- Born May 2, 1844. Elijah McCoy sent to Edinburgh, Scotland to be trained. His family settled in Michigan. He worked at Michigan Central Railroad. The locomotive could only go for a few miles before the wheels would have to be oiled. He invented the McCoy Lubricant Cup. It changed the railroad industry. Counterfeits started rising up but they weren’t good. It led to people asking, “Is this a counterfeit or is this the real McCoy?”
- I find myself asking the same question. Albert, are you a counterfeit or are you the real McCoy? It’s hard to see when you’re at a place like this.
- You start looking at other people and others’ messages and you wonder if you try to become the best version of Craig Groeschel or Mike Todd or Lysa TerKeurst that I can be. You have Mr Strong Arms and Neil Armstrong. How do you go home with all these ideas?
- Leadership isn’t something outside of me that I have to grasp. It’s something inside of me that I have to grow. Leadership is something we be. It needs to flow from authentically within.
- This moment demands that leaders show up to meet it. We don’t have to go find it. We need to grab the authentic leadership that lies within.
- Three leadership essentials that we need to have authentically growing within us.
- Matthew – Jesus goes to the temple where people are supposed to be worshipping. They aren’t worshipping; they’re doing deals marked with injustice toward the poor, the marginalized. They’ve turned worship into a system of injustice. I love this scene because Jesus is angry. I can relate to angry Jesus. He flips over the tables. “This should be a house of prayer. You’ve turned it into a den of thieves. And you systemeticized it.”
- He doesn’t just turn over the tables. He turns over the whole system.
We should be “flipping tables” leaders.
- We should look for systems of injustice and turn them over.
- We should look for places where people should be at the table and they are not and we should flip the table.
- It’s hard to flip a table when you are sitting comfortably at the table. Are you sitting at a table that you should be flipping?
- Who should be at your table and why are they not there?
- Bethany was learning her colors and her church songs. “They forgot purple.” I’m singing a melody that has excluded a color. Let’s ask the question: where’s purple? Are there people that are left out?
- They may live differently than you. They may vote differently than you. Or they sit by themselves in the cafeteria. Look around. Where are those that are missing?
- Do you realize how much change we could make if everyone asked where’s purple?
- Just as I get excited about angry Jesus, he flipped over the table and not people. Sometimes we want to flip people over (or hit them with the table). He flips over systems, not people.
- John – Jesus is about to be crucified. He is hanging with all 12 of his disciples. He knows one will betray him and he’s in the room where it happens. Jesus gets a towel and gets ready to wash his disciples feet. He washes everybody’s feet. This act of compassion, he bestows on everyone, even the one that is about to betray him.
- I struggle with this. “John, let me wash. James, give me that piggie toe. Judas, here’s a sprinkle.”
You have to be a foot washing leader.
- Judas was wrong. Jesus would teach us that just because you are wrong does not mean that you are worthless. Just because you are wrong does not mean that you get cancelled. This cancel culture is not Christian. It’s dangerous. If you didn’t create me, how can you cancel me.
- If Jesus didn’t cancel Judas, I can’t cancel you.
- He’s asking us to wash the feet of both enemies and allies, coaches and critics, those that love my ideas and those that always have something to say about my ideas.
- Who would be surprised by your compassion if you poured it on them? If you showed them deep, loving compassion would be like “Say what?”
- Some of you already know who I am talking about. Forgiveness. Compassion. Jesus was betrayed and still washed Judas’ feet.
- We need leaders to wash the feet of both enemies and allies, people who you get along with and people who get on your last nerve.
- What does it mean to grow authentically within us the ability to show compassion to those we lead?
- Genesis – There is this guy who always gets what he wants, is always winning. His name is Jacob. He wants the birthright. He wants the inheritance. It wasn’t due to him but he wants it. He deceives his father and takes it. He saw this girl and loved her at first sight. A girl named Rachel. He had to work seven years to get her. She’s worth it. Her dad tricked him. He had to work another seven years. He did it.
- Book of Genesis takes a turn. His brother Esau comes. Jacob is scared. One of the worst things that can happen to you is a life of success. Success the wrong way…
- He split his family up because he was scared. The night before, this angel, this divine being, shows up. Jacob’s first response was to wrestle with him. Even with God, he’s wrestling with God. He wants to do it in his own power. He had enough success to have arrogance, hubris. He had no idea what it was like to be wrong. The angel hit him in the hip but Jacob wouldn’t let go. Jacob says, “I’m done, but you’re not.”
- Just because you are done does not mean that God is.
- God is not done with you. If you’re on the verge of giving up, don’t give up. Lift your head up, stick your chest out. If you have breath in your body, you have purpose.
- Jacob wrestles but does not give up. He gets a new name, “One who wrestles with God.”
- Jacob gets up from the fight but walks with a limp. It reminds that after he lost, God won. It was a sign of God’s grace in his life.
You have to be a limping leader.
- You don’t need the it factor; you need the limp factor.
- Sam Collier – “When your story meets God’s story, he’ll give you a greater story.”
- Don’t lose your limp! You need to be a limping leader.
- We need more limping leaders, leaders walking with vulnerability.
- Failure ain’t fatal. It’s an invitation for God’s grace to show up in your life.
- Hamilton – scene where friends decide that leadership has to live beyond tonight. There may be a harvest that we do not reap. Moses would see further than he would go. Joshua would go further than he would see.
- Let’s lead not for likes tonight, but legacy for tomorrow.
- We need leadership that meets the moment.
- I ran a Disney Half-Marathon a few years ago. Running is like a death in a microwave. I started running. This little old lady, “You got this.” I finished and they gave me this medal. My son asked, “Did you win?” This race is different, You don’t win because you come in first; you win because you finish.
- We won’t get the reward for coming in first, for running the fast. You finished. You flipped, you washed and you limped to the finish.
- We will lead from a place of authenticity. We will flip tables of injustice. We washed feet of friend and foe. We limped to the finish.
- “The Story of Tonight”
- Let’s give the next generation a story to tell.