Month: January 2018

What Happened When a Pastor Decided to Get His Hands Dirty

Posted on January 31, 2018 by - Africa, Because of the GLS, Calling, Culture, Education, Stories

Harold Chilowa is on the pastoral team of his church, Renewal Fellowship, and is also a business owner of Tangerine Events, a local event company in Zimbabwe. When he first heard about The Global Leadership Summit, he almost didn’t go because it was so far from home. But his wife said, “You have to go. This could be God telling you to do this. You are passionate about this [leadership]. This is where God called you to be.”

So he jumped in his car, and went to his first GLS event in Mutari, Zimbabwe in 2011. What happened next, and the ripple effect that followed would change not only his life, but the trajectory of hundreds other people’s lives in his community.

A leader is transformed

“It’s done wonders in my life,” says Harold.  “God is so all knowing and all powerful, and knows the deepest parts of our hearts. He spoke to me.”

“I was a person who used to complain a lot—finger pointing and accusing people, saying this person must do that, or they shouldn’t have allowed this kind of a situation to happen. I always blamed other people.

“But after watching the sessions at the Summit, God moved me from where I was to where he wanted me to be. I began to look at things from a different perspective. God spoke to me and said, stop complaining and finger pointing. You must engage. I took a turn in my life. I began to get my hands dirty. I began to do things that I thought other people should do. That was such a powerful whisper.

“I am where I am today because of that whisper.”

What happened after Harold said “Yes”

Harold’s life was transformed, and he began to seek out ways to get his hands dirty in God’s kingdom work. One of the first places he looked is where he is most passionate, youth—the leaders of tomorrow.

“In my country, there is a notorious community called Mbare,” says Harold. “This is where most of the violence comes from. It’s an area where if someone has committed a crime, even the police don’t go!

“I felt God say, this is where we will start. We are going to host a mini Summit here and invite all the people in the area to come.

“I was asking all these questions. Who’s going to listen to me? This is a very notorious area and I’m putting my life on the line.

“But the voice that spoke to me was so loud that I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t hesitate. So we went to a school and shared the idea with the head mistress. She bought into the vision! We partnered with another pastor who offered his church as a venue so we could host our first GLS.

“One of the speakers talked about how he transformed his community, and I had a thought, if this guy could do it in his community, I can do it too! Because, at the end of the day, it’s not about me, but about what God can do.”

A neighborhood is transformed

This mini Summit inspired a group of students to get their hands dirty. They decided to start with one of the more obvious issues—all the garbage build up. So they started a major clean-up project. “This is a place where rubbish is thrown all over, and there is no water,” Harold explains. “The health system there is also terrible.

“We started the clean-up project near the school. We cleaned up the place and the community joined us as well! Two months later, we heard about a non-for profit organization that wanted to sink a borehole in that area for water.

“The place where they located water was the very place where we had cleaned the rubbish. Today everyone is getting water from that place. That was God!

“Before the Summit, I wouldn’t have even thought about taking part in the cleaning. But because God spoke to me, I got my hands dirty.”

The work doesn’t stop there! Harold continues to work in schools in his community.

A miracle in school and student transformation

In another area, they decided to work on a dilapidated school where the roof was falling down, windows were broken and there were not enough chairs for the students. Even though they didn’t have enough money to buy materials, they decided to start anyway.

“Between us, we had $800. And $800 can’t even buy 10 desks!” says Harold. “We prayed to God. We said, let’s take a step of faith and just begin to do what God has called us to do and see what happens.

“We waited for the kids to go on holiday, and in that period of one month, we transformed the entire school! People came and said, we heard you guys were cleaning up the school and painting. Here is paint you can use. Then we saw a truck, a 30-ton truck with 600 bags of cement and they said, we heard about what you guys are doing. Here is cement. Plumbers came. Carpenters came.

“We did everything with that $800, and it was multiplied. God multiplied it.

“We changed the whole school. Kids came back after holiday to a brand new school! They were all in tears.

“Nine hundred students said, What have you done to our school? Some of them thought they had come to the wrong school. We told them, This is your school!

“The transformation of the environment helped the students to change their mindsets,” says Harold. “They got the best grading results in the entire country—something that had never happened before.”

The GLS brings leadership training into schools across Zimbabwe

Harold’s passion for building youth into the leaders of tomorrow has given him a desire to bring the GLS into more schools. So he’s started marketing to the high schools in Zimbabwe.

