The 2010 Global Leadership Summit Notes - Aug 5th & 6th

Summit 2010 Notes - Aug 5th & 6th




Blake Mycoskie - Tom's Shoes

Why did you get into the shoe business?

• I wasn’t trying to get into the shoe business. I was on vacation in Argentina, saw some volunteers doing a shoe drive. Thought it was unsustainable. Didn’t want to start a charity, wanted to start a business.

• For every pair of shoes bought, they give away a pair.

• The word “give” is on just about every wall in the offices of TOMS. Why?

• It feels good to give.

• What I’ve learned is that giving not only feels good but it’s a good business strateg

• In a NYC airport, had never seen anyone wearing TOMS. Saw a girl wearing a pair, asked her about the shoes. Pulled Blake aside and told him all about TOMS.

• If we focus on giving, our customers are going to do the marketing for us.

• Have given away more than 600,000 pairs of shoes.

• What distinctive are a part of the TOMS culture?

• We encourage our staff, involve all our staff in the giving.

• For every employee that’s been with the company at least 2 years they pay for a trip for them to do a shoe drop.

• Not everyone can do a 1-for-1 strategy, but every company can incorporate giving and service into their culture.

• When people start serving, they quickly forget about themselves...giving should be at the core

• Why didn’t you just start a non-profit?

• Invested money gained from sale of previous business into TOMS.

• By doing TOMS as a for-profit, it has enabled it to be sustainable and grow.

• Over 680,000 pairs of shoes have been given

• One Day Without Shoes

• Video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlz3QKHJBac

• First year 250,000 people participated.

• Doesn’t cost anything to take off shoes, but enabled people to have conversations.

• Didn’t spend a dollar to advertise, but had some amazing partners.

• What happened when you came up with the idea for TOMS?

• Not a big deal when I had the idea.

• Became big to me 6 months later when I did that first shoe drop.

• Woman came up to him and told him that her 3 kids had been sharing 1 pair of shoes.

• TOMS has captured the attention of young people. Why?

• Young people want to have a voice and want to do something that matters. Can’t always afford to do something big, but they’re going to buy a pair of shoes.

• We make it very easy for them to act.

• It becomes a part of their identity.

• What have you learned about the importance of strategic partnerships?

• Very blessed.

• Not just corporate partners, but churches as well.

• The reason why the ATT thing worked is because we gave them an authentic story that worked. I’m never in the office. Their technology enabled me to do what I was doing.

• How important is "asking people" to accomplish your goal?

• People really enjoy it because then they get to be a part of your vision and your journey.

• If you really want to do something, you've got to ask people...you can’t be bashful if you want to make change.

• What part has your faith played in TOMS

• Give your first fruits

• They stayed true to that principle and didn’t deviate for the 1-for-1 principle even when they were losing money.

• What would you say to other young leaders?

• Come work for us!

• We need fantastic leaders to help us get from here to there.

• Thought as a freshman in college that he would be a successful entrepreneur so that then he can give back when he’s retired. But it’s never too early to start giving.

• How can churches get involved?

• Go barefoot on One Day Without Shoes – April 5, 2011



Jack Welch - Interviewed by Bill Hybels

• When you say leaders have to be authentic..what does that mean?

• You have to be yourself...not portray yourself as someone who you are not.

• They want to know they can count on you.

• You talk a lot about energy...

• You have to be able to energize people, excite those around you...

• How do you energize people?

• Engage them.

• Tell the story, so others will join you.

• Not hyping them.

• It’s basically getting them to feel the vision.

• The job of a leader is to draw out the people around you who are starter than you.

• The crazy thing about insecure people is they hire dopes and they don't get any better

• Most meetings if they are any good...you go in and come out with an answer

• Finish the day/meeting asking what people got out of the day/session

• Candor

• We fought desperately to really get what people are thinking on the table.

• Less bureaucracy, less meetings, just say what you think.

• Differentiation - Hotly debated in leadership circles...

• At GE there was a ranking of staff as the top 20%, the vital 70%, then there was the bottom 10%.

