What's Best Next

This is part of the series Catalyst 2013.

This was a fantastic message by Any Stanley to kick off Catalyst today. Here are my notes.

The theme of Catalyst this year is Known. So Andy Stanley’s message is: Known Survivor: Surviving Your Appetite for Known.

Now with social media we know that everyone, including your grandmother, has an appetite to be known.

One thing about an appetite is that if you feed it, it grows; and, it is never fully satisfied.

The Desire to be Known

You have in you an appetite to be known

You will never hear “I have enough friends, followers and mentions; my church is large enough; we don’t want any more campuses; I’ve sold enough books.”

If you get this wrong, it will make you weird! Sometimes the appetite can get so big it tips you over.

How do you survive your appetite for known?

It’s not from numbers. There is no amount of known that will satisfy your appetite to be known.

Almost titled the message “How Known is Known Enough?”

“Some of you are saying ‘I don’t struggle with this, but I’m sure glad my senior pastor is here to hear this.'”

But it’s in all of us to want to be known.

Even when you’re preaching, you can be thinking at the same time “Is she texting or taking notes? Does she have an emergency or does she just not like my message?”

You can’t help this. So what do you do with it?

Especially since there is no amount of “known” that will fully satisfy anyone.

The Laws of Applause

Part of this is the because of the “Laws of Appluase.” (“I just made this up.”)

1. What’s applauded as exceptional the first time will be expected the next time.

Exceptional becomes expectional.

A lot of leaders get derailed right here.

2. Applause is intoxicating.

Those most applauded for feel most entitled to.

“I’m just not sure about senior pastors having reservied parking spots.” [Amen!!!] This is an entitlement. And the worst thing about a reserved parking spot is that it’s a public entitlement.

You don’t have to give in to this!

Haven’t you seen this wreck people’s careers? Wreck people’s churches?

3. Applause is addictive

If you get it once, you want it again. You can start looking for it, manufacturing it.

It is here that you can become a victim of “known.”

Known and the Challenge of Leadership

Here is the real challenge for Catalyst leaders: To lead, you must be known. So the solution can’t be “I’m going to become a hermit and stop leading.” As a leader, you’ve actually been called to be known. You’ve been called out into the spotlight. God wants you to use your skills, be published, have churches use your curriculum, and have your church grow. To lead means you have to be known.

The question is: How do we keep it from ruining us? How do you avoid becoming a victim of hte laws of applause.

The good news is that we aren’t the first generation to deal with this.

So let’s look at John the Baptist.

Surviving Your Appetite for Being Known

There is an amazing statement John the Baptist makes that gives us a clue about how to survive being known.

Mark tells us that thousands of people came to hear John the Baptist, potentially tens of thousands. And it was not an easy place to get to where he preached. Suddenly he went from obscurity to everyone in the region hearing him speak or on their way. He is a phenomenon. He is known.

The word gets back to Jerusalem. So the Pharisees send some folks and people ask “are you the Messiah?” And he says no, and not the prophet either. So they say “who are you?” And he quotes from Isaiah “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘make straight the way for the Lord.'” In other words, “I’m just a sign.”

Then the next day Jesus comes, and John says: “Look.”

The next day John saw Jesus passing by again, and he said “Look.” Then John lost two followers–they followed Jesus. Things are starting to decline, right?…

Some came to John and said “Rabbi, that man [Jesus], the one you testified about, he is baptizing.” As if to say, “What is he doing? You’re the baptizer. This is your deal. What’s he thinking? He’s stealing your show. And he’s even going multi-site, because he’s got his disciples baptizing too. And everyone is going to him.”

The statement John makes here is huge. He says: “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven.” John would say to them, and say to us, is: “The reason I’m known; the reason for the crowds, is because God has given me this opportunity for this time. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Relax. It wasn’t me who made me known, and I’m not known for the sake of being known. God had a purpose in it, it wasn’t my idea, and now my time is up.”

Note the “only”! Heaven decides all things.

John survived extraordinary “knownness” because he understood what is often a cliche with us: “I am known in order to make him known.” The moment you focus on the amount of known, your history. You are known to make him known.

Surviving known, then, is this: Remember who it’s _from_, and remember who it’s _for_.

