10 Leadership Lessons From The Grace Card DVD

I had the wonderful privilege of seeing the independent film The Grace Card earlier this year.  It is an incredible movie about race relations, parenting, marriage, generational impact and forgiveness.  With the dvd coming out on Tuesday, I recommend that everyone picks it up.  

Here are the lessons that I gleaned from the movie:

• 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 to a relationship with our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ. 
• 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.
• 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.
• Racism Is Alive And Well – This film explores racism towards several groups – Mexicans, African-Americans, and yes even Caucasians.
• 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 are our society.  Unfortunately, instead of dealing with our issues, we elect to manage them.
• We Are All Dealing With Disappointment – Officer McDonald was passed over for promotions and having financial difficulties.  Officer Wright pastored a struggling church and had difficult finding his life’s true purpose. 
• Difficult People, Tremendous Opportunity – We must change the way we think about difficult people in our lives.  People aren’t brought into our lives to necessarily challenge us.  Its more likely that we are inserted by God into their’s to help improve their quality of life.
• Bridge Building – The movie’s final scene has 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. 
• Inside We’re 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.
• 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 your attention.  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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