For the next three days I have been dispatched by INJOY Stewardship Solutions to attend the SPARK Conference. SPARK Conference is a gathering for local church leaders passionate about making disciples who make disciples. This event is structured the conference to help teams pray, process and plan together toward the launch of a disciple-making movement in their community.
At INJOY Stewardship, we are #FORPastors! Therefore, as a special gift to you and in honor of Pastor Appreciation Month, INJOY Stewardship is offering you a FREE DONE-FOR-YOU PASTOR APPRECIATION script which your staff or key lay leaders could read during the church service in honor of your pastor. Here’s what I guarantee, your pastor will get a well-deserved standing ovation after reading this. Whatever you do, click HERE or on the image provided and get your service. Your pastor needs this more than you know.
The afternoon’s first breakout speaker for Day 2 was Clay Scroggins. Clay has the privilege of being the lead pastor of Buckhead Church in Atlanta, GA. As one of the largest campuses of North Point Ministries, which was ranked by Outreach Magazine in 2016 as the largest church in America, Buckhead Church averages over 9,000 people weekly. Living in the shadow of Andy Stanley, one of the greatest leaders on the planet, Clay understands the tension of how to lead when you’re not in charge. But, truth be told, don’t we all?
The following are 30 Leadership Quotes And Lessons from his session on leading when you’re not in charge. Many of these quotes come from a handout Clay provided in his session.
- There are things you can control. There are things you don’t control but can have influence over them. There are things completely out of your control. We spend most of our time worrying about things outside our control. I’m trying to create an oasis of excellence over things I do control.
- Leadership is not authority. The greatest leaders lead through influence and not authority.
- There is no utopia of leadership where you get to do whatever you want to do with no constraints.
- If leadership is influence, all of us have influence. A hallmark of our organization is pushing leadership to the lowest level possible, because we are convinced everyone is a leader who can and should lead… even when not in charge.
- Leading yourself is the primary responsibility God has given you in life.
- People who lead themselves well are disciplined.
- No one can lead me better than I am leading myself.
- When I wait to be led, I reduce my influence and lost my opportunity to lead.
- Leading myself requires modeling followership, monitoring my heart and behavior, and making a plan.
- Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself. – Thomas Watson, former CEO of IBM
- No one can choose to be positive or not but you.
- The greatest benefit I bring my team is not my talents, gifts, experience, or education. It is my energy.
- Positivity is a fight for “we” over “me”.
- When I am not part of the decision-making process, my default is to abdicate leadership.
- More important than making the right decision is owning the decision and making it right.
- Are you a wind in someone’s sail or are you a wind against someone’s sail?
- We want every leader at every level thinking about how we can make it better.
- Critical thinking requires a switch from employee to owner.
- By being fully present in relationships and environments, critical thinker’s have a high “with-it” factor.
- Thinking critically is a skill. Being critical is a snare.
- The clipboard is for giving a grade. The towel is for lending a hand.
- At every level in our organization, there is information, experience, and perspective that shapes our direction.
- The lie is that when I’m in the leader’s seat, I will have influence. Instead, influence needs to be cultivated wherever you are.
- When there is something to blame, there is nothing to work on. – Tim Cooper
- When I am only waiting for someone to hand me something, I have the potential to become someone who will not be handed anything.
- Learn to reject passivity while under authority, and you will become a leader worthy of authority.
- The idea that one must be in charge in order to lead is a myth. The truth is, no one will ever be fully in charge. Wherever you find yourself, learn to lead yourself, choose positivity, think critically, and reject passivity. But beware, if you do, you might just find yourself in charge of more.
- The key to running a great church is financial margin.
- The people who get paid need to own all the complexity of ministry.
- Preaching a bad sermon is not allowable or acceptable no matter who it is.
Clay is simply amazing and insightful! Next up is the phenomenal Crawford Loritts!
Once again, if you have not downloaded the DONE-FOR-YOU PASTOR APPRECIATION SCRIPT, simply click HERE or on the image provided. #FORPastors