65 Leadership Quotes From The 2019 ReThink Leadership Conference – The Best Event I Attended Last Year

If your budget only allows you to attend one Christian leadership conference a year I recommend ReThink Leadership in Atlanta, GA.  As part of the Orange Conference, this year’s event will be April 29th to May 1st.

Carey Nieuwhof, who needs no introduction to Christian leaders, hosts this event and provides the most interesting, relevant, practical, and helpful content of any conference.  He lines up a list of brilliant practitioners who present their ideas in a TED Talk format.  This rapid-fire approach ensures the days fly by and you stay engaged the entire time.

If you don’t want to take my word for it, I have aggregated 65 leadership quotes from the 2019 event.  Trust me, you don’t want to miss the 2020 event!!!  I’ll be there live-blogging.  Make sure you find me and say “Hello!”  Click HERE or for more information and sign up TODAY!  You will not be disappointed.

Carey Nieuwhof

1. Freedom and autonomy are a new form of currency every high capacity leader wants.
2. Nobody wants to work for me. My life is not a big enough cause to give their life for.
3. The best leaders in the future will manage outcomes, not processes.
4. In the new economy, outcome is the key. In the new economy, most people would much rather be evaluated on outcomes and entrusted with the process.

Kevin Jennings

1. 60-20-20 Rule – 60% of your time on social media should be about someone else. 20% of your content is about your day-in-the-life. People trust people.  20% you as a pastor should talk about the church directly.
2. People follow people, not organizations.  Be a guide online, not the hero.

Nona Jones

1. Church attendance in aggregate in the United States is 20% of the population. The fastest growing category of religion in America is None.
2. Join me in pursuing the 80 – 80% of the people are not in a building but are online.
3. Facebook is like your front porch. That’s where they meet you… That’s where ministry happens.
4. Go beyond marketing to ministry. Marketing is telling people who you are.  Ministry is telling people who you serve.
5. The #1 reason people come to church is they were invited by a person, not an ad.

Dan Reiland

1. As your organization grows the list of things you do get shorter, but the weight feels heavier.
2. Margin decreases but the experience increases and the Holy Spirit helps you fill the gap.
3. You don’t need a perfect strategy. You need the right set of questions… like Who’s on the lead team?  What is your process?  How do you make decisions here?
4. The message must always be one of hope, not hype.  Hope is when you trust God.  Hype is when you’re trying to convince yourself.
5. Senior leaders who struggle most are those who wrestle with control, micro-management, and not trusting those who can’t do their job.They can’t let go.  Leaders who can’t let go get stuck.
6. How to empower leaders – Trust with responsibility, Train for competency, Unleash with authority, Communicate with clear expectations, and love and believe in each one for maximum potential.
7. When you change something and nobody gets mad, you just changed something that doesn’t matter.
8. Most churches are one tough call away from a breakthrough.
9. Wisdom is not elusive.
10. Learn the difference between preaching from the pulpit and leading from the pulpit.  These are different skill sets.
11. Build your leadership group on simplicity and consistency. Get a group. Pick a book.  Ask two questions – What did you learn?  How are you applying it?

Jon Acuff

1. Be a tourist. We’re not just afraid of change.  We’re afraid of looking foolish.
2. “I don’t know”. You have to become real comfortable with this phrase.
3. Leaders like to be liked.  Leading through change will cost you likability.
4. Change is a choice or consequence.
5. You don’t have writer’s block. You have idea bankruptcy.
6. You are only as good as the ideas you are collecting.
7. The key is the quantity of the ideas you are collecting.

Brad Lomenick

1. I want to build platforms other people can stand on.
2. If you’re equally a platform builder for others as much as yourself, you’re going to do very well for yourself.
3. Success is about me. Significance is about others.
4. The curator is the new leader, the aggregator, the person who brings everyone together.
5. The thing we probably did better than anything at Catalyst was bring hundreds of tribes together.
6. The conversations where you do all the listening, that person will walk away from that conversation saying, “Amazing! That was the best breakfast ever!”
7. Every great leader I’ve even known, the greatest thing they’ve held onto their whole life is curiosity.
8. People always love to talk about their story.

