Rich Wilkerson Jr. — VOUS Conference 2019: Creating Culture Carriers

this topic that we're going to chat about a little bit like i think in these sessions too these aren't like sermons these are kind of more like streams of consciousness a little bit and we're sort of like on a process together we're sort of like journeying together and blue church has only been around for three and a half years so it's not like we've got a whole lot of answers but we can tell you some of the things that we've learned along the way and so hopefully today if you've been to any other sessions yesterday hopefully our team is taking that approach because we by no means have all the answers we don't think that we're the best but we are committed to getting better amen i think that's always a great phrase to have in your spirit you have to be the best today but you do got to get better today and the goal is not perfection the goal is progress and this session we've titled it creating culture carriers i think this is one of the most fundamental things that you have to do if you're going to be especially uh the key leader the lead pastor uh the ceo the entrepreneur if you're building teams you're going to have to learn how to create people that are going to carry the culture that you envision how we know leadership is not seen in your presence it's seen in your absence you don't really know if you're leading well until you step away and you're not around to see how that thing behaves in culture is that intangible what is that there's something about this place and vu has got a long way to go but i do believe one of the strengths of our house is the culture that you will come and be a part of culture if you were to strip it down it's the behavior it's how everyone behaves like you walk how does everyone know how to behave like that and why does everyone talk like that and why does everyone carry themselves like that it's because there's a culture that's being clarified and talked about and inspected over and over and over again and i wanted to try to give you a couple lessons of what i've learned on the journey of how we're doing that how we're going to continue to do that come back next year i'm going to have some more thoughts on this for sure um is it cool if i give you a free resource right off the bat and this is sort of like if you've downloaded the app you're you're in good company if you haven't downloaded the app there's still time the app is free but if you get the vu app i just want to as we start this conversation today we actually have at our church and on our staff we've never given this out before but we love you so much i think you're a part of our church now we have a culture guide and this is i think a great resource those of you that are on a church that you should go home and and start and so on the app i'm going to see if i can do it myself just because they told me it was there kyle you said it was here you saw it what did this we open up help me out we open up the vu thing i want to just take them beautiful links and resources but we don't actually have this session so it's underneath the creative breakout resource great so if you go to the vue conference app then you go to links and resources then you click this next button which says creative breakout resources there is a file there called the vu cultural guide and i'm going to talk a little bit today but that resource which is like a 30 page document which you're going to see what we're talking about in terms of how specific how clear we want to be with who we are as a church because when i know who we are i also know who we're not and it's really really important so i want you guys to get that and uh go ahead download that take that back take it use it and hopefully it'll be a blessing i want to read a little verse it says judges chapter 5 verse 2. i haven't checked any of these screens but i'm hoping they got some of my notes up here awesome that's what the scripture says it says when leaders lead in israel when the people willingly offer themselves bless the lord i love that phrase when leaders lead when leaders lead when leaders lead people will willingly offer themselves whenever there's a spot that people aren't willingly offer themselves there's probably a leadership problem going on and one of the things that i want to try to empower you with as you walk out of this room today is that every problem that you are walking back home to 99 of them are a leadership problem and you need to be empowered today like mike was talking about earlier today that you are the solution you are the answer that you actually can solve the problems we have this phrase on our staff and our team we we quit saying people won't do this or people won't do that i don't want to hear the youth pastor say oh teenagers won't show up on a friday night i'd rather hear the youth pastors say we haven't led teenagers to show up on a friday night i'm taking back the power you need to change your language around because the scripture says when leaders lead the people willingly offer themselves so bless the lord and so when people are not actually offering themselves it's always a leadership problem listen to me every person wants a leader people want to be led and some of us just need to get over the fact that like yo you got to quit acting like it's sort of like this false humility like i don't really know if i have anything to offer oh believe me people need you and the better you get the better they're going to get the better you get the better they're going to get you're going to have to lead them and i want to show you six ways today that i think that you can begin to create culture carriers people that care about what you care about people that are thinking about what you're thinking about people that are talking about