Paul Benger

Lead Summit – Paul Scanlon 3

May 25, 2016

Cultures of encouragement are conducive to personal development. It’s an environment that can deal with failure.

LEADERSHIP SETS

longevity
1. Your job is not to fill people’s cups but to empty yours:
2. Yourself and your services are not the same thing: Jesus – John 2. You must be delivered from people before you can serve people. Your services are relatively limitless yourself is not.
3. No one who leaves you, limits you: what does limit you is clinging to people who should go. Jesus never hung on to reluctant people. It is your destiny for people to leave you, there’s a miracle in who’s left…there’s a miracle in leftovers. Don’t look for leaders, look for ingredients of leaders. Leaders don’t come fully formed they come in kit form. Look for fragments…courage, risk-taking, work-ethic, etc.

pain management
1. Don’t pick a dream beyond your pain threshold: you can’t have a million pound vision and a 50p problem.
2. Pick your pain Hebrews 11:24: pain is loud progress is quite. In pain we think no progress is being made.
3. Plunder your pain: There is seed in every sorrow. Make pain give you what it owes you. Make your past pay for your future.

enemy tactics
1. If the devil can’t stop you he’ll distract you: you still move but wth weakened focus. Distracted is diluted. Pharaoh to Moses “men can go but leave women and children” Moses said No…comparison, conflict, success, failure, issues can distract.
2. Not counting what counts: David counting fighting men. You are not defined by numbers. Money, popularity, size not the things that count. (Who told you it’s a barrier) Health, love, friendship.
3. The fear of appearing ordinary: the narcissism of social media. 2Timothy 3:5 – people will be lovers of themselves…rooted in the never enough syndrome

communication
1. Great preaching does not build the church speaking about what matters does: A lot of spitting and shouting can give the appearance that something important is going on.
2. Aim to grow people and not things:
3. Address issues not behaviour. Tell us the cause…that empowers us

personal reinvention
1. You are not the same person thoughout your life:
2: The next thing comes out of the next you: You have to keep figuring you out. Specialising is the gift of maturity. Young is not the time to specialise young is the time to experiment. As you get older reduce your repitoire. You have to figure you out.
3.Master transitions: transition is the 5th season, the season between seasons. In the Dna of the soup (caterpillar soup) is the butterfly.
Lead Summit – Paul Scanlon 2

May 24, 2016

Luke 7:1-10

Jesus was amazed. What amazes Jesus is worth taking note of.

THE CENTURION FACTOR
Our resources are in Our Relationships
When we only build relationships with people who are like us it is usually an ever decreasing circle.

Build a wide circle of relationships. The centurion helped build the Synagogue…

WHAT AMAZED JESUS
– Man’s understanding of power not requiring presence
– 1st time healing happens with Jesus not present

Centurion factor is a kind of faith that gets God to do what no one knew that God could do, that God would do.

God would rather walk down roads for your comfort than suggest a better way because this operates according to our faith and not God’s ability. What roads is God walking down that he doesn’t need to because we have limited him?

The Centurion factor is a human being interrupting Divine intention. God calls us friends which means he’s open to our suggestions. WOW!

Why did he do this for the Centurion? – The Centurion Asked!

Who knew the Sun could stand still? Who Knew a Man could walk on Water? Who knew that sick people could be healed in a shadow

Are we all just defaulting to asking for business as usual. We have to open up to the idea that God can do for us things we’ve never thought of. You will be surprised how little God will work with.

John 20:30 – many miraculous signs which are not recorded here.
LEAD SUMMIT – Jurgen Matthesius 1

May 24, 2016

God puts things in front of you to raise what is in you.

Genesis 1:28
Matthew 28:18-20 – this is the same plan as Gen 1:28… Just a different out working.

Everything in the kingdom reproduces after its own kind
Genesis 1:29 – everything I have given you everything you need – SEED
However, you can’t take citrus seeds and grow them in Alaska. Culture/ Environment is key.

Jurgen’s passion was to create people who passionately pursue Christ and purposefully produces Christ followers. We realised we needed a process.

4 PHASES

Connect: Connect to God, connected to people, connected to the vision of the church… In teachable is unreachable.

Grow: HS baptism, Spiritual gifts, Motivational gifts, tithing

Serve: You don’t need a gift of serving, you just serve. Genesis 14:14 (servants born in the house)

Lead: through connect grow serve.

In respect of our sin God doesn’t just concern himself with what – he knows the what but he also knows the why.

Systems create Growth.

God is an environmental God. He creates environments for growth, you can’t grow oranges in Alaska.

BUILD SYSTEMS CREATE CULTURE…
LEAD SUMMIT 2016 – Paul Scanlon 1

May 24, 2016

We should never attempt to grow the church we should be always be seeking to grow BIG PEOPLE.