• Some people say that’s a heartless way to differentiate people and treat them differently.

• Do you think sports teams differentiate? Do you think the teams with the best players usually win?

• You have to have a real appraisal system (candor) to differentiate.

• It’s critical that the people who work for you know where you stand.

• In every organization, everyone knows who rates where.

• Most organizations spend too much time focusing on the lowest 10%.

• You’ve got to get out of the bottom 10% or move on.

• What are the A players like - top 20%?

• Good values, good people…

• Filled with energy

• They have a gene that says I love to see people grow. I love to reward people. They get a kick out of giving a bonus and seeing their people promoted. They celebrate their people. They have generosity.

• Insecure people hide their best people.

• A players don’t have envy.

• Describe B players - 70%?

• Hard working but maybe not as gifted.

• The top of the 70 and the bottom of the 70 was a world of difference.

• You run the risk of losing the 21-26 percentile.

• You have to say, “this is a snapshot in time. You’ll have a chance to move up. Here’s how.”

• Here’s what I like about what you’re doing. Here’s what you can do to improve. Always on the same page.

• Don’t write a new appraisal, write over the old one.

• What characterizes the bottom 10%

• Not a team player, low energy, acidic, pain in the arm.

• Nothing is worse than negative energy.

• They’re disruptors, antagonizors...

• "The hallway whisperer"...you have to make "the meeting after the meeting" go away

• Could you have built GE without paying big salaries and bonuses?

• I wouldn’t have wanted to.

• People choose to work in the church...and they choose the rewards that go along with that too.

• You choose non-profit and you better deliver in non-profit - find a better way to motivate.

• What’s your biggest failure?

• In the early stages when people thought I was tearing things apart, I should have moved more quickly.

• Part of your job as a leader is to help people become more confident.

• Go, act, do...don't ponder!

• Speak about finding a successor and making the transition.

• Started 8 years before he was going to retire. Had 22 candidates.

• 8 years later got down to 3 and they were all the long-shots

• Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien fiasco was caused by making the choice 5 years in advance when people change.

• I don’t think you ever know how someone is going to behave at the next level.

• Need a rigorous process, involve a lot of people.

• Celebrations

• The hardest thing we could get to happen was to get managers to celebrate small victories.

• Jack was in the hospital for 104 days, got a staph infection from a shot.

• Jack sent Bill an email saying “toss one north for me” (an ask for prayer). Did the time in the hospital open you up to things of God?

• I love this church.

• Bill: I sense an openness to the next step in the journey. Jack: yes.

• Bill: I think the next phase of your life will be your most impactful.

• Bill: Never, ever, ever give up on somebody. Everyone of you has people in your life that you know great things would happen through them if God got ahold of them. We’re here to keep praying and probing and contacting people to see what God might be up to.



TD Jakes

• People don’t do everything because of dollars and sense, they do it because of passion.

• Church leadership is unique. People don’t’ come to follow you, they come to follow Jesus.

• They came to follow Him and they got you.

• It’s a real step down from Jesus to you.

• You cannot make passionate people if you’re not passionate yourself.

• People get tired of following an imitation.

• People follow people who move, take action, and take risk.

• Part of leadership is to make sure the lamp in your group, your church does not go out.

• Anointing from the head, to the beard, to the skirt. Make sure it’s not diluted or polluted.

• Challenge people without overwhelming them.

• Gift analysis is important.

• When God gives you people to work with that’s assets, they’re right from his treasure chest.

• You have to make sure that people deliver on the promises you make.

• Pray that the Holy Spirit gets the message across to people even when you don’t.

• God will make up the difference.

• People are ignited by passion.

• Passion is more than emotionalism.

• Passion is the fuel that makes the engine go.

• Put people to work doing things that make them jump out of bed.

• 2 different kids of leaders: builders and bankers.

• Banking the fire made it burn all night without burning out.

• Builders are people who you can give next to nothing and they can make something out of nothing. Joseph was a builder. He was building in prison.