what you're talking about you think about like small groups i remember one time i was talking to this this pastor and i said we're working on our crews and our small groups i said man i just wish we had more of them he said oh rich you you you have more than you know you're just not in their conversations i said what do you mean he said well the power of a small group is that people in your church are grouping up and getting together whether you know it or not the question is have you created enough culture carriers that when they do group up they're talking in the way that you want them to talk they're caring about the things that you want them to care about they're thinking about what you're thinking about the only way you're going to do that is by creating culture carriers so number one if you want to create culture carriers you need to be what you want to see be what you want to see as leaders we always go first and like we really can't talk about creating culture cares without starting with this point it's amazing how many leaders i talk to and they'll come to me like yo man i wish people in my church would bring more people to church it's always like yo who did you bring to church this past sunday ah no i was studying get out of here you can't raise up a church of evangelist if you're not going to be an evangelist man i wish our church would worship all right so why don't you get out there before the first song i i'm shocked how many pastors have got this weird notion that they have to stand in the back of a room while the whole entire congregation's worshiping and then they wonder when they come back out how come their church doesn't have passionate worship it's because they never see new worship oh man i wish we get more people to serve when's the last time you went to a servant leader rally or whatever you called a volunteer rally when's the last time that you went and did a teaching to the usher team or to the welcome team when's the last time that you got into the micro of it and you actually modeled what it looked like you got to be what you want to see you know i want a church full of energy so i can't walk in an hour before church and not carry energy i got to get my spirit right and come in and say if i want people to have energy i gotta bring energy [Music] part part of the reason why we're never we're never being what we want to see is because we don't actually know what is that we want to see so all of us we've got to start with values who are you defining that at vue church we have seven values it's in the culture guide you can read about it but i think that you should spend some time and say why do we want to start this if you're starting a business what do you value at the business things are going to change we live in a changing world but you're going to need a changeless core that when things are changing there's something that is solidified inside of you and so everything at lu it comes from these seven values jesus is our message every preacher that gets up in our church when they're preaching doesn't matter what the collection is on they know that they are closing that message and they're introducing jesus into the message because we've only got one message and all these other areas some of you that were in our communication class yesterday they're just streams but they come back to jesus we say people are a heart so we actually want to create a judgment-free church we want to create a place that you belong before you behave we actually want to say that we want people in our homes i don't just want to spectate i want to participate i don't just want to lead the church i want to be a part of the church people are heart excellence is our spirit generosity is our privilege yo if i want my church to give and to tithe oh my goodness if i don't lead the way and i'm not a tither i can't preach about tithing come on you know this stuff honor is our calling we could talk all about honor but if you're not an honorable person you're never ever going to reproduce honor in your church if you want people to compliment you but you don't ever take the time to compliment them what are you you got to open up your mouth you got to be what you want to see passion is our pursuit i'm not going to let one minute go by i don't care if it's a monday meeting or i don't care if it's sunday at 7 15 p.m if i'm in that room and i'm called to lead i want to create some culture carriers that are going to take on that spirit and they too are going to walk out in passion but the only way they will do it is not that by my teaching they're going to be reproduced by who i actually am i have to embody passion be what you want to see so i if you've never done this before you need to define what are your values what what what is our church value it doesn't have to value what vu values that's what makes you different that's what makes you unique but but define that really clearly like this is what we value and then me as a leader i'm going to be all that first first way to create culture cares is that you got to be what you want to see but secondly is that you have to clarify roles and this is like i'm trying to deconstruct this but i want to try to give some examples around this in my notes i actually have clarifying our team's roles and i want to try to explain what i mean because i'm not just like you need a job title and a job description and thank you patrick lucione and the advantage for telling me that but when i say clarify roles there's things that you need that only you know that the environment needs it and you need to get so crystal clear about what that thing is that you need people to do so let me explain dakota duron is here on the front row and um he actually leads our jdd location dakota how old are you he's 25 years of age it's his first job