It was a precious time for me in the midst of a demanding ministry season to meet a great friend and to receive a huge dose of wisdom and guidance. We walked back to the station, sat on the steps outside Charing Cross and prayed, as London carried on its busy life around us.

When I reflect on the formational impact that the guidance and support of key friends like Derek has had in my life, I am left with a deep sense of gratitude to God for them, and it inspires me to also mentor and invest in others. In his excellent book, Courageous Leadership, Bill Hybels says ’Those of us who are more seasoned in leadership must order our lives in such a way that we can carve out time in the next generation of leaders. It is our responsibility. We imperil the church and the world if we don’t take that responsibility seriously…We must identify emerging leaders, invest in them, give them kingdom responsibilities, and coach them into effectiveness. Then we can each experience the thrill of watching them soar.’

Like the woman that Jesus defended, may we do what we can with what he has given us, and may we invest our lives in others so that we can see people grow, develop and soar.

In his usual fashion, Andy states that ”Direction, not intention, determines destination” in his book “Principle of the Path“. His analogy is of a journey: your intention (or vision) might be to get to London, but if your direction is south on the A21 towards Brighton, your destination has been decided. You’ll get to Brighton, not London. The person with the “purest” of intentions, can end up in the wrong destination if they are headed in the wrong direction. Likewise, a church leader can share a vision (intention), but the destination is ultimately decided by the direction or path the church is taking.

The only way to change our destination is to change “paths”. Andy recommends that leaders need to enable churches to realise the consequence of a vision and the need for change and a change of paths.To stay relevant every church has to change, but unless people are helped to know how, after hearing a vision each person will go back to work and do what they did yesterday, which will lead to the same results and destination as before and not the fulfilment of the vision. It’s a recipe for massive frustration if we have a dream of a different future but are actually behaving in ways that will prevent that destination being reached. So the vision of a church might be to impact every child in the village, but do nothing about meeting in the little huts it currently meets in. Or a church might have a vision for being relevant, but rarely uses normal everyday language on the platform. Or a church might have a vision for a multi-cultural community, but only gives a certain type of person time on the platform or opportunities for leadership.

There are signs and warnings to look out for:

• When the culture of the organisation is in conflict with the vision of the organisation, the vision is always trumped.
• If the leaders do not embody the agreed values (behaviours) of the organisation, a culture and path is determined that trumps the shared vision.
• An individual ministry’s model can compete with the stated vision. In a church, everybody can get behind the intention/vision, but the model within the church of how decisions are made, processes and who reports to who, what teams are operating etc are often left the same (because people fear and resist change). This means that model trumps vision and determines destination.

So what can we do? We need to examine where we are…Determine where we want to be and through the power of God, put yourself on the path that leads to that destination.

Andy recommends that leaders need to: 1) Paint a compelling picture (share the vision of what could be and what should be) 2)Examine the models already existing within the organisation and discern what is working, what needs adjusting and what needs to stop 3) Invest financially and prayerfully in that vision 4)Examine the daily behaviours within the organisation that works against the agreed vision.

This is why vision is hard to see become a reality. This is why so many churches in the UK fail to grow. Because vision is shared but necessary changes are not made. Because these steps involve challenging conversations and difficult decisions. But it is only through taking this stuff into account that a church will be helped towards reaching its intention/vision. May we at PBC passionately seek God’s vision for our church, have the courage to examine our models and behaviours and be willing to change anything that might be working against us achieving the vision.

He gave answers and wisdom to questions about the priority of marriage and the family over ministry; issues worldwide that the church needs to be prepared for in the future; church and politics; work-life balance; staff empowerment; staff selection and firing; spiritual warfare; teaching series planning; developing new teams; the importance of self-awareness, relational and emotional intelligence; humility; integrity; marketplace ministry; succession planning; the importance of younger leaders in succession planning; global poverty; compassion; governance; the 20-something generation; the Reveal survey; leadership mistakes he has made; church planting and multi-site ministry. This was leadership gold from someone who pastored Bill Clinton after his affair and who has led a church over 35 years into a place where it is as influential as a church can possibly be. Asked whether how he maintains humility, he said its not difficult, because there are people in Barrington who have never heard of Willow Creek, and although they might reach over 20,000 people, this is in a city of 8 million. ‘What keeps me humble is the overwhelming task ahead of us all. There are millions who are not reconciled to God and unless we as a church leaders are show our people that our hearts break for the lost and like them make stumbling and bumbling efforts to talk to our friends about Jesus, our churches won’t recover the heart for evangelism that every Christ follower should have.’

When asked about the culture of serving that is so evident at Willow Creek, Bill said it has taken 37 years to develop, and needs to be taught consistently and biblically. ‘The local church is the hope of the world. What better thing is there to serve? The New Testament knows nothing of consumerist Christianity.’

As if to back up his point, after the day had finished I thanked one member of the excellent hospitality team that had volunteered to serve us all week with drinks, breakfast, lunch and dinner. His reply? Word for word: ‘Oh thank you; it’s a joy. Jesus has done so much for me, and this church has done so much for me, it’s just a delight to serve him. I just love doing my part to help.’ He walked out of the room we were in and my jaw was on the floor.

With head and heart full of ideas, information, stimulation, challenge and encouragement, my two travelling companions and I quietly made our way to the car, and travelled to our hosts, resting in the reality that we had just experienced one of the best weeks that we could have possibly asked for and a day with Bill Hybels, a man after God’s heart who has been mightily used by Him.

