I got to thinking after my post yesterday that leaders really are readers.  They are readers of lots of things.  I thought of at least 4 things leaders read:

LEADERS READ THEIR OWN HEART
This is easier said than done.  On the one side, Proverbs 4:23 challenges us to guard our heart above all else, for it is the epicenter of our life.  However, Proverbs 26:12 says that only a fool is wise in their own heart.  So, put those two verses together and you have a necessary leadership task that no leader can do on their own.  Thus, wise leaders looking out for the dangers of pride, self-righteousness, and false motivation, but are also smart enough to know they need some outside voices to help identify them.

LEADERS READ LITERATURE
Leaders read.  They intuitively know they don’t have leadership nailed and that the wisest thing they can do is learn from others. So leaders realize there is a massive wealth of these lessons in print form.  So they read. Everything. Leaders learn from the successes and failures of others recorded in old school books, magazines, and various online/digital formats… like blogs… like this one. HA!!

LEADERS READ CULTURE
As a youth pastor, this one is constantly in my face.  People are always telling us that we need to be more of a student of teen culture and immerse ourselves in it so that we can relate to their world.  But that is not what I’m saying leaders do- not even youth pastors.  I’m saying that leaders realize they always operate inside a unique culture, regardless of where they go.  We have a national culture, a san diego culture, and church or workplace culture… etc.   Wise leaders learn to read their culture so they can speak accurately and profoundly in it.

LEADERS READ AUDIENCES
This is an art.  But mastery of it is one the things that separates good leadership from great leadership in my opinion.  When a leader is communicating or even listening, they are also analyzing.  They do this when the audience is one person or 5000 people. They are always analyzing non-verbals, environment, audience participation, laughter, emotion, and so much more. The greatest leaders are the one who can not only rightly identify what an audience is communicating back, but respond on the fly to their changing needs as a result.

There’s my four.  What else do you think leaders read?

I don’t know who coined the phrase “leaders are learners”, but it is an axiom I try and embody.  I think all great leaders are not only people who others follow, but they are people who strive to continue to be better at leading.  For those who want to lead in the church, this is essentially a non-negotiable in my opinion. I believe that a leader who stops learning, stops leading.

To this end, I have tried numerous leadership contexts for developing my own leadership.  All have their strengths and weaknesses.

BOOKS: “Leaders are readers” is also a true axiom. I believe that a key way to be mentored is to read the writings of leaders from multiple genres.  The problem is, no matter how well they are written, they’re a one way communication device.  I can’t interact with the author as I read, respond to his or her with disagreements, or ask clarifying questions of leadership premises.

CLASSES: I have taken several formal leadership classes from accredited institutions. I have read required reading, written papers on the subject, and logged hundreds of hours toward the goal.  Sometimes they are helpful.  Most of the time, the prof and/or material we discuss does not seem to see them through the lens of a $200 per session seminars that I do.  But their biggest problem for me is that their curriculum is based on an academic goal or requirement that may or may not produce a practical result in my own leadership context.

SEMINARS AND CONFERENCES: My most common and sought after leadership context is the seminar format.  I still go to them and I still love them. (I even teach at them) They allow me to get close to some leaders I could not financially afford to connect with on a one-on-one leadership level. It’s in a topic the attendees self-selected themselves for and therefore is often surrounded in a learning context that lends itself to camaraderie and common goals. But they can be like “drinking from a fire hose”.  Too much info crammed into too short a time.  So much so that if I’m honest, much of it gets lost.  Also, in as much as I can taylor my schedule of what I want to go to, I rarely if ever get to decide what content goes into the menu as a whole.

But, my most recently leadership learning was really not any of those categories.  In many ways, it was the best of all 3.  It was the Youth Ministry Coaching Program that Mark Oestreicher launched this last year and that 9 of us joined.  I don’t say this lightly, or because Marko is my friend, but it seriously was by far, “THE MOST EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP TRAINING ENVIRONMENT I’VE EVER BEEN IN.”