1 Kings 8:14-19
It really mattered to God to let us know that David had the dream to build to build the temple in his heart although he was not the one who built it.

THE CATHEDRAL IN YOUR HEART

Cathedral’s took between 2-500 years to build. Society thrives when people plant trees under which their children will never sit.

Many of us grew up with a “Final generation mentality”. – nothing good came from that theology. This theology is still here. It has taken on new clothes. It comes disguised in the immediate, live for now don’t build for the future ideologies in Church.

A Cathedral sized dream means you will live and build and invest in something that you may or may not see within your own lifetime. We must re-examine our approaches and our language because we are creating inertia as we wait for revival.

The big R should not stand for Revival but RESPONSIBILITY!

How come we are always ‘going to’ the move of God. How come the “move of God” is always where I am not.

The local Church is the greatest move of God! If you could GPS the address of God. You and I would show up. The local church would show up.

If people would commit, give themselves, apply themselves – maybe then we could, in time, see something we might call a move of God.

The greatest strategy for church growth is what I’m looking at. You!

The problem in the church is not the lack of an outpouring of God, he poured out 2000 years ago, the problem is that we need an outpouring of you.

Whatever God is going to do in the next 20years isn’t in heaven it’s in you!!!!!!

God is saying it’s not my move…Peter said, “This is that.” Newsflash: It is still that!

God will wait generations to find someone he can use… God is drawn to movement, God is drawn to motion. He will attach himself to unlikely people

What is in your heart that you need to get out.

History
10 Reasons The Best volunteers Don’t Volunteer

May 11, 2016

This post was written by my friend Andrew Cherrie and edited by me. Andrew leads home Church in St Albans and will be one of the guest lecturers on our 2016/17 Internship programme.

Ever wondered why now everyone is in a hurry to volunteer for your project or sign up to your team? The ones that do are wonderful people but sometimes just not the people you had in mind right…..? Here are 10 reasons the best volunteers don’t sign up and suggestions on how you might change change their minds.

1. They are too busy.

Simple but true. They are not sitting around wondering what to do with their time – they are passionate and motivated, busy changing the world. If you want these busy people to volunteer you may have to rethink what it means to volunteer on your team. Which do you value most – are you looking for ABILITY or AVAILABILITY?

2. They didn’t notice the need.

And because they are busy people they often don’t see the need. Not because they don’t care, just that they didn’t see. Great leaders help potential volunteers see and understand the cause and help them get involved. Leaders give people the Why…

3. They think volunteering is not flexible enough for them.

Flexibility is important for people with full lives. They need to know they are not going to let you down, they care enough not to commit at all if they felt that was going to be the case. As highlighted earlier, ability is often more valuable than availability – don’t make the mistake of treating everyone the same!

4. The volunteer team is poorly led.

The very best potential volunteers will only follow really good leaders. They’re looking for people of character and vision to get behind, not someone who will end up wasting their time and not some badly structured and unclear experience.

5. You didn’t ask them.

The best volunteers are often than not recruited. Ask them.

6. When you asked them you didn’t convince them.

You need to be convincing, passionate and most of all likeable if you are going to convince anyone to volunteer. Assuming that you’re going all out to recruit the best volunteers you can find, you’ll have to polish your pitch, know what you want and get your head in the game. If not, you’ll be left disappointed.

7. They are looking for a cause not a job.

Giving up valuable time is a big deal for everyone, more so if you’re already trying to negotiate a full week of work and family life. This is why they only thing that’s going to attract the best volunteers is a cause, not another task. Talk cause not task and they’ll get it. Here’s the why again.

8. They are already leading on another team.

Great potential volunteers are snapped up quickly by those who care and go after them. If you aren’t looking, and ready, you won’t recruit them.

9. Your organisation skills and procedures are average.

It will take the best to attract the best. How good do you organise the team and do you strive for excellence? It makes a difference, don’t underestimate the attraction of a spirit of excellence.

10. Their last volunteer experience was a shambles.

Unfortunately many people simply won’t volunteer their time because of a poor volunteering experience in the past. You can’t do anything about the past but applying some of the principles listed above, you may be in with a chance of changing their perspective of what it means to volunteer.

If you are the leader of a volunteer team right now it’s time to change up the volunteer experience for everyone on your team. Think through the points above and find 3 actions points that you can adopt in the next 6-8 weeks.

If you’d like more from Andrew check out http://www.leadershiplocker.com
Creating A Culture of Innovation

May 6, 2016

It seems that every leader and organisation wants to be innovative. Innovation, as we all know, is crucial to the continuing success of an organisation.

But innovation is often misunderstood. It’s far more than just doing something new or novel. It’s doing something new or novel that advances our core mission. Otherwise it’s not a genuine innovation. It’s simply something new and different – and often becomes more of a distraction than anything else.

