The day before yesterday, I was invited to attend a meeting for just a few key leaders in Dar. The guest of honor was Bill Hybels, from Willow Creek Community Church, and a well known author and speaker, especially on the subject of leadership. I was able to invite a few of my colleagues, and we received some good thoughts from Bill.

Much of what Hybels said went right in line with our mission strategy of “Develop, Empower, Release.” There were no startling surprises, but here are a few good thoughts he shared:

1. When considering how various aspects of your ministry are doing, ask the leaders around you to evaluate where the ministry (evangelism, preaching, serving, etc.) is on the curve. Many aspects of your ministry may be in the exciting, new, fresh launch phase, accelerating, moving toward the top of the curve. Wonderful! But other aspects are likely in the decline phase, feeling stale and producing poor results. Then you will need to think outside the box to reinvent it, or shoot it and let it die.

2. Bill Hybels posed the question, “What is the most important component for your leadership?” Many answer “Time.” But Hybels shared that more important than time is “Energy.” Where we invest ourselves with focused, enduring energy will grow and improve. Find an area needing growth. Then dedicate maybe 60 or 90 minutes to tackling that problem, every Tuesday, or whatever. Don’t get distracted. Get individuals around you who can help you conquer the problem. Do something, anything, addressing that issue, for the entire time, each week. By the end of six months or whatever, your problem will be solved. Doing something for that time will fix the problem. Doing nothing, postponing dealing with it cause you don’t know what to do, will only cause the problem to remain. For me, an application is learning Swahili, which seems formidible. But if I can dedicate 1-2 hours, three times/week, to doing something, over time I will learn this language.

3. Are leaders born or made? Bill’s answer: YES! Some certainly have been more gifted, brought up in families where they saw leadership demonstrated, given the raw abilities to naturally lead, and have been “gifted” in leadership (Rom.12:8). But whether this is your situation or not, you can ALWAYS improve your leadership. You can read books, get around good leaders, take risks, learn as you go. Don’t be satisfied. Always work to improve your leadership.

There were many other thoughts shared, but these are a few. Friday and Saturday I will attend the Leadership Summit, which will be video simulcast from Willow Creek to our city of Dar. One can always improve on their leadership, and I’m looking forward to doing so.

Pressing on, Eric