Named by TIME magazine as one of the “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America,” Bishop Thomas Dexter (T.D.) Jakes is an entrepreneur, global advocate, philanthropist, and pastor of The Potter’s House. Located in Dallas, Texas, this multiracial, non-denominational congregation has more than 30,000 members. Known for his service to both the church and the global community, he’s led initiatives to combat domestic violence, homelessness, poverty, and AIDS. A prolific writer, Bishop Jakes has authored more than 30 books, including two New York Timesbest-sellers. A past and popular Summit speaker, he will close our 2010 gathering with a powerful and moving reminder of the greatness of God.
- How can we impassion and motivate the people who serve with us so they can be all that they can be.
- Not only in staff development but developing the place they work from.
- When people are passionate about what they do they are far more effective at what they do.
- It’s not all about money.
- People do what they do for passion, not out of a desire for money.
- How can we get the passion that fills us to infiltrate them?
- Church leadership is unique.
- People don’t come to follow us, people come to follow Jesus.
- They come to follow Jesus but they get stuck with us.
- Our responsibility is to make sure that people don’t hear a different sound than from what drew them to call them what they are called to do.
- You can’t get passionate people unless you are passionate yourself.
- Passion has to come from an inner place, not from other places.
- It’s not about mimicking other people.
- Mimicking is not original.
- People get tired of following a cheap copy of a great original.
- We have to lead from a place of power not a place of imitation.
- It has to come from an inner place.
- We have to be drawing from an inner, sacred space.
- God used Hannah’s barren womb to bring Samuel.
- Leadership is always transition.
- It’s not copying or repeating.
- It’s going from here to there.
- Leadership is not maintaining.
- Leadership is navigating transition.
- People follow people who move.
- People follow people who take risk.
- People want to go on a mission that is bigger than they are.
- God can’t use people who don’t have a real connection with Him.
- Our lamp cannot go out.
- We can be so busy with what we are doing that we can’t see the light has gone out in our people.
- From the head, to the beard, to the skirts.
- What we envision happening as it passes down from the bear to the skirt cannot be polluted or contaminated by people’s own thoughts, ideas, etc.
- The same passion on the head has to be on the skirt.
- Passion needs to be cycled down.
- If we give people something different they will be defeated and fail to become all they were meant to be.
- You have to constantly evaluate what people can do.
- Challenge people without the demands overwhelming them.
- People are passionate when you ask them to do something within their reach.
- When you overwhelm them they will feel defeated.
- Passion and defeat cannot coexist.
- Have a strong sense of evaluating people’s gifts.
- People need to be able to asses themselves.
- Allocate people appropriately.
- You have to be able to assess what people can do and allocate them appropriately.
- Be a good steward of the resources God has given you.
- Make sure the staff/team/group working with you can deliver on the promise you projected.
- Know you aren’t in this by yourself.
- Not seeing results now doesn’t mean you won’t see results later.
- If you do something you are passionate about and it comes up short, God will make up the difference.
- When people sense the contagious passion you have every day it will impassion them.
- People are ignited by passion not by principles.
- Passion is more than emotions.
- Passion is the fuel the makes the engine go.
- Leaders are called to deliver the people across the land.
- We can do it!
- There are two types of leaders: bankers and builders.
Builders
- Builders can start with little and make a match into an inferno.
- Joseph was a builder… wherever he went he flourished.
- They can turn around a hopeless situation.
- Builders are better at building than maintaining.
- If you are a builder you need a banker.
Bankers
- Bankers can keep a fire burning without it burning out.
- Bankers can make it last!
- Builders can maximize resources.
- They make ideas happen and build systems to sustain them.
Challenge
- The problem is that we bring people around us that are just like us.
- If you only surround yourself with people who do what you do they compete with you they don’t complete you.
- You need people who are good at what you are not good at.
- Surround yourself with people who are good at what you aren’t.
- Good teams complete you, they don’t compete with you.
- They add to you, they accessorize your life.
Confidants
- As you lead and develop you need people who are assets and not liabilities.
- You don’t want to make confidants out of people who are serving with you.
- Confidants are people who are “for” you.
Constituents
- Constituents are people who are for what you are for.
- They believe in the mission and the message.
Comrades
- They are for what you are for but might jump off at any time.
- Don’t try to hold things too tightly.
- Some people aren’t for you or what you are for… they are against what you are against.
- They are motivated by the fight.
- How do you manage people who are not like you?
- People who are willing to fight can be an asset if you learn how to leverage them.
- Don’t kill the fighter…direct the fighter in the right direction!
- If you don’t teach them how to fight for you they will fight against you.
- Direct them at the target instead of putting the bullseye on your backside.
Good leaders take their passion and divide it among their people proportionately.
- Do people have your spirit, vision, and passion?
- When people can read your looks you know they have your passion.
- You work best with people you read well.
- You cannot serve people you cannot read.
- Most leaders find it difficult to be transparent enough for people to know what they think.
- If you are going to lead people like Jesus you have to be willing to show them your wounds and see who you are.
- When Jesus rises from the dead he doesn’t show himself alive to sinners, he shows His disciples His wounds.
- He showed them who He was so they could learn as much from His struggle as they did from His strength.
The Fight Against Normalcy
- In the moments of nothingness, between battles, is when we have our hardest work.
- You don’t have to impassion people in a battle or when you are under attack.
- The long walk between them requires you to keep people motivated.
- That assignment falls on us.
- We can get tired of encouraging people.
- We can send people out encouraged and we can leave depleted.
- Encouraging, motivating, and leading can leave us operating in the red.
- “If I owe you anything I will repay you when I return.” – The Good Samaritan
- Leading won’t be easy.
- When you find yourself running low you have God you can turn to and ask for help.
- We have to ask God to help us so we can help them.
- Give me passion so I can give them passion.
- Give me fire so I can give them fire.
- When I am overwhelmed I go to the Rock that is higher than me.
- You can’t motive people if you aren’t motivated yourself.
- You can’t get people passionate if you are not passionate yourself.
- Rededicate yourself to the mission set before us.
- Recommit yourself to the task before us.
- Do it with passion and with gusto.
- We could have been destroyed, but we are blessed to be here.
- We aren’t going out to get the victory we have the victory right now.