Here’s 4 reasons why I’m not just using hyperbole:

• IT’S CUSTOM DESIGNED: the overall content, the dates of our meetings, and even the agenda each month was spoken into by the constituents.  So I got to custom design the content, my presentations, and my homework to what I needed for my life and my ministry. 
• IT’S EASILY TRANSFERRABLE: since you’re meeting every 2 months for 2 days, there is ample information to soak up and ample time to integrate your learnings into life and ministry.  
• IT STRETCHED ME:  yes I spoke into the content, but there was also content spoken into by the facilitator or by others in the group.  The consequence of this is that I was stretched and tugged in ways I would not have normally chosen.  I’m a better leader because of it.
• IT’S HIGHLY RELATIONAL:  no other leadership context I’ve been in (excluding friendships I’ve formed over a decade+ of ministry together)… has produced the level of intimacy, vulnerability, and friendship that this experience did in a year. We literally did life and leadership together.  No conference, class, or book is designed to do that to this degree.  

Today was my first full day home from the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago. This was my second year at the conference and my first year teaching some workshops.  Dang did I have a great time.  I loved connecting with new and old friends from all over the country and even the world.  (I met a guy from Japan and another from Germany contacted me on Twitter- go figure!!)  Anyway, it fills and overflows my heart when something I’m processing or learning in life as a youth pastor can help someone else doing the same thing. That’s awesome and feels like Kingdom teamwork to me.  Love that so much.

I have been calling our family the Berrytribe for over a decade now. I love them.  All of them.  I’m super blessed as a dad. This is my Berrytribe.

But I’ve been spending the last several days with another tribe I’m connected to.  It’s an amazing youth ministry tribe and as a community, they bless me beyond belief and fill my life in so many ways.  It’s a tribe that I have very intentionally invested in, been poured into by, and walked with for almost 17 years now.  It’s a tribe of friends and coworkers that spans the country, from all kinds and sizes of churches, and from a wide array of ages.  We don’t often meet face-to-face, but when we travel to conferences, events, and missions trips to meet up, there is a kindred spirit and good times that fill my soul.

The common thread we share is a dual-sided coin of a love for Jesus and a love for Students.  This weekend I’ve been reminded how dearly I LOVE ministering with and to this tribe at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago.  I have been blessed by the chance to teach some workshops and to be taught.  I have had countless conversations these last few days that have filled my heart and soul.

So to all those who love Jesus and Students, on behalf of our tribe, I want to say THANK YOU!!

• If you’ve ever spent ridiculous amounts of time and money to plan and run a conference to minister to youth workers, THANK YOU.
• If you’ve ever paid money and taken vacation and worked hard to get to a conference so you could grow in your ability to love God and love students, THANK YOU.
• If you’ve ever said no to your student ministry so that you could say yes to your primary ministry of your family, THANK YOU.
• If you’ve ever gotten out of bed and fell on your knees because your heart was so torn for a generation that you couldn’t sleep and you had to pray for the students in your care, THANK YOU.
• If you’ve ever volunteered to lead a small group, a large group, drive a bus, bring some food, open your home, or just be present in the life of a teen, THANK YOU.
• If you’ve ever taken seriously the call of God on your life as a parent to raise a child into a God-honoring young adult, THANK YOU.
• If you’ve ever encouraged a student and looked into their eyes as you said “I believe in you and I believe God has got a great plan for you. I see God in you”, then THANK YOU. 
• If you’ve ever been so hurt and so wounded by your church or ministry that you wanted to just throw in the towel and quit, but somehow you are still in the game, THANK YOU.
• If you’ve ever taught a seminar, or led music, or acted out skits to encourage a youth worker’s heart and inspire their own soul, THANK YOU.
• If you’ve ever seen the potential in today’s generation of young adults and intentionally taken the time to mentor and invest in them to be all that God has made them to be, THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU my youth ministry tribe!!  My life is richer, my heart is fuller, and my passion is deeper because of you.  You are my friends. You are my mentors and comrades. I would not be who I am today if it was not for you.  So from the bottom of my soul, THANK YOU!

This is not a new question.  But it is still relevant.  

“In a sense, what was at stake in the controversy over Pietism was whether the Christian faith should simply serve to sanction common morality, or should rather call believers to a different sort of life. Orthodox preaching took for granted that God requires of believers nothing more than correct doctrine and a decent life.  The Pietists insisted on the contrast between what society expects of its members and what God requires of the faithful.  This has always been an uncomfortable challenge for a comfortable church.” p. 261