Catalyst 09 :: Andy Stanley

Andy Stanley is a pastor, communicator, and founder of North Point Ministries (NPM). Launched in 1995, North Point Ministries is now one of the fastest growing and most influential Christian organizations in America. Each Sunday, more than 20,000 adults attend services at one of NPM’ three campuses in the Atlanta area: North Point Community Church, Browns Bridge Community Church, and Buckhead Church. In addition, NPM has helped 14 strategic partner churches throughout the United States and is developing strategic partnerships with ministries in 13 countries.

Andy is also a best-selling author, and his titles include The Principle of the Path, Making Vision Stick, Communicating for a Change, Visioneering, and The Next Generation Leader. He and his wife, Sandra, live in Alpharetta, Georgia, with their three children.

• We need to take the subject of leadership and look at it through the lens of scripture.
• What man is a man that does not leave the world better?
• The reason we are here and love to study and learn about leadership is because we want to make our world better… we want to make our mark.
• We’re impatient with the slowness of progress.
• We want forward motion.
• We want to make the world better.
• We want to believe when we are gone we will be missed.
• We want people to say: Our world was better because they were here.
• That’s not an ego, it’s  the mark of God on our lives.
• Leadership is a gift.
• It’s a gift we’ve seen abused.
• Every leader leaves a mark. The challenge is: what mark are you going to leave?
• If you are discontent with the status quo and want to see change it’s because God has put that desire in you.
• Leaders always leave a mark the question is what kind of mark are you going to leave?
• You won’t understand the mark you’ve left until long after you’ve left it
• You won’t recognize your greatest mistake until after you’ve made it.
• You won’t know your defining moment until it’s already happened.
• The challenge and problem for leaders who want to see change is that we don’t know the thing that we will do that will make the greatest difference.
• As you study leadership and leaders, you see they don’t realize the significance of what they’ve done until long after they’ve done it.
• In the OT God’s greatest concern for Israel was that they would not forget the Lord their God.
• God’s greatest concern was that they would be so fat and wealthy that they would grow less and less dependent on God.
• Joshua is on the verge of making his mark, doing a great thing.
• He was set up to move away from his dependence on God.
• Joshua 23:8  – cling to the Lord your God; continue to love the Lord your God; choose today whom you will serve; as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
• Joshua said this at the end of his life, not the end.
• We would like to think at the end of our life and our leadership and to continue to be in love with God and believe God has used us in a significant .
• You make a mark you are proud of a as a leader when you leaan your leadership into God’s personal call for your life.
• Joshua 5:13  – “Are you for us or against us?”
• The significance of this moment was as if God ewas saying to Joshua,, “ I’ve not come to be a part of your story or the story of Israel… I’ve come to discover if you’ve come to play a role in MY story.”
• Your response to that question defines what kind of mark you make and whose mark you make.
• This is a question few leaders wrestle with.
• “AM I willing to submit my leadership gifts to a bigger picture and a larger story?”
• God is not “invited” to play a role in our story; we’ve been privileged to play a role in His.
• Joshua asked, “What message does my Lord have for His servant?”
• Joshua decided not to be a man in authority, but a man under authority.
• Joshua decided to be a leader who would not worry who was for him or against him; but wrapped his identity around who he was for.
• Before your name is great, before you make your mark… decide who’s side you’re on than trying to figure out who’s on your side.
• Joshua went on to do amazing things.
• At the end of his life he was a submitted servant of God.
• “God takes full responsibility for the life wholly committed to Him.” – Charles Stanley
• It’s not about the mark you leave but the mark God makes through you.
• My responsibly is to be obedient to God and to trust him with the consequences
• You need to settle once and for all, who’s mark is this for?
• Be consumed with Who you are for.
• Once you decide that, you can live your life with freedom in knowing that God will take full responsibility for your life and your leadership.
• You have no idea what God wants to accomplish for you.
• When God has done His greatest work in the world you won’t know it.
• We all have goals, visions, dreams, plans and burdens… but we won’t know the most significant thing we’ll do when we’ve done it.
• Living life to make my mark is too small a thing for us to give our whole life to.
• Live with greater concern about who you are for.
• If you settle this once and for all, you’ll be perfectly positioned for God to do His most extraordinary thing through you.
• You are going to leave a mark.
• The real question for you is, “Who’s mark is it gonna be?”
• Let’s not live our lives trying to live our small marks when we’ve been invited to play a role in God’s story and to make His mark in our world.

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