I just finished reading Patrick Lencioni's bestselling book The Five Temptations of a CEO. There are some thoughts worth highlighting.
One of the traps many churches fall into is "creating complexity where it shouldn't exist." Seven years into church planting we're still trying to figure out what NCC looks like on paper, but maybe NCC can't be reduced to paper. I think too many churches create lots of committees which creates complexity instead of just keeping it simple. We will always have to guard against bureaucratization.
In Lencioni's leadership fable, one of the imaginary characters says, "Running a company isn't complicated." He says, "People make it complicated because they are afraid to look at the simple issues."
The Third Temptation is the one that really resonated with me. "It's the temptation to ensure that your decisions are correct." You choose certainty or clarity. Mature leadership isn't afraid to be wrong. The honesty of an organization is heightened when mistakes are made if the leader uses those three powerful words--"I was wrong."
A few more thoughts:
"Leaders fail because they are unwilling to put their temptations on the table for others to see."
"The greatest challenge of being a CEO, or any leader for that matter, is to avoid getting trapped by the daily complexities and details of our 'business'."

I just got back from my 2nd annual trip to Catalyst--a conference for emerging leaders in Atlanta, Georgia. You can't summarize that kind of experience in words, but I wanted to at least crystallize some concepts. I'll give appropriate credit where credit is due. Some thoughts are simply my extrapolation on what was presented.
Pastors must be "chief confessors." (Andy Stanley) And the irony is that when we expose our weaknesses we're just telling people what they already know about us anyway!
Rob Bell shared about a "crisis moment" in his ministry where he wanted to walk away from it all. He realized that he needed to "pursue health and wholeness at all costs." In some ways I feel like that.
One of my dreams has always been to pastor a church and see it grow from the ground up. I've also known intuitively that NCC can't outgrow me and if it does that puts me in a very precarious position. Either the church plateaus or the leader collaspes . Bobby Clinton calls it phase three in his leadership emergence theory. Durning phase three, ministry maturing, you begin to experience a measure of success. But the danger, in Clinton's words, is that you can "get so busy ministering that the outer success may outpace inner growth." I know that the key to longevity in leadership is to keep learning and growing.
I feel like there are some holes in my heart--those issues that if left unresolved cause spiritual leaks in our lives. Andy Stanley talked about four of them--guilt, anger, jealousy, and greed. I can think of alot more.
Andy Stanley asks his kids a great question before bed. "Is everything ok in your heart?" Are you mad at anyone? Worried about anything? Feel guilty about anything?
Rob Bell also said something profound for preachers. "Are you saying something because you have to say something or are saying something because you have something to say."
The most enlightening part of Ron Martoia's session for me was his observation that there are 67 dialogs in the gospels between Jesus and someone else. In 50 of those dialogs, Jesus asks a question he doesn't answer. We aren't called to be walking encyclopedias. We are stewards of mysteries. Colossians 4:3 says we're called to "proclaim the mystery of Christ." Translation: we talk about unanswerable and unfathomable questions.
Tim Sanders, the Chief Solutions Officer @ Yahoo, said, "Your network is your net worth." Sanders also had a great perspective on reading. He said that reading is an act of love. I love that perspective and I think it's true if you read for the right reasons--to share that insight with others in a way that will help them reach their God-given potential.
"Great leadership is the ability to taste people's souls like a bottle of fine wine." Michael Rollins, President of Pizza Hut.
In Andy Stanley's second session he talked about pre-decisions. Pre-decisions are decisions made before you find yourself in a situation. When you make a pre-decision to do what's right you allow "Now God" moments like Daniel 1:9. God will never ask you to violate his principles to experiences his blessings. Daniel banks on it.
Here's a prayer Andy Stanley prays for his kids at night. "Give me the wisdom to know what's right and the courage to do what's right even when it's hard."
John Maxwell tied things in a knot. I love his categorization of defining moments. He said defining moments are ground breakers when you set a new direction in your life, heart breakers that force you to rearrange your life, cloud breakers when you see with greater clarity and chart breakers when you break through limitations that have held you back.
One key thought from that session is that we tend to overestimate the event (defining moment) and underestimate the process that must follow.
I love going to conferences because it forces you outside your ministry box and allows you to see how others are doing ministry. But ultimately, going to conferences is all about going back to basics. I need to work on some of the holes in my heart--those issues that if left unresolved cause spiritual leaks in my life. And I need to reprioritize and redirect my time and energy in God-honoring ways. Translation: Get back to the word and get back to prayer ala Acts 6:4.