in ministry he's leading a location right now i think they have about a thousand people every sunday he preaches he teaches he and his wife they're doing an amazing job but dakota's 25 and if you ever get around dakota he is like the best culture carry in the world but he has a unique gift that he's an atmosphere changer he's funny he's the life of the party he can like disrupt any moment and he can make it really really exciting and so when dakota came onto our staff i say yo koda like you know when we like circle up for staff meeting and like you know people are kind of like lacking energy i need you to have the presence of mind that you don't ever ever ever get to be one of those people i need you to realize that your gift of humor and your joke that's a little bit on the fringe that probably took us a little bit too far i want to let you know that's part of your role here at vu church all of a sudden now i just clarified for him what the role is that he is in the spot so he knows we're looking around a room and it's lacking energy i just go look at dakota he's like oh he gets up and starts doing something because at 35 and being the leader i can't play that role anymore but at 25 and being who he is he can get up there and he can make all sorts of noise and he can say stuff and he can change the atmosphere i got to clarify the role my friend kyle graham is up here in the front row his wife her name is brianna graham now her job title is vu kids director and on a sunday right now she sees anywhere from 400 to 600 kids and she has two other staff members between two locations it's a big world that she's managing a mobile kids area i clarify her role that she's the vu kids director but brianna also knows that when it comes to carrying culture that she is mama brianna i don't know like since the day i met her she's just like one of these kind of people their whole life is on an excel spreadsheet like she like you meet these people it's like did you go to college for excel like no i just passionate about it you know she's the most organized she is intense when it comes to the details and so everybody listen to this everybody on our staff knows and our teams know that brianna when it comes to are you wearing your servant leader name tag at vu church i don't care if you're the highest level person in our organization if briana sees you without a name tag she has every bit of authority to discipline you to actually speak to you and say what are you thinking because it's her gift mix and we need it on our team she's culture police on the org chart it doesn't show up on the org chart she's way over she's over here as a kid's director but she can walk up to it she can walk up to our cfo she can walk up to our general manager and she excuse me where's your name tagged today and they're like oh exactly get that thing back on because she's been empowered to do it i've clarified the role some of you guys right now what's happening to you is that you're in the starting phase of something and you're so concerned with being so organized and so polished and so sharp that you're missing out on the culture of how people are actually behaving and some of us what we need is we need to clarify the gifts that people are around us and we need to be intentional with knowing what it is that our space needs i need a comedian i need an accountant i need somebody who's going to come around and keep people in line it's what we have to we have to clarify roles i want you to walk out of this place understanding that the more you can bring clarity to people's roles and what they bring on the team the more they're going to feel empowered to do it number three i want to write this one down i like this you have to change confrontations connotation so if you're going to create culture carriers like you have to change quickly confrontations connotation you're going to have to create a work environment a place where confrontation is not like the exception it's the norm it's the only way things can grow it's like when there's conflict it rubs you kind of wrong but the the byproduct is always growth there's going to be a new result and for some reason this idea of confrontation it's got this negative connotation attached to it like i'm in trouble no no if you have a coach the moment the coach quits talking to you is the moment he quits playing you it's just the truth like as soon as this guy isn't up in your ear yapping in your ear you can rest assured that your playing days are probably coming to an end yet the more the coach is riding you is because he's actually seen potential inside of you i think some of us in this space we have to realize that in order for us to get the results that we're looking for there's gonna have to be a combustion of confrontation i'm telling you you have to learn how to eat awkward conversations for lunch you don't like awkward conversations you're not going to go very far in leadership it's full of awkward conversations how you doing you ready for an awkward conversation why'd you do that excuse me why'd you do that because it's not just about saying who you want to be it's actually challenging who we're not you're never going to if you don't if you don't want to get better then don't confront anything but you can't change what you fail to confront and you get what you tolerate once again go back when leaders lead the people will willingly offer themselves quit saying people won't do this and start saying we haven't led them to do this i hate to say this but i'm talking about myself you get what you allow so whatever you got you allowed it and the only way it's going to change is by confronting it the only way it can get better is by having an awkward conversation and say hey listen like that's not actually how we do this around here we're going to adjust