LeaderShape DFW 08

The Chronicles of LeaderShape


"Saturday, December 13, 2008

First day of Leadershape. I guess that I don't really have many expectations for this conference since I've never been to a secular leadeship conference before. The only leadership trainings that I have gone through have been based on God and His principles. It will be a difference experience to go through a leadersip training from a secular point of view.

Will they tell me to rely on myself and my own strength all the time? I'm interested to see what it may be like and what God will teach me through this experience.



Sunday, December 14, 2008

Today has been a good and long day. It's only been a day, but I feel like I've already been here with this group for a week. I love our family cluster small group that we can open up in and have deep conversations with.

Team Challenge Ropes Course wasn't as physical and challenging as I would have liked, but it was a great opportunity to see leaders in action. It definately brought out aspects of people that show what areas need work. When you get a group of leaders together and give them a task, be ready to let the sparks fly. There were about 6 macho guys in my group who were all outspoken, dominating leaders who tried to tell everyone else what to do. There were too many people talking and not enough people listening. Sometimes leaders need to learn when t just be quiet and let other people lead so that the team can get something done.

Watched the sunset over the lake. It was beautiful.

I’ve been having some good conversations with different people. Even if I may not influence them or change their views, I know that God has brought all this together for a reason, whether to plant a seed or just to get me to pray for them.

Dear God,
I pray for these certain people that you have laid on my heart. I think you for the opportunities that you have given me to interact with them and listen to them tell their stories. I pray that you would show them your love and send your Holy Spirit to convict them that they need you. Thank you for loving them.
Love, Me.



Monday, December 15, 2008

Morning session was about building balloon castles. Lesson learned from that activity was that you can’t combine once you’ve already started building from your own visions unless the group comes together and creates a new vision as a team. When we tried to take what we built from our separate individual visions and mesh it together, all we got was a big blob and wasted resources.

In family clusters we wrote out what we’re passionate about and what we want to build for the future.

Lesson learned from chaos and change was that leaders need to be working alongside the team in order for the team to feel like the leader can relate to them and for the team to accept feedback. Also, even if you ask for feedback, the environment might not be one that is conducive to open comments and voices may be silenced.

We had to take our passions and future goals and turn them into a vision statement. This was really hard for me to do because the vision statement had to be a really broad statement about the future end result of my work.

My life revolves around loving and serving God and furthering His kingdom. For me, life is all about God. God’s plan for me is to further His kingdom because He tells us to be His witnesses throughout the world and to make disciples of all nations. My vision is to follow that commend.

But when I wrote my statement, I couldn’t say that my end goal is to “convert everyone to my religion” because that is as offensive as it is false, so I ended up writing something really vague.

We had to put them on the wall and go around and comment on everyone’s vision statement. I was really frustrated about the results of this activity because I feel like I censured myself. What I wrote didn’t explain exactly what I want to do, but I feel like I couldn’t write how I truly felt because my real passion is to love God and serve Him only."


After that, it got so busy that I didn't find time to journal...

LeaderShape was an amazing experience. Although I didn’t learn a lot of book knowledge, the practical challenges, experiences, and simulations showed me a lot. I discovered aspects of myself that I did not know before, and I learned what kind of leadership works in certain situations and what kind is destined for disaster. I learned a lot about interpersonal relationships and how to communicate effectively with different people. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at LeaderShape. It was a whole lot of fun, and I think it was definitely worth it.