Innovation takes more than a great idea and openness to change. It also needs adaptability, honest feedback, and a willingness to kill the sacred cow or to admit defeat.

These are the three keys to serial innovation that most people who want to innovate never think about.

Adaptability

I find that innovation is a lot like an old Polaroid picture. It starts out fuzzy and becomes clearer over time. What appeared at first glance to be a telephone pole, sometimes ended up being a picture of a person.

When it comes to innovation, few things end up as they were originally envisioned. Whether it’s in business, technology, finances, or ministry, hardly anything new ends up working out exactly as those who dreamed it up thought it would be.

That’s why genuine innovation requires adaptability. We can’t force our template onto reality. The real world often refuses to respond in the ways that we’d like it to or expect it to. Adaptability and the willingness to make mid-course corrections are essential when it comes to innovation. Those who stubbornly stick to a course that isn’t working waste time, money, and energy; and worse, they squander their leadership credibility. The question is:

What needs Adjusting?

Evaluate Results

As we’ve seen, just because something is new or has never been done before doesn’t make it an innovation. The better mousetrap that nobody buys may be an invention – but it’s not an innovation.

That’s where honest feedback comes in. It’s crucial to continually step back and ask if our new idea or program is really working and accomplishing what we set out to do. Otherwise, we’ll end up with lots of new ideas, initiatives, and programs, but in actuality, be making little progress in the fulfillment of our mission.

Every organisation has to ask, “Is this really working? Without meaningful evaluation and honest feedback, we have no idea whether a project, a ministry, even the organisation itself is succeeding or failing. One thing I’ve observed over and over again is that the purpose for why a thing gets started can be changed if it fails to achieve what it was intended for. We have to be honest enough to evaluate and monitor so that we can keep mission focussed.

Frankly, it takes a lot of courage to cut a program that appears to be successful but isn’t doing anything to advance the cause. But it must be done. If something is not actually meeting its predetermined goals, it needs to be cast aside. The question is:

What should we be monitoring?

Willingness To Admit Defeat

A third hallmark of a truly innovative organisation is that it knows when to cut its losses. It doesn’t throw good money or good energy after bad. Unfortunately, admitting defeat is hard to do. So rather than cutting our losses when a great idea proves to be not-so-great when released into the wild, we pour more money into it or redouble our efforts in an attempt to keep a glaring failure alive.

You’ve heard the old saying, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” It’s true. When it comes to innovation, if something is not working, doing more of it won’t produce success. It will simply produce more failure.

At the end of the day, innovative organisations know what they’re aiming at. When their results are close, but not quite spot-on, they make changes. They quickly adapt, making the needed midcourse corrections to put them back on target.

In addition, they seek honest feedback. They aren’t afraid of the truth. They search it out. And then they respond in light of it. And when the truth is that great idea wasn’t so great after all, they admit defeat. They don’t put dead and dying programs on life-support. They give them a nice Christian burial and move on to the next thing.

What needs a funeral?
How Prince Reacted To Criticism and Fuelled Greater Success

May 5, 2016

Prince turns pancakes into profits

Prince’s pop cultural popularity crested in the ’80s and ’90s, but younger generations learned more about him from an unexpected source: Comedian Dave Chappelle. His brief, popular sketch comedy series The Chappelle Show had a hilarious (and true!) segment on Prince’s obsession with breakfast. It mocked everything, from his sexy persona to his slight 5’2″ build.

It could have been as damaging as South Park skewering Kanye West. Instead, the musician reportedly did not respond to the comedian’s jokes… until a decade later, when he used a still shot of Chappelle dressed as Prince for his single “Breakfast Can Wait”.

Let’s recap: A pop star mercilessly teased on an extremely popular show uses a clip from said show to sell records.

“That’s a Prince judo move right there,” Chappelle said on a talk show. “You make fun of Prince in a sketch and he’ll just use you as an album cover. What am I going to do, sue him for using a picture of me dressed up like him? It’s impossible. That’s checkmate right there!”

Lesson: It’s not what happens that creates a loss, but how you react to it
Would You Know If You Are A Toxic Team Member

April 28, 2016

No one likes a toxic team player, they impact morale and make what should be a passionate enjoyable pursuit into something potentially unbearable. Even the most difficult people would probably be the first to agree. Which raises a question: If you were “toxic,” would you even know it?

Here are three reasons you might seem toxic, and strategies for changing your behavior if necessary:

You seem cold.

To turn up your warmth quotient, make a conscious attempt to pay attention to other people. Make eye contact and hold it, both when you’re speaking and when you’re listening. And above all else, actually focus on what other people are saying, listen — your team mates have a need to feel heard, just as you do.

You seem selfish.

How much time do you spend really thinking about your team mates? About their perspectives? Be curious, and ask questions to learn more about the people you don’t know well. Show empathy.