• If your a builder you need a banker, someone who can manage and sustain.

• The problem is most people get people like themselves around themselves.

• If you only have people around you who do what you do, they compete with you instead of complete you.

• When Jesus began his ministry he didn’t pick one rabbi. He didn’t pick anyone who did what he did.

• Don’t make confidants out of the people you work with.

• Confidants are people who are for you no matter what.

• If you have 2-3 confidants in a lifetime you are blessed.

• Constituents are not people who are for you, they are people who are for what you are for.

• Don’t try to hold people to tightly who are meant to come and go.

• Some people are like the King James Version, they came to pass.

• Comrades they are against what you’re against. You put them in the fight.

• Like Peter, you gotta keep at least one ear-cutter.

• If you don’t learn how to use comrades to fight for you, they will fight against you.

• If you try to make comrades grazing in the pasture when they should be howling on the mountain, it will bring trouble to your team.

• Most leaders find it difficult to be transparent enough to let people know them and read them.

• Nobody has to be impassioned when you’re in a battle, you have to encourage them when they’re along the way.

• Sometimes when you encourage people they leave with your courage.

• Sometimes I think I need a me. (to encourage me)

• When you’re tired and running low, you have God who gives strength.

• When my heart is overwhelmed I go to the rock who is higher than me.



Terri Kelly (interviewed by Jim Mellado)

CEO of W.L. Gore and Associates

• What were the founders of Gore trying to do?

• Fundamental values lead to your success.

• Foster an environment of collaboration.

• Personal relationships that formed while doing special projects, wanted to create an entire company that functions that way.

• Organize around the power of small teams.

• What’s so different about Gore?

• It truly is a peer-based organization.

• Everyone understands it’s everyone’s job to make everyone successful.

• People are much more vested in their own outcome and the success of the organization.

• What do you mean by “on demand hierarchy?”

• Decisions are made based on who is most knowledgeable


Daniel Pink:

• Is anyone hungry? Ron. Gave him a couple energy bars. That’s a motivation.

• Humans have other motivations other than biological motivations.

• Offered Tawani $10 to give Ron the energy bars

• That’s another motivation, 2nd drive, reward/punishment drive.

• There’s a 3rd drive. We do things because they’re interesting, meaningful, contribute to the world, want to learn...this drive is a powerful part of what it is to be human but the problem is it is routinely ignored in the business world

• Science of rewards and punishment - calls into question some assumptions of how we run our companies

• Researchers did a study with MIT students. Split them into 3 groups – little reward, bigger reward, huge reward. For tasks that didn’t require cognitive performance the higher the pay the better the performance, but tasks that required cognitive performance got worse with bigger rewards. Not supposed to work this way...

• If you do this...then you get that...Punishment/reward motivators work well for simple tasks but not for complex tasks that require creativity. It creates "tunnel vision" - what is the reward...hard to see outside of that and can't get to the creative process

• When carrots & sticks don’t work, instead of trying other motivators we get bigger carrots and sharper sticks

• Redgate software, doing things differently, sales people worked on commissions and were gaming the system, made the compensation more complex, sales people upped their game.

• Went to top 2 sales guys. Told him that they were going to eliminate commissions and instead raise base salary and do profit sharing. First guy said it was a good idea, but the other guy wouldn’t go for it. Second guy also liked the idea, but thought the first guy wouldn’t go for it.

• 2 false assumptions within organizations

• Human beings are machines. If you press the right buttons in the right people, they will do what you want. That is not true.

• Human beings are blobs. People wouldn’t do anything without external motivation

• I defy you to find me a 2 year old that is passive and inert.

• Our nature is to be active and engage. That is our default, factory setting.

• 3 motivators: autonomy, mastery, and purpose (AMP)

• Autonomy

• Management is a technology some guy invented from the 1850s

• Management is a technology designed to get compliance.

• We don’t want compliance in out organizations today, we want engagement.

• Management does not lead to engagement, self-direction leads to engagement.

• Ask someone to tell you about their best boss...

• Give people autonomy over their time, team, task, technique.