“Our passion is for the students,” says Harold. “Because of the situation in our country, most of them have been exposed to ungodly principles and a kind of leadership that cannot bring a great future for them. We brought the idea for a GLS to the top schools in the country and they bought into it. We hosted our first Summit for 260 senior students.

“Because of the impact the Summit has made in the lives of our students, the school asked us to train the staff. So we did a staff training for 150 teachers. Now the school has made the GLS training a standard for all the students, and wants to bring it to every level. We’re also doing inter-school training for seven schools with GLS resources. It is definitely impacting our country!”

Thank you for supporting leaders like Harold, and encouraging them to transform their country

What has happened in our country would not have been possible without you who have put your finances on the line in order to change lives of people you don’t even know—people you’ve never even met, and I want to guarantee your resources are being used wisely, and are creating a better future for our young people. May the Lord truly bless you for the work you’re doing. Your resources are representing you and are representative of what you have done. May the Lord bless you. Thank you so much.—Harold Chilowa, GLS leader, Zimbabwe

 

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5 Simple Ways to Add WhiteSpace to a Too-Busy Life

Posted on January 29, 2018 by - Articles, Change Management, Complex Thinking, Leading Yourself, Productivity, Replenishment, Wellness

I am a big fan of lists—to-do lists, prayer lists, goal lists, grocery lists, even lists that track what I eat every day. Never, ever have I added “a pause that refreshes” to my to-do list in order to give me what Juliet Funt calls WhiteSpace.

Until after the 2017 Global Leadership Summit.

Juliet Funt described the importance of adding WhiteSpace to our days, or taking strategic breaks in order to recharge our mind and body. I listened to the revolutionary idea that taking a pause could deepen introspection and spark creativity.

As a writer, deadlines drive my days—often sending me careening around corners at breakneck speed and screeching to a halt across the work finish line, sweaty and out of breath. I arrived at my deadlines just in time to jump onto the treadmill of the next looming deadline.

Finishing a project with minutes to spare gave me a temporary adrenaline rush, but it sucked the life out of my creativity.

 There is a better way.

Graphic designers intentionally add white space to a page because they understand its importance. Adding blank, empty space to a page makes everything easier to read and absorb. I had to become as intentional as a graphic designer about adding WhiteSpace to my life.

The week after the Summit, I set out to incorporate WhiteSpace into my life.

And I started small.

There is no perfect method to adding WhiteSpace, just as there is no perfect way to manage time (or better…protect time). It’s a matter of finding what works.

Here are 5 WhiteSpace additions that are working for me.

  1. Block digital distractions.

I have been guilty of responding to emails as soon as they ping my inbox. And I’m embarrassed by how easily I can get sucked into the internet. I venture into the World Wide Web to verify a fact and 30 minutes later, I’m shopping for shoes on Amazon. There are several good apps that can block distractions like these. I use one called SelfControl that allows me to set my own restrictions.

  1. Schedule WhiteSpace into my daily routine.

I schedule my prayer time with God. Why not schedule a bit of downtime? I started by writing down everything on my schedule, then squeezing in the WhiteSpace. That worked okay, but what works better is putting in the big calendar events, then scheduling the WhiteSpace before adding all the pesky, but necessary tasks on my to-do list.

  1. Add breathing space between meetings.

If I received an invitation to a 10 a.m. meeting and I already had a 9 a.m. meeting, there was a good chance those meetings would overlap. I accepted the 9 a.m. meeting with a condition—I had to leave at 9:45. Sharp. I closed my eyes and waited for the fall out, and was pleasantly surprised when frequently, the originator of the meeting either adjusted the time or said, “No problem.” It only gave me a few minutes, but I arrived on time and unstressed.

  1. What can I let go of?

I can’t do it all. No one can. The trick is deciding what I must do and what I can let go of. I removed my Wonder Woman bracelets and became more realistic about my capabilities. After I generate my to-do list, I take a close look. There are things I don’t need to do. I can delegate. I can reschedule. I can say no. (Those bracelets never really worked for me anyway.)

  1. Protect my time—and be brutal.

Adding WhiteSpace has made me more accessible and available. Quite frankly, it has made me a better friend.

Protecting my time means saying no to some things so I can say yes to things that are a priority. It isn’t easy, especially when it means saying no to good things. I’ll be honest, I’m still trying to get a handle on this, but I’m better at it than I was a few months ago.

The intentional addition of WhiteSpace to my life has given me better sleep, more clarity, focus, breathing room and more creative energy.

It’s worth it.

How do you add WhiteSpace to your life?

