Leading Edge Chris Hodges 2016 Session 1

awesome all right y'all be seated thank you so much what I appreciate that and what a joy it is and you guys can turn me down just a little bit I feel like I'm booming all right here I'm God God God okay nice awesome it's good to see you guys and how many you guys love your pastors Troy and come on you can do better than that come on really love on him a little bit awesome I'm not only loving but I like him too but I don't know that hope that whole Oh you know when he does this worship thing and those those triceps go this way and the biceps go that way and his waist is about that big around and makes me sick I don't know about y'all ready he's the only he's the only pastor friend I had that when he gets to heaven his body's not gonna change he's he's already Anna's he's already in his glorified body now you know how many y'all excited about getting a new one I'm getting new him praise God he told me last night at dinner he dummy he I said man you just he looks so good I just I don't eat carbs and I just eat a lot of protein I don't eat carbs I don't have any carbs that he's a lot of protein no carbs and I'd give up card cards carbs too but I'm not a quitter come on everybody man you know just so I would quit too but I'm not going I'm just that's the true story I set a goal this year at the beginning of the year during our 21 we have those 21 days of prayer and fasting at the beginning of the year and which always gives you this you know it's not only a great spiritual thing but it gives you this little physical jumpstart too because you're fasting and all that so I thought you know I'm gonna my goal is I'm gonna lose I'm gonna lose 20 pounds over the course of 2016 you know and let this prayer and fasting time just be a little little jumpstart and uh and I'm just happy to report here we are in September I only got 30 pounds to go come on somebody so y'all pray for me and it's good all right hey I wanna I want to do I have two sessions with you today I want to do two different things I want to I'm gonna get a little practical in the when real like if you like taking a lot of notes you'll kind of like this real practical leadership lesson and then I want to kind of get a little spiritual in the second one all right not the first ones not spiritual but it's just the second one's a little bit more spiritual okay but this one I actually have a little I have a business background actually I'm kind of a business guy turned pastor and I was you know have my degree in in business management and I don't know I kind of see things through that lens and I probably read maybe three to one leadership or business books over any pastoral or ministry or the Christian books and just fascinated honestly with leadership and I love what I get to do all the things that I get to do in ministry but nothing excites me more than to be in front of leaders and so of all the sessions that I've had the opportunity to speak into this this this weekend at Freedom House this is the one I was looking forward to the most cuz I really believe that the local church is the hope of the world can hear a good amen everybody but its future but the future of the local church is in the hands of its leaders so it's only going to be as good as the leaders in that local church so I always say the local church really isn't the hope of the world it's the local church mobilized the local church who knows what to do it's the local church with a bunch of leaders so just the fact that you have a church doesn't mean the world is going to change a lot of it depends on what you know what we're doing in this place and kind of kind of getting it together you know so one of the major focuses of our church is our leadership development we call it we call our group the Dream Team and you know we have we have now one out of three people that attend our church on our dream team serving in some capacity and and I personally believe that that if you'll raise that more leaders than you actually need God will bring you more people and that's why you're seeing the growth that you guys are seeing here in Charlotte because you guys have made yourselves ready for God to bring something way beyond amen everybody it's exciting I love it I want to share a thought with you that actually has its origins in a pure leadership lesson that I learned while I was while I was studying business and and if you were if you just give it the business name the business name would be organizational that's what they call it in the business world and it's just that it's just the ability to see to see the whole organization and how it operates in a very clear way now that that is a spiritual principle one of the famous verses proverbs 29:18 where there is no vision the people say that allow the people what that literally means is if you can't see clearly you're gonna die where there is no vision in fact the NIV says where there is no vision the people cast off restraint so in other words they don't even know what to do that they have no idea what direction to take their life and so they just don't care it's the whatever you know what the young people say whatever whatever well that's that's because things aren't clear to us the message says it this way if people can't see what God is doing if they can't see they stumble all over themselves but when they attend to what he reveals they are the most blessed that's my job pastor Troy has commissioned me to pour into you guys and the goal I'll just say is those last words but you're the most blessed I mean you really get it you're you're in your leadership arsenal and you're everything that's inside of you leadership is is built and blessed and flourishing and then you in and it all happens if we do the first part of those verses if we're gonna see clearly as you guys can tell I wear glasses and these are actually relatively new I'm 53 about 46 years old all of a sudden I had low troubles I was watching my boys play football I'm sitting next to my sister and at the football game and and she saw me going like this so she handed me her glasses and when I put her glasses on like my whole world came in high definition again you know and I'm like oh my god I had no idea because it happens so slowly I really had perfect eyesight for probably 45 years I mean I could