• Example: Aussie software development co. Once a quarter, Thu PM work on anything you want that’s not a part of your job. Only requirement is that have to show everyone else what you created the next day. Call it FedEx Day because you have to deliver over night. Worked so well that they now have 20% time (work on whatever you want during 20% of your work week.

• Google does 20% time - almost since the beginning. Google News, Gmail were not official projects but 20% projects.

• Google..."Just about all the good ideas here have bubbled up over the 20% time"

• Implement this slowly. Have to provide “scaffolding" - if you want people to be successful, you have to provide steps to get there. Try a FedEx Day. 10% time. Don’t start with everyone but a small group. Don’t do it forever, but for a test period.

• Mastery

• Playing the bassoon on the weekend is a strange behavior - a biologist can't explain it. Why would anyone do it? Because it’s interesting...fun...rewarding...you get better at it.

• Teresa Amabile did research, asked people to chart their motivation every day. Single largest motivator was “making progress.” Days when people were making progress those were the days they felt most motivated, engaged, and loyal to the organization. Managers should help people see progress and put people into positions of making progress.

• “Flow” – when a challenge is so well matched to our capabilities that we loose track of time, loose track of self...in the moment. We’re more likely to find “flow” at work than in leisure because we’re passive in leisure.

• You have to get feedback to know if you’re making progress, but the workplace is one of the most feedback-deprived settings int he world. Once a year performance reviews.

• Imagine if a tennis player got feedback once a year. They wouldn't be very good tennis players.

• Performance reviews are usually not honest conversations...

• How do we get more feedback? Encourage people to seek out feedback...there own performance reviews

• Great athletes have goals, but they also meticulously track their progress.

• Purpose

• There is a palpable sense that a page is turning. We are reaching the limits of the profit motivation.

• There’s a rise in the purpose motive.

• When the profit motive becomes detached from the purpose motive, bad things happen.

• Diagnostic tool from Robert Reisch. Listen to the pronowns people use. Do they say “we” or “they.” “They” indicates a sense of alienation and discontent.


Dr. Zhao Xiao - Beyond Economy


• Leadership is not just about influence. It’s also about moving them in the right direction.



• In the last 2,000 years the most significant change was the life of Christ. In the last 1,000 years the most significant change was the Protestant reformation. In the last 500 years, the most significant change was the rise of America. In the 20th century, the most significant change was the rise of China.



• More accurately it’s the return of China. China was a world leader economically and in literature for must of human history. It fell behind in the 19th century, but in the 20th century experienced the fastest economic growth in world history. It is is likely China’s economy will surpass the US soon.



• But that doesn’t necessarily mean China will be a leader.



• China has caused great environmental damage. It is consuming a lot of resources. There is corruption. There are critical challenges.



• Margaret Thacher pointed out if China is not able to export values it will not become a superpower.



• There is no such thing as the Chinese Dream, so no one will follow China.



• Many people in the world love America because of the values behind the people.



• China’s goal should be more than economic growth and pursue growth in other areas.



• China must learn values from the Christian faith.



• I want to take this moment to thank you and all the missionaries who have brought love China.



• Matteo Ricci brought Christianity to China in the 1500s.



• Robert Morrison in early 1800s.



• In 1949 when the new China was formed, missionaries were forced to leave China and there were only 1 million Christians in China.



• The number of Christians in China have increased to somewhere between 80 and 130 million.



• Life transformation has surpassed economic transformation.



• China will become the largest Christian nation in the world.



• Europe rose to prominence because of the transformation of the cross, then America rose to prominence because of the transformation of the cross, now Asia is rising to prominence because of the transformation of the cross.



• Korea has sent the 2nd most missionaries of any nation.



• Spiritual transformation led to the 2 greatest periods in Chinese history. Christian transformation is leading to the next great period in Chinese history.



• China is forming a more harmonious society. The foundation of a harmonious society is love. Love comes from Christ.



• Christian business society in China… calling for only one set of books. No bribery. Treat employees well.



