Recently I listened to a wonderful 10 minute HBR interview with 85-year old leadership guru Warren Bennis. Opening question: What are two or three of the characteristics of really great leaders?

1. Great leaders build great teams. “You can’t win this contest without a lot of help. It ain’t just one man.”

2. Great leaders have good judgment. Great leaders have the ability to select people who have the capacity to get things done AND play well with others in the sandbox.

I am impressed with Warren’s insights into the crucible of war and the crucible of age, sacrifice, generosity, respect and what he calls “leadership grace.”

Warren’s final question was: “If you want to be a great leader, you need to….”

How would you finish that sentence?

I had the wonderful privilege of spending my week near Antalya, Turkey with 170 associates from 37 countries at the MinistryNet09 Conference. Very cool. We immersed ourselves in collaborative workgroups focused on one thing: effectively leveraging the web and social networks to glorify God and help fulfill the Great Commission.

Yesterday an optional outing took us to Perga where Paul and Barnabas “preached the Word” on their first missionary journey as they were returning to Antioch (Acts 14:25). A theater, a sports stadium and the expansive agora market remain visible in the old city center, the long-silent hub of her citizens’ ancient social networks.

As we wandered among the broken columns and fallen stones, I wondered aloud with my friends David and Mark about the lasting value of stuff. Hans joined us for cappuccinos and a robust discussion of church-planting theory and practice as we watched the sun drop into the Mediterranean Sea.

Leadership Lesson: Build Men, not Monuments.

Timothy Geithner, Obama’s – and America’s – new Treasury Secretary, failed to pay more than $34,000 in taxes, which were dubbed “innocent mistakes or technicalities.”

Tom Daschle, nominee for Health and Human Services, just cleared up his “stupid mistake” by paying over $100,000 in back taxes and interest due from 2005 -2007.

God, grant us mercy. Someone once said that people get the leaders they deserve. I say you get what you tolerate. Elected officials who have made these types of “mistakes” in personal management do not bolster my confidence in their ability to oversee $800 billion in financial bailout allocations or new health care plans.

Rewarding public officials with higher office in spite of their obvious disdain for tax law only accelerates our nation’s credibility crisis.

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach…not a lover of money… He must manage his own household well….

Question for aspiring leaders: Where might I be vulnerable to large or small acts of blatant hypocrisy?

From whom did you first hear the terms Win-Build-Send? A pastor? Bible study leader? CCC staff member? Dr. Bill Bright?

I knew these roots ran deep, but I didn’t know how deep until I came across this story….

At the end of his first year in college, John had tired of religious nuts trying to convert him. He transferred to Cornell, an Ivy League school he felt would give him freedom from such people. When he arrived to settle in, who greeted John and helped him with his bags? A group of Christian men.

These guys kept inviting him to their Christian meetings. Finally John relented, just to get them off his back. He snuck in the side door of the meeting room, just in time to hear the speaker, a British sports hero, cry out: “Young man, are you seeking great things for yourself?!” John stood paralyzed, wondering if it was the speaker – or perhaps God – who was speaking to him. “Do not seek them! Seek first the Kingdom of God!”

After a sleepless night, the next morning John tracked down the speaker. He learned that J.E.K. Studd, along with his brother C.T., were famous athletes who were walking away from sports contracts and a family fortune in order to serve as missionaries to China. John was pierced to the heart when he understood the reason for the Studds‘ commitment was due to Christ’s sacrifice. He repented and began to follow Jesus wholeheartedly.

Though Nobel-prize winner John Mott never became a foreign missionary himself, over the next 60 years he would travel round the world multiple times mobilizing student-led movements on behalf of the YMCA and Student Volunteer Movement. One amazing journey lasted from July 1895 to April 1897, covered 60,000 miles and resulted in a fascinating book entitled Strategic Points in the World’s Conquest.

I have in my hands right now an 1897 edition of Mott’s travelogue, where he writes:

“The object of the [World's Student Christian] Federation is most inspiring. It is nothing less than the uniting of the Christian forces of all universities and colleges in the great work of winning the students of the world for Christ, of building them up in Him, and of sending them out into the world to work for Him.”

Yep, you heard it here first.

Did you know?
The Student Volunteer Movement recruited over 100,000 students to the task of world evangelization between its founding in 1886 and World War II.

Last week Ann and I hosted a long-time friend in the journey for dinner and languishing conversation. Holly Sheldon brought with her two gifts, both first-edition books written by missions statesman John R. Mott. I have been captivated by some of Mott’s observations and inquiries on the state of Christianity among college students in 1923. His answers mirror the same conversations I find myself in week after week, seeking to help others differentiate between Christian ministry activity and Christ-centered movements of God. If you’ve found yourself asking those questions, read on.

She left Ireland to serve Christ in Japan at 26 years old. After 15 months she sailed for Sri Lanka, ultimately ending up in India. While there, Amy became deeply burdened by what she saw.

It was 1901 and Amy had just returned from a year of ministry to the villages when she was greeted by a sweet, seven-year-old girl, Preena (or “Pearl Eyes”). She had escaped from the temple and looked to Amy for help. Displeased temple people came screaming and yelling–but slowly their anger subsided and the crowd dispersed. Amy was left with Preena. And so began the work of what would later be known as Dohnavur Fellowship.

When asked by one of her young women, “Amma, what does it mean to be a leader?” Amy Carmichael was heard to reply: “Be the first wherever there is a sacrifice to be made, a self-denial to be practiced, or an impetus to be given.”

OK, call me old-fashioned, but that smells like Christ-centered change-the-world servant leadership to me. The funny thing is, I can’t name many missions organizations or churches that would knowingly allow someone to be sent halfway around the world, to a dangerous place, to start a ministry or a movement, by themselves, today. Can you? Did I mention that Amy remained in India for 55 years, until her death at 83, without a single furlough? The work at Dohnavur continues to this day, over a century later. Check their site.

Have we lost the leadership edge?

What is the edge? INITIATION. Change leadership is all about being the first wherever there is a sacrifice to be made, a self-denial to be practiced, or an impetus to be given.

Question for change agents: Do I see any place to initiate?

Last night I witnessed some excellent old-fashioned leadership at Timber Creek High School’s Awards Night. Following the opening fanfare, principal John Wright rose to introduce the “Leaders of the Pack.” Out of a graduating senior class of 1,000 and a high shool with an enrollment of 4,500, these 16 or so Timber Creek Wolves were selected from among the top 70 recommended by faculty as leaders among their peers.

This is a long post, and well worth our time to digest. John Mott, global Christian statesman and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 for developing volunteer Protestant movements, distills the essence of Christian movement-building for us. If you feel lost in emerging- missional- organic- apostolic- leader/follower-speak, Mott will refresh you.

When Hudson Taylor left England for China 140-odd years ago, the boat ride took 23 weeks. And he went alone. At 21 years old.