see the freckle own on that you know I'm saying I had a really good eyesight and then all sudden and honestly I didn't notice it like reading that's where most people recognized it in fact I can I can see the dust on my iPad right now I mean so that so that's why I didn't really notice it but it was just kind of everything far away like that and so so I went to the eye doctor and and I've never been before and it's a strange if if you've never been a four for the first time the first one's really strange because you think you're going there to see better and and most of the exam they're making you see worse right there about you know putting stuff in your eyes you can't see nothing you know they they get gets real close you know he stands right there and but the big thing on your face and they blow air in your eyeball like what was that you know glaucoma chick like well warned her brother first you know I got I didn't know and I'm just blowing air and my ball and and they sat real close and then they put pressure on you a BB or a a beer a beer hey hey no I'm sorry you know you're confused and they're going too fast and it's horrible I hated it anyway at the end of it at the end of the exam he comes back in and he says well we got you figured out like I already had myself figured out Rollins on you with my problem was and they because we got you figured I says you're near-sighted and like no no no you got it completely backwards I got all the NIR stuff it's the first stuff that's the problem and I didn't know in that profession they actually named your condition for what you're good at right it's the only medical profession that names your condition it'd be like go to the doctor with a broken door and he says well your leg works I mean it's dumb anyway I had no idea like no I got far issues in the near stuff's fine he goes no no that's what we call it I I said talk about my problem don't talk about what I'm good at anyway so he says you are your near side it's like okay anyway so I left and I'm kind of good I'm actually thinking about that how dumb that that name is and when I was driving out and the Holy Spirit actually spoke to me in that moment and said you know that is that is that's a spiritual condition nearsightedness is a spiritual condition here's nearsightedness watch ism nearsighted this is I can see the dust of my iPad I can't see you near-sighted this is I can see all of my life I can't see none of your life nearsightedness is I'll pray for everything around me because you can only pray for and you're only responsible for that which you see something you feel responsible for this stuff I don't see so I'm just gonna think about here here's how I said you you always know if you're spiritually nearsighted by your prayer life because if God answered all your Aires would it change the world or just change you you know saying so like so and and and the problem is his problem is we don't see we can't see clearly all right so I want to talk about that because I think the greatest leadership quality literally the greatest leadership quality is not your skill set or your ability or even your anointing we're going to talk about that in the next session we're gonna hopefully gonna increase the anointing on all your lives to be incredible leaders but you can't even move toward that if you can't see clearly you gotta see some things it says altar up the Bible I'll just coach you of a couple of verses like in first chronicles chapter 12 it says there were 200 leaders who understood the times and knew what Israel should do and so their relatives were under their command so let me break that again because they could see clearly they understood the times and they knew what they were supposed to do but God says well then if you're gonna be that way I'll just go ahead and give you I'll go ahead and let everybody else be under your command they became the leaders because they could see they understood they could so I'm going to help you with that and again in the organizational world in the business world they call it organizational clarity and now I'm not gonna I have not done this here at Freedom House and I'm sure Freedom House is the is an exception to it I'm getting ready to tell you but I do a lot of consulting of churches I'm like a ton in fact I tell pastors when they asked me to speak I said look I'll probably help you more if you bring me in on a Tuesday to meet with your staff I mean I don't mind preaching on a Sunday I mean but but if you really want me what I can give best to you let me sit with your leaders let me help you let me spend a day going through your organization and they just helping you know things become clearer and and I do a lot of consulting in that way and I actually enjoy that a lot but one of the exercises that I do pastor Troy is in if in it they'll give me the permission to do it is I will ask everybody on the lead team so let's just say this table is the lead team of a church staff and I just need one minute by ourselves each one and just with just one minute let me bring you off this side ask one question come back in and and I always just and I asked it to you in California when we were at an event together that is what's the win tell me tell me how do you know what is it and how do you know if you've done it what is it so in other words in the sports world where's the touchdown line what do you have to do to score so in football you'd say you have to cross that line right there there's a line on the field and when you cross it with the ball you get points so what is that in the church world now hundred percent of the time there has never been an exception ever and I'm talking I'm not talking about the volunteer I'll talk about the staff team 100 percent of the time I get great answers and different answers so they all give me great answers it's like one will say man we did we want to reach lost people that's what we want to do that's great next person man we want to help the poor awesome incredible thing next person next service today man we just want the presence of God which for God's show us God show up in a place glory of God like alright man I don't know how you're gonna measure that because but praise God you know I because one person will be like yeah he was there a next person like I didn't feel a thing you know I'm