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If you thought that I sometimes think too big - think again. I felt the people around me stretching when we launched our ten year plan to build an organization that can faithfully steward a yearly budget in excess of $1 million (nine years and counting at Gaura Purnima). Then Krishna helped me put that goal into perspective when shortly afterwards I read about the Billion Soul Campaign - to plant five million churches in the next 10-15 years, in order to win 1 billion souls for Christ. The goal? “No-one Left Behind”.
To plant five million churches what do you need? Five million leaders (at least). So there is the program to create 1 million leaders by 2008 - The Million Leader Mandate. John C. Maxwell is involved in this. When I met with him in Sydney last year at The Leadership Effect, he said that they had already reached their goal of one million leaders trained in their network leadership development program, and they were now aiming for one million leaders per year.
Here’s an update on the Billion Soul Campaign from a recent email:
Bishop Kenneth Ulmer, Faithful Central Bible Church, Inglewood, CA, spoke to the morning crowd of church and lay leaders at the all-day conference. He began by asking for a show of hands while naming more than a dozen denominations - all getting a response from attendees.
“There is a miracle in this room,” Ulmer said. “The sons and daughters of former enemies are becoming friends. Our spiritual ancestors, for all kinds of reasons, would never be in a gathering with this kind of diversity and yet, by the power of the Spirit of God, God has brought us together for the cause of the kingdom,” he said.
Ulmer was one of several speakers at the conference that aimed to further the planting of five million new churches for a billion soul harvest during the next 10-15 years. “We have found a common ground and it does not matter what your tradition is, what your style of worship is,” Ulmer continued during his message. “It does not matter what your doctrinal distinctives are. “At the end of the day, we all agree that if there was ever a time to overcome evil with good, if there was ever a season where the love of Christ is to be shared abroad, we agree it is now. At the end of the day, we are about touching the lives of a billion souls with the love of the One who loved us enough to die for us, he said.
I’m mainly focused on my local area of concern. We have 1,778,840 people living in Brisbane (as of Dec 2005). What kind of facilities do we need to be able to serve these people? I think it will take more than one building. I think it will take more than one center. I think it will take more than one public program per week. I think it will take more than one public program per day. I think it will take more than one leader. I think it will take more than one team.
People - Ideas - Hardware. That’s the prioritization. After one year of work on the Million Dollar Plan (no, it’s not about the money, it’s about measurable goals), the outcome for the year is: “it’s all about the people” (Bg. 1.7).
The goal was to work out how to spend $1 million per year. Getting the money is not the hard part. The money is out there, and we’ve seen it come and go over the years. Figuring out how to spend it wisely is the issue. We figure that if you figure out how to spend it properly, that’s 90% of the work done. Then the money can come later, and you’ll know what to do with it.
My realization is that the money should be majorly invested in people development, first and foremost. If I had to choose between money and hardware and the right people, I’d pick the people everytime.
A nineteenth-century circuit-riding preacher named Peter Cartwright was preparing to deliver a sermon one Sunday when he was warned that President Andrew Jackson was in attendance, and he was asked to keep his remarks inoffensive. During that message, he included these statements: “I have been told that Andrew Jackson is in this congregation. And I have been asked to guard my remarks. What I must say is that Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he doesn’t repent of his sin.”
After the sermon, Jackson strode up to Cartwright. “Sir,” the president said, “if I had a regiment of men like you, I could whip the world.”
Strategic Priorities for 2006:
- Get the right people on the team
- Create and Deepen Community
- Leadership Development
very good points.
but a question:
“People - Ideas - Hardware. That’s the prioritization. After one year of work on the Million Dollar Plan (no, it’s not about the money, it’s about measurable goals), the outcome for the year is: “it’s all about the people” (Bg. 1.7).”
this gita reference; you know it’s dritarasthra speaking?
haribol
bill
I think you mean to say Duryodhana. Actually, as the story goes, it’s Ganesh writing what Vyasa says Sanjaya told Dhrtarastra reporting Duryodhana’s presentation to Dronacarya…
The point is that Duryodhana, as an expert leader, does not talk about his plans or his equipment first - he talks about his team. Duryodhana was a competent manager and leader, he was just misguided. He lead well in many aspects, which is why he had sufficient credibility to make a serious attempt on the throne, but in the wrong direction.
Later on (1.9) Duryodhana mentions military hardware, and in 1.11 he mentions some sort of plan. The point is that you can have all the gear in the world, and the best plan, but if you don’t have the people to execute it, they are both useless. On the other hand, if you have the right people, they’ll get some gear, or get results with what they can get, and they’ll come up with a plan.
yes i meant to say duryodhana.
i just thought it ironic to use duryodhana as an example since he was on the bad or losing side.
otherwise i fully appreciate what you are saying about putting people first.
ys,
bill
One of the reasons Bhagavad-gita is such a great book is because of the complexity of the situation.
Duryodhana was a good leader - he was leading his people the wrong way, but he was leading them in the right way. The Gita makes a distinction between “effective leadership” and “authentic leadership”, or leadership that is principle-aligned in its practice (as Duryodhana’s was), and leadership that is principle-aligned in its purpose (as Arjuna’s was, in addition to his practice being exemplary).
It’s not enough to be efficient, or going forward at a good pace - you’ve also got to be effective, or headed in the right direction, in the language of Dr. Stephen Covey.
So we can get a lot of good examples from Duryodhana. The opening scene of the Gita is not simply to say: “Look at how evil and misguided Duryodhana is”. It is to say: “See how competent this person is, and in spite of that, he is misguided and destined for failure”.