The Floor Was Spotless

My son's favorite Bible verse is Colossians 2:22-23 which says, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. The reason, because it was the first verse he memorized.

It's kind of comical now, because every now and then when I catch him acting lazy or lethargic, I'll ask him what his favorite verse is. He typically grins sheepishly because he knows he's not honoring God. This is true of each of us at times, especially when we have to do something that we see as mundane or "beneath us."

Check out this story that I found on Stirred Up Leadership which illustrates the application of this verse very well. It's a letter from Joe Horness, Programming Director and Worship Leader at Bay Pointe Community Church who was preparing for the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit. In preparation for the Global Leadership Summit internationally every year, they host various trainings all over the world to pour into their volunteer teams. Joe is one of those trainers who sacrificially gives of their time to travel to Congo, Uganda, and Nigeria to help set up for the Summit. Below is an excerpt from his travel updates sent during his recent trip through Africa:

Dear Friends!

Here is just a snapshot of a wonderful moment I hope I'll never forget. As I was doing the final teaching, two young girls, probably 11 or 12 years of age, came in the door near the back of the church. In their hands they carried buckets of water and 2 rags. They quietly began moving the benches from the back of the room, taking them outside so that they could clean the floor. When they came back in, they quietly dipped their rags into the buckets, bent at the waist and began mopping the floor to clean up the dirt and dust that had been tracked in over the past 2 days. An hour later they were still at it and they had only cleaned a third of the cracked, concrete floor. It was back-breaking work, but the floor was spotless!

When everyone had left I walked back to talk to them. I began by asking them if they had mops they could be using. They didn't understand what I meant. When I described using wooden handles to push the rags around so that they could stand up straight, they told me that they didn't have anything like that, and besides, they could get the floor much cleaner if they did it by hand. "But you're working so hard," I protested. One of the girls immediately lit up with a huge smile, her white teeth bright against her dark hair and skin. With great joy she corrected me; "But we're doing it for Jesus! It is not hard when we are doing it for Him!"

We are always so awe-struck and humbled when we see stories like these begin to flow in during GLS season every year.

Do They Make You Want To Vomit?

Today at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit, Bill Hybels delivered the opening message and it was right on. He talked about a time a while back in which he was in a leadership slump. Nothing seemed to be going right and it seemed like he couldn't solve any problem, big or small. As a result, he was losing confidence in his leadership abilities.

Then, while spending some intentional time with God, he heard a gentle whisper from his heavenly Father saying, "You can lead. Look at what you've done. You have it in you!" This encouraged him and then God shared with him four foundational leadership principles.

One of those was something that, on paper, looks very elementary...but in practice, it is anything but. One of the principles Hybels referred to was that it takes fantastic people to move anything from here to there, in other words to make significant progress.

In discussing this point, he said that a leader's job is to recruit, train and develop talented people who will flourish in your culture. He said there is a great way to determine how your team stacks up, give them this test.

If you were to receive a text message right now stating that a certain person on your team has just resigned, which of the following would be your response?
1. "Whew! I sure am glad they're leaving!"
2. "Ughhh! They are such a good person and they're doing a good job. Now I'm going to have to find someone else!"
3. You want to vomit on the spot. "This person is a fantastic person with a fantastic attitude and they are a fantastic fit in our culture. They are irreplaceable."

Hybels went on to say that they spent an incredible amount of time going through this exercise with their entire staff at Willow. The time was very well spent, though.

Hybels said that they then met with every staff member and shared with them the results of this exercise. To those who were in the third category they would say something like, "You make me want to vomit (with obvious tongue in cheek). Really, if you left this organization, that is what I would want to do. You are a fantastic person and you are doing a fantastic job. We hope you are here for the long haul. Now if God calls you someplace else, we'll throw you a party but our hearts won't really be in it. But we want you to know that we hope you will be with us into the future."

Could you imagine being on the receiving end of something like that? It would feel pretty good, wouldn't it? Hybels shared that these meetings helped to build increased loyalty and passion for the vision that God has given them. It was an extremely beneficial thing to do.

After Hybels was finished, we heard from Jim Collins who discussed the importance of having the right people on the bus in any organization before you can talk about growing the organization. The exercise Hybels mentioned is a great way to determine if you really do have the right people on your bus.

So will you do this with your team?

Discipline For Greatness

A few posts ago, I shared about the fact that some of our Truth At Work groups watched Bill Hybels interviewing Jim Collins, author of Good to Great. This interview took place at the 2006 Willow Creek Leadership Summit.

