Attending the House2House mini-conference today with Tony and Felicity Dale. I firmly believe that Sent Church will be a network of house churches scattered across our region. I’m excited about learning from these pioneers of the house church movement. This afternoon will begin the Greenhouse training with Neil Cole.
Excited about our new message series that starts on Easter. IDOL Factory will be an eye-opening journey exploring the First Commandment. John Calvin wrote, “The human heart is a factory of idols… Everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” You might be shocked at some of the subtle things that might be replacing our devotion to Christ. Idolatry is not about statues or religious trinkets, it’s a matter of the heart.
This coming year we have committed as a church family to grow together as disciples of Christ. We are embarking on a year long endeavor to read through the Bible. We are using the ESV Daily Bible Reading plan and I am encouraging every one to journal their daily devotionals using the R.E.A.P. (Read, Examine, Apply, Pray) Bible study method. Both of those items can be found on a special micro-site we have rolled out here.
I’ve been thinking a lot about influence as of late and one thing is becoming increasingly apparent, you either have influence or you don’t. John Maxwell popularized the notion that leadership is influence and that is quite true. I’ve witnessed that those that we respect in leadership don’t need to incessantly demand things, yell at their subordinates, berate, manipulate and control things to get their way — No, they simply whisper and their influence sets in motion the very things they requested. That’s influence!
This is where young leaders miss the boat in their first leadership assignment. They haven’t built enough “influence capital” with others through respect, trust, listening, valuing others and collaboration. Positional influence is the weakest level of leadership. Instead of whispering, those without influence have to roar–they have to flex their muscles, they have to make themselves stand out as if screaming, “Do what I tell you to do, I’m the boss!” When you influence from a place of relationship and respect you can go a whole lot further faster. You can whisper, but it will be received as a ROAR that makes things happen.
What are you doing to build your influence capital with your team so that your whisper can be received as a roar?
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