Video Transcript: Transition

Lesson 1 - Transition

Welcome to a course on leadership. Now you'll notice the visual that I've chosen for this and  that's a person saying this way, this is where we're going as others carry the arrow that's  going there. That's in many ways a wonderful picture of leadership it's what you are called to  as a Christian leader. And certainly what we're called to here in Christian Leaders Institute to  help to be more effective, and being a leader that makes a change in the world. Now, if you  I've been part of Christian Leaders Institute training for quite a while, you may not have taken the first 10 sessions of this class, what happened was, we were working on this class of 36  sessions, when a decision was made to change that, instead of 36, sessions, we moved the  first 10 sections about "You as a Leader", we moved those sessions into the introductory  course. So if you've been around a while, you may have missed those 10 sections, and I want  to encourage you to go back. But today, I'm just going to take you on a look back just so that  you can see where we have been. And then we'll talk a little bit more about where we're going in this class on leadership. We looked at the leader in this previous class, here's the model I've been using. And this is the model we're going to focus on for the future, we're going to look at a leader with all of his strengths and weaknesses, all of his pluses and minuses, that you as a  leader have some real, unique individual things that make you effective or ineffective as a  leader. And so we've been looking at that, and that's part of that first 10 sessions. In this class, we're going to focus on that second part. Initially, what does it mean to be a person  who's looking to change the culture. Now the culture is defined as the way we do things here,  and focusing here on the star that's there. And the star is a mixture of a mission statement or  written things like rules and procedures, but it's also how stories are told, and who are the  heroes, it's the physical layout will tell you a great deal about the culture. And the rituals that  people use will tell you a great deal about the culture. And so we're going to examine culture.  And as a leader, you're going to have to know the culture where you are before you can move on to the future. And so we're going to look at that, and then we're going to look at vision or preferred future. And you'll notice to the image that I've chosen for that is the star with that  statement by Glenn Hiemstra, the preferred future vision becomes the star that you steer by  not a simple map to be followed. So I'm going to use that idea of a star, you know, when they  started navigating off the coasts early on back in the 18th century, off the coast of Europe  and the coast of Africa, and etc. It was scary, because when they had no landmarks to steer  by, people would get lost very quickly. And so somebody discovered that if you had a fixed  position you could work with, you could use the sextant as the instrument they created. And  you could focus on that star. And by that star, you could tell where you were out in the ocean  where there are no landmarks to steer by. And so you could correct your course, based on the  North Star and your relationship to it. Or you could move further north or south or east or  west based on how are you situated in relation to that fixed point? Well, vision becomes that  fixed point and we're going to look at how you describe a vision, how you discover a vision,  how you craft a vision, and how do you communicate a vision in this course. And then there's  that yellow box. That is the prayer and the planning that are necessary. You provide the  impetus as a leader for that prayer and that planning to happen so that the preferred future  becomes a reality. So here it is, in writing, a leader with all of his pluses and minuses,  strengths and weaknesses interacts with a group of people to define the culture, which is  defined as the way things are done here in order to develop a vision for a preferable future.  And then that leader provides the impetus for doing the actions necessary to bring about that  future with plans and prayer. So that's what we're doing. We've been focusing on that leader  in the first 10 sessions. In this brief time with you, I want to bring you back a little bit and just  summarize what we did in that first 10 classes so that you can get an idea of the value of  going back and listening to them. So we looked at the question, what goes into making you a  leader and we listed a variety of things. Here they are, the baggage you carry goes into  making you as a leader now the baggage comes from your family of origin Sometimes our  baggage is something that is good for us as a leader, it helps us figure out good things about  how to lead people in an effective way. And that baggage might be a father or a mother who  was a leader, and they became a model for us. But many, many times that baggage is  negative as well. And so maybe you've got a lot of encouragement on the plus side from your  parents to become who God called you to be. Or maybe you were abused as a child. And that 

