This summer, Andrew Wommack Ministries and Charis Bible College have the privilege of welcoming John C. Maxwell as our keynote speaker for the 2021 Kingdom Business Summit, live and in-person!
Maxwell is a number one New York Times bestselling author, speaker, coach, and leader who has sold more than thirty-three million books. He has been called the number one leader in business and the world’s most influential leadership expert. His organizations—The John Maxwell Company, The John Maxwell Team, EQUIP, and The John Maxwell Leadership Foundation—have trained millions of leaders from every nation.
Have you ever heard how Maxwell stepped into his God-given calling to train leaders? Below, he shares his story and what he learned during this time of transition in his life. All of the principles he teaches are based in the Word. This is only a taste of what you will receive at the Summit! Click here to purchase your tickets for the Summit, this June 16–18 at Charis Bible College in Woodland Park, Colorado!
Leadership, Values and Transformation
By John C. Maxwell
I still remember the moment that my life changed. It was forty-five years ago. I stood on an outdoor stage leading a worship service celebrating America’s Bicentennial—July 4, 1976. As I spoke to a crowd of around three thousand people, I sensed from God an overwhelming call to not just lead people myself, but to train leaders.
After the service, as my wife Margaret and I drove home, I told her about that moment on stage. I told her that the calling to train leaders was bigger than I understood and went beyond just pastoral ministry. It was a calling that I knew would change my life—our life—forever.
“What are you going to do about it?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “I’m going to wait and see how this plays out.”
Within a week I received calls from pastors all over the country, each one asking me the same thing: Can you train me in leadership?
John C. Maxwell
What I knew about leadership came mostly from my personal experience, so I knew that I would have to hit the books and do some serious thinking about the concept of leadership, what it meant, and how it was best applied. I began thinking about leadership principles and practices that could be taught to others and created leadership systems that others could easily adopt or adapt to their circumstances.
I reinvented myself and, in the process, discovered not only a passion for the subject of leadership, but the purpose of my life: to add value to leaders who would multiply that value to others.
Now, here I am in my mid-seventies, still teaching about leadership, still learning new principles, new practices, and new possibilities for the ways good leadership makes everything better. I am more convinced than ever that leaders aren’t born, they’re made; it’s a choice to lead, and it’s a choice that many people make without really thinking about it. They hear the word leader and decide that doesn’t apply to them. Nothing could be further from the truth because the simplest definition of leadership is influence—nothing more, nothing less. That means that anyone who wishes to can lead.
But that doesn’t make everyone a good leader. No, good leadership is rooted in good values, in positive beliefs about what makes a person—and the world—better. Values like forgiveness, integrity, generosity, passion, responsibility, self-control, and hard work. When people learn and live out these good values in their daily lives, they develop influence with the people around them, influence that can be used to direct people toward a cause that makes a difference.
That kind of influence is stronger than a title or a position. Someone may call themselves a leader, or they may have a leadership post at work, but that doesn’t make them a leader; it makes them a title holder. You’re not a leader until someone is following your lead, and people naturally follow people who have a positive influence with them. You can lead at work or in your community simply by living out good values and inviting others to join you in doing something worthwhile.
Influence is increased exponentially through service, so when you work alongside those you lead, you amplify and increase your leadership.
John C. Maxwell
It’s a lesson I learned from my greatest leadership influence. I should go ahead and tell you that in all my years of teaching leadership, I readily admit that everything I know about the subject is found in the Bible. Every principle and practice I teach can be traced back to some portion of God’s Word. And it’s in the Bible that my greatest leadership influence—my leadership model—is found. Truly, this person’s life has impacted me more than any other.
That person—that great leader—is Jesus.
After reading the Bible several times over and studying some of the greatest leaders in human history, I can say with all certainty that no one has ever led better than Jesus. He could’ve come as a king, but he chose to come as a servant. He could have dominated through power, but he led through love. He could have marshalled an army, but he mentored a few. And in the ultimate act of love and leadership, he gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins.
Two thousand years after his death, the leadership legacy of Jesus lives on in the lives of Christians who call him Savior and Lord. The church he founded with only twelve disciples now claims more than a billion disciples worldwide. His teachings still shape our thinking to this day and his example is so well known that even people who don’t believe he is the Son of God still hold him up as an example of virtue and character.
When I stood on that stage forty-five years ago, I never imagined that one simple word—leadership—would so beautifully transform my life. And I certainly never imagined how it might transform my world! Yet it has done exactly that: transformed my world, and the world around me. In fact, transformation has become my life’s pursuit because that’s what great leadership yields: transformation.
Anyone can train a leader; transformation requires something greater, something simple, yet more. Transformation is available to anyone who is willing to live and learn good values, value every person, and collaborate with others to make a lasting, positive difference. It’s the leadership principle I want everyone to understand because the ability to change the world is within our grasp.
I am committed to spending the rest of my life (and I expect to live a lot longer) teaching people this principle because it is the key to seeing our world made better. It’s the calling that I heard that July 4, the one I’ve chased ever since. I don’t teach leadership just because I like it; I teach leadership because it’s the key to unlocking a better world for everyone, everywhere.
There is no greater mission that I could have. And thankfully, it’s not a mission that’s mine alone. It’s yours too. To learn more, visit ChangeYourWorld.com and read all about our vision for transformation.
We need you to join us. We need you to lead. It’s your time, and I look forward to joining you on the journey.
John C. Maxwell will be the keynote speaker at the Kingdom Business Summit 2021, taking place June 16–18 at Charis Woodland Park. Visit KingdomBusinessSummit.net to learn more and to purchase your tickets today. You do not want to miss this live, in-person event!
