daveferguson.org

Seven Questions for Jon Ferguson

One of the coolest things about what I do is getting a chance to hang out with some phenomenal world class leaders. (Did I mention that I will be connecting with Tim Keller this next week - awesome!) At the top of my list of world class leaders is my brother Jon.  He was recently interviewed in an article, Seven Questions for Jon Ferguson.  Read and learn from one of the best!

The Multisite Phenomenom: Here to Stay?

A while back the Christian Standard contacted Jon and myself to get our latest thinking on multisite.  Here are a few articles that they posted that I thought you might want to check out. The first one, The Multsite Phenomenon:  Here to Stay? talks quite a bit about Community Christian Church and Seacoast Church while struggling with the question of whether multisite is a fad and will go away.  The second article, The Multisite Movement:  Success Stories tells stories of churches that you may not have hear about before that are seeing great success with multiple sites. And the last article is an Interview with Todd Wilson about Multisite.  Todd is one of the brightest minds I know and has some fascinating thoughts on the topic of multiple site churches.  Enjoy!

Chicks & Chocolate!

Ladies, you are invited to Chicks & Chocolate.  It's a fun girls' night out featuring Jen Hatmaker, popular speaker and author, who will be talking on the topic of "The Dance Women do for Approval".  Jen is an inspiring speaker with a great sense of humor, so you are sure to get some laughs to go with the chocolate! This event is open to the community, please feel free to invite your girlfriends to attend! 

Change a Family For a Lifetime...Maybe Forever!

For the first time ever I want to ask you who read this blog or follow me on twitter or are friends on facebook to join me in taking a risk.  You see, for almost five years I have been posting on this blog and I have been on twitter and facebook for a couple more years.  When people ask me, "Why do you spend time blogging and twittering?" I tell them that I believe it is a way for me to influence people.  Hopefully influence them for the good through conversation and through my example.  Well, I think it is time for me to really take a risk and ask you to do something good.

I have friend at Community, Craig Swett who is trying to change a small part of Tanzania in the name of Jesus.  He's not a pastor; he's a Dad and a successful businessman that loves Jesus and is trying to be obedient to what Jesus has asked him to do.  Last year Craig and some friends flew to Africa for the first time and they were changed forever.  They came to face to face with about 50 families living in poverty that if they had a little financial help could be self-sustaining. After being confronted with this poverty they decided to do something about it.  They partnered with Global Family Rescue (GFR) and formed GFR Tanzania.   For just $64/month over three years you can allow a family in Tanzania who is living in poverty to be self-sustaining for a lifetime.  It will allow them to build proper shelter, farm some land and own a goat and cow.  This is what they need for a livelihood.  

I have supported a family through GFR and then visited them and seen the transformation myself.  It was one of the most moving and profoundly spiritual moments of my life when I got to meet Faustin and Antoinette (the family we sponsor) in Africa and hear them say, "thank you."  You need to experience this!

THE ASK:  Craig is returning to Tanzania with good news for the majority of the families that he met last year- that they will receive support for three years to allow them to start their own family businesses and be self-supporting.  However there are are still 11 families that have not received support.  Unfortunately they will see this as "God not blessing them."  I would like to ask you to click HERE and support a GFR family for $64/month for the next three years.  Say a prayer and decide what to do. 

Leave me a message, I would love to hear what you decide.

Eyewitness To Power - David Gergen on Leadership

David Gergen is the editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report and political analyst for CNN and PBS.  He has served as a White House adviser to four presidents; Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He is also a professor at Harvard’s School of Public Leadership. An active participant in American national life for 30 years, Gergen has a lifetime of experience in observing and participating in high-capacity leadership. 

The following is some of his comments during his interview with Bil Hybels during the 2009 Leadership Summit.

What were the unique strengths and weaknesses of each of the presidents with whom you served?

Nixon: he was the best strategist.  Some one who can look further back can look further ahead. But he was also held everyone at the periphery at first; but once he trusted you he would bring you in closer and you discovered that there is a dark side. He had his demons; I don't know where they came from.  There were demons that he could not control that ultimately brought him down.

Ford:  he was the most decent man.  You did not have to keep your back to the wall with him.  I find that people how are decent should be prized; they are so rare.  But he was sometimes naive and didn't fully understand that politics is a rough sport.

Clinton:  he had a very quick mind; extremely bright guy.  But the quality I most admired about him was his resilience. While he would not want to be in the same sentence as Nixon; he also had cracks in his character.  He made mistakes and he should have come clean immediately and ask forgiveness.