affects you deeply. Or your parents were divorced. Years and years ago, I used to be involved  in a process called healing of the memories. Now, the theology behind it was a little shaky.  But the philosophy or the thought behind it was that God is not limited by time the way we  are, he's outside of time. And so if we could bring somebody back to moments in their life,  where they were damaged, where they were hurt, where they were carrying scars, if we could pray them back there in a meaningful way, and then pray for healing of that, there that  hopefully, very positive things could happen for the future. And so in times of prayer, you  know, we would just slowly go back to some defining moments in their life. And this often the  leaders in the church, I was pastoring at the time. And one of the things that was surprising to me, was the fact that people can identify them pretty readily. They can identify them, and  they can tell of. And it was often with pain and tears that they would identify them. And they  were talking about the feelings of what it was like. And I remember working with one leader,  there was a deacon in the church I was serving. So he had somebody, somebody was an  influential person in our congregation. And yet, we went back with him to the moment when  he was told that his parents were divorcing and the aftermath of that. And just the chaos and  the brokenness that that created in him. And that was affecting his life, still, negatively. And  then certainly his leadership negatively. And so we prayed for healing of that event, in his life, in the emotions of a young child who were told was told his father is moving out. That kind of  baggage that we carry, every one of us is unique in the baggage that we carry. And so one of  the things we did was look at that, and identify it, and talk about how we can integrate that  into our understanding of who we are. But that's something of what makes us as a leader.  birth order. Your birth order has an impact on how you act as a leader. firstborns tend to be  the ones who are out there in front, they just tend to be those kinds of people. Third borns  tend to be the people who are the actors and actresses and, and, and salespeople. They're  very good at salespeople, are very good at people relationships, these are generalizations, of  course, second, children tend to be counselors and that sort of thing, because they end up  being mediators in the process. So we'll talk about that. And we'll talk about how to figure out  how that affects you in your life. We talked about life experience, again, life experience can  be negative, or it can be positive. And we're going to talk about how you, you take a positive  view of your life experience. For instance, I had an uncle who went to World War II, as a  soldier. And prior to going as a young man, his stated goal was to become a lawyer. That's  what he wanted to do. And he had plans for education that would help them achieve that  goal. But he ended up in World War II, and was so impacted by the amount of death and  destruction that he had to see and be part of, and cause that when he came back, he took a  spiritual turn in his life. And that spiritual turn led him to go into ministry instead. So instead  of going to law school, he ended up in a seminary, and they ended up serving churches for for his adult life. Those kinds of life experiences Now what kind of life experiences you have, one  of the things we looked at in that first part was how to integrate those life experiences into  becoming who you are in a more effective leader. And we looked at personality, as part of  what goes into making you as a leader, your personality. All leaders, personalities are not the  same. But we looked at things like the Myers Briggs test. Are you an extrovert? Are you an  introvert? Are you a sensing person? Are you a practical detail concrete person? Are you an  intuitive or the concrete versus those kinds of things? How does that impact you? And you are called to lead in the organization you're part of. And we looked at the DISC survey and gave  you tools, questions online that are free to help you discover where you are on these kind of  personality testing things. And I mentioned the Kolbe test, which is not free but is worthwhile  taking another way of looking at your personality to talk about how you most effectively work  within any given setting. And so all of those things became part of our investigation of what  goes into making you, the leader. And then we have a session on writing a personal mission  statement that you look at who you are, and what God has called you to be. And so in those  first 10 sessions, there's a Bible study there, which starts with things like Jeremiah 1 where  God says to Jeremiah, you know, before you were born, I chose you to be a prophet. Before  you were born, I, I loved you. When you were in your mother's womb, I knew you the word  knew there actually means I love you. And what does that mean for you? Or what does it  mean when Paul says in Philippians, you know, "work out your own salvation with fear and 

trembling for it as God was at work within you both to will and to work for His good pleasure."  What does that mean for you to think about that? And then to think about, What does God  called you to do within his kingdom? And so I gave you resources to do that resources to  define your personal values, what's your value system, and that will impact where you end up as a leader, as far as the organization, you're part of. A people you admire a listing of those,  and then personal strengths and gifts that you have spiritual gifting, a spiritual gift is  something that you are able to do well in the kingdom. And it's not because you got the right  education is because this is given to you by the Holy Spirit. So know what that spiritual gift is,  know what your personal strengths are. In those first 10 sessions, we also looked at  leadership styles. Laissez Faire, is the fact that you really don't give a whole lot of form to  what's happening. And organizations that have many, many strong leaders in that maybe  adopt this as a style. Because just let them go, let them find their way and help them  organize together and stay on the same page. Last church, I served as a pastor was loaded  with leaders. And so when people have asked me what my job was, I said, it's keeping  everybody on the same page. That's, that's how I define what I was called to do as a leader in that situation. And that was almost laissez faire, not quite. Democratic, where you get people  together and you talk and process and you engage them in the visioning process, and  certainly in the process of living out that vision. And that's probably the most popular one.  Then there's the autocratic benevolent style. This is the benevolent dictator. You know, Plato,  many, many years ago, the Greek philosopher was once asked, What's the what's the most  effective system of leading a group of people, particularly a country, and he said the  benevolent dictator. And so this is the one where somebody comes along, and he has people's good in mind, and he does that for their good. In the church, I served in California, I served  there 23 years in a church in Southern California. We went through our relocation. And as part of that, we sold the building the original building that the church put up and sacrificed for, we  sold it to a group that was considerably different than we were as far as culture, that Pastor  Duke, there was a benevolent kind of dictator. And now he did it with the benefit of the people in mind, but in the culture in which he exists, that's how he could best serve, he could best  serve by telling people what to do. And so when my daughter was going to get married, she  wanted to get married in that building, which we had sold. And so I went there to ask if we  could rent their building. And I was told by the people in the office that Molly had asked Pastor Duke, he made every major decision in the place. And so that's one style, that autocratic  bureaucratic leader, style, that's the person who is very directive and saying, This is what  you're going to do. And this is how you're going to do it. Now. Sometimes that person can be  benevolent or not. Many years ago, I had the opportunity to serve in Haiti for a period of time. And I remember going there and interacting with the people from Haiti and, and I was working with some very highly educated men in a music camp over a period of time. And in talking  with them over lunch and dinner, just talking about the state of situation in Haiti, Haiti is the  poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Billions and billions of dollars of aid have just  come into Haiti over the last decades. And yet, it doesn't seem to improve the life of the  people there. So we're just talking about what what is it going to take to turn Haiti around?  And I was surprised that these men said is going to take a dictator. We need a dictator in this  country. Now, you know, as dictators were fought and spoken against and aid was withheld  when a dictator would change situations, as far as you know, saying there's not going to be  any election next time. aid would be withheld. because we we're trying to push people to the  democratic style of things. And yet the people there acknowledge that we need a dictator, we want him to be good because they had a lot of bad ones who simply took aid money and  funneled into their own accounts. These are the styles, we talked about the fact that in those  first sessions that you can choose a style to fit a situation to fit a culture in the Haiti culture.  That's what they need is a strong person. We looked at leadership levels. The fact that when  you come into an organization, you have a position, a job description, and that that's what  you are able to do, you can't go far beyond it, you have this job description, that's what you  are to do, then the idea of permission that once you have proven that you can do your job  description, well, other people will begin to be influenced by you and are willing to listen to  you, they'll give you permission to lead. And then if you do that, well, and things are 