Evacuees of California Wildfires Find Shelter at NewLife Church

Posted on January 29, 2018 by - Because of the GLS, Calling, Church, Church & Faith-Based, Culture, North America, Stories, Vision

“The fires were moving so fast, people barely had time to get out of their houses, and couldn’t stop to take any valuables,” says Kevin Finkbiner, lead pastor of NewLife Church in Sonoma County, California, whose church building became a shelter for 300 evacuees of the recent wildfires. “We had guests showing up at our church in their pajamas and barefoot. There was no time to get shoes on if they wanted to save their lives.”

Since it is in the DNA and vision of NewLife to exist for its community, their response to the disaster was natural. Of course, they would open the doors to people displaced by the fires.

As evacuations were being announced, the pastoral staff and volunteers of the church responded without hesitation or question. They flocked to the church before 5 a.m. to serve those in need. “They just knew that because of our vision and mission, we would provide shelter for guests who had been evacuated,” says Kevin.

Because their vision as a church is to exist for the community, they wanted to do more than just house people and provide meals. “We knew we were not simply providing a meal and a bed,” says Kevin. “Our vision was to host guests who have been displaced by the fires.

We shared with our guests how welcome they were in our home.

“That paradigm shaped everything our leadership team and volunteer base did throughout the week,” said Kevin. We worked hard to create an environment that was stimulating for children because we knew how hard it would be for kids to sit in a room all day for eight days; we showed movies and had children’s theater troops come in to perform shows every afternoon. We knew that many of our guests would be going to work every day, so each morning, we prepared to-go lunch bags. We also realized that the majority of our guests were primarily Spanish speaking, so we worked diligently to have translators on site 24 hours a day.”

These events galvanized in very tangible ways the church’s vision to create irresistible environments where people can engage with God. “It allowed us to wrap flesh around the love that God has for our community in Sonoma County,” says Kevin. “Over and over, we heard comments from guests, city officials, law enforcement and other governmental agencies that our evacuation center felt different than other centers. They said it was full of warmth and hope. I think this is because everything we did flowed out of our deep love for Jesus, which compels us to show our growing and tangible love for others.

“I think it’s changed the perception of church in Sonoma County.”

Stories of hope out of the ashes

Family enters relationship with Jesus

Two days into housing guests, Kevin was approached by an interpreter who let him know that a family of four would like to talk. Through the interpreter, the family shared they’ve never attended church and don’t have a relationship with Jesus. They said the ways they’ve been loved by the people who were serving them made them want to know more about Jesus. The family said they wanted to enter into a relationship with Jesus. “It was a beautiful moment,” says Kevin. “I went home that night and burst into tears, both from the depth of pain I was seeing in our community and because of the hope that was rising from the ashes.”

Retired volunteer firefighter finds community

Throughout the week, the volunteer base (about 500 people) consisted of 50/50 New Lifers and non-New Lifers. “My core belief is that the more new New Lifers rub shoulders with people in our community, the more people in our community will want to meet Jesus,” says Kevin. “I was thrilled when we welcomed non-New Lifers into every area of serving during our time as a shelter.” On the last day, a retired fire fighter came up to Kevin told him he had retired from the fire department years ago. He said, “When I served, they were my tribe. I’ve never really gone to church, but I’ve been volunteering at New Life this week, and I want you to know that New Life is now my tribe.”

(Read more outcome stories here)

The influence of the GLS on NewLife’s story

Opening up the NewLife facility to serve the community was so natural because it was right in line with the vision that God’s given them—one that was birthed out of attending and hosting The Global Leadership Summit for so many years.

“The influence of the GLS was key in the purchase of our church property. The leadership team decided the property we purchased should be a blessing to our larger community,” says Kevin. “We decided to build our building as a community center that could be used by schools, dance troops, Cub Scouts and other community groups. This is one way that we’re striving to bless our community. We also decided to make the building an emergency shelter equipped with showers, a full kitchen and space for care. God sparked all of this through the GLS.

“The Summit gives us common language and training around our vision. Leaders have been equipped with tools necessary to lead and a vision to reach our community, which helped us quickly convert our space to a center to house guests who were displaced by the fires. I’m so thankful to the leadership development work of the Summit to hundreds of people who call New Life home.

“Our pastoral teams’ biggest takeaway from the Summit is that great leadership enhances vision and streamlines our ability to love, serve and lead our larger community throughout Sonoma County. We’ve learned through the Summit that thriving churches are led by growing leaders who have a vision to lead well in our areas of influence.

(Read more about the vision of NewLife)