and i want us to do it this way at vu we just we want a culture of improvement we want to be some of you key leaders and some of you lead pat you need to be sticking your nose into stuff man you need to be finding out what's actually happening you got to inspect what you want you got to actually look into it and say what what is this is this what we actually want i don't want to be afraid of confrontation i want us to be a church that's full of coaching look what hebrews says this is a beautiful passage hebrews chapter 12 verse 7 says endure hardship as discipline god is treating you as his children for what children are not disciplined by their father if you are not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline then you are not legitimate not true sons and daughters at all as i'm pastoring vu and i'm pastoring our staff and our team there has to be levels of confrontation otherwise they're not true sons and daughters they're not true disciples a father's heart is two-fold it's affirmation but then it's also correction there's this moment for sure that you you celebrate them but you also have to coach them and many times what happens to us as leaders is that we just get so tired of the awkward conversations i know for me sometimes i put confrontation out in the distance but listen to me confrontation has an expiration date and if you're always confronting something that happened two weeks ago what you're really doing is you're bottling it down and you're waiting until your emotions can lead you to the point that you've had enough you need on your team and in your organization to change the connotation of confrontation that the culture itself is one of improvement it's one of checking each other it's one i'm saying let's get better that we're going to sharpen each other that we're going to grow you got to speak to the room and say that's what we're going to be and i think if you came over to headquarters you would find a whole bunch of people that are constantly having conflict in meetings having tension in meetings but they're coming out of it saying we want to get the best results we want to get the best results and that's why we're gonna confront and that's why we're gonna challenge each other number four i want you to write this one down this tv is got a demon inside of it get insanely specific get in insanely specific um ah man i don't know how to like this is so important and i just see people fail at this so often um people will come to our church all the time and say how did you get to do that or how did you how did that happen listen to me nothing just happens nothing the fact that this tv is blinking we will have a meeting about this later on trust me okay like something's going wrong you know like but nothing just happens and i think that i think that we can come to environments and we can see things that we like and we just go oh they got this or they got that and that's how this happened no no you have to get specific exactly about what is that you want to see i remember when we were first in the church planning phase i just got in the car just now and a guy by the name of juan carlos picked me up and uh i didn't know he's gonna be driving me from the venue over here but juan carlos and his wife they started the church with us they're they're just serving leaders in our church and then they go to jdd now on location and um juan carlos and i got in the car i said bro remember when we started this thing in the miami rescue mission he said yeah i said never forget it he said absolutely and i remember having meetings in the miami rescue mission it was smaller than this crowd right here much smaller than this crowd we sat in this it was the rescue mission full year we're in the rescue mission and i remember right before we got ready to launch we took the 200 people that we had and we literally walked through an entire hour and 20 minutes service and i literally with a microphone on a stool coached every moment of how i wanted people to behave throughout the service just like i know it's not it's obsessive i know it's insane but we're talking about creating culture carriers we're talking about now how do we have four to five thousand people on a sunday that when you show up to a worship service that vu church before the first song is sung the entire audience is there clapping their hands in anticipation it didn't just happen we got insanely specific about the behavior that we wanted to see and so i got on the microphone so years ago we're gonna play this video and when this video comes on here's the deal the lights are gonna start no no that's the wrong temperature no no okay wait wait wait wait higher no lower okay right there is probably good everyone agree we are grabbing okay we're in agreement specific mark that mark that okay everyone's still with me and we started going through the service okay at this moment now we want the lights to go fully down but here's we need another dynamic we need something else to happen to move the people oh here's what we'll do let's get the band okay kick drum start coming in right now kick drum start coming in right now start playing here okay audience now we're the church we're gonna model we're gonna lead our church we're all gonna stand up on our feet and here we go we're start clapping with the band we're gonna start clapping with the band because listen it's not a concert this is our team and we're gonna help them lead worship and so let's go first let's be specific about it that's that's how that resulted it wasn't like because what what happens is we we we leave all right play a video at the start of my service everyone's gonna get pumped they don't they don't they don't get pumped you have to specify and clarify this is what we wanna see okay okay so this is here's the deal i want