Reflections from Drive 10 Main Sessions with Andy Stanley
(not direct quotes – just musings from my notes)
SESSION 1
The normal pressures of life & ministry tend to shrink our dreams and way of thinking. We begin to question if our dreams are really possible, but we need to take caution with this because we won’t dream any bigger than what we think is possible. Note: Nothing is impossible with God.
The Resurrection was what fueled the early church. The church wasn’t fueled by miracles, philosophy, teaching, morals etc even though these were a part of the early church. Plain and simple – the thing that fueled the radical commitment of the early church was their experience of the Resurrection.
When Jesus said a new command I give to you – LOVE ONE ANOTHER (John 13:34) – HE GAVE VALUE TO EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THE PLANET.
We – the church today – are still stewards of the Resurrection and the Value of All People……and that links us to those 1st Century Christians. We share a sacred celebration of HOPE. The Cross is the symbol of our hope and life!
There’s nothing too big for you to trust God for in your community.
SESSION 2 RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
The weekend challenge is no different than the diverse group Jesus taught. Our audience spans skeptics to saints. In Luke 15:1-6 we find that Jesus’ audience was no different.
As Jesus did – we need to find “common ground” or get everyone on the same page emotionally. The common ground is emotion not information.
One issue Jesus constantly dealt with was “What is God like?” He was constantly trying to get people to see God as He is – not through their narrow lenses. When Jesus tells the various stories in Luke 15, He is explaining to a diverse group what God is like, but He doesn’t even begin with God – He begins with a common human emotion. The emotions He used here was what it’s like to experience a sense of loss, and then the emotion of joy when what was lost is found. The skeptics and saints in His crowd ALL identified with this…..and Jesus was setting things up to make a profound statement about what God is like.
The idea is that we are more open to learning when we are engaged, and engaging a vast culture is something we have to value highly if we are going to have the freedom to engage a wide range of people with God’s truth.
Our goal is not creativity, but to leverage creativity for the sake of our purpose, mission & vision……ie for the purpose of sharing the truth of God’s Word with an audience that spans skeptics to saints. To reach the next generation for Christ we must do this.
SESSION 3 – THE OPPOSABLE LEADER
If this session is made available online or on DVD/CD – you need to purchase it because without hearing the entire session – the following notes probably won’t make much sense to you.
Organizational tension is essential to progress! In other words – some tension is GOOD!
Every organization has problems that should not be solved and tensions that should not be resolved.
If you are not careful when you strive to resolve certain tensions, you create a new tension that can hinder the progress of your organization.
Progress depends on the successful management of those tensions.
The key question must become is this a problem to solve or a tension to manage.
LEADERS MUST BE COMFORTABLE WITH TENSIONS!
The role of leadership is to leverage tensions to the benefit of the organization.
BJ Rutledge 