A great word from Andy about his dad, Charles Stanely: “One thing I’ve never seen in my dad is arrogance. He’s 81 and doing book tours right now! He’s always been known. And I’ve never seen him arrogant.” When people would ask him why not, he would say “because I know that God could cut it off in a minute.”

Your appetite for known will never be satisfied by a number. Only a name. A _who_, not a _how_ or a _how many_.

There is no number of friends, followers, fans, campuss, books sold, songs sold that can satisfy you. John the Baptist got it right: it’s a name, a who, not a how many.

The solution is to live for an audience of One.

Andy then gives a great story of the time he preached for the president, and received a personal, hand written thank you.

So, what if Jesus was telling the truth in all his parables, and in all his teaching, like the parable of the talents, and there is a moment when we open the envelop at the end of days, and open an envelop from Jesus saying “well done. You don’t let ‘known’ screw you uo. You never forgot who it was from or who it was for.” Shouldn’t this fuel inject, energize everything we do in ministry and life?

So: preach hard, work hard, go multi-site, publish, lead extraordinary worship, and do everything in your power to leverage your talent, and continue to always remember who it is from and who it is for. Never forgot that it’s from the one who _knew you first_ and knows you _best_, and has given you a stewardship of knownness for the sake of making him known.

This is part of the series Catalyst 2013.

I am in the pre-conference lab right now, “Just Lead! A Survival Guide for Women Leaders and Those Who Lead Them.”

If it seems strange that I’m in a a workshop for women leaders, let me clarify that this is by accident! I tried to go to John Acuff’s session and couldn’t find it. So, having gotten back late from lunch, I jumped into this session because it’s the next one I saw and I know that the presenters are top notch.

This lab is led by Jenni Catron, executive director at Cross Point Church, and Sherry Surratt, CEO of MOPS International. Together, they are authors of Just Lead!: A No Whining, No Complaining, No Nonsense Practical Guide for Women Leaders in the Church.

Here are two of the key points, which are fantastic. First, “you can lead well, or you can lead alone. But you can’t do both.” Well said.

Second, as most of us have experienced, insecure leaders are among the hardest to work for. Sherry gave a great summary of why this is so:

Insecure leaders try to control everything. They avoid risk. They are closed in their relationships. They don’t hire 10s, because they are afraid the 10 will outshine them. They fail to affirm and empower others. Insecure leaders create environments of insecurity.

There is probably nothing that will limit your leadership like insecurity. And insecurity leads to fear, and makes you think small.

When people pretend, they over compensate, and other people see through it.

Excellent points.
For more on insecurity in leadership, and what to do about it, check out John Maxwell’s article: Why Insecure Leaders are So Bad.

This is part of the series Catalyst 2013.

I’m a huge fan of good usability. Whenever I work on a website or consult on web strategy, the core principle I advocate for is making the site as easy to use as possible. Further, this should be our mindset not only with websites, but with everything. For at the end of the day, it’s hard for your product or service or experience to help people if they find it confusing.

Creating good usability is actually a leadership task, because the essence of what leaders do is create clarity. Good usability makes things clear for people, and therefore is actually a form of good leadership.

That’s why the minute I walked in to the arena here today at Catalyst, I felt right at home. Everywhere around the arena they have people like the guy below holding up signs that say “need help?” If you need to figure out where to go, or where you can find a can of Diet Coke, or where to register, there’s no guessing. Just ask one of these people.

That is awesome. You can’t get any more clear than that. And, best of all, this is a model of good leadership right where you would expect it — at a leadership conference. Leaders make things clear. And here at Catalyst, what this shows me is that that task of leadership is evident not just in the speakers and teaching, as important as that is, but right down to the details of finding your way around.

Love it. That’s an example to learn from.

This is part of the series Catalyst 2013.

I’ll be live blogging Catalyst today through Friday. The labs are today, and the main sessions are tomorrow and Friday.

I’ll shoot to post a summary of each session, highlighting some key points and giving some of my reflections.

For those who are headed to Catalyst this week, here are 16 things you need to know to help you make the most of it from Brad Lomenick’s blog.

To keep up with things, stay tuned to my blog, follow me on Twitter, and follow Catalyst on twitter.