Reagan:  he was the best leader in the White House.  He was a principled man who had a contagious enthusiasm.  There is something that you are all up to.  He was also a gifted communicator.  But his detachment was a weakness; you need to keep your hands on the wheel.  There were times when he didn't have a strong team and it hurt him.

Other comments by Gergen:

• If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, do it with others.
• Don't underestimate symbolism in leadership

• How to give an effective speech:
  • First, open people up to yourself
  • Logic of your message - work their mind
  • End is really important to come back to the emotion.  There needs to be a call for action. You have a a choice: "Come, let us think"  vs. "Come, let us march"

• The personal habits of leaders do matter. The best leaders are those who have regular habits.  Self-discipline. Churchill would take a nap in the middle of the day and claimed that he had two days rather than one. Being physically fit is important.  If you allow your bodies to go flabby, you will allow your mind to grow flabby. Building time in your day to reflect is important. Building time in your day to be with the people you love and the people that love you.  Research tells us that people who are in loving relationships in the 60's tend to live a lot longer and tend to be happy about life.

• Young people today care about social change and are on a spiritual journey.  They are on a search for their spiritual well-being.  Their spiritual foundation is important to them; it helps them find their moral compass ("true north").  One of the great dangers of leadership is that your ego gets so large that you think the rules don't apply to you.  Faith, family and friends are great anchors that keep you grounded.  Gandhi - "if you want to change the world; be the change you want to see."

The Kiva.org Story - Jessica Jackley

Jessica Jackley is co-founder of Kiva.org, the world's first peer-to-peer on-line micro-lending website. Kiva.org allows internet users to lend as little as $25 to entrepreneurs in the developing world, providing affordable capital to start or expand a small business. In just three years Kiva has helped raise over $84 million and connected thousands of people across 120 countries. A graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Jackley’s work has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show and the Today Show.

These are some of Jessica's comments at the 2009 Leadership Summit when she was interviewed by Jim Mellado:

• I grew up in a home where my mom and dad thought I could do anything and I was crazy enough to believe them.
• It was in Sunday school that I first heard that Jesus said, "...even as you have done unto the least of these you have done it unto me."  I was captivated by the idea that I could do something of ultimate significance.
• I started interviewing entrepreneurs who lived in East Africa that started their businesses on $100 and I was blown away by their success. i began to wonder how I could participate in their success.
• Since launching Kiva.org four years ago $84 million have been loaned to entrepreneurs in under-resourced places around the world; and that number will surpass $100 million in the next year.
• Mission of Kiva.org: Connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.
• It all started with seven entrepreneurs and $3000.00 in loans.
• Remarkably, 98.5% of lenders get a full repayment.
• At Kiva.org we believe that people want to do good.  We also believe that if we act in a way that expects you to be trustworthy it is likely you will respond in a trustworthy manner.
• "Great poets show, they don't tell."  Show people how they can give and what a difference it can make and don't tell them.    
• When you truly believe in the potential of people, the rest of the solution to any problem is just logistics.
• Two pieces of advice for young leaders:
  
  • #1 Don't be afraid to start small.  The best way to create big change is to start small.
  • #2 Just start.  Don't wait.  Take action.

Leading People to a Prodigal God - Tim Keller

Called a "C.S. Lewis for the 21st century" by Newsweek, Tim Keller is founder and pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Over the past 20 years, the church has grown to three sites, with weekly attendance of 6,000. The church he leads is known for its missional approach, planting more than 100 churches through the Redeemer Church Planting Center. Keller is the author of the best-selling The Reason for God.

The following are some of his thoughts at the 2009 Leadership Summit:

• Both brothers are far from the father.  neither loves the father.  They both loved the father's money more than the loved the father or each other.
• We know what to tell the younger brother to get close to the father - come home.  We don't know what to tell the older brother. 

Here are two things that the elder brother needs to do...

1. You got to get to a new level of repentance.

• Renewal will come not when you repent for your wrong doings; it comes when you repent for the reasons for your right doing.
• "The main thing separating you from God is not your sin; it is your damnable reason for your good works."

2. You got to get to a new level of joy.

• "The main thing separating you from God is not your sin; it is your damnable reason for your good works."

Five things leaders need to do to bring renewal in your church.

1. Leaders have got to work this out in your heart.

• "Don't go into the ministry to save your soul."  That is why you live and die according to your attendance.  That is why you overwork and why criticism utterly kills you!

2. Leaders must communicate beyond biblical principles to the gospel.

3. Take leaders through this process.

4. Work it into your congregations.

5. Share the good news of the gospel with others.

Imperatives for Creating Change - Gary Hamel

Gary Hamel was ranked as the #1 Business Thinker of 2008 by The Wall Street Journal and called "the world's leading expert on business strategy" by Fortune Magazine.  He is the author of Leading the Revolution and The Future of Management.

