Live Blog From ReThink Conference – 51 Leadership Quotes From Dan Reiland

Today is the second day I will be live blogging from the ReThink Leadership Conference in Atlanta, GA.  ReThink, open exclusively to senior pastors, campus pastors and executive pastors, is a unique gathering of church leaders who are committed to solving the biggest challenges facing your church and the Church.

Injoy Stewardship Solutions has dispatched me to attend this amazing event as a way to invest in your growth.  They also want to invest in your leadership by offering you our latest FREE ebook Breaking The Next Growth Barrier: 10 Things Pastors Can Do To Break Down Growth Barriers by clicking HERE for your complimentary copy.

Today’s breakout speaker was Dan Reiland.  Dan serves as Executive Pastor at 12Stone Church® in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He previously partnered with John Maxwell for 20 years, first as Executive Pastor at Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, then as Vice President of Leadership and Church Development at INJOY.

His session was entitled Developing A Leadership Culture.  I could not miss this!  The following are 51 leadership quotes I captured during his informative session:

1. When you walk into a restaurant you know exactly what the culture is. It’s how they great you, treat you, and seat you.
2. People know the culture of your church that fast.
3. Culture is who you are, your values, and how you get things done.
4. “Culture is the most powerful force in your church.” – Dr. Sam Chand
5. We are here to reach the lost, serve the least, and raise up leaders. – 12Stone mission statement
6. If anything is in your church there is evidence for it. There is evidence for the culture you have and it starts with the leader.
7. A leadership culture is not about how many can you put in a room.
8. Champion Leadership – Values. Talk about. Tell people in your church leadership is important.
9. Next to the favor of God, everything rises and falls on leadership.
10. Always connect leadership to the purpose and mission of your church.
11. Leadership is all about how do we reach more people for Jesus.
12. Point to strong leaders who have made a big impact on your church.
13. Teach leadership. Principles.
14. If you don’t make leadership development simple you’re going to quit. If you don’t make leadership development consistent, you’re going to quit.
15. There are demand and non-demand ministries.
16. The foundation of everything we do at 12Stone is get a group, pick a book, ask two questions. That’s it.
17. What are you learning? How are you applying what you’re learning?
18. Start with a small group and earn the right to teach leadership.
19. Wait for the people to want it rather than you forcing it.
20. Practice Leadership. Reality.
21. When you practice something you deal with reality. The reality of who you are as a leader and the reality of your church as it exists today.
22. Practice leadership against real organizational goals.
23. There is a difference between playing and practicing. When you play the guitar you’re having fun…To practice the guitar is to work on things you can’t do until you can.
24. Coach Leadership. Improvement.
25. “You have a deep love for people but you’re lousy at communicating it.” – John Maxwell
26. The right word to the right person at the right moment. That’s the power of coaching.
27. God wants to pour out His blessing but He needs us to be ready.
28. Reward Leadership. Results.
29. Let the team play. Leaders run hard.
30. In the local church, we tend to reward those who are faithful more than those who are productive. And that is killing us.
31. When you reward faithful over productive, you’re killing your leadership culture. The sharpies know it. They will either rise up against you or leave.
32. The core responsibilities of a staff member is their job description.
33. A lot of leadership is subjective. A lot of measurement is subjective. But everyone knows if a leader is getting better.
34. Your influence is always increasing or decreasing. It’s never staying the same.
35. Make it personal. There is a power in one that is mind-blowing. One new leader can change your church.
36. Leadership development isn’t fast and our tendency is too quit.
37. You’re always watching for potential.
38. Equipping and developing. Equipping is developing people for specific ministry tasks. Equipping is based upon the church’s agenda and transactional. Developing is transformational. It is expecting nothing back. It is on their agenda.
39. You can build a good church on equipping. You can build a great church with depth on developing.
40. Not everyone has the skill to be a developer.
41. It’s not your job to fix the leader. If you can’t stand it, leave don’t attack.
42. To change a toxic culture into a leadership culture takes 2-3 years. To change a healthy culture to a leadership culture takes 12-18 months.
43. The evidence of a leadership culture is when you don’t do it all yourself.
44. Pick your plan. Keep it simple. Stay with your plan.
45. If you really want people to change, give them a meal much less frequently. Put them in an environment that is solely developmental.
46. There are a lot of great leadership books out there but they’re not great trainers.
47. I assumed people in the room knew stuff about leadership they didn’t know.
48. I now do new and review.
49. Your goal in leadership development is to help them practice leadership to help them get better.
50. I like people. I need to get around people.
51. We should not do only digital training. You remove the relational portion of covenant.

Up next is Jeff Henderson and Pete Wilson.

As previously mentioned, INJOY Stewardship Solutions would like to offer you the FREE resource Breaking The Next Growth Barrier: 10 Things Pastors Can Do To Break Down Growth Barriers.  Click HERE or on the image to the left for your complimentary copy.