to let's get specific all right so when when when we preach at vu church those of us that are leading that are serving we don't we don't take notes on our cell phone not that we know we're the digital age but like you know what it communicates to people that that are coming from everyone thinks that that person's on instagram and like we really want to honor the word so here's what we're going to do we're all going to bring a bible and we're going to bring a notepad and then check this out we're not going to wait for a point that we like we're just going to help preach the message anyways because we're already bought in and so we're gonna shout back we're gonna say amen we're gonna laugh a little bit harder we're gonna make it an easy environment so when we bring our friends they walk in go and this place is really really engaged how did we get that we got insanely specific insanely specific that we're going to sit and we're going to talk about the moment i love our team because they continue to do this and they're trying to create moments today we had a reflective prayer journey and literally like a month or two ago the idea was hey wouldn't it be cool like at a conference that if for once like we would actually embody what jesus said that would be the house of prayer instead of just the house of worship i wonder if we could somehow train or take people on a journey of thousands of people that we could come to a moment that there's no music but the place is lifted up with voices in prayer and then from that place we would see what worship would feel like and what it would look like if worship was birthed out of our prayer life so literally today if you were in the morning session there came a moment that we were praying in circles over each other and for about 30 to 40 seconds there wasn't any sound in the auditorium it was just the prayers of the people there and then the worship team came back in and something began to explode in the atmosphere how we got there is that we got insanely specific insanely specific specific specific what is what we want to see this is how we want this to behave we do this all over the place um i want a church that's grateful and so i can say hey we're gonna be church as grateful or i can teach that and then i can create opportunities and systems that we get in a circle and say all right real quick maybe just two people really quick what are we grateful for and then we had to sit in the awkwardness for a second to see if anyone's gonna like right now like right now it's like it's like noon i know we're just gonna do it anyways it's kind of like it's like it's noon you've established that are you grateful yeah but i mean there's no keys i know let's just what are we thankful for and people start saying what they're thankful for because we're gonna get insanely insanely insanely specific so i don't know what that thing is but like this is how you create culture cares that culture guide you're gonna see it one of the ways that you create culture is having your own language this is what every tribe has their own language that's a culture of people has their own you go to colombia they have their own language you go to uh different parts of the world they have their own their own languages what makes them different your world should have their own language i love when mike todd comes because you can see that they teach culture so i was like where's my you know transformation nation you know like everyone's like ah well that's unless you're a part of that culture you don't know what that means but if you're part of that culture it has a lot of weight to it that's intentional that's being specific so vu we can start going through stuff all over the place it's not it's not a happenstance but into the night yo into the night stand firm miracle emotion make space we don't use the word volunteer we use the word servant leader there's also we don't use the word series we use the word collection we don't use the word campus we use the word location the culture guide you can see all the words that we don't say and you can see all the words that we do say you know that's really specific bro yeah we're trying to create a culture we're trying to get in unity of saying the same thing really quick i think this is always a fun lesson you know this lesson but it's a fun lesson for you to get one more time in your spirit i do it almost every year because i think it's so helpful but on the count of three just say your favorite color as loud as you possibly can ready one two three okay i said loud okay so louder than that ready one two three okay one more time just to annoy someone who's doing a very like i think they're doing like a mental health one over here let's just like i think prophecy is happening over here so on the count of three let's just really ready one two three okay i have no idea what you're saying but watch this let's just say the best color in the entire world let's just say it's um let's say it's fuchsia who even likes fuchsia i know okay it's chill but you don't you don't even have to shout it but just on the counter let's all say fuchsia ready one two three but that's way too loud just whisper ready one one two three it actually sounds really sick you know fuchsia inappropriate bro you know [Applause] look at what happens when we get insanely specific this is what has to happen on your team like who cares what the color is i don't care about the color i care about the impact i care about the impact and when we start getting insanely specific all of a sudden the team has something to rally around we know who we are and who we are not i think this is one of the greatest challenges not just with the capital sea church but i'm talking about like in the micro individual local churches that i see is that we're all like