Insights from C3

One of the facts of life for pastors is that most of the time we get to listen to ourselves talk when it comes to the preaching. Thankfully we can listen to other pastors via podcast and video-casts which is great but it is still awesome to see them in person. Today I listened to five different sermons. These guys are the best of the best when it comes to communicating God’s truth. I sit here tonight (actually its morning now) and I am still downloading the things that God challenged me with.

I am blessed to do what I do…there is nothing more important than leading people to Jesus…it is the greatest news out there. One hundred years from now the only thing that will matter is a person’s relationship with Jesus Christ. Here are some of the takeaways from today for me…my notes are in the car so this will be from memory.

• Empowering people is one of the most important things I do. It needs to be about people seeing Jesus not me. I can get in the way of people seeing Jesus when it becomes about me or my pride gets in the way.
• Passion in the church starts with me and it should be white-hot because of what Jesus has done for me.
• It is not the churches job to be “anti-anything.” Too many churches today are getting caught up in politics or various causes instead of being “pro-Jesus.” Jesus is that answer. Period.
• When you work with people you will always deal with betrayal. You are either coming out of it, in the midst of it, or it is in your future. It has happened more than I like to think or talk about. 2006 will be remembered as our most difficult year. We have moved past it and God is blessing like crazy…
• Betrayal is eventually followed by God’s blessing. He has a way of taking (see the story of Joseph) what the enemy means for evil in our lives and using it for good.
• As a leader it is my responsibility to set the bar high for my staff. I then need to keep it set high on a consistent basis while I challenge them to perform with excellence. Too many times leaders lower the bar to keep peace on the team or to avoid confrontation. Set the bar high and then hold people accountable.
• Don’t ever hire someone who is not joyful. This was a great reminder to all of us. It is amazing what we get to do for a living. I need to set the pace here and again, hold people accountable.