saying right so because I always say it has to be a measurable win in other words you have to actually be able to measure it to say can't call it that and and here's and here's the point and that is all great answers but you can't you but you don't have clarity if the touchdown line and it's in a bunch of different directions so I'd be like we all huddle up we stay ready break and then the play runs well it goes 11 11 different directions you got you got as we Cajuns say panda larium you know you guys you guys see it you got some serious issues I'm supposed to be a lot funnier than y'all just just laugh alright so in the in the business world there are five questions that they asked they help us find that to be able to get that kind of clarity there there are five questions am I looking at a clock somewhere pastor Troy is there are you guys gonna put something I don't have a clue hello I'll be up here yet you will okay thank you sir the guy with the headsets going will do alright good all right cuz I'll talk all day and y'all don't want that y'all get grass to cut ain't that right everybody all right okay there are five questions they asked you to help bring that clarity and here's what I want you to do this leader I want you to think of it in terms of this organization and I'll help you with that but I also want you to think of it in terms of your own personal life because they have they have application in both so even if you weren't a leader here at Freedom House you would need to have this kind of clarity in your own life and as crazy as you might think that sounds I do this from my personal life and now they didn't done this with my family and my kids like we sit around the table and we talk about these questions because I think they're important and they bring such clarity to your life so you can get a lot done in your life here's the first question they're gonna sound a little basic but I'll help I'll help you pull them off the first one is is why do we exist why do we exist and and the why we exist is is the passion it's the mission it's the vision it's the an a vision of a vision for our church it's not listen to me it's not what do we do so you can't say oh we have Church no no we don't have Church that is freedom house doesn't exist so we can have a Saturday night and Sunday services we don't exist for that we exist for people can I get a better amen everybody yeah we don't exist we don't exist to pull off services services are what we do leadership trainings are what we do this is not we don't exist even for this there's something on the other side of all this training right and it's lies being changed and it's people and it's the way we say it our churches we want people to get we won't people to know God find freedom discover their purpose and make a difference that's why we exist we we exist so that people can experience God get rid of yesterday discover that they're on this planet on purpose and then join the team so you can reach even more people we want to make a difference like we got you got to keep the why listen to me you got to keep the why of your life in front of you you got to keep the why of your own life in front of you or listen to me here's what you're gonna find find out your life will be reduced down to what you do that's what and it's even how you think about your life and that's when that's when failure begins I had a pastor drive up same kind of like what pastor Troy is saying just thinkin I mean what you're not you know honestly I've tried to be as accommodating as I can and he offered to come buy me lunch if I'd give him an hour of time and I thought no problem driving up you know it's about three hours drive from mobile to Birmingham and he drove up and and he came in he came we were gonna meet first and then go to lunch so one hour meeting 11 to 12 go to lunch trail to one he's back to 'mobile and he and he came up and he's like we just met he's giving me one hour to fix his whole life you know what I'm saying like so we had a few like 1/2 minutes of pleasantries and like okay dude let's get let's get after will you get you're giving me one hour we got a lot of work to do because yeah because we our church is 20 something years old we've been stuck at 400 people for 20 years like all right I said well talk talk to me about Sunday you know it's not all about Sunday but if somebody doesn't work nothing works you know if you can make that work it's hard to make anything else work so we got to start there said how long is your Sunday service because oh it's a little over two hours like dude that's a long time I said well what are you trying to accomplish down there in Mobile man we want to reach our city for the glory God all right so that's that's a little too fancy for me like get a little more specific like what do you really want man we want to grow like with who you know who do you like wanna get lost people say that's what we want I seen I say it again you want to grow your church with a lot of lost people getting saved yeah say like when 2 or 2 hours is too long for a lost person actually it's too long for us Christians to I just need to know that you know and he laughed like you laugh because I was trying to you know just I was trying to touch sensitive areas areas that have become sacred to him but but also bit but also kind of do it in a humor way and he was I know I don't know I know it's long time I said how much of that is your preaching he goes oh about an hour and 10 minutes and I did that like wow dude that's that's a long time and then he's put his finger in my face and said I'm not changing that find something else I'm not changing that now this guy was more in love with what he does that his vision now so I said to him I said if you could reach your whole city with a five minute message would you be willing to do it he goes I'm not changing that and he stood up left and didn't buy me lunch and call me back about four months later repenting and said look I was completely rude and and I'll do whatever you say vis crying he's I'll do whatever you tell me to do I said bro you got 35 minutes is Sunday that's your message 35 35 becomes moon that's my introduction I said dude they know you already nobody else is coming they know you like get to the point because I said is what I said to them I said because