People think of you as a stickler for the rules.

Make a point of being more flexible about rules, particularly those that are neither unethical nor illegal to break. When you have to stick to the rules, explain your thinking and why doing so is good for your team.

Adapted from an article in HBR
The Top 3 Differences Between Leaders And Managers

April 22, 2016

1. Leaders inspire while managers operate

Leaders are meant to trigger a movement and inspire people to take action. Managers enforce rules and make sure orders are carried out. There is more flexibility with leadership, as the main purpose is to get people to be motivated enough to do what is required of them. Being a manager requires no real flexibility — it is an act of operation. A leader becomes a visionary leader when he/she has a vision and can inspire others to take the journey toward it’s fulfilment.

2. Leaders help others to become heroes while managers try to be the heroes themselves

You can’t be in two places at once. Leaders don’t try to be the heroes of an organization or of a situation. They want to help others gain functionality and be the best they can be. Being a manager, on the other hand, can bring on more selfish motives. Leaders empower others to do their best work.

I have come to believe that the majority of leaders operate out of self-interest. It’s natural. Self-interest is our hard-wiring and it’s celebrated in our culture. To put others before self is to go against our own grain – and that of everyone around us. In fact, a recent research study from scientists at CalTech and Harvard confirms this conclusion. In a controlled research setting, people chose outcomes that benefitted themselves roughly five times as often as they chose to help out others

3. Leaders take responsibility while managers take credit

Managers gain credit for their work. They are acknowledged and offered something immediate for their efforts. However, leaders take responsibility and are accountable towards their team and to the greater success of the project or task at hand.

Self-interest hurts the people who count on us for leadership. It holds back the performance results of the enterprise or team we lead. It fails to prepare next generation leaders for success.

This is the reason I have prodded you to reflect on your motives. The future of our world depends on our leaders – and their ability to overcome self-interest.

Ok here’s a bonus one!

4. Leaders create teams while managers direct groups

Leaders earn their following and then do well to weave this team around a central purpose. Managers do well to assign activities or assignments to a number of persons within an organizational structure, without giving them the same sense of working toward a central purpose. Leaders are always thinking about who’s next, who is being developed.
THEOLOGY: The Gates Of Hell – Who’s on the offensive?

April 20, 2016

And I tell you that you are Peter [petros = rock], and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. —Mt 16:18-19

Several points are crucial to note in this important teaching. First, “Hades” was the standard term for the underworld, the realm of darkness and death, in Hellenistic culture. In using it here, Jesus was probably referring to the whole of the Satanic kingdom.

Second, the phrase “gates of Hades” is clearly a metaphorical reference to the fortified walls of the Satanic fortress. They are closed to keep opposing forces out. Hence they need to be overcome. Jesus may also be referring to the center of power of the Satanic kingdom with this phrase, inasmuch as the gates of a city in the ancient world were usually where the officials resided and important military decisions were made.

Third, Jesus says that these gates will not be able to “prevail against” the church. This translation of katischyo is preferable to the NIV’s “overcome,” for “gates” are defensive structures that keep an enemy out, not offensive weapons used to “overcome” an enemy. Jesus is here portraying the church as being on the offensive and Satan’s kingdom as being on the defensive.
Jesus is saying that he is going to build his church on the rock of his divinity—the confession that he is “the Son of the living God”—and the way this church is going to be built will be by bashing down the gates of Satan’s fortress. In other words, the church is to be involved in the very same warfare work that Jesus himself was involved in throughout his ministry. Based squarely on the “rock,” ministering in his authority and his accomplished victory, the church is to storm the fortress of Hades and bash down its gates.

Jesus also gives to all who confess his divine sonship “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” so that whatever they bind and loose on earth will be (or will have been) bound and loosed in heaven. While the exact meaning of this phrase is disputed, it is clear that it is an essential part of kingdom-building activity the church is to be a part of. Having been given “the keys” to the kingdom, Jesus is saying, whatever the church locks up when it bashed down the gates of Hades will be locked up in heaven, and whatever it unlocks and sets free will be set free in heaven. Understood in the light of Jesus’ overall healing and exorcism ministry, I can only read this as referring to the church’s authority to bind up demonic forces and to set people free.

This teaching provides a blueprint of what the body of Christ is to be about. It is to be about what Jesus was about: aggressively breaking down Satanic fortresses wherever we find them. In people’s lives, in families, in churches and society at large, the church is to expand the rule of God on the authority of Christ by binding evil and setting people free. In a word, our charter is to live out a theology of revolt, throwing all we are and all we have into guerrilla warfare against the occupying army, the tyrannizing powers of darkness. When the church opts instead for a theology of resignation and thus attempts to accept as from God what Jesus fought as coming from Satan, the church exists in radical contradiction to its defining vocation.