Every year, for at least 25 years now, the beginning of August is a pinnacle experience for me. I learn. I grow. I look in the mirror. I make decisions. I give thanks. It is a highpoint of my year. I always attend a two-day leadership-stretching conference. In fact, it is appropriately called, The Global Leadership Summit.
For two solid days, I was sitting at the table with pastors, city managers, preschool teachers, business owners, realtors, kids’ ministry leaders, city councilmen, janitors, counselors and construction superintendents. Most everyone was furiously taking notes from Juliet Funt, Erica Dhawan, Nick Saban, Gabriel Salguero, Thasunda Brown Duckett, David Ashcraft, Tasha Eurick, Bradley Raiper, James Hewitt, Stephanie Chung, Christine Caine, Jon Acuff and more. We laughed, we clapped, we cried, and we danced as we trekked toward the leadership summit.
Every year for the last couple decades, I’ve come away with a thought or two that I cannot and will not forget. A theme that changes me. Motivates me. Inspires me. Humbles me. Sobers me. This year it started with the first talk by Craig Groeschel. And it was wrapped up with a bow tied on it by the second to last speaker, John C. Maxwell. It was simply this: Consistency + Faithfulness x Time = Lasting Impact. Craig gave the above formula. And then John wrapped it up with a talk about legacy.
For me, it was legacy multiplied. My mind went back to 39 years ago, to a medium-sized hotel meeting room in Atlanta, GA. As a 32 year-old, I sat at a table with my older mentor and a couple dozen other pastors for two days at a “How to Plant a Church” seminar organized by Fuller Seminary based in California. There were two speakers on the schedule that I had never heard of before that radically changed the trajectory of my pastoral ministry. One was Rick Warren, the other was John Maxwell. Rick inspired me to a new way of preparing my sermons with the unchurched, non-follower of Jesus at the forefront of my mind. John gave me permission to be a leader that produced other leaders and then told me, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” After seven years of college and seminary and seven more years of pastoral ministry, these two ideas were radical, mind-blowing brand-new thoughts for me. Both were early-on in their ministries. Both were unknown names on the national scene. But they changed my life.
Nearly four decades later, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude that John Maxwell’s legacy is multiplied in me. On a side note, John mentored Craig Groeschel from both far and near. Craig has also inspired me often. But John planted a seed in me in that Atlanta hotel conference room back in 1986 and then watered it with his monthly cassette tapes on leadership that I received in the mail (yes, way before digital downloads) for a couple decades. I’ve read most everyone of his leadership books. John showed consistency and faithfulness that was multiplied over time and he has left a lasting legacy. On me. On Craig Groeschel. On millions.
And then finally. I look around the room where I am listening to John Maxwell again, this time he is 78 and I’m 71, and he is speaking on Leaving a Legacy. I see legacy multiplied. My successor, Pastor Cory Demmel is around the other side of the table. He was age 24 when he sat in a room in Omaha, NB with John Maxwell speaking to a small group of young leaders. Cory was inspired and given permission to lead. Now he leads Cape Christian with an attendance of well over 5,000 in six services every weekend. And to add to the emotion of it all, over 120 young leaders from our church, preschool and café staff, who are now serving under Cory’s leadership, sit around dozens of tables, taking notes as they listen to John Maxwell speaking. I tear up. I was the one and only church staff member at a soon-to-be launched new church called Cape Christian, when I was in Atlanta taking notes listening to him the first time. Now, we all are leaving a legacy because of what John Maxwell inspired in me 39 years ago and in Cory 21 years ago. Consistency. Faithfulness. Time. Lasting legacy. Multiplied legacy. God is so good.
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