we live our lives.

Once again, many good points mentioned in these chapters.

Courageous Leadership, Chapters 4-6

I am really enjoying this book. Hybels offers such practical information that I think most people can understand and would be able to implement. The chapter "Building a Kingdom Dream Team" is so good because he lays out a good foundation for building a strong team. Everything he says totally makes sense but on my own I probably would never think of doing this process the same way. I really liked how he said we first need to define the nature and purpose of the team. I know I've been on teams before where no one was really sure what the real goal was. Which totally correlates with our Acts 2 process - we have to all focus on the "main thing" and from there we will have unity in our body. I really liked Hybel's 3 C's of selection. I think it is right on. I think sometimes in churches someone with an incredible talent may be elevated to a position but the character is lacking. They will inevitably fail. Sometimes it takes a while to really see someone's character, which is why I appreciate our church's policy of having new people wait for a period of time before getting involved. The next chapter "The Resource Challenge" was a good one. I'm glad that someone is actually addressing finances and giving to this extent. Bill Hybels wrote in his book about how he was unapologetic about asking for resources in the early years of his ministry. People get so touchy about their money but Bill was willing to ask people who were just barely Christians about donating large amounts of money. It was really good to hear someone be so upfront about how its nearly impossible to make a church grow without financial resources. It really makes me think about what we could be doing to be generating more resources in our body. I whole-heartedly believe that our pastors and staff should be paid more. Their occupation is not easy and is not just a Monday through Friday 8 - 4 job. I believe they should be paid well. I definitely agree with Hybels that if people get excited about a vision, they are glad to give. I feel that we have a generous congregation and if we can get people excited about what our purpose is and dreams that we have for our body, I think we can draw new people in and also increase our resources.

Annette's CL Chapter 4-6 Review

Wow I can't believe I forgot to do this! My apologies... November was kind of a blur for me.  But no excuse - I simply overlooked it. So here's my review.  I love this book but it's also challenging me.

Chapter 4: Building a Kingdom Dream Team
The stories he tells at the beginning of the chapter are a bit intimidating because they sound so awesome! But I get what's he's talking about.  I praise God for the teams I work with in youth and worship.  I am SO blessed by their faithfulness to God and to the church.  We've worked through disagreements, lack of resources, being worn out...  There is truly nothing like a team of godly people to work with doing what God has given you passion to do.  It's so cool!  But it is definitely not easy to develop.  Like I said, you have to work through some hard things too.  You don't always agree and you have to find a solution anyway.  I wholeheartedly agree with the 3 Cs as well.  I know I've definitely always been concerned about Character first.  That can cause major problems - as our church has experienced in the past.  Competence can be subjective because sometimes you have to train someone to do the job.  And at times, they pick it up and go!  Other times, it becomes apparent that they're either not cut out for the job or they realize they don't want the commitment.  So competence isn't always clear at the beginning.  Chemistry is definitely important.  And the important thing to know is that you can work on that!  If it's not there naturally, you just have to make the effort to see if you can build that kind of relationship.

Chapter 5: The Resource Challenge
Ugh I don't like this topic - probably because I struggle with financial stuff in general.  It's the battle of the flesh versus the spirit I'm sure.  But in ministry, I definitely struggle to have faith in this area.  The body of Christ is NOT poor!  Our God is limitless - I know that.  But for some reason I still have a hard time believing for provision when it comes to money.  I know I have to get over it and just be obedient.  In effect, I limit God in my mind by lack of faith.  I hoped the chapter would resolve this for me.  Honestly, it didn't.  BUT there were some very practical and Biblical principles that I will refer back to.  People give to vision and vision is given by God.  I should not feel guilty about that.  God help me!!!

Chapter 6: Developing Emerging Leaders
Now we're talking!  I got excited to read this.  :)  "When are leaders at their best?"  What a great question!  I think we should discuss this together.  He's convinced that leaders should make this one of their highest priorities.  Is your radar up right now - watching for someone to mentor??  We've talked about Jesus' leadership development plan before too, which he addresses too.  The five necessary qualities he says to look for are 1) influence, 2) character, 3) people skills, 4) drive and 5) intelligence.  I have to admit that I haven't always looked for those things.  But I see the wisdom in it, and I'm definitely going to rethink that.  I've definitely considered 2 and 4 in the people I seek - and sometimes 3, but not always.  These really make sense, but I don't think it's an exact formula.  And he does suggest making up your own list.  Sometimes those qualities can be developed in a person.  I think it depends on the position you need to find a leader for.  I think an  important point to note is that we as leaders should have some kind of process in place to develop emerging leaders!  How you do it is variable...but let's do it!  :)

Mike's Courageous Leadership Chap 4-6

In chapter 4, entitled building a Kingdom Dream Team, he discussed the three characteristics of what he looks for when selecting team members. The three c's are character, competence, and chemistry - in that order. With character, he means that the person's walk with Jesus Christ needs to be solid, and that the person is committed to spiritual disciplines. He mentioned that all the areas are important, but that lacking in character in a lot of situations can produce more damage for the team than occasionally falling short in the other areas. Once again, we will be known by our fruit.

