Lead Like It Matters To God Study Guide

Lead Like It Matters to God by Richard Stearns is about how the values Christian leaders embrace are more important than the success they achieve. This eight-session companion study guide explores seventeen values that will transform your leadership. Following the structure of review, reflect, and practice, this dynamic guide also provides discussion starters for groups to have honest conversations about how values-driven leadership not only improves their witness for Christ but also influences culture and creates healthy workplaces where people and teams flourish. Take a look at the seventeen leadership values you will explore in this study guide: Surrender Sacrifice Trust Excellence Love Humility Integrity Vision Courage Generosity Forgiveness Self-Awareness Balance Humor Encouragement Perseverance Listening

Outcomes Conference Book of the Year Christian Book Award Finalist Richard Stearns is a leader who has been tested as a CEO in both secular companies and also as the head of one of the world’s largest Christian ministries. After stints as CEO of Parker Brothers and then Lenox, Stearns accepted the invitation to leave his corporate career to become the president of World Vision US, where he became the longest serving president in their seventy-year history. During his tenure there he implemented corporate best practices, lowering overheads while tripling revenues. His leadership in calling the American church to respond to some of the greatest crises of our time, notably the HIV and AIDS pandemic, and the global refugee crisis, challenged Christians to embrace a bold vision for compassion, mercy, and justice. In Lead Like It Matters to God, Stearns shares the leadership principles he has learned over the course of his remarkable career. As a leader who has navigated both secular and sacred spaces, Stearns claims that the values Christian leaders embrace in their workplaces are actually more important than the results they achieve—that God is more concerned about a leader's character than a leader's success. With wisdom, wit, and biblical teaching, Stearns shares captivating stories of his life journey and unpacks seventeen crucial values that can transform leaders and their organizations. When leaders embody values such as integrity, courage, excellence, forgiveness, humility, surrender, balance, generosity, perseverance, love, and encouragement, they not only improve their witness for Christ, they also shape institutions, influence culture, improve team performance, and create healthy workplaces where people can flourish. Through this book, Stearns will inspire a new generation of Christian leaders to boldly take their values into their workplaces to tangibly demonstrate the character of Christ, the love of Christ, and the truth of Christ as they live out their faith in full view of others.

It has been rightly said that "Jesus is the hope of the world." While we can never argue against the importance of the power of the risen Son of God, it is also true that "the local church is the hope of the world." After all, the church is the body of Christ. Jesus manifested himself through the church. And we, as the church, are chosen and called by God to be light in the darkness and give hope to the hopeless. For this reason, it is critical for the body of Christ—both pastors and laypeople alike—to learn how to lead like it matters. In this study guide, which accompanies the book of the same name, pastor and bestselling author Craig Groeschel shares what he has learned in more than twenty-six years of leading LifeChurch. The church began in a borrowed two-car garage, with ratty furnishings and faulty audiovisual equipment, but people were drawn there because they sensed a powerful, life-changing force that Craig calls "it." While exactly what "it" is can be difficult to define, Craig reveals seven factors that contribute to it (or at least don’t kill it): Sessions include: Vision Divine Focus Unmistakable Camaraderie Innovative Minds Willingness to Fall Short Hearts Focused Outward Kingdom-Mindedness Craig also unpacks three important realms that every leader must master: (1) prioritizing mindset over model, (2) creating systems that empower it, and (3) finding a balanced way to lead to stay centered around it. While adopting these seven factors and realms will not guarantee a church will have that "it" factor, it will certainly lead that church toward it. It will help all of us lead like it matters.

*Note: Lead Like It Matters is a completely revised and updated version of the book previously published as It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It.* Discover the secret to igniting a life-giving, soul-transforming, people-inspiring movement in your organization, church, or ministry--and the trick to keeping the momentum going. In Lead Like It Matters, New York Times bestselling author and pastor Craig Groeschel shares the transformative insights he's learned about how to effectively build a thriving, enduring ministry and organization. Using the leadership skills he's mastered as the founder and senior pastor of Life.Church--one of the largest churches in the world and an organization that Glassdoor has named a #1 U.S. Best Place to Work--he combines straight talk and wry honesty with biblical and leadership principles to equip you to: Recognize when your organization or ministry has the indefinable but tangible "it" that leads to success Identify and implement seven leadership principles for a church that lasts Ignite a fire in your team to leave behind "what we've always done" for the meaningful ministry you know is possible Discover the three areas every leader must master for success Praise for Lead Like It Matters: "My friend Craig Groeschel is the visionary and pioneer of America's largest church. In Lead Like It Matters, he's generous enough to share the most important lessons he's learned along the way. This isn't just an insightful and interesting book; it's a game-changing guide to leading with purpose." --Steven Furtick, lead pastor, Elevation Church; New York Times bestselling author, Crash the Chatterbox, Greater, (Un)Qualified