One of our core values is work like it depends on us and pray like it depends on God. I feel like we've done that going into the launch. Sometimes the thing that glorifies God the most is good old-fashioned hard work. Our team has done that. But yesterday we prayed like it depends on God. We did a prayer pilgrimage from Results Gym to Union Station to Ballston Common Mall. It was a 3 hour and 30 minute journey. I'll never forget it.
I love the promise in Joshua 1:3. "I will give you every place where you set your foot." The prayer pilgrimage was our way of claiming the promise.
I was pretty tired at the end of the day, but I felt like I gave God everything I've got and there is no better feeling in the world.

We had our first ever bonfire baptism at Dewey Beach on Sunday. We set up a bonfire and tiki torches as high tide waves came crashing onto the beach. It felt a little bit like tribal council.
It's so exciting to people go public with their faith. One of the things I love about pastoring is being part of people's "special days"--weddings, baptisms, etc.
One of the cool outcomes of the night, and one of the reasons we love doing baptisms in public places, is that a few other beach dwellers walked by and asked what we were doing. It's a great way to share your faith.
The ocean waves were awfully powerful. In fact, I got rebaptized once by a big one. It was a somewhat scary feeling walking into ocean water at night, but it couldn't have been any more intense. A great way to end our extreme series.
One of the highlights for me was the most majestic moonrise I've ever seen. When we got to the beach around 8:15 PM there was a small red glow out in the ocean. We couldn't figure out what it was at first. The glow got larger and we realized it was a moonrise. The moon went from red to orange to white during the course of the evening. It was only appropriate that we ended our bonfire baptism with "God of Wonders" under the starlit sky to the sound of ocean waves.

In John 1, an entourage of religious investigators come to ask John the Baptist who he is. That question sets up a fascinating response. It's a glimpse into John's self-image--who he saw when he looked in the mirror. The first thing John does is tell them who he is not. He said, "I am not the Christ." You can try to be all things to all people or you can know who you're not so you can be who you are.
One of the challenges that all of us face, but especially those in ministry, is this: trying to be who you're not. I fall back on the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln all the time. "You can please all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all the people all the time."
No church is perfectly balanaced. But maybe that is by design rather than default. We are myopic--we think the world revolves around our churches. But maybe God doesn't see each local church as its own entity. I'm not saying that each church doesn't need it's own vision and identity. It does. But maybe churches should complement each other and together comprise the whole, the kingdom. Some churches are stronger at evangelism. Others are stronger at discipleship. While still others are somewhere in between.
All of that is to say this: we can't be and we aren't meant to be all things to all people. I believe that the epicenter of God's calling for NCC is this--to be a church for the unchurched by doing church in the middle of the marketplace. That doesn't mean we don't want great worship, solid teaching, intense discipleship, and intimate fellowship. I think all of those things are part of being a church for the unchurched. But what drives us is the person who needs to come or come back to Christ.
Last Sunday I met someone after the service who told me that they had checked out of church, but they got one of our postcards and decided to check us out. Long story short. They bought a Bible last week and they are beginning a spiritual journey. That's what lights my fire! That's what we're about.
Don't take this out of context, but maybe some churches need to be a little more imbalanced and play the role God has for them in the kingdom.
Know who you're not.