Dispatches from Exponential 08, day 3.2

Just finished a seminar by Darrin Patrick on “Making Vision Stick.” Darrin is the Lead Pastor at The Journey in St. Louis and is Vice President of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network out of Mars Hill Seattle. You can read a blog from the pastors at The Journey here.

Darrin took the seminar a little different direction than I thought he would, which was great because of Andy Stanley’s excellent message in the same direction as his title.

Instead, Darrin talked about the importance of who we are as leaders, not just what we do. He referenced Dan Allender’s book Leading with a Limp quite a bit in his message. I found it quite refreshing as an underneath-side approach to leadership and vision.

His main points were built around a look at Paul as the ideal leader.

1. Paul was a reluctant leader
2. Paul was a weak leader
3. Paul was a sin-confessing leader

What struck me most about this is the necessary humility of leadership and that the idea that truly attractive leadership is built around the Christ-centered way of the cross.

One of the most challenging ideas was the link of leadership with dependence. When talking about Paul’s thorn from 2 Corinthians 12, Darrin said that the thorn forces us into a dependence crisis. In our dependence crisis, we are forced to trust God, not our gifts or knowledge.

Quotable quote was: “dependence is the soil that godly character grows in.”