• The Chinese “Mayflower” has set sail… Cypress Leadership Institute… China: a new city on a hill, a nation of integrity…



o People ask me 2 questions.



1. Will China’s economy continue to grow or collapse?



2. Will China be a blessing or a curse to the world?



• The road will not be easy or smooth for China.



• I invite you into the process of China’s transformation with the cross.



• A lot of Americans fear the rise of China because the west has been the leader for so long. We ask you remove your fear of China and give China your love and support.



• You can help your Chinese brothers, be an example to them.



• You can influence today’s China which will bless tomorrow’s world.



• Expect one day the Global Leadership Summit will take place within China.





Andy Stanley



• As a young leader, it was temping to think everything came easy for veteran leaders.



• The myth I believed is if you’re a great leader you’ll solve all your problems and you’ll get rid of all the tension.



• But just the opposite is true, great organizations have tensions and problems that are never solved. Great leaders are able to leverage those in a way that creates progress for the organization.



• The very same person with the very same digits can pick up a contact lens and throw a baseball 90 miles per hour.



• Every organization has problems that shouldn’t be solved and tensions that shouldn’t be resolved



• How do you solve the tension between family life and work? You don’t.



• It keeps coming up because it’s not a tension you can resolve.



• If you try to solve the problem, you create more problems



•  Examples: Marketing vs sales, management vs leaders, systems vs flexibility, preaching as led by the spirit vs getting services done on time, reaching unbelievers vs nurturing believers



• If you solve those tensions, you will create a new problem.



• What if you go for excess and ignore finances?



• What if you go all theology and no application? You’re Presbyterian.



• What if you allow the preacher to go as long as he wants? You’re Baptist.



• If you remove your thumb you resolve the tension, but you create more problems.



• If you solve any of those tensions, you create a barrier to progress.



• Progress depends on successfully managing the tensions



• To distinquish between problems to solve and tensions to manage, ask the following



• Does this problem or tension keep resurfacing?



• Are there mature advocates for both sides?



• Are the two sides really interdependent?



• If you work all the time, you’ll lose your family. But if you spend all your time with your family, you’ll lose your job (and then lose your family.



• The role of leadership is to leverage the tension to the benefit of the organization.



• Identify the tensions to be managed



• Create terminology



• “I guess that’s a tension we have to manage.”



• Some arguments you don’t want a person (or one side) to win



• Inform your core.



• Continually give value to both sides.



• Don’t weigh in too heavily based on your personal biases.



• If you’re not careful as a leader, you can move something off the table that should always be on the table.



• You need to be able to argue the upside of the side you don’t normally lean.



• Don’t allow strong personalities to win the day



• I need passionate people who will champion their side, but I need mature people who understand how to live with the tension.



• Don’t think in terms of balance, think in terms of rhythm.



• As a leader should never try to be fair.



• There’s a time to weigh heavily towards one thing and other times to weigh heavily towards the other side.



• As a leader, one of the most valuable things you can do for your organization is differentiate between tensions your organization will always need to manage vs problems that need to be solved.





Jeff Manion - The Land Between



• In “the land between” we use the words “for now” like “for now I’m living with my parents.



• You can find the land between on a map… the Sinai Peninsula, the land between Egypt and the Promised Land of Canaan.



• The Jewish people were in the desert.



• How did they eat? God provided manna, which means “what is it?”



• They began to crave other food and began to complain. Numbers 11:4



• You think nothing grows in the desert? It’s fertile ground… for complaints.



• Given the right set of circumstances I would be right there with them (complaining.)



• Moses was not immune to complaining. Numbers 11:11-14



• “God, if this is how you’re going to treat me, put me to death” -Moses....emotional meltdown time



• This is too heavy. I can’t carry it anymore. Whose voice do you hear here? The voice of the woman who after years if illness can’t get a good diagnosis. The parent whose kids are rebelling. The pastor whose trying to hold a church together.



• When you throw yourself into spiritual leadership and you will have moments where you come to the end of yourself. You will come to a breaking point.