yeah we love each other we love god and then like all right we all shout different colors and some people walk in the door they're like yo like you're nice but i don't know what you're talking about and they're so confused and they're so distracted maybe today you need to submit your preferences over to the purpose maybe you got to like let something die to actually get the greater purpose in front of you get insanely specific create your own language define what you want to see i am by no means telling you that you have to have a church service that looks like vu and have to have a staff that looks like vu but i am telling you that whatever it is that you feel called to create it's going to require people to get insanely specific about it one of my favorite leadership verses i think we've got it hopefully is it in song of solomon we have that watch us catch for us the foxes the little foxes that ruined the vineyards are vineyards that are in bloom how many that leadership is about catching the little foxes leadership is about the details excellence is always in the details the more you are excellent the more it's going to create trust inside of people it's one of the most attractive qualities that you can bring that's why i was getting so floored today in this morning session when when mike was just preaching about honing your sharpening your skill and and actually being a person of excellence because if the church would do that on a greater scale people would walk in the doors and they might not even understand all your doctrine or all your theology but by the spirit of excellence they say you know what i trust these people they've went and caught the little foxes and because of it they have a harvest in front of them it's the little foxes that begin to ruin your culture it's a little stuff that you don't pay attention to get insanely specific here we go i think we're number five here watch this oh i love this praise participation praise participation i'm trying to cut through some of this i want to get really practical with you um what's better than correction celebration like let me tell you what's more effective is when you catch someone doing the right thing versus doing the wrong thing what what's better than you know being rebuked is is being blessed and i want to be the chief person on our team that's praising participation i want to encourage some people that are dealing with staffs and teams of leadership sometimes what happens is that we start like leading and i really believe especially in the church i'm using that angle but i think this applies in so many other other spaces but let me just use the church as the main example being the senior pastor the lead pastor whatever your language is you have to understand that once you're in that spot that god anoints you for that spot that i actually believe that there is this burden that comes upon you that is unique from the rest of the people on the team and there's promptings from the holy spirit things happen in your gut and too often we don't pay attention to it we don't pay attention to the check that the holy spirit puts inside of us a lot of times when it comes to our team and some of the worst mistakes that i have made on the journey of leadership is that i've promoted somebody who wasn't carrying the culture because i felt bad ah man they've just been around but i could tell that they weren't they were in a different season let me tell you you wanna know who you promote you promote people that are participating i'm choosing culture over skill any day any day and what i'm learning more and more is that when i get the microphone and i'm talking to our team and i want to praise someone publicly one of the best ways that you continue to create culture carriers is find the person who's doing what you want them to do and put a spotlight on them and praise them in front of everybody it's so easy like i just pull the curtain back as much as i can we do these things called huddles before church servers and i just think once again you know everything that vu does but i just think it's really helpful it'll help your church like before you go on the platform those of you that are preaching god's word like get with your team and just pray like let them know that that they're helping you like i need our team to go up and like i'm gonna i'm not one of these kind of guys that can just walk up and just preach i need like the lights right i need adjustment enough smoke i need the keys i need people's hearts to be right there open like i need all my friends there like i need a lot of support okay well i want i want to get with our team and i want to talk through it i want to let them know how much i value them but what i'm always doing in our huddles is i'm always trying to find someone who was behaving in the way that i wanted them to behave and i'm always going to praise them so it could be something really really subtle i'll be like yo jd come on i want y'all to see jd i saw jd out there today what i love so much about jd is that he's leading our college but yo jd i saw him today out there in the parking lot and i watched in the parking lot day gd that was impressive that inspired me you just heard ashley lindor lead us in community ashley lindor is one of the most powerful worship leaders i've ever heard i've noticed she's 13 year old girl in our summer camps at my dad's church in trinity church and just watched her grow but when i praise ashley in front of people she already knows this now she does this better than anyone i rarely praise her singing ability she knows she can sing don't get me wrong i will tell she knows i know she knows she can sing and she knows that i'm i need her to sing but when i praise her participation publicly i'm always praising all the other stuff and i'm always pointing