Leading Daily Online

ELC day two saw participants split into seven smaller groups for all day intensive workshops. It was a day to focus and really study leadership practices in the church and marketplace.

On the sixth floor, the Ortbergs, from Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California, started off the morning with the hilarious account of how they first met – through a blind date where John had to get Nancy’s contact through her mother! The crowd was roaring with laughter.

Taking turns yet speaking as one cohesive unit, John and Nancy Ortberg emphasized the importance of unity in teams. How many churches are in this conference? One Church. The Bible also constantly talks about the believers being “one.”

Sadly, “Community gets broken by sin. Sin is the enemy of community,” said John. And there are five pitfalls that plague dysfunctional teams: the absence of trust, fear of conflict, avoidance of commitments, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. The Ortbergs talked about how teams can overcome each weakness.

For example, Nancy shared a story from her own personal life of how her youth leader impacted her by encouraging her, and at times gently pointing out her mistakes. Through it all, she discovered what she was good at and what she was not. This is an example of how a leader builds trust in an organization. And in doing so, the team members will learn to trust the leader and one another.

Dan Chun’s session was both lively and interactive. The audience could often be seen and heard interacting with the Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu.

In the comfortable and personable setting, Dan shared about the setbacks and miracles he encountered in moving the church to a God-given 242 hectare land. His listeners appreciated him for his honest sharing.

Throughout the session, Dan kept emphasizing the fact that we need to “work on humility as our prime virtue for leadership.” He stressed that as team members realize leaders are truly humble, they will understand that the leader is not doing things for personal gain or glory.

Said Winston Chong from Singapore, “This session is very inspiring and awesome. A testimony of how God moved them from a small church building to a large one. I’m looking forward to hear about the challenges they faced in bringing about the change. It brings to light the practical topic of change as an issue in our lives and how we as Christians can manage them.”

Together with his insightful teaching, Dan’s candid talk brought enlightenment and joy to his hearers.

The session on Building a Strong Church Staff and Board Relationship by Prof Freddy Boey, Rev Vincent Lun, and Dr Andrew Goh was similarly direct and frank. The three speakers from Riverlife Church wanted to be as open and honest as possible, in order to help the audience understand the struggles and joys involved in church staff and board relationships.

There was much questioning by the audience (made up of mainly church staff or board members). Rev Vincent expertly handled questions that were raised to him, sharing tidbits of wisdom from his own leadership journey. For instance, he was thankful to his church board for giving him the freedom to lead and make mistakes. After all, which leader does not make mistakes? It is important for the board not to jump on the pastor’s mistake, but rather to help the pastor through those times.

He also shared about how a team can argue all it wants inside a meeting, but once a decision is made – all members must be on board with the decision and fully support it.

Dr Freddy and Rev Vincent’s unity was also encouraging to witness.

Dr. Andrew Goh’s light-hearted comments, that poked fun at the idiosyncrasies of life, brought much laughter to the participants. As a marketplace industry leader, his teachings provided many real-life examples.

One floor below them, Sam Lam was having a great time spurring his group to become better coaches. Said Chew Why Hoong from Penang, Malaysia, “The way he presented and the things he said has inspired me to realize that coaching can be fun!” It’s fun indeed whenever the energetic Sam Lam is in the room!

His class was full of practical tips for the audience. He said that in coaching, we need to learn to push comfortable people out of their comfort zone and comfort hurting people. His sessions were also full of group activities to help the audience role-play; this helped them to apply what they learn. Not only that, it helped the participants to get to know one another better.

Overall, together with workshops from Dr John Ng, Paul McGee and the Scazzeros, it was one fruitful and meaningful day for all involved. Thank God for so many gifted teachers in His Kingdom!