10 Leadership Lessons From The Grace Card

I had the wonderful privilege of seeing the independent film The Grace Card earlier today.  It is an incredible movie about race relations, parenting, marriage, generational impact and forgiveness.  Movies like this that are not in wide release may not stay at the theatres long, so go see it this weekend.

Here are the lessons:

1. Impact Of Christian Fathers – Lead characters Mac McDonald and Sam Wright, played by Michael Joiner and Michael Higginbottom respectively, are police officers who are doing their absolute best to lead their families albeit with much different results.  While I assume that we all love our children, we cannot be the fathers we need to be apart from a relationship with our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ. 
2. Stability Provided By Wives – As both men struggle with the circumstances that life brings their way, their wives are constant sources of support and stability.  I was reminded how fortunate I am to have the wife I do.
3. Christianity In The Workplace – The best thing Christians can do to have influence in the workplace is to do their jobs with excellence.  What gave Officer Wright the right to openly share his faith was that he was a great policeman.  Christians, you must earn the right to be heard.
4. Racism Is Alive And Well – This film explores racism towards several groups – Mexicans, African-Americans, and yes even Caucasians.
5. We Are All Managing Pain – Officer McDonald is dealing with the loss of a son while Officer Wright had not spoken with his father for 12 years.  Pain and dysfunction are now the default modes of our society.  Unfortunately, instead of dealing with our issues, we elect to sanitize and manage them.
6. We Are All Dealing With Disappointment – Officer McDonald was passed over for several promotions and having financial difficulties.  Officer Wright pastored a struggling church and had difficulty finding his life’s true purpose. 
7. Difficult People Provide Tremendous Opportunity – We must change the way we think about the difficult people in our lives.  People aren’t brought into our lives to necessarily challenge us.  It is more likely that we are inserted by God into their’s to help improve their quality of life.
8. Bridge Building – The movie’s final scene takes place at a moving multi-cultural service.  Great leaders can build bridges with anyone.  They can cross racial, socio-economic, generational, religious and geographic boundaries that often separate us. 
9. “Inside We’re Pretty Much All The Same” – How does a kidney from a black man work inside the body of a white man?  Very nicely because on the inside, we’re basically all the same.  To know what this means you must go see the movie.
10. The Power Of Grace And Forgiveness – We don’t need collective bargaining.  We don’t need a new invention.  We don’t need the answers from the government.  We don’t need another great blog post.  We don’t really need justice.  We need grace.

I hope this movie gets traction.  This film would serve as a great template for how we need to address today’s issues.  After seeing the movie, tell us what you think.

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