voice to all the other you know what i love about ashley yeah she can sing we know that what i love about ashley is that she loves jesus and she loves this place what i love about ashley is i saw her this morning in vocal rehearsals with a whole bunch of other people on the team i just want to say i think you're an incredible pastor ashley the fact that you love people ashley by the way your vu crew i heard the other night that you girl like i'm looking for something else in our church to praise aside from her gift and a lot of you you get yourself into trouble because you're praising the gift only you can go hire a gift you can only produce sons and daughters by actually getting with them and teaching them the culture and praising the participation for it find the intangible find the thing that's valuable praise that thing about them i'm not trying to say we can't like we want to our i think our church is good at complementing people and encouraging people i'm just trying to give you a handle that when i'm getting someone to stand up i'm talking about all the stuff that i think church ministry is really about and church ministry is not about conferences and it's not about being a keynote speaker and it's not about having a youtube page i'm not against that stuff but that's just not what it is and if you get into it for that and if that's what you celebrate only you're going to find yourself really really tired out what i'd rather do is i'd rather celebrate the people that get into the trenches that get into the dirt the muck and the mire with people and i want to praise that publicly and i want to promote people that are participating like that you've got to be very very careful that you're just promoting people that are talented you got to make sure that you're praising the participation publicly of those that carry the culture number six i want to um give you this this is annoying but this is true uh never stop talking about it never like i just gave you a resource our church like we're about to go on a staff retreat after this we'll go to staffordshire we'll take about 60 people to a vero beach we'll spend about five days together uh half of it will be staffed half of it will just be key leaders in our church and i will give the vision for the following year of what we're going into and what i feel like the lord has spoken to me and we will spend day sessions together teaching tactically on the ground about what we want to see god do but then we'll also spend the evenings praying together seeking god and we will get insanely specific we will praise participation we will have a blast we'll have fun together but over and over again every single day i will remind them who we are and who we're not some of these guys have been with me now for four and a half years some of these guys have been with me before we even started the church and right when i think that like they've heard it enough i see them go oh i gotta remind them again one of the greatest frustrations about being a leader is that if you're if you're a ceo like when you're like i've already told you this they say it takes almost seven times for the leader to say something before those that are hearing the message actually put it into action you're actually the chief reminding officer so let me just put you at peace be like man i've told this guy so many times you know look at jesus why can't you see why don't you see this why don't you see that your job is to remind to remind to remind who we are who we're not here's the vision who we are who we're not here's the vision you can't talk about it enough say this out loud say i can't talk about it enough please please those that are going back home that are leading a space understand that culture is everything and you can't talk about it enough never stop talking about it that's why you're there you're the leader and when leaders lead people will willingly offer themselves and over and over what i'm realizing is that my job is just to remind to remind to remind to remind it makes you feel like the apostle paul when the apostle paul is writing to the church he's like i want to remind you of the gospel you know that's like all he wrote about was the gospel apparently to paul it wasn't like a sunday morning one-off sermon series it was a constant reminder that everything lives and dies in the gospel and just when i thought i had taught it to you and preached my best message there i go again i gotta remind you again of where our strength comes from i gotta remind you again how we got here it's by his grace and his grace alone [Music] and that's how it is with culture you just never stop talking about it you never stop talking about it you talk about it publicly from the platform you talk about it when you sit down with somebody for dinner that's in your church or on your team you talk about it when you're in small groups you keep reminding people who we are and who we're not who we are and who we're not i really believe that we're all called to create culture carriers people that will embody what it is and it's going to require some stuff you got you got gotta be what you wanna see you gotta clarify the roles of the people around you you gotta change confrontations connotation dude you gotta you gotta live in the awkwardness you gotta get insanely specific you got to praise participation and you can't ever stop talking about it it's that important it's that important

Channel: VOUS Church

Views: 25,858

Rating: 4.9584417 out of 5

Keywords: vous, vous church, vous conference, rich wilkerson jr, sermon, conference, miami, no one else is coming, faith, church, rejection, evangelism, people, love, 2020, 2019, leadership, culture, creativity

Id: oSutU_pjSGU

Length: 40min 4sec (2404 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 12 2019