Things I've Learned Along the Way...

"Things I've Learned along the Way and wish I would have known at the beginning" will be the topic of my next several posts. It is my hope that the things I have learned while leading a church, family, leaders, and people will challenge you. So, here is number one...

1. Developing leaders is vitally important!

There are so many reasons why this is important, but the two that really seem to be in the forefront of thought are developing leaders builds depth with in your organization and it brings cohesion to thought and vision. To build depth one should work to develop leaders within every level in your organization. From the top-down, and from the bottom-up you should spend time developing leaders to improve leadership skills. Allotting time early on (in your leadership) to do this will cause exponential growth in your leadership pool later on. I believe this is the most important facet of building a strong foundation within any organization. Think about the joy of having multiple people within your church or business that can lead in the absence of a leader. In many churches and businesses if the top two or three leaders are absent everyone else stands around with blank stares in their eyes wondering what to do and hoping that a leader will show up! It shouldn't be this way! It takes a commitment to hard work to develop leaders, but in the end you will be very thankful that you did so that you will have an endless resource of leaders to lead!

Secondly, it is vitally important to develop leaders because it brings a cohesion to thought and vision within your organization. A couple years ago I was blessed with the opportunity to have lunch with one of the most respected pastors in my state. He leads a church of thousands in a small, rural Oklahoma town. While having lunch, I asked him, "what was the most important thing you did in the first two years of your pastorate?" Without hesitation, he responded that developing vision and leadership into a few key leaders was the most important thing he did. He said that he allotted one evening a week during his first two years of meeting together and teaching vision! Wow, and now 25 years later his church is one of the leading churches in rural America. Never under estimate the power of developing vision with in your organization. It may seem too raw, under produced, and manotness to develop vision, but in the end you will be happy you did as it will produce cohesion in thought and vision!

Books I suggest on these topics...

1. Leaders at All Levels by Ram Charan

2. Visioneering by Andy Stanley

3. 360 Leader by John Maxwell

(Please let me know what you think of this post.)