every time people leave your church they have one of two emotions thank god that's over is it over already I said go for the second one go for that's the second emotion like my goodness are we done already make you want him wanting more not thank god that's over he goes I got it I understand and and literally he the only thing he changed in his church was that and his church doubled in three months he went to 800 people that's the whole thing he changed but here's the point and that is he got more in love with what he was doing and forgot why he existed I wonder how many of us we fall in love with what we're doing and we forget so here's how it looks on a staff some of you guys and the most you guys are probably a part of the volunteers system that pulls off a weekend so you can even go into a weekend thinking hey we gotta set up some chairs hey we've got a we've got it we've got to run a sound check and we got to make sure the the scriptures on the screen and all that is if what you do is important but not at the expense of why you're doing it and what leaders do well what leaders do well is they constantly remind themselves why do we exist why do we exist I love pastor Troy shared this morning man we don't people to connect grow and serve we have clear vision around here of what we want people to do and as we read even relaunch the this this that's the track again it's called the the track the leadership track the growth track for people who join the church but let's don't talk about when it is at the expense of why we do it are y'all catching that everybody it's the why it's the why and you need to ask that self you need to ask that question for yourself as a leader why do I exist like what I need to know why I exist because I'm at 80 but even helps frame what in the invitations I get I realize I'm honestly I'm not everything in the body of Christ I'm I don't do a lot of things I'm not I don't I'm not I'm not the I'm not the best preacher you'll ever meet if you want if you want great preaching make it get John Gray or Judah Smith here and they'll lather up and get you going and you're gonna have a blessed great time and the presence of God let's go fall and love is going to be changed I don't do that I can't do that what I can do is I can come into leadership settings though and I can help organizations and and I have I am satisfied with my portion because I know why I exist and I need you to be as well all right so leaders know leaders know that they and so they give you a key to every one of these have a key to make pulling that question off and I want you to write it down this way and that it so build your identity build build our identity around the vision not the events so you build your identity around that vision not the events so don't be in love with Church be in love with people's lives being changed so we're not love with church we're in love with people's lives being changed we want we want them we want to build our identity around around the vision and and talk about it lives change talk about it and in the specific way you the language that you guys do here as well and by the way when pastor Troy and pastor penny whenever they give language used the same language because language builds culture so let's all say it the same way let's all and in it whatever he's emphasizing if you'll notice I was taking note two things for a big focus here that we're really launching this this growth track effort again and we're at the 10:30 service and that's the language so we getting nurseries tomorrow and we're getting parking lots tomorrow and we get we're talking hey hey did you hear we're relaunch at 10:30 a language and then to me the second thing I heard I heard I'm kind of new here all right I heard is that South Campus and so as the leader that's what I'm doing we're we're in love with a lot of things people's blogs being changed through these two things are y'all y'all with me everybody yes or no yep all right all right good I'm just just trying to help you with some organizational clarity do it in your own life as well okay and by the way families get a get around a table with all your kids and say why do you think we exist as a family you'll have the best discussion in the world I'm telling you I do it with my kids twice a year we sit around the table what does it mean to be a Hodges what does that look like what does it mean what do you think our unique responsibility in this world is bring clarity here's the second question that is that is what do we do what do we do what do we do this this is a fun one because what we do is oh it can only be answered if you know why we exist so so now we're gonna create something that delivers the first question so let me let me let me give you a word the lot of people don't even like but I think it's the I think it's the sexiest word in the world okay I'll love this word okay it's systems I love systems boo I know a boo hiss Chris no systems are amazing because what a system is a system is just what you've created to deliver a vision that's all a system is so the truth is every one of you in this room are a systems person they'd only they only call you a systems person if your systems work okay but but what a system is it's like okay so now we want to change Charlotte we want we want lies to be changed want people to find freedom we wanted to connect grow and serve so now we've got to create something okay until we've created we created a 10:30 class tomorrow here at the church right we've created that no how do you know how do you know if it's a good system if it works and here's the point I don't want you to fall in love with what you do I want you to fall in love with it working so we're gonna keep doing things to make that thing work because listen to me I'm gonna teach you something one of the best business revelations I ever got in my entire life it was in I had required reading to read the e-myth by Michael Gerber and the e-myth the e-myth of the e stands for entrepreneurial and the entrepreneurial myth is if you have a great product you will have a great business that's a lie it's a myth it's not true if you have a great product if you can make the best hamburger in town you will have the best hamburger franchise in town not true that's the e-myth the truth is that the product listen closely the