The Seabourns

Leadership

Bold Responses

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As I review my notes on the Bold Moves Summit, things have become clearer to me. I am increasingly excited to be used by the Lord for His Kingdom come. Thanks to you, Keith and Kay, to Bekele and to your team for a conference that will produce eternal rewards. [from a participant]

Some came from far. Others were nearby. As the Bold Moves conference began in late February in Manila, 229 people from 89 countries gathered to explore Bold Moves: Boldly Multiplying, Boldly Expanding, Boldly Partnering and Boldly Leading. Directing a global conference with visas, around-the-clock arrivals and departures, establishing a meaningful agenda and executing it in atimely manner is in itself a bold move!

My prayer for weeks before the conference was from Luke 19 as Jesus expresses his love for Jerusalem. He laments that “you did not recognize the time when God visited you.” I felt God wanted to visit Bold Moves participants with a fresh breath  of the Holy Spirit, a renewed vision and tools to overcome barriers. He wanted to invite us to closely follow our God who is boldly moving towards “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14)

My prayer  was that we each would recognize the time when God visited us in Manila.

My prayer was overwhelmingly answered. There is a renewed dependence, vision and commitment. We have identified the big challenges. We have discussed the barriers. We have developed pathways to success. Participants departed saying, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” (Acts 4:29)

Resource

Reflections on the Bold Moves Conference

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Reflections on the Bold Moves Conference

28 February – 2 March 2018
Manila, Philippines

This was my first GCM conference and it was the best organized conference that I have attended with our organization. I liked that it was global and I could meet people from around the world. I liked how practical it was – writing down the next steps and emphasizing what the Lord is saying and how he is leading. I liked all the talks and the workshops. [Eastern Europe]

The 4 clear themes, the women time, the best practices (huge impact to have had Joey and his wife in person). [Latin America and Caribbean]

Seeing best practices, big challenges table times, clear directions of how to take notes and put ideas into the notebook. [Central Asia]

I liked learning a new process together to find a solution to a Big Challenge. Best practices to learn how others trusted God and made progress. [Southeast Asia]

The Bold Moves Conference was designed and executed by a highly-competent and highly-committed team from Albania, Panama, Australia, the Philippines and the USA.

Eventually, there were 229 participants from 89 countries with 17 cancellations due to visa difficulties or other issues. Among these participants, 51 were women representing the highest number of engaged women leaders in the history of Global Church Movements. The meeting was held in Manila, Philippines at the Crimson Hotel in the Alabang area.

The conference theme was Bold Moves: It is Possible. There were daily subthemes of:

  • 4G :: Boldly Multiplying.
    Achieving multiple streams of 4th generation church multiplication in every country)
  • 1:1000 :: Boldly Expanding.
    Establishing a church accessible to everyone, in every village, neighborhood, high-rise and digital space)
  • 1:1>2 :: Boldly Partnering.
    Intentionally engaging kingdom-minded partners in a -led paradigm to share in the mission.
  • 50X :: Boldly Leading.
    Becoming a movement leader, a leader of leaders with a goal of every GCM staff influentially leading 50 other leaders.

The conference was designed with these values in mind:

  • This conference should focus on problem solving, identifying and overcoming the big challenges and barriers limiting our 2020 goals.
  • This conference should intentionally engage women leading church multiplication. This was not conceived as a “wives’ track” but designed to engage those leading church multiplication.
  • This conference should intentionally welcome key leaders and partners who are not GCM staff. Key denominational pastors and leaders, partner organizations and key volunteers were fully engaged in all aspects of the conference, including problem solving and identifying best practices.
  • This conference should catalyze and energize the “wisdom in the room.” The focus should be on engaging the participants rather than plenary presentations.
  • This conference would not have live reports but would use video to capture the best practices each region of the world is learning in a compelling story format so that the knowledge is most easily transferable throughout our global movement.
  • A leadership development process would be used to tackle 3 big challenges. Identifying pathways to overcome these challenges would be important. But equally important would be helping global leaders with a systems-thinking approach to creatively and collaboratively overcome barriers.

Extensive discussion opportunities focused on best practices and an immersive, 6-hour problem-solving exercise. All participants engaged on one three wicked big challenges:

  • How do we achieve multiple streams of 4th generation in every country?
  • How do we expand our scope to achieve a church for every 1000 people in every country?
  • How do we partner in new and more effective ways to effectively engage all the kingdom laborers in every country?

