Elim Leadership - Summaries

It has been a week of busy, busy, so thank you for continuing to check here for updates. It seems I returned home to an intensely busy time with ministry and family, and have not had time, nor energy to devote to summarizing the final day at the Elim Leadership Conference. I will do that now, then tomorrow (if all goes as planned) we will be back in Philippians once again for our study. The following are the last two sessions of teaching I attended. On Thursday afternoon (last week) I did attend the session offered with Denny Cramer. It was an excellent prophetic time, but not a teaching as much as an immersion in the prophetic. It was marvelous! I will not try to bring that to you. However, I encourage you to sit in the presence of such anointing often.

These summaries are simply my notes (cleaned up a bit). Both speakers were wonderful and I learned much in mind, heart and spirit.

Thursday Morning with Nancy Ortberg: Leadership

The church is worth being led well. What sits at the center of each of us as leaders - that is our identity with Christ. Isa. 29:13 These people come near to me with their mouths, serve me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Parallel with Matt. 23 - The outside of the cup is clean, but the inside is dirty. Some of Jesus’ complaints concerned greed and self-indulgence. Isa is to tell them they are disconnected. Their worship of me is made up of rules taught by men. 

Our traditional “quiet time” is good but not the end all. 30 minutes is O.K., but 40 is better. I journal in a crisis. Jesus never journaled. Good practices should be a way to the end, not an end in its self. All of life is spiritual formation. The problem with all these practices (disciplines) is that they leave the impression we are alright if we use them. When nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is we are only alright in Christ. 

Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder. Have you taken hold of the wonder in your life to explain and define your relationship with Christ. We need practices of celebration and wonder. To be a great leader is to release and work out of wonder in your life. 

What does it mean to be a leader? The ability to divest yourself of power to give to others to function. Who can I come along side of others and release power into them to accomplish. Leadership is a way to allow people to contribute to allow to make something remarkable happen. 

Most organizations (especially in a church) fail because of a lack of trust. You are always either building or repairing trust. Trust comes at the heart of being self-aware. A self awareness that leaves you comfortable in your skin. Then to help people on your team be self-aware as well. 

People operate very differently. Teams have both types of people J’s and P’s. (Judgers or Perceivers - from Myers-Briggs) Part of the power of teams is becoming a student of the people I lead and learning how to lead them to the response in leadership that empower them. 

Character and competency. Do not presume character. We are always being shaped. Psalm 92 - good for older people. To the days I die I will have competency issues. Vulnerability based trust. It says “I need others.”  Your faults and your inability are apparent to all. How am I building trust? What am I doing in the next six months to build trust. 

What got you here won’t get you there. Book title - must always be thinking about approaching leadership in an ever shifting culture. 

Conflict - demand debate. They need to go after conflict and learn from him. Jesus was not Mr. Rogers. He was a walking defining moment. He hardly ever left a conversation without calling for change. He was not always nice. Learning to live in the intersection of offense. We have to give people permission to do poorly in order for them to learn to do it well. That’s discipleship - that is coaching, mentoring etc… Must commit to be a learning culture. Must learn to work against a “celebrity culture” in our teams. 

Phil 2: Who being in very nature God --- Not in spite of being God, but because he was God he became a servant. Christ divested himself of power in order to do the work of God and to invest the authority into others to do the work.  

Thursday Evening: Bishop Kenneth Ulmer:

 I don’t have a sermon, but I do have a word. 

Psalm 92 There is a corporate emphasis of praise and thanksgiving then in verse 10 the emphasis changes to a personal one. I am in need of a fresh anointing. We want God to pour again and fill again and release a fresh anointing. So with the freshly harvested oil, I will be anointed tonight. Every ministry struggles with two extremes, one is the intoxication of success and the other is the despair and devastation. of being of insignificant. How long do I sow seed into rocks. 

Psalm 92 begins with a designation of a “Song for the Sabbath Day.” The sabbath is the seventh day - the end of the week. In this 7th day, I make a declaration, I shall be anointed with fresh oil. It is also the day in position the day before the day of new beginnings. The 7th day prepares me for the 8th day. 

Your need for a new anointing does not suggest that your old anointing was a bad anointing. It was good for the old season, but God is moving you into a new dimension - a new season, and for that new season you must have a new anointing. This Conference is a pivotal point in your ministry - He will pour out a fresh anointing for the season.  Isa. 43:18  I will do a new thing in your life and in your attitude - a new thing. The revelation is in the word “new.”  There are two words for the word “new” - one means “new in time.” The other means “new in kind.”  God is not calling for old, revised and warmed up - but an entirely new thing. Something new in kind. 

Psalm 133 - How good etc… when brethren and “sisteren” dwell together in unity. There was never a separate anointing for the body. The anointing flows over the garment that covers the garment - the covering, because God does not anointed naked flesh - that is why the Lord says we are clothed with Jesus. The anointing flows down and gathers at the hem. The hem is the lowest point of the garment. Therefore the largest concentration of the anointing is at the lowest point. For the anointing gathers at the lowest point. The Holy Spirit activates this concentration when you are the lowest. 

It is like the dew that starts in Mt. Hermon and flows down. Mt. Hermon is 40 miles north, about 9,000 above sea level. The anointing is like the dew that starts high in the mountains and flows down, down, down. into the sea of Galilee, into the Jordan, that pours into the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth. The anointing stays with you down to the lowest point. You cannot drown in the Dead Sea. The anointing is like the power of God that starts with you on the mt. but when you go to the lowest point and you cannot drown there, but the anointing will holding you there. 

(This was followed by a season of prayer ministry for discouraged pastors).