Christian Book Award Finalist What type of leadership is needed in a moment that demands adaptive change? Tod Bolsinger, author of Canoeing the Mountains, is uniquely positioned to explore the qualities of adaptive leadership in contexts ranging from churches to nonprofit organizations. He deftly examines both the external challenges we face and the internal resistance that holds us back. Bolsinger writes: "To temper describes the process of heating, holding, hammering, cooling, and reheating that adds stress to raw iron until it becomes a glistening knife blade or chisel tip." When reflection and relationships are combined into a life of deliberate practice, leaders become both stronger and more flexible. As a result, these resilient leaders are able to offer greater wisdom and skill to the organizations they serve. Also available: Tempered Resilience Study Guide

Change the Way You Think about Leadership At the age of thirty-three, Dr. Albert Mohler became the youngest president in the 164-year history of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was the driving force behind the school's transformation into a thriving institution with an international reputation characterized by a passionate conviction for truth. In the process he became one of the most important and prominent Christian voices in contemporary culture. What will it take to transform your leadership? Effective leaders need more than administrative skills and vision. They need to be able to change the hearts and minds of those they lead. Leadership like this requires passionate beliefs that can stand up to pressure from without and within. In this updated edition Dr. Mohler has added a new introduction and conclusion based on an additional 10 years of leadership. He has also completely rewritten the chapter "The Digital Leader." The Conviction to Lead will crystallize your convictions while revolutionizing your thinking, your decision-making, your communication, and ultimately, those you lead. "Dr. Al Mohler has written a book that shakes us up and challenges our thinking. The Conviction to Lead is poised to become one of the all-time classic works on Christian leadership."--JIM DALY, President - Focus on the Family "Having rarely thought about leadership, I was hooked from the first chapter--to my complete surprise. This is a powerful book and gracefully written."--FRED BARNES, Executive Editor--The Weekly Standard

Find God’s vision for your job. Reclaim God’s vision for your life. Many Christians fall victim to one of two main problems when it comes to work: either they are idle in their work, or they have made an idol of it. Both of these mindsets are deadly misunderstandings of how God intends for us to think about our employment. In The Gospel at Work, Sebastian Traeger and Greg Gilbert unpack the powerful ways in which the gospel can transform how we do what we do, releasing us from the cultural pressures of both an all-consuming devotion and a punch-in, punch-out mentality—in order to find the freedom of a work ethic rooted in serving Christ. You’ll find answers to some of the tough questions that Christians in the workplace often ask: What factors should matter most in choosing a job? What gospel principles should shape my thinking about how to treat my boss, my co-workers, and my employees? Is full-time Christian work more valuable than my job? Is it okay to be motivated by money? How do you prioritize—or balance—work, family and church responsibilities? Solidly grounded in the gospel, The Gospel at Work confronts both our idleness at work and our idolatry of work with a challenge of its own—to remember that whom we work for is infinitely more important than what we do.

A fresh look at the earliest Christian movement reveals what made the new faith so compelling...and what we need to change today to make it so again. Once upon a time there was a version of the Christian faith that was practically irresistible. After all, what could be more so than the gospel that Jesus ushered in? Why, then, isn't it the same with Christianity today? Author and pastor Andy Stanley is deeply concerned with the present-day church and its future. He believes that many of the solutions to our issues can be found by investigating our roots. In Irresistible, Andy chronicles what made the early Jesus Movement so compelling, resilient, and irresistible by answering these questions: What did first-century Christians know that we don't—about God's Word, about their lives, about love? What did they do that we're not doing? What makes Christianity so resistible in today's culture? What needs to change in order to repeat the growth our faith had at its beginning? Many people who leave or disparage the faith cite reasons that have less to do with Jesus than with the conduct of his followers. It's time to hit pause and consider the faith modeled by our first-century brothers and sisters who had no official Bible, no status, and little chance of survival. It's time to embrace the version of faith that initiated—against all human odds—a chain of events resulting in the most significant and extensive cultural transformation the world has ever seen. This is a version of Christianity we must remember and re-embrace if we want to be salt and light in an increasingly savorless and dark world.