These responses are common in the evaluations received:

  • Daily 20 minute introductions by our Vice President Bekele Shanko set the tone for each day. The combination of current reality based on observations from the 2017 reports related to the day’s sub-theme and future vision delivered every morning in the context of the daily theme for the day was very powerful.
  • High level of participant engagement. Every hour there were new and meaningful discussions.
  • Highly integrated conference. Many have commented on how integrated the conference was around the overall Bold Moves theme and the daily Bold themes. Pastor Dale Hummel of Wooddale Church led daily times with Biblical truths around the sub-themes.
  • Best practices discussion. Each morning, video and live presentations were visionary and demonstrated how others had overcome faith barriers to move forward in multiplication, scope, partnering and leading.
  • Big Challenges. This immersive experience in collaborative problem solving based on the popular TED Talk How to Make Toast [See the website DrawToast.com] was mentioned by many as one of the more meaningful opportunities to engage with other leaders in a way that gives them confidence, a practical plan and hope that these barriers can be overcome.

My prayer for weeks before the conference was from Luke 19 as Jesus expresses his love for Jerusalem. He laments that “you did not recognize the time when God visited you.” I felt God wanted to visit Bold Moves participants with a fresh breath of the Holy Spirit and a renewed vision and tools to overcome barriers. He wanted to invite us to closely follow our God who is boldly moving towards “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the people groups (nations); and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14)

My prayer was that we each would recognize the time when God visited us in Manila.

My prayer was overwhelmingly answered. There is a renewed dependence, vision and commitment. We have identified the big challenges. We have discussed the threats. We have developed pathways to success. Participants departed saying, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” (Acts 4:29-31)

Resources

 

The Top 10 Most Desired Leadership Behaviors

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Someone wrote me recently, “I found this an interesting top 10 list. I wonder how I do on #2…I’m high on analysis side.”

The Top 10 Most Desired Leadership Behaviors

In case the link stops working sometime, here is the list:

  1. Sets clear strategic direction.
  2. Knows when to stop analyzing an issue and make a decision.
  3. Follows through on actions, promises, and assignments.
  4. Has the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively perform job duties.
  5. Demonstrates high ethical standards.
  6. Lives, leads, manages, and works with integrity.
  7. Accepts responsibility for own actions.
  8. Leverages the strengths of each team member.
  9. Treats others with dignity.
  10. Creates a working environment that motivates high individual performance.

I found the list very interesting also. In fact, I think I will use it in my coaching of others.

#2 Knows when to stop analyzing an issue and makes a decision. You may have heard the term paralysis of analysis. Some leaders are paralyzed by a decision and continually seek more information. I think those gifted as analytical leaders can overcome this tendency with wisdom gained over time in making decisions. Those of us who are gifted in the area of analysis tend to start out over-analyzing. But over time, especially in the context of deadlines, we can be like the spider in zero gravity mentioned in the article and adapt and learn to speed up the decision-making process.

One of the things that I have learned is that most things work out better than I ever expect them to work out. I never feel adequately prepared for a conference. I always wish I had more time to prepare my talks. I think there are more facts to research that would add value to my presentations or better graphics or better powerpoint themes. But I have learned that I generally am prepared enough and that my facts are good enough and that people are blessed and that my desired outcome is achieved.

If we focus on outcomes and not on process those of us in the analytical world can better let go of process and lean into the outcome. After all it’s the outcome that we’re after and the process just needs to be good enough to deliver the outcome that we want. It’s helpful for me to clearly identify the outcome and decide if what I have is good enough to get the outcome I’ve identified. If so, then doing more is wasted effort because I’ve already got enough to achieve the outcome I need.

I also appreciated the number one desired attribute: #1 Sets clear strategic direction.  I have been working hard in my leadership to develop it. Andy Stanley says it this way: the role of a leader is to provide islands of clarity in the sea of confusion. He says that the role of a leader is not to provide certainty. Only God knows with certainty. But a leader can say with clarity this is what we will do. Out of all the possible things that might deliver the outcome we want, this.is.what.we.will.do. Then he measures the progress towards outcome and humbly makes mid-course corrections and if necessary he pivots and does a completely different process to deliver the outcome. A good leader does not pretend know with certainty, but he leads with clarity.

Which of these ten would most improve your leadership over the next 12 months?

Plumb lines

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When things go bad, it’s seldom because of a disagreement about the destination. It’s almost always a squabble over the day-to-day itinerary, the pace, or the best route to get from here to there. [Larry Osborne, Sticky Teams]

How do you build a team culture? Culture is about how we behave, why we behave the way we do in our organization or team. It’s more complicated that posters on the wall.

Rohan Dredge, in Creating and Discovering Culture, develops some ideas on creating culture. His point: “Listen deeply to what is already in the organisation and evaluate courageously who you need to be to accomplish your mission.” He proposed good parts of the process.

