Live Blog From Orange Conference ’15: 58 Quotes On Blindsided Leaders From Carey Nieuwhof

In an effort to add value to pastors and church leaders, I am live blogging significant portions of this week’s Orange Conference and their amazing Senior Leader’ Track.  For pastors and church leaders, this is the most informative and thought-provocing three days you can spend all year.  It is “can’t miss” event for church leaders.

The afternoon’s first session on Day 2 was led by Carey Nieuwhof, the incomparable pastor of Connexus Church, north of Toronto Canada.  Carey also host a leadership podcast and writes a blog no Christian leader should miss.  Speaking of things you cannot miss, this is one of the five best breakout sessions I’ve ever attended.

Before getting to Carey’s thoughts on why churches stop growing, INJOY Stewardship Solutions is offering a FREE download of Church Branding 101.  In this resource Ken Wilson, Director of NewSpring Creative, will be walking us through NewSpring Church’s recent rebranding process.  If you are unfamiliar with NewSpring, they are led by friend-of-Orange Senior Pastor Perry Noble.  You do not want to miss this.  Click here or on the image above to sign up.  Now onto Carey’s insights on anticipating change.

The following are 58 Leadership Quotes and Lessons from Carey’s session which everyone should hear:

1. Have you ever noticed in life once in awhile you get blindsided?
2. At some point along the journey, most of us get blindsided.
3. There are certain things we can predict.
4. If you see the pattern, you can stop it. Leaders who see the future are in better position to seize the future.
5. When you don’t see it coming, it hits you. And it hurts you. And it takes out leaders you love.
6. Knowing what’s coming is most of the battle.
7. Growing cynicism. It’s a growing virus in the church.
8. Knowledge brings sorrow.
9. When you knew less, you were more optimistic. You were less cynical.
10. The more you know about people the more you have to guard you heart and not let it grow callous.
11. You project past failures onto new situations.
12. Three weeks from now we open up our new facility by the grace of God
13. You have to stay optimistic. If you get cynical, you decide to stop hoping. You decide to stop trusting. You decide to stop believing.
14. The antidote to cynicism is curiosity. The curious are never cynical. The cynical are never curious. The cynical have it all figured out.
15. There are no balanced old people. You’re really angry or you’re really happy.
16. I want to be more interested when I’m 60 than when I was 40.
17. Burnout is an epidemic in ministry.
18. Most people don’t burnout overnight.
19. If you’ve ever fall over the edge you know it’s outside you’re control.
20. Signs of burnout – Passion fades. Your heart grows hard. Rest no longer refuels you. You simply can’t function anymore.
21. When you’re burning out you don’t feel anything.
22. If you get eight hours of sleep three or four days in a row, that’s a bad sign.
23. If you need a vacation after vacation, that’s a bad sign.
24. When you’re fried all the time, you’re in trouble. You just don’t function anymore.
25. The antidote to self-medication is self-care. You self-medicate when you’re burned out.
26. The #1 drug of choice for church leaders is food.
27. Far too many church leaders self-medicate.
28. Self-care is what refuels your soul. For me it’s solitude.
29. In ministry there is a lot of draining relationships. When was the last time you were around someone you thoroughly enjoyed?
30. When was the last time you laughed so hard at dinner you cried?
31. The needy people come around you. The healthy people do not.
32. You can’t give what you don’t have.
33. Jesus prepared for 30 years and taught for three. We prepared for three and try to preach for 30.
34. Irrelevance happens when the speed of change outside an organization is greater than speed of change inside an organization. – Rick Warren
35. When your churches are small you don’t have anything to do but visit people.
36. You fought so hard for change. You have the scars to prove it. You think this is cool and not hip. Then the average then goes from 35 to 45 and you soon become irrelevant.
37. It’s not hard to change an organization someone else built. It’s hard to change an organization you built.
38. When you’re young, the current cultural dialogue is your native tongue.
39. You can stay current when you’re in 40s or 50s but the best thing to do is get some young people around you and let them lead.
40. Culture never asks permission to change. It just changes.
41. The older you get the harder change gets.
42. Organizations that don’t change become museums to another era.
43. We’ve all been in churches that look like 1985 or 1995.
44. The antidote to irrelevance is change.
45. You’ve got to have the courage to change. The courage to sacrifice what is for what could be.
46. Churches become ineffective when over a long period of leaders love the method more than they love the mission.
47. The method is the strategy you’ve introduced.
48. Orange keeps evolving and shifting because people are evolving and shifting.
49. You need to love the mission. The method changes regularly.
50. Leaders become ineffective when the fail to grow both their character and their competency.
51. Character is the sleeper. It happens at 5:00 AM when no one is up and you’re reading your Bible.
52. Character gets developed when your best friend tells you he saw what you did and it’s not good enough. And you’re humbled.
53. You can be incredibly competent and your character can take you down.
54. Your competency is going to grow but you will become irrelevant if your character doesn’t grow at a greater rate.
55. The antidote to ineffectiveness is reinvention and renewal. It’s called sanctification.
56. What am I not seeing that I should be seeing?
57. The key to emotional intelligence is self-awareness.
58. Who can help me see what I’m not seeing?

More this afternoon.

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