• When I started into ministry I was prepared for days of disappointment, but I wasn’t prepared for years of disappointment. I wasn’t prepared for years of being a disappointment. Slowly over time we can get crushed...we can't carry it anymore.



• God told Moses to get 70 leaders and God would place the spirit He gave to Moses and put it on them as well so Moses wouldn’t have to bear the burden himself. Numbers 11:16-17 They will help you carry the burden of the people...so you won't have to carry it alone.



• The land between is fertile ground for God’s provision.



• Sometimes God provides a job, and sometimes he provides contentment to do without. Sometimes he provides the strength to send out one more resume or make 5 more phone calls.



• God loves to provide.



• Another famous melt-down in scripture – Elijah. He prayed and asked God to die. He fell asleep & when he woke there was a jar of water and bread baking over coals.



• I love this story because I was expecting a lecture and instead God made him lunch. I am expecting him to awaken with a lecture...but God feeds him.



• What if God is good? What if He provides?



• Solved Moses leadership issue but what able the riots? What about the other issues? God desires to address the food issue as well.



• God said, I have heard your wailing and will provide you with meat, and you will eat meat until it comes out of your nostrils and you loath it. Numbers 11:18-20 Somebody's in trouble... :)



• They were basically saying "God we don't need you"



• Moses asked how are we going to have food for a month. God answered “are my arms too short?” Are you questioning my competence or my love for you?



• The land between is also fertile ground for discipline.



• God sent the quail. While they were still eating it, God sent a plague and people died.



• Great dinner-time story for your kids.



• Discipline is inflicting pain for redemptive purposes. It's not causing pain for pain...it's paying to rescue something.



• We are naive to think we are exempt from God’s discipline.



• We would respect an employer who disciplines when needed...especially in light of a promising employee



• Why don't we see God as a authority figure



• God is telling us, “I want you to trust me.”



• The Jewish people were an unruly mob of ex-slaves who have been indoctrinated with idolatry for generations. They were not ready for the promised land. God wanted them to learn to trust him in the desert.



• The land between is fertile ground for transformational growth



• I need you to trust me...I need you to trust me... I need you to trust me



• We say “time heals all wounds” but it doesn’t. Some people just get more and more bitter over time.



• The land between is the wilderness for growth...we choose.



• You don’t have to ask for complaints. Complaints arrive as an uninvited guest. You experience a disappointing day and discover complaint has taken over your house.



• Complaint doesn’t like to be evicted...it resists eviction.



• Good movement pushes out bad movement but bad movement also pushes out good movement.



• You deter complaint’s return by inviting trust to take its place.



• Trust evicts complaint. They are incompatible roommates.



• That space in your life that you most resist is the very soil that God wants to produce the crop we so very desire...the space we hate is the very soil where God will do the richest and deepest work.




Bill Hybels

• “Leaders move people from here to there.”

• People need to hear “we can’t stay here” speeches to catch vision for the future.

• “Your job is to convince people ‘we cannot stay here.’”

• “It takes fantastic if your going to move an organization from here to there. You can’t do it alone.”

• “One of the joys of leadership is knitting together teams of fantastic people.”

• “What kind of person flourishes in our unique culture?” (Something Bill looks for in people in addition to character, chemistry and competency.)

• “How do you inspire people to stay on the journey from here to there?”

• “Refill their vision bucket. Everyone’s vision bucket leaks.”

• “You have to celebrate every mile-marker you possibly can on the way to the destination.”

• “I think God still speaks to you every single day.”

• “The smartest moves I’ve made as a leader didn’t come from my human wisdom.”



Jim Collins: (jimcollins.com)

• Good is the enemy of great!

• You can be sick on the inside but still look okay on the outside

• If it's just about money...it's not enough

• Things to do before you fall...

• Do your diagnostics

• Do not stop until you have

• What is your questions to statements ratio and can you double it?

• How many seats are on the bus? How many open? How many filled with fantastic people?

• Create an inventory of the brutal facts...what are the brutal facts?