Today felt like deep surgery of the soul. Gordon MacDonald, someone I respect greatly and has written numerous books such as ‘Ordering your private world’ and ‘The resilient life’, led the whole day on the discipline of self-leadership. From my experience, this is the hardest leadership of all. Gordon has been used greatly in his life, including as one of the three Christian leaders chosen by Bill Clinton (the others were Bill Hybels and Tony Campolo) who pastored him in the restoring of his life and kept him accountable after his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Gordon reminded us that for us younger leaders, we need to look at ministry from a 60 year perspective, with a self-renewing component in our ministry that helps us attack every decade with intentionality and resilience.

His first hour was showing us how history has reached a point where we are experiencing increasing cycles of seismic change. In this context of rapid change and community breakdown, we’re here as church leaders to help people stabilise, be rooted, and find conviction and belief. ‘This has very little historical precedent.’ In the midst of such profound change, which we ourselves are experiencing, how do we stay rooted ourselves and provide shepherding and prophetic leadership to others?

We have the tension of the idea of the gospel and the institution that surrounds it. The idea needs a home; the institution around it or the community that it forms needs to be malleable. Gordon quoted Jack Welch who said, ‘When the rate of change inside an organisation is slower than the rate of change outside an organisation, the end is in sight.’ His example from history is that this is what happened to the Temple. Pentecost was a Paradigm shift, when the information was taken from the professionals in the Temple and put into the hands of the amateurs, from a central location, and distributed into the streets of the city; a new order of things was made. As church leaders empowered by the Spirit of Pentecost, Gordon said, ‘…we have to have the ability not to associate with that which resists change but embrace that which welcomes change, which takes a great integrity, and great courage.’ How does one develop and sustain this integrity and courage and where does it come from?

The Spiritual Platform

Gordon reminded us that like the leaning tower of Pizza, there is a sense in which every one of us is leaning, for no one since the fall, stands absolutely straight up. The truth is, however, that some people end up falling over. The answer lies not at the top of the building, but at the bottom, in an area we can’t see – the Spiritual Platform. It is this area that is hidden and unseen that leaders need to focus their personal development energy on.

This leads us to the great question: How does one build a life to be more satisfying [unlike the disconnection experienced by Adam] more strategic [driven by something that is noble to achieve], and more pleasing to God with every year [how do I live to please God, so that his investment in me has paid off according to his expectations]?

We live, according to Gordon, by design or by default. People can be grouped into four categories:

• We live by reaction (allow the people around us to control the agenda of who we are)
• Conformity – (people pleasing, avoiding battles, taking cues from what others are doing)
• Compulsion – (somewhere in life there were deep wounds, perhaps never having the approval of their parents, we learn that we have something to prove, compulsion to meet approval.)
• Intentionality – [which Gordon says is the highest level of health] – we have an ability given by God to observe ourselves: our choices; our thinking; where the impurities and defects are; where God is doing redeeming work; in order that we create a context in which we can grow. It is an intentional life, pushing ourselves to grow. The average person doesn’t care about this. If athletes are intentional about development, why aren’t more Christians more intentional about their growth?

Gordon shared an inspiring quote from E. Stanley Jones, who was 83 when he said this after suffering a huge stroke that had left him debilitated and struggling to speak: ‘There are scars on my faith, but underneath those scars there are no doubts. (Christ) has me with the consent of all my being and with the cooperation of al my life. The song I sing is a life song. Not the temporary exuberance of youth that often fades when middle and old age sets in with their disillusionment and cynicism… No, I’m 83, and I’m more excited today about being a Christian that I was at 18 when I first put my feet upon the way.’ Where does this enthusiasm spring from? Gordon said from the heart by the Spirit, not dependent on circumstances but after a life of intentional growth.

He shared common difficulties of growth experienced by church leaders, one being that because we speak about growth a lot, and teach others, we confuse speaking about it for practicing it ourselves. This is definitely true. The other thing he said that is also very true is that “Growing is difficult…usually because it is done in secret, is humbling, and is rarely fun.” If we ‘sell’ the gospel as ‘fun’, we’re not giving the full message, because much growth is hard work. I recognise this in my own life.

Gordon then helpfully spoke about family and ministry. In the final session, Gordon turned his attention to Spiritual Leadership, and gave this helpful definition: A spiritual leader is a person who radiates the power of God in his/her life and service so that others are influenced to turn toward God and the building of his Kingdom. Essential realities for a spiritual leader that Gordon then unpacked and we discussed, are:

1. A dynamic view of conversion and call: ‘Be always converting and always converted.’ Thomas Shepherd.
2. A repaired past: ‘Every person we have ever known, every place we have ever seen, everything that has ever happened to us – it all lives and breathes deep within us somewhere…’ A Room Called Remember, Frederick Buechner
3. Essential personal initiatives/disciplines
4. Healthy intimate relationships

Under this final heading, ‘Healthy relationships’, Gordon ended the day by unpacking 10 Kinds of friends that everyone needs:

• Who coaches you? Who has unlimited access into your life to bring insight to you?
• Who celebrates the landmarks in your life journey?
• Who stretches your mind? (Gordon spoke about his friendship with Tony Campolo)
• Who listens to your dreams?
• Who protects you and shows mercy?
• Who offers you reliable judgment?
• Who serves with you?
• Who rebukes you?
• Who has fun with you?
• Who seeks God with you?