Lessons

We take one Wednesday a month and bring in a guest to train & challenge our staff team. It is really easy to get into a rut and not be challenged by someone from the outside in the area of leadership. I believe that you if you as a leader are not learning and being stretched, you will slip into "ruts" that you may live in for miles. I remember the old quote, "a rut is just a ditch with both ends kicked out".....Very true!

Yesterday, Chuck Bengochea, the CEO of Honey-Baked Hams, came & spent almost two hours with our team talking about "Sustaining Excellence". It was good stuff!! Not only is Chuck a passionate follower of Christ but he brings years of great corporate experience at GE, Coke and now Honey-Baked Ham to the table. There were so many great take-aways for our team but one of the things he said that stuck out to me was......what you execute is really what represents your de-facto strategy. So many times we say we are good at this or that but the reality is what we DO and finally execute is our strategy! Chuck also made a comment that is huge for anyone in leadership and that was...you must be passionate about the destination & the journey. He said that it really does not matter what you represent, but passionate people draw followers! So true....I have watched so many churches through the years and the styles of what they did were so different but the passion of the leader was contagious! It was great to have J.R. Lee and Todd Lollis from Freedom Church with us in our meeting - they are two guys who have passion for what God has called them to do and they are going to do a great job in leading a great new church!

I guess our real leadership prayer should be.....God never let me lose my passion for You & for People!