Day 2, Session 1a – Thinking Forward: Third Culture Leadership (Dave Gibbons)
Living Third Culture means adaptation, painful adaptation. The mindset and will to love, learn, and serve in a culture regardless of the pain you encounter.
Third Culture Leader:
1. They focuses on the fringe, on the misfit more than the masses
a. Margins lead movements
b. Go for early adopters – Jobs/Apple understand this
c. The masses don’t lead us, the fringes do
d. Vision should start on the fringes and work toward leadership
2. They have a different set of metrics (How do you define success?)
a. Not “Up and to the right” on an X-Y axis. This is an illusion
b. “Failure is success to God” Failures and weaknesses are gifts from God
c. Weakness will guide you
d. How do we quantify vision?
i. Love God. Love your neighbor.
ii. Relationships trump vision
iii. Fewer visionaries and more relationaries
e. People say “It’s not about the building; it’s about what happens inside the building.” Not true. Maybe it’s about what happens outside the building.
3. They make priority shifts
a. Rather than sermon prep, leadership development
b. Now spends only 5-8 hrs on weekend services
c. Hang out with people who are not like you, read things you don’t agree with
d. Multiple domains brings great illumination
e. Design / space shifts
f. Don’t franchise, allow indigenous leadership
4. They understand obedience, obedience is more important than passion
a. The do things even when they don’t ‘feel’ it
b. Acts of obedience
i. Deeper collaboration – with other congregations
ii. Communal living, in a house or in a neighborhood
iii. Prayer – do we REALLY believe in the power of the HS
iv. Radical sacrifice for the outsider
“If we live this out, the world will see our great God.”
