In my last reluctant leader blog I promised one more Ed quote. (That would be Dr Dr Ed Stetzer, church planting guru extraordinaire.)
Here it is:
“Good ideas don’t come from the center, but from the periphery. Good leaders listen to and pull ideas from the periphery to the center. If the center becomes adversarial with the edge, good ideas are lost and good people on the periphery are eventually lost.”
This edge/center principle equally applies whether you are leading a business, a church, a small group, a department of volunteers (ushers, kids church, worship team), or a church movement.
Here are some creative leaders—idea generators—who are or were on the periphery.
– Jack Hayford was the creative radical of the Foursquare denomination twenty-five years ago. He was the edge. Now Pastor Jack, King’s College, and Church on the Way are the center of the Foursquare movement.
– Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven model was not exactly the center for traditional Southern Baptists fifteen years ago. Now his ideas are gradually being pulled from the edge closer to the center.
– Ed Young Jr and Andy Stanley are more recent versions of Baptist leaders on the edge whose methods will eventually become the center.
– Gary Lamb and a host of other untucked blogging Baptist church planters are still periphery guys, but as their numerical success becomes known, everyone will try untucking their shirts and writing blogs as the latest can’t-lose church growth strategy.
Here are a couple examples from my own church, Victory in Metro Manila, Philippines.
– When Luther Mancao started preaching (and doing) that “cell church” stuff in 1990, it fell on deaf ears (mine). But as he kept giving me books and teaching and demonstrating small group discipleship, his ideas eventually found their way from the edge to the center.
– When Ferdie Cabiling returned from South America four years ago with this crazy idea for Victory Weekends, it was definitely an idea from the edge. Now it is as center as can be.
– Joey Bonifacio has ideas from the edge on a daily basis. That’s one reason our church keeps on growing.
The list could go on and on, but since this blog is not sponsored by Eveready, it will not.
So what’s the point?
To me, the point is that I need to listen to and try to understand those creative and radical people who live and work on the periphery of my staff, my church, and my movement. Many of these ideas from the edge are a hundred times better then anything we are currently doing.
Then again, some creative ideas are just plain nuts, but we’ll never really know until we listen.
(Speaking of nuts, check out my latest blog American Athletic Superiority on my accidental missionary multiply site.)