product isn't doesn't determine the success the delivery of the product determines the success are you following that so so so that's why the worst hamburger in town has the best hamburger franchise okay I've never met a person that says you know McDonald's has the best hamburger I've ever eaten in my life it's the best hamburger no one no one has ever said those words yet it is the most successful hamburger franchise why because Ray Kroc genius wasn't the burger Ray Kroc genius he was the first one to put five cash registers so that a lot of people could be served and to do it quickly he came up with the drive-through in the playground and the Happy Meal and the say there they're not selling the burger they're selling a toy in a playground so so mama comes spend a bunch of money in that in that right that they they it was the system to deliver the vision that made it successful and and so and they and they obsess over that to making it work say Chris what's the secret then of what do we do how do we do that in the in the church world here's the key you got to understand this you got to think steps not events think steps think steps not events because especially in church we just keep going from event to event to event but the key to a great system is process not programs think steps not events we want to take you on a journey this way I'll say it at Highlands as I always tell the church I said look I'm not your pastor I'm your spiritual tour guide and if you'll give me a year of your life here's what I say to them you give me a year of your life do everything we do let me take you on a spiritual journey it probably won't even take a year but you'll say my god my life has completely changed for the good because I'm not giving you a church service I'm not giving you another series I'm not here to have to give you a little Sunday box to check on your little spiritual checklist you know no I want to take you on a journey okay we have some steps for you to take and you got to think you got to think if you if you want when you're when you're putting together systems you got to think the steps that you want them to take not just the things that we want them to do and and it's and it's critical and it is critical for you guys as leaders so here's here's the takeaway and that is know what you do and know the steps that people should take and let me give you a little I didn't ask pastor Troy permission to tell you this but I bet I bet he would he would want me to tell you this and that is every person you come in contact with as as in this church as leaders every person you come in contact with do do two things listen to me identify them spiritually help them take their next step that's it that's what I ask my leaders to do so identify where they are spiritually help them take their next step because that's what we do here we're a next steps church that's what we do we're not just an event church now track in with me so let me show you how to do that so if you talk to somebody say oh it's your first up now you how long you been coming to Freedom House oh it's my first step really that's awesome man you know and then you talk to them and so now I know where they are and maybe you get deeper in the conversation and find out they're not even a Christian where their next step is to go go serve in the nursery their next step is I just we just need to get this brother saved right we just always kind of help find out where they are oh you've been coming three years yeah where do you serve nowhere oh really well you know tomorrow 10:30 we have a and now I'm helping identified him spiritually I might you know what I'll come with you you spent a long time since I've been at the class and I probably could use a little refresher myself I'll sit with you and this is the culture we've created to help every one of our leaders help people take next steps now it's not why we exist but we do know what we do we connect grow and serve so we do and we do it tomorrow 10:30 are y'all with me everybody am i beating this horse too much all right y'all y'all getting it so always know why don't let don't let 1030 be the y ou praise good come on give me some 1030 everybody oh no we don't we're not fired up about 10:30 tomorrow that's what we did we're fired up about people's lives being changed right it's the vision but we got to know what we do and we got to do it all together if we're gonna be great leaders this is what great organizations do they know why they exist they know what they do here's the third thing your third question is how are we doing how are we doing so that means use pause from time to time all great leaders by the way you need to do it too as an individual need a pause and ask yourself how am i doing how am i doing assess yourself now I do it I do it once a month I'll just take my system you don't have to do this actually learned this from one of the best Christian leadership books I've ever read I had a real dark moment in my life in 2011 where the year before my dad who was you know I was he was best man in my wedding if that tells you how close we were he moved to Birmingham to help us get the finances and he was he was the legislative auditor for the state of Louisiana and he came to help us you know build all the systems and the finances and he's a genius who's just a gene and he was a financial genius in every way and got cancer and died I did his funeral in 10th in 2010 my best friend in the world was my wife's dad talked on the phone every day for 27 years his name was Billy Hornsby he he started Ark the church planning network that were part of and and just my best friend literally I married my wife because I loved Billy y'all listen to there in fact you wonder he proposed to me it's true story we were eating an oyster po'boy in Baton Rouge because have you ever thought about my daughter Tammy because I can't say that I have he said I'd like you to take her out anything for you Billy and so I took her out you know him fell in love with her and praise the Lord of course I love her now y'all do realize that and we have five kids so I really do love her always tell people I don't have five kids cuz I cuz I like kids cuz I don't I have five kids I like my wife so anyway I said that's a different leadership lesson it's an important one but but then he dies he dies