Andy Stanley is a name that is fairly well known in Christian leadership circles. He is senior pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, GA. He has authored a number of books, is a sought-after speaker, and leads thousands of others through his church and ministry organizations. With all of this, he attributes much of his leadership success to the clarity he gets from a simple 3×5 index card on which he wrote three questions many years ago.
I have talked a lot in my posts about being mentored and learning from others. I think continuous learning is a critical part of being a leader and anyone who has stopped learning will not be leading much longer. However, there can be an easily overlooked danger in this that I want to address.
If you have access to the internet, then you literally have access to more leaders than you can count. You can read books and blogs or watch videos and webinars on virtually any subject or topic you choose. There is a virtually endless supply of wisdom out there to be gleaned.
Even if you narrow your search down to Christian business leaders, it would not be very difficult to find more material than you can absorb in a year. Quite simply, there is not a shortage of opportunities for learning or gaining wisdom in the world today.
I have been overwhelmed at times with the abundance of godly wisdom that is available. In fact, there have been times where I have been reading two or three different books or blogs at one time. While it can sometimes get confusing, I have enjoyed the variety.
So what exactly is the danger that we need to avoid?
How can continuous learning cause us trouble?
These are good questions, but before I answer them I want to take a look at an example from Scripture. In the following passage, Peter steps into a danger zone. It is this area that I want to discuss.
After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up on a high mountain by themselves to be alone. He was transformed in front of them, and His clothes became dazzling—extremely white as no launderer on earth could whiten them. Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it’s good for us to be here! Let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”— because he did not know what he should say, since they were terrified.
A cloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud:
This is My beloved Son;
listen to Him!Then suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus alone.
Mark 9:2-8
Did you catch the danger area for Peter? Look back at what Peter said about building three tabernacles for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. What was wrong with that? Why should we consider this a danger zone?
I am not sure it is really clear until you read further and see how God responded. Read again what He says to them – “This is My beloved Son; listen to Him!”
I believe that Peter was in awe over seeing Moses and Elijah. As a Jew, Peter saw these two guys as legendary men of faith. God worked incredible miracles through them and their lives were studied in depth by Jewish children as they came up in the synagogue.
For Americans, this would be like suddenly meeting George Washington and Ben Franklin. For students of business, the equivalent might be Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller. Athletes might compare this to meeting Babe Ruth and Jim Thorpe.
I think you get the idea, but maybe the danger is still unclear.
Think about it. Peter is clearly enamored with meeting these two legends and immediately wants to do something to show his excitement. Rather than thinking it through, he blurts out the first thing that comes to mind – to build three tabernacles or shelters for the tow of them and Jesus.
This is when God steps in and speaks. It is not often that God does this so we need to pay attention when He does. We should immediately realize that there is something important for us to learn here.
When God speaks, He makes it known that Jesus is His Son and that Peter (and the others) should listen to Him. Why did He do this?
What Peter did not realize was that while Moses and Elijah were great men, they were not great enough to be put on par with Jesus! Even though Peter should have been in awe of their presence, he should have been that much more in awe over being in the presence of Jesus, the Son of God! I don’t think it is coincidental that as soon as God said this, Jesus is the only one still standing there.
Too often, like Peter, we get caught up in who is the latest leader or guru in our industry. We want to read the latest book on business by the most recent author to rise to the top of his area of expertise. We even take pride in telling people what we have read and who we are learning from.
Unfortunately, the danger is in the possibility of putting these people on par with Jesus. Even worse, we might be putting them ahead of Jesus! And while God is not using his booming voice to shock us back into the right mindset, passages like the one above should make it obvious that we are out of line.
Peter got caught up in the moment and went too far in showing honor to Moses and Elijah. We often do the same when we stop seeking our wisdom from Jesus, replacing Him with whoever it is that intrigues us at the moment.
To avoid this danger, we all need to make sure we build a foundation of learning from Jesus through consistent Bible study and prayer. We need to allow the wisdom from God’s Word to be our first and most important source of wisdom – whether it is for our business, job, or family. He should be first.
From there, there is no danger in adding godly wisdom from other sources as well. We just need to remember to keep this other wisdom in perspective, comparing it to Scripture and only applying that which matches what we read there.
Have you been guilty of putting others on par with Jesus?
Can you see the danger of doing this?
How do you make sure Jesus is your foundation first?
In business, we all know that continuous learning is crucial to our team’s success. I don’t think there is anyone in a leadership position that would argue against continuous learning. We probably all require it for every team member we have. My question is this…are you committed to it for yourself?
Too many times, we as leaders neglect our own need for continuous learning. We do this for a number of reasons. Some say that they are simply too busy. Others may complain that they cannot afford the cost. Another group may argue that they really don’t need it.
Whatever the reasons, continuous learning is not always a prioritized part of a leader’s schedule. Folks, when this is true it is a tragedy. Take a look at the following verse from Proverbs.
The mind of the discerning acquires knowledge,
and the ear of the wise seeks it. – Proverbs 18:15
I think this is clear advice – directing all of us to seek knowledge. The problem is that we often only apply this advice to those we lead. For the reasons listed above, we fail to apply it to ourselves.
I would argue that continuous learning is more important for the leader than it is for the rest of the team. If the leader is not learning, then the team’s performance over time will decline. In some industries this is more true than others, but I believe it is true to some degree in all industries.
Take a look below at some reasons for leaders to commit themselves to continuous learning. As you read through the reasons, see if you think they speak to your situation.
Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list, but I think there are enough reasons to make the point. As Christian leaders, we should be committed to continuous learning. We should seek it as a top priority, not as an afterthought.
For me, this is not terribly difficult because I enjoy learning from a variety of sources. I personally make sure that I am always reading books, viewing webinars, listening to podcasts and sermons, and attending various seminars and conferences. I try to do this on a regular basis.
As I have talked about in recent posts, this has been more difficult for me as of late due to some turnover in our business. As a result, I did not spend as much time learning over that 90 day window. These things happen and we have to adapt.
At the same time, I made sure that I returned to this priority as quickly as I could. In fact, over the past 30 days, I have been fortunate enough to attend two very productive conferences. I wish I could express how incredibly helpful these conferences were for me. All I can say is that the time I spent at each will be bearing fruit for quite some time.
The first was an invitation-only summit among dealers and vendors in our industry. The main topic for this summit was critical to the success of our business. I mention the invitation to make the point that the opportunity actually came to us BEFORE we were ready for it.
When the invitation arrived, we had not yet made the crucial hires we needed to make for our business and we were severely short-handed! I was not even certain the hires would be made by them time the summit rolled around. At the same time, our commitment to continuous learning made accepting the invitation an easier decision.
In order to keep my mind on our Christian ministry in the business, I try to balance the learning. The second conference was Catalyst in Atlanta just last week. Unlike the summit, this conference was all about Christian leadership. The slate of speakers was mind-boggling and listening to them one-after-another felt like drinking from a fire hose!
All I could do was to furiously take notes and make plans to distill them into action plans at a later time. I will do this over the next few weeks as I work to lay out my LIFE plan for next year. I will also be using much of this material for future posts on this blog!
I mention this to make my final point. Knowledge without application is useless. Consider these words from James:
But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
– James 1:22
Folks, as I have said above, it is a tragedy for leaders to stop learning. The same is true for learning without doing!
I encourage you to be a leader that is fully committed to continuous learning AND one that converts what you learn into action. Don’t fall prey to allowing the urgent replace the important. Neither should you become a full-time student that never acts on your learning.
How strong is your commitment to continuous learning?
What keeps you from continuous learning?
What action step should you take on something you recently learned?