Kara Powell

1. Young people are the hope for me…. When young people do well in a church, the whole church does better.

Carey Nieuwhof and Brad Lomenick Breakout Session

1. A great culture is where you have self-awareness pervasive throughout the organization. – BL
2. You have to pay well. If you pay peanuts you’ll get monkeys. – CN
3. Margin gives you opportunity to respond. Financial margin gives you an opportunity to be generous…. Margin is such a strategic thing for the top leaders. – BL
4. The best leaders have the most time. – CN
5. Your most engaged people are the ones who attend the most. – CN
6. Digital consumption leads to a diminishing relationship with Jesus Christ. – CN
7. When we wrap our identity around an assignment it gets wacky. Catalyst was an assignment.  Catalyst was not a calling. – BL
8. There is no unchurched person in the world who cares about what a seminary president says. – CN
9. 98% of the people you want to reach are online. – CN
10. Tell people who live within 30 minutes of the church to get in here… I never met a couple who met online, got married, and stayed online. – CN
11. Leaders create something out of nothing.  Managers steward what has been built. – CN

Dharius Daniels

1. Leaders should be intentional about improving their CQ. We need conversational intelligence.
2. Leave a legacy with words people can live by. I’m still living on Spurgeon’s words, Moody’s words, Wesley’s words, Dr. King’s words.
3. Communication is the transfer of thoughts, ideas, concepts, and feelings from one mind to the next.
4. Communication is transportation. If there has been no transportation there can be no communication.  Just because I’ve talked doesn’t mean I’ve communicated.
5. I’m not a communicator. I’m a truck driver.  I deliver mail and it is precious cargo.  I have to ensure it gets to its intended destination.
6. We are the ones sent on behalf of another.Preachers don’t have a message. God has a message and uses preachers.
7. If a person has mastered the art of being convincing while not being convinced may not be messengers but manipulators.

Horst Schulze

1. We don’t hire employees. We select employees.
2. Two things every human being wants – objective and belonging.
3. A great business does four things – 1. Keep the customer that you have. You never lose a customer.  2.  Find new customers.  3.  Get as much money as you can from the customer without losing them.  4.  Do it efficiently so you keep them.
4. Being nice is the greatest driver of customer satisfaction.
5. 3 types of customers – #1 Unhappy. Terrorists against your organization.  #2. Satisfied.  If next door is more convenient that’s where they’re going.  #3.   Focus on the loyal ones.
6. There is no reward in excuses.
7. Even pastors should know what is important without compromise. The Church of Europe compromised and God help us, you’re starting to do it here.
8. Heaven, it’s only Jesus that will get you there.

Carey Nieuwhof

1. Planting campuses is a great thing but maybe we need to plant new ideas and new approaches.
2. You either disrupt yourself or you will be disrupted.
3. The longer you lead in your current model, the more likely it is you’ll seek confirmation bias.
4. The leader who becomes a student will always have a future.
5. Eventually the next generation takes over. Success makes you conservative.  The greatest enemy of your future success is your current success because your current success will kill innovation.
6. We’re church leaders. This isn’t ours anyway.
7. The second greatest enemy of your future success is complacency.

You should now be convinced.  Click HERE to register for ReThink Leadership or Orange today.

My book Timeless: 10 Enduring Practices Of Apex Leaders is available for purchase.  If you have ever wanted to become the leader God created you to be, this book is for you!  By combining leadership lessons from biblical heroes like Jesus, Daniel and Joseph, along with modern day leaders like Bill Gates, Nick Saban, Kobe Bryant and multiple pastors, Timeless will equip and inspire you.  This book is not to be read alone.  Discussion questions are included in each chapter allowing you to develop those in your circle of influence.  Click HERE or on the image provided and order your copies TODAY.