Learning from Leaders - Dan Schaffer

Teaching, Leading and Reproducing

It was the second week of September, 1994. I had been on the staff of Promise Keepers for all of two weeks. I sat with Doc Reed listening to one of the founders of Promise Keepers. He was one of those unassuming guys that when you first met you did not quite know how to take him. Although it was over 15 years ago, I could take you back to the Chinese restaurant and to the exact spot we were seated.

Dan was the Director of Training for PK; and as I sat and listened to him, I realized that very little of what he was saying was about PK. He was sharing a clear strategy for building men. It became very clear then and has only been reinforced in the years following that God birthed in Dan a “to die for” passion to see men transformed as spiritually reproducing fathers.

I could hardly keep up with what he was sharing--not because he was speaking in a foreign language or the subject was so complicated. I had never really heard a man speak so clearly about real manhood. The best part was that it was not men against anything but, it was men for God.

Then he hit us with the statement--the one statement that grabs you so hard that you have to just stop and have it repeated. It is not a statement that requires a follow-on sentence to help you understand. No, this statement was clear and required no further explanation.

Dan simply said to Doc and I, “You can’t teach what you don’t know. You can’t lead where you won’t go. You only reproduce what you are.”

In one sentence Dan changed the landscape of men’s ministry for me. I was all excited about what I could do as a Regional Director for the largest growing men’s movement in the world. Dan made it personal. Men’s ministry was more about who I am and not what I intend to do. When I focus on what I will do, it is about me. When I focus on who I am, it becomes all about God.

Hardly a month goes by where I do not quote Dan. Over the years, Dan has become one of my best friends. We have learned to go “toe to toe” and grow stronger. He and his wife, Jan, are important parts of mine and Billie’s lives.

Dan has not changed since we first met. His ongoing passion is to grow strong, maturing, and reproducing spiritual fathers. After his days at PK where God used him mightily, Dan was led to launch a new ministry, Building Brothers (www.buildingbrothers.org). Dan is still doing what God created him to do.

The “takeaway” from my years with Dan is simple--we are all going to reproduce something in everyone we meet. I must put my energies into becoming the man God created me to be, and God will allow me to reproduce that part of Him into others.

Learning from Leaders - - - Pastor Andy Addis

Sustainable Pace

Last month I was with our son at the health club he manages in Hutchinson, KS. Chad arranged for one of his top personal trainers to spend some time with me and walk me through some training that I could do at home or on the road.
You can check out Genesis at http://www.genesishealthclubs.com/

Joe asked me what outcomes I wanted from my training. I thought for a moment and responded that I need “strength, agility, speed and endurance.” Other than that I felt I was doing pretty well. Over the course of the next hour, Joe helped me understand some key principles; and he helped me with some specific exercises that I can use anywhere.

The following day, I met with one of my heroes, Pastor Andy Addis. If you follow my blog, Facebook© or Twitter©, Andy’s name is not new to you. I have known him for several years and look forward to every occasion we can get some time together. As a Senior Pastor, he is one of the leading thinkers and practitioners of InterGenerational ministry, as well as multi-site churches. Every time Andy and I sit down for any amount of time, I usually leave with pages of notes.

As a “side-bar,” Andy is over 20 years younger than I am; and he is one who teaches me. I say that for the older guys who are not taking the time to really listen and learn from younger men and women.

Now to the bottom line-- As Andy and I talked, I asked him what he had been learning in the time since we had last seen each other. He stated three things. One, however, was the game-winning homerun.

He told me that he must maintain a “sustainable pace.” The moment Andy let the words go; I went back to my training session with Joe. I need “strength, agility, speed and endurance” and a sustainable pace.

That does not mean that there are not periods of increased or high intensity. It means that as I seek to run the race God has set for me, there are days I need to run and on others I need to walk. There are days that are sprints and others that are a steady pace. Yet, over time, the entire pace must be sustainable.

Life, especially our spiritual life, requires “strength, agility, speed and endurance” and a “sustainable pace.” You would think that a guy my age would have this pretty well mastered. Not so -- but I am working on it.

Thank you Andy -- See you soon!

Check out Andy Addis and his messages at his blog http://www.crosseyedlife.com/
and website -- http://www.andyaddis.com/

Learning from Leaders - - - Steve Spicer

Increased Capacity and Stronger Boundaries

Several weeks ago I met with one of my close friends. Steve Spicer and I have been meeting for several years on a regular basis. He is one the many men who I feel that I always get more than I am able to give. Steve is one of my heroes. He is balancing a full-time position in the work place and leading a vibrant and life changing ministry. You can check out his ministry Marked Men for Christ at http://www.markedmenforchrist.org/

Our conversations are always intense. We have a tendency to put everything on the table and then wrestle for God’s best for each of us.

This was the core issue last time we met. Steve said that he wanted God to give him increased capacity. I also would ask for that. As we discussed the issue we also acknowledged that we were doing about what we could in the natural. To increase our pace and effectiveness without giving up other very important issues such as family and church, we needed God to move in the super-natural.

As we discussed the issue I realized that for me (and probably for Steve) we needed God to give us stronger boundaries for the increased capacity.

I thought of it in this manner. Certain containers are made of paper and they have the capacity to hold a certain weight without breaking. If that container were to be made of a stronger material such as cardboard it could hold much heavier amounts. It seemed to me that we have a capacity and we are asking God to let us hold more.

In that same line of thought, if our container were made of steel, we could really hold some weight without breaking or coming apart.

Steve and I agreed that we would pray for each other for increased capacity and for God to strengthen the container or give us stronger boundaries. There are times when it seems that we are asking God for more in volume but the issue is that God is waiting to give us more in density or weight.

Simply put….there are still just 24 hours in a day. Even though I often say and try to live like there are 36. I am not asking God to give me more hours. I want to be more effective with the hours I have been given.

So for me and Steve……Increased capacity must be accompanied by stronger boundaries.