in 2011 he got he they found a little melanoma tumor on the bottom of his foot a little pad of his foot look like look like he had stepped on a thorn and five doctors telling him it was nothing it was just just and and the the sixth ones biopsied it and he was already at stage four melt and and he was just gone just like that he's gone and it's 61 years old way too young and and so I do his funeral and our church was 10 years old and you know we we were 25,000 people at 10 years and and honestly I was beat dog-tired and and somebody gave me pastor Wayne Cordero's book leading on empty and and in that he talks about how you have to pause basically it is the Sabbath principle to stop reflect review and revise and then renew like you got it you got to stop and assess where you are or you can get so busy because I don't know if y'all notice it I can only imagine a bunch of you guys are involved in pulling off Sundays here but they keep coming around every six days y'all notice that everybody it is my goodness they showed up again I've got another message I have to be ready for and if you're not careful come on pastors were yeah I mean it just keeps showing up making praise God for Sunday's but they keep showing up every six days I'm driving home on a Sunday afternoon thinking my about my next message already that's the pressure you feel as a pastor because I already said everything I knew in the first three months of our church like I gotta come up some new stuff but it's important you know it's important if you're not careful you'll just find yourself doing doing doing doing doing doing doing doing doing do it so we're we know how exist we know what we do but if you don't stop every once awhile and ask yourself how are we doing and I'm just encouraging and do this on a spiritual level and a personal level on a leadership level and organizations need to do it as well how are we doing well what do we want to do we want people to connect grow and serve well are they let's find out let's ask and let's find out because the truth is every one of us have an area where you know we're not doing as well as we should our church salvations were screaming out of control high praise God for that but at this and and somebody asked me many are baptized those people say yeah we baptized a ton of people and then they brought me the report to find out that salvations were going up water baptism was going down and I didn't know that that's the percentage-wise it was they were they were the graph was going in two different directions now I'm on the surface because it's such a big Church on the surface out I said oh yeah a ton of people getting baptized the truth is it wasn't healthy so because so we stopped and assessed it in their tent anytime we assess something in the church I'll tell you how we do it pastor Troy because I think it's a really one of the best tips I give to churches and leaders is that we always do eyes do two things we do an internal audit and an external audit and the internal audit looks like this we get four or five people you business guys are loving all this stuff aren't you though you spiritual folks like to tell some more stories and give me some Bible next session everybody hang in there all right but but the internal audit means I get a few people who are business minded and can do some research to go look within our organization and ask this one question what did we change that's made it go down are we announcing it differently did we move it it's audit us find out how we do it and that and just see if it's good and see if we change anything and then we do an external audit I get a different group of people and how I said go find me five churches in America who baptized more people than we do and learn everything they do and the two groups meet together in two weeks and then we sit down in a room we came up with 33 things we could change we implemented eleven and it went up 400% the next year that's a true story baptisms went up percent just because we stopped to assess the situation how are we doing hard how are you doing when's the last time you stopped as a leader just took an hour maybe just took an hour go off in the woods or go sit in a chair and listen to a Cardinal chirp you know and just ask yourself how am i doing and I appeal the way now ever since I read that book leading on empty and you'll read it in that book where I set a get aside and I and I examined myself in 12 areas you know how's my work life how's my computer life how's my marriage how's my finances how's my attitude has my body you know how's my creativity just how am i doing with my kids and I assess myself and it's one of the healthiest things you can do as an organization it's one of the healthiest things you can you can do proverbs 27 23 be sure you know the condition of your flock give careful attention to your herds so collect data evaluate it celebrate the winds confront the facts debrief things before you move on to the next thing stop into every meeting every meeting I lead at our church before we move on to the next thing we ask ourselves how did we do is there anything looking let's look back just for a moment and say could we have could we have done it better y'all get anything out of this everybody all right so I'm just giving you some organizational questions I'll get a bit more spiritual in the next session all right but I love this stuff so why do we exist make the why the big reason what do we do because and and what we do is only good only good if it works so do not be in love with what you do if it's not delivering your vision just don't be in love with it Patrick asked me that all the time what's the best system the one that works all right that's the one and then how are we doing assess how you're doing here's the thing here's the fourth question how will we succeed how will we succeed and this speaks to the values or the or the energy that drives it so that may give me the best word for how we'll succeed values culture is in other word the culture so you could have a good vision and you can even have a good system and you could even be checking on yourself but if you don't have this underlying culture that's that's in this part I don't know how to tell you how to do it other than its it's a feel thing I call it only thing I can ever come up with is the