I was in an organization where the director gave a talk every year on the ethos of the organization. It was the first time I had experienced that kind of talk. It was a good part of the process and one which I continued when I became an organizational director.

But I think Larry Osborne has outlined an effective culture-shaping process in his book Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Team and Staff on the Same Page. The chapter is Staff Alignment and the topic is what Osborne calls plumb lines.

Here are some excerpts:

When things go bad, it’s seldom because of a disagreement about the destination. It’s almost always a squabble over the day-to-day itinerary, the pace, or the best route to get from here to there.

The most powerful tool I’ve found for overcoming these differences and for making sure that my staff is aligned in terms of their day-to-day values and decisions is something I call “ministry plumb lines.”

The purpose of plumb lines is to clarify how we plan to go about reaching the lost or glorifying God in this church at this time.

Effective leaders are almost always a little bit weird. They approach ministry and life a few degrees off center. That’s what sets them apart. They see and sense things that others miss. But sadly, most leaders have no tool to communicate their thought process or the unique values and perspective that drive their decisions. Again, that’s where the value of plumb lines comes in. It gives your staff and team something to gauge their own thought processes, assumptions, and decisions by. It gives them a track to run on.

If forced to choose between a great mission statement and a clear set of plumb lines, I’d choose the plumb lines every time. That’s because the devil and most disagreements are in the details. I find it relatively easy to get our entire staff headed in the same direction and aiming at the same goal. I find it much more difficult to ensure that everyone is taking the same route to get there.

I had wrongly assumed that alignment around our mission and goals automatically meant agreement about the best methods to get there.

What Osborne is talking about is creating an organizational culture that lives out the mission and values in daily decisions by every member of the organization. That’s culture.

Seeing an example of Osborne’s plumb lines in one area is very clarifying:

North Coast Church’s Plumb Lines for World Missions

  • Everyone needs Jesus. Since no one comes to the Father except through Jesus, we will give top priority to ministries and missions that actually bring people to Christ rather than those that focus solely on meeting physical needs.
  • All people are of equal value in the sight of God. Therefore, we will give top priority to ministries and missions where the harvest and return on investment is greatest.
  • The local church is God’s plan A. There is no plan B. Therefore, we will give top priority to ministries and missions that either plant churches or build up existing local churches.
  • Middlemen just get in the way. Therefore, we will not function as a middleman filtering communication or doling out financial support. Instead, we will encourage direct contact between our people and the missionaries and organizations they support. This will result in a less impressive missions’ budget, but it will produce far greater hands-on kingdom involvement.

Each begins with a cultural value statement then embeds that value of the church into a practical action. Osborne says this is how the church extends it’s values throughout the organization with consistency.

Who does your team need to be to accomplish your mission and how are you developing those values?

A new chapter in our journey…

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In a few days, Kay and I will shake hands, hug Stefan and Marie, and pray with them. Then our 12-year journey of pioneering the role of Chief Technology Officer and founding the Global Technology Office will be over and their journey of leading into the next phase will begin. And we could not be more pleased or more excited about what God is doing.

As we began this global leadership journey 12 years ago, I wrote down 4 things I sensed God leading me to focus on. One of these was:

Identify emerging leaders with a pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit who are willing to claim a part of the technology world for Christ

For 12 years, Kay and I have identified and trained emerging leaders who are stepping into significant leadership roles. About 18 months ago, I felt God saying it was time to turn over my role to an emerging leader. Kay and I talked and prayed.  I informed my boss, the Vice President of Operations. We launched a transition process that selected a new leader from many highly qualified people.  Stefan is that new leader.

The Dell FamilyStefan and Marie are from South Africa, so there have been many things that had to happen for them to exit their ministries and lives in Pretoria and move their family to Orlando. They have two children, Kenneth (grade 5) and Monica (grade 3). We have seen God’s hand of provision in their arrival this summer.

Stefan is not a replacement for me. Marie is not a replacement for Kay. Stefan is a new leader with new ideas and a new calling from God.

So, here we are. Saying goodbye to our team that has journeyed with us. Reflecting on dreams fulfilled. Reminiscing with friends. Moving out of our office cube. Processing emotions that come with change. Anticipating the future.

What will we do next? Kay and I are asking this same question. We are in conversations with a number of Cru ministries who are offering us amazing opportunities. We are taking September to pray and evaluate where God is leading us.

Kay and I value your prayers. Please pray with us as we seek God’s wisdom and leading about our future. Like a two-part episode, this story is To Be Continued…