improving, and there's a production that's happening, there's a success that's happening, the  organization is growing, or your department is effective, or whatever, you get into that third  level of I can produce something that will be helpful for this organization, people will give you  a broader influence within that organization. And then the fourth level is people development, that you take your influence. And instead of just gaining all the accolades, you begin to  develop people, and you begin to invest in them, you want them to grow in their capacity,  you want them to grow in their abilities, you want them to grow in their own leadership, even  to the point where some maybe will go elsewhere. But, but you are investing in people and  they know that you care about them, they know you, they know you want the best for them.  That's another level of leadership that expands your influence even further, and usually even  beyond the organization or church that you're a part of. And then finally is personhood, where  people will follow you, just because you have, you have spent a lot of years being an effective leader. And in the course of give the example of Billy Graham, as somebody who recently died recently, from these tapings of these videos, somebody has been around a long time, and  therefore people are willing to listen, and they will listen to him. So we looked at all of that.  And then we concluded with a couple of sessions looking at the dark side of leadership. In  other words, you have a dark side too because of your life experience because of your family  of origin because of a variety of choices you have made. In addition to those things that you  didn't choose, you have potential for failure in you. And it's a dark side, Alexander  Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian writer said that he realizes he was in a prison, the Gulag in  Russia, that the line between good and evil doesn't pass between classes of people nor  groups of people, or even nations, it passes through the human heart. And you have the  capacity for great evil. And so we discuss that and where it comes from. And then in the next  session, the last session, before a wrap up, we talked about how in the world, you overcome  that dark side, how do you not let it control you and I share my own experience of my own  failure. And what it costs me as an individual, as a leader, to fail spectacularly, spectacularly.  But the point is, if you are a leader, or you have a target on you, it's a well known battle tactic throughout the many, many years of warfare. It came, especially to awareness during the  Civil War here in the United States. And that is that when people are shooting, they are just  shooting indiscriminately trying to kill the other soldiers. But they're shooting at the leaders,  the officers because they know if they can kill an officer, it's going to have a huge impact on  the outcome of the battle, if you are a leader, or the enemy has a target on you. And you've  got to be aware of that and know where your potential weaknesses are so that you can  address them positively, and with the strength of the Holy Spirit. And so all of these things are part of what we talked about in those first 10 sessions. Again, I want to encourage you to go  back and work through those they're 20 to 30 minute sessions. There are 10 of them that  simply introduce myself and introduce these topics we've been talking about here in a way  that will prepare you to be a leader who meets the culture. Now I plan in the these next  sessions. The next 35 is that we're going to address some things about leader again, that first image that we looked at where that leader interacts with the culture, we're going to do some  things about leadership, then we're going to move to culture, then we're going to move to  vision. Then we're going to move to plans and strategies and prayer that are necessary for a  successful leadership experience, so I invite you along for the ride. It's going to be fun. I'm  passionate about the subject of leadership and hope by the end of these sessions together,  you will be able to find yourself more effective in the place where God has called you for His  glory and for the building of his kingdom. So come along