Chapter 5 talks about the Resource Challenge and how the leader needs to be the chief resource raiser. This is not a very fun aspect of being a leader, but it does take resources to get a ministry or project going, and to sustain it. The leader standing behind and working with this projects, is just another area that shows how much the leader is committed to the project. It kind of goes back to the old saying of putting your money where your mouth is. He gives many examples of how things were and how tight the budget was when first starting out. These are areas where you hope you never have to go through, but many times you can really relate to them. One thing to keep in mind is that God is the ultimate resource provider, people are just conduits that the resources flow though. Another point he made in this chapter and quoting a couple sentences - People don't give to organizations or to other people. They give to visions. When leaders who understand this take the time to paint pictures for people and to help them imagine the kingdom good that will result from their collective efforts, then people are free to release their resources joyfully. And generally, the grander the vision, the greater the giving. I believe this helps people keep the big picture in mind. Also, knowing Godly principles about giving and finances is so important and the people you are working with need to be educated in this area as well. Finances can be such a source of bondage in peoples lives.

Chapter six talks about Developing emerging Leaders. This is an area that is so easy to overlook or to just plain ignore. Leaders need to take the time to help develop the potential leaders around them. For many of us we can remember the people who took the time and invested in us. We in turn need to take the time and invest in others. Unless we make a conscious effort to do this, it usually won't get done.

As I have mentioned before, I have really enjoyed this book. Mr. Hybels has been able to bring out items that he has learned or gone through in his ministry. These are things that we can be on the lookout for and have a little better idea on how to handle them. At least we should not be completely surprised when faced with some of these issues that he discusses.

Randy's Chapters 4-6

“I think leaders are at their very best when they are raising up leaders around them."

"People don’t give to organizations or to other people. They give to visions."

I am challenged by these two staments.  It's much easier to just do a job yourself and more difficult to raise up a leader to do that same job.  In order for the church to grow the latter must be the mentality.  I have to admit that was not my priority, I made children my priority.  I now see the error in that thought process.  With help I will make the transition in raising up leaders.

The second statement concerns vision.  Vision is more than writing something on a paper.  It starts there but must take on a life of itself.  The written vision has to grab the attention of the reader.  The vision must be talked about and lived.  I will keep in mind what is written in these chapters as I develope next years Children's Ministry vision.   

Nothing tests the mettle of church leaders and members more than the resource challenge.

BUILD TEAM PERFORMANCE BY ESTABLISHING CLEAR GOALS

Knowing leads to loving.” It is impossible to listen to the heartfelt reflections of a team member without being drawn into a deeper relationship with that person.

Natalie's Courageous Leadership - Chapters 1-3

What an encouraging and timely book! It's cool to see that there are a lot of other churches that have done what we are embarking upon. God definitely brought this book to us at the right time. I really like how he described that "vision is a leader's most powerful weapon." I know that I have heard great speakers and have felt so compelled by their message that I wanted to jump on their bandwagon too. I think it was so cool to see how in his church, Bill Hybel began the process with his vision team of senior leadership in the church. It is so vital that we are all on the same page before we can carry the vision out to the church as a whole. I was very encouraged when he talked about how in todays world people have schedules so crammed with stuff that it's hard to imagine squeezing one more thing in. However, when people are excited and have caught the vision they are willing to do what it takes to carry it out. People are moved into action because they realize the great value in what the vision has set to accomplish. I believe that our family, our Signet group and many in our church family feel the same way. What has more value than bringing people into the kingdom of God?

I liked the "Getting-it-Done Leadership" chapter. It's practical and shows how you can cast vision all you want but if we never get up and do something, the vision won't become a reality. I think the setting of goals is a great idea and I hope we are able to do that in our Acts 2 process. I am excited to continue reading this book and seeing the parallels to our own transformation process.

Annette's CL Oct. Book Review

Isn't it amazing how God directs our lives???  I chose this book for Signet in October of last year!!  At that time, we had no idea that we would be in this Acts 2 process.  God is so ingenious!  Everything we're reading is right in line with the vision process.  What is so cool to me is that this book brings another facet to the process.  In vision team, we're talking about the vision, movement of people, the process of discipleship, etc.  But this book talks about what kind of leader can actually facilitate that vision!  How cool!!!

Hybels' love for the church really inspired me.  It's easy to get frustrated about what doesn't work.  But the Church really is the hope of this world!  That is a huge responsibility for us to carry.  And the leaders of the Church hold the opportunity for impact in their hands.  Wow...are we sure we want to sign up for that? :)  There is no other organization, club, or government that can have the influence that the Church can.  I am very humbled by that realization.  We have to do better.

So that leads us to chapter 2 where he talks about vision.  We have definitely come to appreciate the importance of vision through the Acts 2 process.  It sounds like they did their own Acts 2 process to clarify their vision as well!  Our most potent weapon as a leader is VISION.  I was glad to read that he emphasized the importance of not only identifying the vision - but also that you must work hard to communicate.  It's not a once a year event.  It should be threaded through everything we do.  Every opportunity has to be weighed against the vision that God has given us.  We can't afford to use time and resources on activities that aren't a part of that.

Chapter 3 was a butt kicking chapter.  LOL  Talk is cheap - that's how I summarize it.  Haha.  He had to make some difficult decisions and push people pretty hard in order to fully achieve what God was calling them to.  Are we ready to do that?  I admit that it is hard for me to "push" my team when they are volunteers.  I served as a volunteer for years, and I gave a lot to ministry while balancing family and work.  So I empathize with the struggle to not take on too much.  But at the same time, is there anything in life more important than Kingdom work?  So shouldn't it be #1 priority after your personal relationship with God and family?  I've always felt bad about expecting that.  I guess if I am communicating the vision with great passion and conviction in a way that will help to inspire people - they will willingly make the necessary sacrifices!  Because they'll see that God is in it, and that I need their help to do it.  What an awesome book this is so far...I'm excited.