a week of learning

As Kraig's been learning about electrical wiring and other construction projects, the two of us have also been learning about leadership. This past weekend Dr. Rob McCleland, the Executive Director of the North American Baptist Conference (of which our church is a part) spent the weekend with his family in Cleveland. Kraig and I first met his family last Spring when we traveled to Chicago for the welcome to the NAB new pastors' conference. Kraig, Pastor Dan, Pam (our children's pastor) and Jim (our deacon president) also traveled to Detroit last Fall to hear him lead a one day retreat for area pastors. Rob has an amazing life story and is a gifted leader and teacher.

Friday night the pastoral staff and deacons enjoyed dinner and a short time with him, then about 30 more leaders from church joined them for a couple of hours of training on leadership. Saturday morning he continued his training for a few more hours, too.

Here are a few of the nuggets I got from the Leadership Retreat:

- Trust is the #1 reason someone will respect and follow a leader and the #1 way to become a better leader is to become a more trustworthy person.

Seven characteristics of building respect as a leader:
1. Respect yourself and those who work with you.
2. Exceed the expectations of others.
3. Stand firm on your convictions and principles.
4. Possess a maturity well beyond your age and experience.
5. Experience success in your family and personal life.
6. Contribute to the success of others.
7. Think ahead of others.

-Values matter today.

-Understand God's values.

-The top 3 Commands of the New Testament are:
1. Love God
2. Love Others
3. Make Disciples

-There are 6 core elements of obedience that must be present in a church (whether there's 3 people in a home church or 10,000 in the church)
1. Confession of Christ
2. Love God
3. Love your neighbor
4. Love one another
5. Make disciples
6. In partnership with the Holy Spirit

Saturday evening Kraig and I joined Rob and his wife Dawn, and Pastor Dan and Elena for supper. In addition to laughter and getting to know one another better, we also picked Rob's brain a little more! Then Sunday morning he was our guest preacher so the whole church had the opportunity to hear his teaching. What a weekend!