Thanks for joining us on Season 6 of The Flourishing Culture Podcast, brought to you by The Best Christian Workplaces Institute. You’ll learn how to build a flourishing workplace culture that drives the ministry impact of your organization, your church, or your company brought to you by the Best Christian Workplaces Institute. Now here’s your host, BCWI CEO, Al Lopus.
You’re really going to love today’s podcast episode. Listen to one of the most recognized Christian leaders of this generation. He challenges us to lead like it matters to God. Stay tuned as Rich Stearns talks about his new book.
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I’m delighted to welcome one of the most outstanding Christian leaders of our generation. Rich Stearns is President Emeritus of World Vision, and author of the soon-to-be-published book, Lead Like it Matters to God: Values-Driven Leadership in a Success-Driven World.
These are two mileposts of a tremendous career filled with lessons, insights, and influence that continues to advance God’s work on earth. Rich, so glad to have you here on the Flourishing Culture Podcast.
A good leader can create a healthy culture where people can flourish. The goal of a Christian leader is to create the environment within which the God-given gifts of all the employees can be released and optimized.”
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
- The abrupt change in Rich’s career from the corporate world to the Christian ministry world back in 1998 (02:30)
- Rich’s adjustment?as a leader who moved from?selling?luxury goods to?tackling?global poverty. How a business background carried over into the ministry (06:32)
- “Wherever I served I was an ambassador for Jesus Christ.” (09:56)
- “For leaders in a secular environment, there’s a temptation to compartmentalize your faith—check it at the door” (12:28)
- “We have to take our faith to work with us. We have to take God to work with us.” (13:14)
- “We can bring secularism to the Christian ministry space” (15:00)
- “Success is overrated” (16:49)
- “As Christians we live in what I call success obsessed culture” (17:13)
- “God is not impressed with our success” (17:37)
- “Faithfulness not success. Faithfulness is success for the Christian” (19:05)
- “What God will ask me is, ‘How did you treat the people that I entrusted to your care and leadership?’”(20:06)
- How do these Christian values make a difference in those environments??(21:40)
- Some of the values in the book are: Integrity, humility, courage, perseverance, love, encouragement, balance, self-awareness etc
- “Leaders are the ones that create cultures in organizations. Leaders shape the culture and the cultural expectations for behavior.” (24:59)
- “A good leader can create a healthy culture where people can flourish. The goal of a Christian leader is to create the environment within which the God-given gifts of all the employees can be released and optimized.”(25:20)
- ““These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.?Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:7-9 (26:06)
- Which of these Critical Leadership values matter the most to leaders who want to build an organizational culture of collaboration, resilience, and trust in these fragile, uncertain times? (27:09)
- “Hire people who are smarter than you then give them permission to challenge you”(28:49)
- A message in Rich’s book for Christian leaders in these uncertain times (31:10)
- “Crises reveal character”(31:41)
- “Values are free” (36:18)
- “These values make you a better leader but they don’t require you to master some skill set that may be too complicated for you to master.” (38:44)
Additional Resources
Download BCWI’s four-page guide for inspirational leadership in crisis for FREE.
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