While discussing what makes companies great, Collins shared this formula for greatness, "Disciplined people produce disciplined thought which produces disciplined actions which produces greatness."

I think it would be safe to say that most of us want to be great (I would also bet that everyone would have a different definition of what "great" would look like to them). Yet, so few want to do what is necessary for that to occur. Not many are willing to pay the price, whatever it might be.

Collins is sharing something that shouldn't be surprising to us. In order for greatness to occur, it must start in the individual, with discipline. That's a word that very few people like. That means hard work and effort and giving up things we really don't want to give up.

Over 3,000 years ago, Solomon shared some similar nuggets of wisdom (all from the book of Proverbs):

• Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth (10:4)
• He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son (10:5)
• Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor (12:24)
• The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied (13:4)
• The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty (21:5)
  

Interested Instead of Interesting

Last week, some of our Truth At Work groups watched Bill Hybels interviewing Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and pictured above. This interview took place at the 2006 Willow Creek Leadership Summit.

Collins had some incredible stuff to share about what organizations can do to be great.

However, one thing in the interview stuck out to me more than any other thing. At that point in his life, Collins had been going through a spiritual awakening of sorts and he was beginning to embrace Christianity. When asked about this by Hybels, Collins replied that his journey had been helped greatly by his personal board of advisors.

First off, the fact that he had a personal board was impressive to me and a great lesson to us all to not do life alone.

Second, he went on to say that he received some of the best advice from one of his advisors who said, “Jim, you spend too much time trying to be interesting. Why don’t you spend more time being interested?”

Wow. Great advice.

Dale Carnegie said that the best way to attract friends is to show interest in others. That is also a great way to show the love of Christ!

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:4

Cheat Work, Not Home

Last week, I showed a video from the 2006 Willow Creek Leadership Summit for our Truth At Work groups. The session was Andy Stanley's talk on The Best Leadership Decision I Have Ever Made.

During the session, Stanley talked about when he was getting his church up and running and the incredible effort it took. He talked about the long hours he and his team was investing. He said he had the attitude, "If I don't, it won't." In other words, it was all up to him. He felt that if he leaned toward home, nothing would get done at work.

Sound familiar? It does for me.

Then he received a revelation from God.

God revealed to him that Andy was instructed to love his wife (Ephesians 5), not his church. He also received insight in Matthew 16 when Jesus says, "On this rock I will build my church..." Andy said, "OK, so Jesus is promising to build the church, not Andy."

Andy said it was out of those revelations that his greatest leadership decision materialized. He decided to cheat the church (or work) and not his home. He made a deal with God which went something like this: OK God. You command me to love my wife and you say that you are going to build the church, so here's my deal. You have me for 45 hours per week to get this church thing done. If you can't build the church with 45 of my hours, well, I guess it wasn't meant to be. He decided to cheat the church rather than his family.

After making this decision, what he found out was that this forced him to operate in his sweet spot, doing what he does best. He also found out that his organization began to thrive because he was only doing what only he could do.

Andy shared one more thing which I think is relevant to all of us who are leaders. Those who love their businesses and not their families, have neither great business nor great families. Wow.

I must admit, I am now doing quite a bit of soul searching and taking a very close look at how I'm spending my time.

The Old Normal Has Left The Building

On Thursday last week, Bill Hybels kicked off the Willow Creek Leadership Summit with a talk entitled, Leading in a New Reality. He mentioned that "the old reality has left the building." We need to understand we are and we will be leading in different times.

As a result, he said the one thing that he has found has been happening to him, and to others around him, is that he is spending more time at work. He has gotten caught up in that temptation to just work harder to get out of this hole. God has begun to speak to him about this, much like he did 20 years ago when Hybels was on the verge of complete burnout. God has been saying, "You can't sustain this."

As a result, Hybels is on a mission to reclaim his life...to put some margin back in his life...to replenish his bucket. Here are three things that he is doing that we all can benefit from:

1. Ask, "Who do I need to be around more? Who replenishes me? And, who drains me?
2. Physical exercise - he has doubled what he was doing
3. Starting every day with God. Instead of getting to the office early where he usually spent time with the Lord, he has been spending the first part of his day with God at a designated place in his home. This way, there is no temptation to tackle the mounds of work on his desk at the expense of his time with the Lord. He says that when you show up at work with a fresh spirit, everyone around you benefits in tangible ways.

What do your followers and colleagues see? Are they worried about you? Do they see someone who is exhausted and fearful? Or do they see someone who knows God is in control and knows that He is going to do something amazing in our time (like in the verse below)?

Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known.

Habakkuk 3:2a

Holy Huddle

At the Willow Creek Leadership Summit yesterday, the day was ended with an inspiring talk by Harvey Carey. Harvey is the lead pastor of a multi-cultural church in Detroit who are doing great things.

He asked us to picture this. You purchase a ticket to a football game. You walk in the stadium and the game begins. Your team huddles up. And, they continue to stay huddled for an hour or so. Then they break and go into the locker room. Not one play run...game over. As a fan, wouldn't you feel cheated?

He went on to say that many of us in churches are no different than this team. We get together once a week and "huddle" for an hour or so. Then we break and go home and never run a play. Wow.

So, are you going to stay in the huddle or will you run a play and do what God asks you to do?

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

James 2:17

Summit Bound

This is one of my absolute favorite times of the year for one reason...Willow Creek Leadership Summit. I am getting ready to leave for this and I can't wait (we will be attending at a satellite location in our community).

It seems that each year, they seem to top the previous year. If you have never attended, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Great stuff!

Dripping Pride

Drip. Drip. Drip. That was the sound that came from two of our bathroom faucets in our house. Last Wednesday, I went to the hardware store to purchase seats and springs to fix the issue. I am not the most handy guy on the planet, but I can typically do stuff like this (I have done this about 5-6 times in the past). Because of my "experience" with this issue, I figured this job would take about 15-20 minutes to fix both faucets.

When I arrived home, I put in the parts and found they were the wrong size. So...trip #2 to the hardware store.

After returning, I put in the new parts and they fit great. I then reattached the faucet, turned the water on, and...nothing. Not even a drip. So, I was very successful at stopping the drip, because now nothing came out of the faucet!

I took it apart and reassembled it...now just a slight trickle. Took it apart, put it back together, now, nothing. I repeated this countless times with no positive results.

So I gave up on that faucet and went to the other one. Same exact results.

Then my wife and 13 year-old son, Robbie, come home from a pool party our church youth group held. After explaining the situation, Robbie says to me, "What about that thingy?" He was pointing at the aerator on the end of the faucet. I said, "No, that couldn't be it since water was coming out fine before." After all, how could a 13 year-old have the answer to this "complex" problem?

After a few more tries, I became totally frustrated and gave up for the night. Because I was busy, I didn't get back to it until Saturday.

Saturday morning, I took the entire faucet apart and went to the hardware store for the third time. I asked their plumbing expert what I was doing wrong and he told me everything I was doing seemed right to him. He wished me well and sent me on my way.

So, back home I went to try it again. After a few more tries with the same result, I found myself grasping at straws. I thought I might as well take the aerator off to see if Robbie was right, as I had no other options.

Sure enough, it was totally clogged by some sediment I must have stirred up while working on it. I cleaned both aerators out and the faucets work fine now! Had I listened to Robbie from the get-go, I would have saved myself several hours of frustration.

I wondered to myself how many other instances I ignore words of advice because it is coming from someone whom I don't feel could possibly have any wisdom to share.

Bill Hybels has said several times during the Willow Creek Leadership Summit that he looks to learn from all sort of people. As a result, they have had some speakers at the Summit, who would probably surprise you...not people you would typically see at a Christian event. Hybels knows we can all learn from anyone, even if we don't agree with them about everything.

Hybels is right. We can learn from anyone...if our pride doesn't get in the way!

Hope

I was at Cedar Creek Church yesterday which is a very cool church in our city. I was there for a kickoff and introduction to the lineup who will be speaking at this year's Willow Creek Leadership Summit. Cedar Creek is the host site for Toledo as this is shown via satellite at hundreds of sites around the world.

Bill Hybels talked during the webcast yesterday about the speakers for the upcoming event in August and then showed video clips of many of them. It really looks like it will be an incredible event, as it always is.

Hybels mentioned that he is constantly looking to learn from other leaders. He said he especially wants to know what they did when they were in a similar mess to what he is in much of the time.

I thought that was very good. I have heard it said that a smart man learns from his own mistakes while a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

The interesting thing about the Summit, is that Hybels actually goes out of his way to find speakers who are coming from a different place or have a different perspective. They typically always challenge you in ways you didn't think you needed to be challenged. There have been speakers in the past whom I have dismissed as someone who probably won't be that great, who have absolutely knocked it out of the park.

I have learned that I, and all leaders, can learn from anyone and this was exhibited at the function yesterday in an unexpected way.