word life-giving it when things are a life-giving you got to put that like giving culture in the middle of everything to make it successful but I do know this please write this down culture trumps everything culture trumps everything so it really doesn't matter how good your vision is or even how good your services are that but if you throw that seed on on this stage you can come back five years from now that seed is gonna be on this stage it has to be an environment a fertile environment that's going to cause that thing to grow it's true of your home it's true of your own life like culture culture trumps everything and here's the here's the secret on this one for you as leaders here at Freedom House you can't build culture you can only be culture you can't you can't build it you have to be it so you can't want something you just have to become something right so so we want to be something and I'm gonna talk about that by the way in my next session so I'm gonna I'm gonna move away from this one all right but that's what we're talking the whole next session it all be about this life-giving culture that I'm convinced honestly I'm so committed to this one then I think you can have I think you can do the wrong thing in a right culture and have more success than doing the right thing in a wrong culture and by the way is true of your own homes I'm just now at the stage of my parenting life where I'm kind of on the other end where I'm kind of done with my the parenting kids at home my youngest is 19 my oldest is 27 I have five kids and and building a church has been fun and challenging but nothing in my whole life has been more difficult than raising five kids in this culture in this in this crazy culture honestly it's been challenging the school spring and it's been the hardest thing I've ever done and there's been moments where I wasn't sure I was it was gonna work I had to to my kids to the five in particular kept my prayer life real strong you know what I'm saying and uh I won't go into more details but uh but but I've got some hair-raising stories but here we are today three of America are married and those three oldest ones are all involved in our in our church and ministry by their own by their own admission in fact my my oldest son he's a genius he made a 33 on his a CT out of high school had a full rod academic scholarship at Alabama he entered Alabama as a sophomore did his undergrad three years God has got a got an MBA at Alabama all paid for you know praise God summer LSU Tiger I don't like sending him anything yes look I dad I'm gonna do business I love God love the ministry but I'm gonna do business fine son and I took him on a missions trip I always take my kids on missions trips and I take them everywhere I go on trips and just let me expose them to the work of God around the world and we were in Ireland together and the pastor there said you know s Michael so what kind of you know what are you gonna do for a living nitric graduating he goes oh I'm gonna go work for the church and that's the first time I had heard of it I'm like mmm praise the Lord I'm just I'm just trying to be all cool on the outside like you know I've known this for a long time you know and he's we've talked about this he ain't told me nothing you know I'm saying and it's one of the happiest days of my life he came in to our College we have we have nine hundred and six students in our College and and he oversees the placement part of that College so we placed about 200 students in churches every year and he designed that whole placement process with this is his business screen now we just transitioned him to being one of the campus pastors that of our campuses and it's it's just awesome I'm coming kind of on the other side of this but now I'm at this stage where I'm kind of looking back and like because I get asked this question a lot by a lot of parents and families how how you how did you do it right what did you do how'd you have five kids that love God love you and love the church all serving and evolving honestly honest the answer oh I think we did a lot of things wrong but the one thing that we did well we had a culture of life of honesty of conversation I mean even when my I've had one son get arrested I walked on to that scene at the middle of a night when police cars everywhere and a bunch of kids and they were just you know being being goofy is what they were doing just silly there's nothing horrible but there's enough to get the police there and and I came on that scene I'll never forget this I came on that scene and dads were already there just berating their kids and I remember what making the decision what I was gonna say to my son and I woke up with the biggest smile on my face and I said you've never needed me more than you need me right now and he's with tears in his eyes he knew that was true and then and then I said and I've never loved you more than I love you right now and he was the only one I was ever really worried about that would kind of kind of go his own way and that was a pivotal moment for his life because he was in a culture of life now obviously I did some things wrong or he wouldn't have been in that scene in the first place you know I'm saying but in that culture of life he makes some heart decisions and everything changes I'm telling you can create a culture of life we'll talk about in the next session I mean a culture of life that causes almost everything to grow doc mout always say we have such a healthy culture between my wife and other we have to think about stopping some of the growth can I get an amen everybody you know right I won't go any further y'all y'all Minds were sorry I'm just saying every organization what they do well as they say they keep why they exist in the forefront they know what they do and they're not in love with what they do they just want to make sure that what they do actually works that they have a system that delivers the vision they're very aware and regularly check how well they're doing and at the end of the day they're really focused on the coach that's driving the whole thing they're focused on this what causes us to succeed and I won't give it away because I'll talk about the next session what we do at our church and I think it'll help here at Freedom House but the last question may be the best question the