45 Leadership Quotes and Lessons from Velocity 2014

In an effort to add value to church leaders, The Rocket Company is attending the Velocity 2014 Conference and will be live-blogging throughout the event.  For anyone involved in church planting, this is a can’t-miss event.

Dave Ferguson, Lead Pastor of COMMUNITY in Chicago, and Shawn Lovejoy, Lead Pastor of Mountain Lake Church, opened with incredible messages on pace and sustainable ministries.  The following are 45 Leadership Quotes And Lessons From Dave Ferguson and Shawn Lovejoy – that every pastor and church leader can learn from.

 Dave Ferguson

1. Pastors have one of the four hardest jobs in the world – alongside the President of the United States, president of a university, and president of Hospice.
2. It is easy for us to get to a place where our lives can get absolutely out of control.
3. What happened to him (Jimmy Swaggert) can happen to anyone of us.
4. Out of control people have friendships that are less than accountable…Out of control people tell themselves, “It’s going to get better if I can just get through this week.”
5. If you’ve blown it at home, you’ve blown it.
6. If my relational gauge is right I always have time for my kids.
7. We’re here to have fun but it’s more fun when we win.
8. I also have time to date my wife.
9. Out of control leaders stretch their waking hours…eat on the run…not only do you become relationally soft you become physically soft.
10. The veteran leaders I admire most are good stewards of their body.
11. Out of control leaders don’t read, don’t doubt and don’t explore new ideas.  Out of control leaders don’t have time to dream.
12. When my mental gauge is right I have time to dream.
13. You have to have time to exercise your imagination.
14. If it’s true leaders are learners, what are you learning?
15. Out of control leaders reduce their margins for what used to be sin.
16. If I had one wish it would be every person hear from God at least one time per day.
17. Two things can take me out – pride and lust.
18. I have to be in community.  I’m in a small group.  I lead a small group of regular people.
19. I have to spend time with lost people.
20.  As leaders we will all reproduce who we are.

 Shawn Lovejoy

1. In ministry we’re always running.
2. Not everyone who runs wins.
3. It’s not enough to run.  We have to run to win.
4. Winning requires running the right race at the right pace.
5. If you got in the ministry for a 8-5 job, it doesn’t work that way.
6. Runners who win go into strict training.
7. We all love gameday…It’s another thing to go back to that stadium after gameday and train, sweat and strain muscles to go and improve.
8. Training requires self-discipline.
9. I am concerned by a trend I see in ministry with young leaders in we want the fame of gameday without the pain of training.
10. Church planters, they all want to plant and harvest on the same day.
11. Conferences are overrated.  Conferences doesn’t fix people or grow people.
12. Some conference junkies will never win because they’re not training to win.
13. We don’t just pray, burn incense and drink coffee.  We work.
14. Runners who win don’t wait for the ideal conditions to run.
15. Athletes train to win the race.
16. God’s promise is if we train now, we’ll win later.
17. If we’re not faithful now why would God trust us with more?
18. I may have fallen down but I’m going to get up.  I’m going to train and I’m going to win.
19. You always look like you’re winning on Twitter.
20.  If we try to run our race at someone else’s pace we’re going to lose.
21. My greatest temptation in ministry every single day for 14 days is to substitute what I’m doing for God for my time with God.
22. Do I trust God enough to run at His pace?
23. Faithfulness is more important than fruitfulness.
24. Someone who pushes you past your limits is a good friend.
25. How do we win?  We take our eyes off everything but Him.

Keep checking back as we will be posting more leadership insights over the next two days.