After listening to Bill Hybels and video clips from some amazing leaders, a great friend of mine, Bob Borcherdt (president of Midwest Paper Specialties) got up to address the crowd and to promote our upcoming Community Leaders Prayer Breakfast and Leadership Seminar featuring John Maxwell we are helping to organize in Toledo on May 7th.

Because of all the great speakers we had just heard from, Bob was the last person I expected to hear the most memorable line of the day from (although he is filled with much wisdom), yet he said something that stuck with me. Bob said, "There is a lot of fear out there. As Christians, it is our role to help to give people hope."

How true that is; however, it can be very easy to get bogged down in the "doom and gloom." But we know the end of the story--our team wins! So let your hope be infectious!

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.

1 Peter 3:15b

Hire For Attitude, Train For Skill

I was reviewing my notes yesterday from the Willow Creek Leadership Summit I attended in 2005. When looking over the notes I took from the interview Bill Hybels did with Colleen Barrett (President of Southwest Airlines) I was struck by something simple she said.

She said that when hiring someone they do their best to make sure that the prospective employee has a great attitude above all else. In fact she said that they, “hire for attitude and train for skill.” Pretty simple but it obviously works for them (they consistently outperform most other airlines in almost every category).

This is a list of characteristics Southwest looks for in people:

1. Want to serve from the heart
2. Altruistic and caring
3. Sense of humor—take business seriously but not themselves
4. Common sense
5. Make eye contact with others
6. Mix well with others – introduces themselves…

Again, pretty simple and filled with a lot of common sense. Do you know anyone who could benefit by taking on these characteristics? I know that I plan on sharing this list with each of my children as I know it will help them to be not only better employees someday but also better citizens.

Axioms to Grind

This summer I was fortunate to have attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. This was our 4th year for attending and it is something I look forward to each year.

Bill Hybels delivered a couple of messages during the two-day conference and one dealt with axioms that he and others have used in their lives to help them to make tough decisions or to steady them during turbulent times. He listed several of his axioms and the axioms of other great leaders.

Here are a few axioms from Colin Powell:

• Check your ego at the door
• Promote a clash of ideas – “Who has a contrary opinion?” – will help you make a better decision
• Reward of your best performers, get rid of non-performers – you cannot tolerate non-performance

Studying these axioms has been so powerful to Hybels that he wrote a book titled, Axiom, Powerful Leadership Proverbs.

I recently received an email with a link to a 3 minute movie that contains some other powerful axioms. Check it out here.

All In

Do you want to live life the way it was meant to be lived? I mean do you really? Even if it might be painful at times?

Yesterday I attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit which was incredible. Today is the final day and I am looking forward to it very much.

Bill Hybels yesterday shared something during his talk on The High Drama of Decision Making. It is something that I have heard before, but for some reason it really struck me yesterday.

He said, "You will never live life that is truly life until you are fully and uncompromisingly devoted to Christ." This means in every area of your life.

Pretty simple, right?

So let's do it! Let's be like the poker players on TV and go "all in."

Words To Lead By (And To Live By)

Some of you have probably heard me say that we are all leaders because we influence others daily. I totally believe this.

At my church, we are on a campaign to encourage people to sign up for the Willow Creek Leadership Summit which is what I consider to be the best of the best when it comes to leadership development programs. We know that anyone who attends this will come away deeply impacted and it will help them in their daily lives, no matter what they do for a living. I like to tell others that it is really a summit on how to lead your life.

I recently received this 3 minute video in an email. I wanted to share it because it reveals some incredible leadership principles and, much like the Leadership Summit, it does it in such a way that anyone who views it could benefit. I hope you enjoy! Click here for the video.

Eating Humble Pie

I was at a meeting about the Willow Creek Leadership Summit yesterday afternoon. In addition to talking about the conference, the subject of some changes at Willow Creek Church came up.

They did something last year which surprised a lot of people. They did a survey of their congregation as well as the congregations of six other churches to find out what was working and what was not working. What they found surprised them.

They found that people were not growing in Christ the way they thought. As a result they are making some changes to the way they "do church." This is impressive to me. Not only are they willing to set their pride aside and say, "We were wrong about a few things" but they are willing to admit it to the world. (To read more about this go here.)

Bill Hybels, the senior pastor at Willow, has taken an incredible amount of heat over this. There are many who are laughing at him for being wrong. Many are inferring that because he was wrong in a couple of areas that he is wrong about everything.

That could not be further from the truth. What Bill Hybels and the leadership of Willow have shown is strong leadership - admitting when an error has been made, making corrections and moving on. We can all learn from this!