last question is currently my favorite question in the whole world it really is it may be the one of the best questions if I could sit with you and go have coffee for 20 minutes this is the question I would ask you if I got 20 minutes to really kind of help you and just be a blessing to you this is a question how it asks you and that is what's the most important thing right now what's the most important thing right now because not everything is equally important so we've got a lot of things going on here at Freedom House I'm sure we have mints ministries with ministry ministries and we've got small groups we've got got this growth track we've got South Campus coming up and we've got Sunday to pull off and we got a mr. Potato Head series and we got cameras and we got like we got worship and like but what's most important right now here look at me I'll compare but if you I wish I had a wooden bucket with me but if you ever seen a wooden bucket that's got the little slats like matching my fingers like being the slats of the bucket so you got this wooden bucket and all these slats are real tall but one of them is low in that bucket just one slap it doesn't matter how tall the others are the water is running out at the level of the lowest slat okay listen to me the water in your life is running out right now at the level of the lowest slab it don't matter how strong everything else is so the question is do we know what that thing is now honestly I don't think I always know so twice a year pastor Troy I meet with my whole staff and we take an entire hour to debate I let everybody every from janitor the senior pastor everybody gets to play ball and we all nominate what we think is the weakest link and then we commit to taking the next six months to raising the slat of that bucket and I'm convinced it's one of the best exercises leadership exercises that we do as a church imagine asking that question of to your family I do it I've done it with my kids where do you think the lowest slat is where do you think we're loo in water where do you think the area that's the weakest part of our family I asked that question two Sundays ago I had all the kids come over so three and remarried so it's 11 of us now cuz I haven't my first grandson born him in May everybody why didn't I not bring a picture I don't know so I'll show you a million in the next session I love him his name is Jackson I call him Jack Iraq all right so anyway but there's 11 of us now we were sitting at the table and I just asked my kids I said hey guys you know we're all kind of going our own ways now everybody's getting married moving what's the wheat what's the weakest what's the weakest part of our family what can we do to strengthen our family the most and one of my kids spoke up and says we need a dedicated week one week a year that belongs no matter who other families get involved in our family and we just we just married into some pretty incredible families honestly some one of them's from Charlotte Lisa Turk hers daughters and is now my my daughter-in-law and and they have a very busy life and family as well and their tuggin and so he said let's dedicate it we that it's hands off for all the other families this is our week and we're always gonna get together we're always going to take that time off and that's the week of the year and we we all we all collectively picked the week and we already collectively picked the next event that we would do together as now the Hodges family and it was just it engaged them to know hey let's work on this and it's amazing how strong our family and it's amazing like we said we said and in our church that the weakest thing last year the weakest thing was our growth track that had just gotten outdated it had just gotten I think it got tired the principles were right but the practices were becoming a little ho-hum and so we took an entire year to give our growth track a facelift and a couple hundred percent growth in our growth track over this year now in 2016 and we're thrilled about fact we're exactly at double last year's attendance of our growth track right now in September so and it's just because we focused on what we knew to be the weakest link let me let me close my session with you guys and just ask you this question and that is and I want to change the question around this way what one thing which I want you to answer when you write it down that I want you to answer it what one thing in your life if it got better would make the biggest difference in your life what one thing if it got better it's a great question for Freedom House what one thing at this church if it got better makes the biggest difference what one thing in my line oh what it is for me I'm I ain't gonna tell you but I know and I know what the one thing is didn't then Paul say this one thing I do I'm free III I'm trying to go toward a goal and so this one thing I do I love that such a powerful leadership lesson to say I'm not focused on 20 things that need change I don't know I've isolated level the lowest slat this one thing I do and for Paul it was he had to forgive what was behind I always tell people don't read the rest of that verse because it may not be your one thing he used to murder Christians and I think person that Paul's still struggle with guilt now that he was leading the church but knowing he had murdered Christians he goes this one thing I do I have to forget what's behind and strain toward what's ahead I keep thinking about I keep feeling the guilt and the condemnation of what I used to do that's not one thing but and they may not be your one thing do you know your one thing and if you do you can be one of the most exceptional leaders ever amen everybody so let me pray for your father thank you so much for this amazing team and Lord my deepest prayer is that you would bring organizational clarity in their personal lives in their teams and in this church God so that we can do what you called us to do God give us eyes that see Lord so that we can lead the way you call us the lead and we will give you all the glory in Jesus name Amen god bless you guys

Channel: Freedom House Church

Views: 10,692

Rating: 4.9175258 out of 5

Keywords: freedom, house, church, charlotte, nc

Id: p6x14fHT9-w

Length: 50min 18sec (3018 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 10 2016