The following are some of the thoughts from Gary Hamel's talk Manage Differently Now given at the 2009 Leadership Summit:

• Our problem is not greed or materialism; our problem has to do with change...we live in a time of unprecedented exponential change.
• The reality is that most organizations get shackled to one model and stuck in one paradigm.
• Over time visions become strategies and strategies get codified and and you get stuck in an old paradigm. 
  
• Success is a self-correcting phenomenon.
• The really hard thing is not inventing, but re-inventing yourself and bringing about change.

IMPERATIVES FOR CREATING CHANGE

1. Overcome the temptation to take refuge in denial.

• Overcoming denial usually requires that we go through four steps: 1. Dismiss 2. Rationalize 3. Mitigate 4. Confront.
• "Microsoft is only two years from being irrelevant" - Bill Gates

2. Generate dozens of new possibilities

• We are in too big of a hurry to find a solution; we need to first spend time thinking through all the crazy possibilities.

3. Deconstruct what you are already doing.

• Most churches end up doing the same stuff because they read the same books and use the same consultants.  We need to reconsider everything..spare the gospel.  Why can't a sermon be created though an open-source conversation?  Why can't we bring laptops into the sanctuary to take notes?  Why is the sermon more of a lecture and not a discussion?  Why...
  
• Mental models of leadership teams are increasingly irrelevant but at the same time their power is increasing.
• Is the challenge finding great leaders OR leveraging the people that God has sent us?
• Young people want to work for corporations that functions more like the web where everyone has a voice and is judged by what they produce.

Jesus is the answer and He is the hope for humanity.  And the church is God's plan A for delivering that message.  There is no plan B!

4 Lessons for Living in a New Reality - Bill Hybels

Over the last several years I have had the privilege of getting to know Bill Hybels on a more personal basis.  We are in a small group of pastors that gathers 4-5 times a year to spend time with each other for encouragement and to challenge one another.  I am have a tremendous amount of respect for Bil as a leader, pastor and a follower of Jesus. 

The following are some of the highlights of Bill's opening talk at the 2009 Leadership Summit:

• I want to share some lessons with you that I am learning in this new reality.
• I'm not sure we are going to experience the old normal anytime soon...if ever. The normal we all knew and loved has left the building.
• In the middle of this new reality we hear the whispers of God saying, 'this is why I gave you this leadership gift...for times like these."

PHILOSOPHICAL LESSON
In a single week the stock market lost 20% of it's total value within a week.  As a result of that hundreds and thousands of people began to lose their jobs.  In the middle of that we made a critical decision that we will be an Acts 2 church for today.  We still believe that the church is the hope of the world and we will be the dispensers of that hope.  We are the church and we will still be the church! 

FINANCIAL LESSON
When you head into a financial downturn you see the financial forecast going down and the financial needs going up. 

• Advice from Jack Welch:  "Cash is king!"  Cash simply gives you the time needed to make the important decisions you need.
• At Willow they have 25% of the total annual budget in cash reserves.
• Follow these "golden rules" if staff reductions are necessary: 
  
  • Give as much as advance notice as possible.
    
  • Be clear about the cause for the reductions.
    
  • Be as generous as possible.
• Suggested budget disbursement:  50% or less of total budget is for staffing; 10% is for Spirit-led initiatives; 15% is for debt reduction and 25% for ministry expenses.
• People will still be extremely generous if the cause is compelling.
  

PEOPLE LESSON
I have been learning a lot of lessons in regards to the people who work with me and for Willow:

• Ask yourself, "Are we hiring fully yielded, rightly gifted, fired up people for the mission who want to see God do great things."
• Ask:  How many "key" seats do we have in our organization?  And then ask how many of our "key" people are filled by a fully yielded, rightly gifted fired up person?
  
• Recommended book, How the Mighty Have Fallen by Jim Collins

PERSONAL LESSON
This lesson started with a conversation with a friend where we both admitted to each other, "I'm a little worried about you."  It remind me of a dangerous time when I wrote in my journal 20 years ago these words, "The pace at which I'm doing the work of God is destroying the work of God in me."  We must reinvent replenishment strategies for the new reality.  The best thing you bring to your church or organization is a "filled up" person.  You need it and they need it.

Lessons Learned While Starting New Things

The Exponential 2010 website is now live and you should check it out.  It gives you the inside scoop on the largest church planting conference on the planet along with lots of cool resources like articles, podcasts and videos.  To get you started, they posted an article that I wrote titled Lessons Learned While Starting New Things which gives you some leadership lessons we have learned over the last decade as a reproducing church.