• What do we have the discipline to stop doing

• To find results or show clicks on flywheel, what do you mean by the results? How can

• Double your reach to young people by changing your practices without changing your core values

• BHAG - determine them



Christine Caine

• As leaders, we must lead people in a place of home

• How do you keep passionate hope alive?

• 2508 1966 - without knowing the meaning, these numbers are meaningless to us

• You do what you want from passion...passion drives us from the inside

• No one has to make us act when we are acting out of passion...

• Hope fuels our risk taking



Tony Dungy (interview/questions by Craig)



• Always there to help the players...help those you lead

• We are called to help people get better

• Exemplified something different from leading out of a place of fear...gonna nurture, grow and building relationships

• First year at Tampa, lost first 5, won a couple, lost some more..."stubbornness is a virtue if you are right..."

• You can work yourself into the ground...but how do you live within a life balance?

• You gotta be a "family man"

• You can't make this business your life

• Football and winning are not the most important thing...didn't want to be a coach who burned their assistants into the ground



What would you do as a mentor for someone to help them have life balance?



• Lead by example...show you what I am doing

• Let's be efficient...there will be times when we stay late, but let's not waste time. Don't mistake hours for productivity.

• Don't feel guilty going home at a decent hour


Did you ever have someone say something or speak something that was a life changing moment to you?

• Almost quit over dispute..."why would you let anyone stop you from doing what you enjoy"

• You don't have to be the president to make a difference

• No matter where you are in life, one word, one case of encouragement can be so important

• The biggest thrill you get is watching someone grow, seeing a young man come in at 21

• Who is Christ to you?

• We can be Superbowl champions but if we don't have a right relationship with God...nothing else matters.



Adam Hamilton - When Leaders Fall



• Two leaders at his church had an affair together.

• In a study in 2005, 35% of pastors admitted to a sexual impropriety.

• We have to be concerned both about the person who has fallen and the church that is impacted.

• In the UMC, bishops handle the discipline.

• 4 options for how to handle it



1. Say nothing



2. Be evasive, say it was for personal reasons.



3. Scarlet letter approach. Distance the church from them.



4. Transparency. Acknowledge the sin, and care for them because they are a part of our church family.



Spoke with the staff first.

• Word got out, so they emailed the congregation acknowledging the situation & asking them to feed the rumor mill. Will be discussed Sunday.

• Sunday preached a simple sermons about sin, repentance, and grace. Came back to the story of the woman caught in adultery.

• This was a defining moment for our church. The community was watching. Asked “Who are we as a church?” Are we a church that gathers with stones in our hands? Or a church that offers grace.

• Some people came to the church for the first time that day and decided to become a part of the church because of how we handled it.



How they try to prevent sexual sin at their church.

• They have a staff covenant, reviewed every year.

• They have policies about where 2 people of the opposite sex can go together. A third person has to go along to a conference.

• He gives the “sex talk” twice a year.

• We’re wired for intimacy, companionship, and sin.

• Borrowing from a Buddhist technique, take a sin and try to think about it in the worst, most disgusting way possible.

• Walt Wangin, “the moment of the maybe,” we start to entertain sin in our minds. We don’t think about, how it could possibly end well.

• If you have feelings for someone other than your spouse, don’t share them with the other person.

• "Don’t let the devil ride, because he’s going to want to drive.”



5 things that have helped me resist temptation



1. Remember who you are. A child of God, a husband/wife, a parent, a leader…



2. Recognize the consequences of your actions. Use your imagination to fantasize about the worst possible outcome.



3. Rededicate yourself to God. Stop, drop, and pray.



4. Reveal your struggle to a trusted friend. (James 5:16)



5. Remove yourself from the situation.



Wrap-up



• 1 Thes 4:3-5 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God;



• All of us are tempted as human beings.

• The final word of the church must be not a word of judgment but a word of grace.

• Shooting your wounded can’t be the answer of the church.

• No one is beyond redemption...God is the God of second chance!

• Remember who you are...reveal your struggle...remove yourself from the situation...set accountability.