In Part 2 of my interview with Chip Judd, Care Pastor at Seacoast Church in South Carolina, John and Chip focus on the inner life of leaders, and also on what can be done about the shrinking leadership pool.

Here are the show notes:

1. Let’s talk about the inner life of leaders for a minute. Where are there cracks in the foundation?
   • What’s going on in the inside of us shapes what’s happening outside of and around us.
   • Learning healthy ways to get our needs met.
   • An idol is any person or thing we run after to meet a need only God can meet.
   • Items that put cracks in the foundation:
     • Busyness.
     • Muscling or powering through as a default behavior.
     • Refusal to deal with our past – spiritual growth is two-thirds of dealing with what’s already there; one-third of putting new stuff in.
     • If you hit a wall and can’t get around it, look inside first.

2. The leadership talent pool seems to be shrinking. What can be done about it?
   • Understanding what’s at the bottom of our crazy culture.
     • We live in a time where every form of authority is being questioned. There is a significant lack of institutional trust. So young people are shrinking from roles of authority.
     • When take on authority, you also take on responsibility.
     • It costs more today to carry the label of authority.
     • Many lead by asking permission
   • Chip: God is birthing a healthier blend of leadership.
     • Invest properly in people – calling out and developing the greatness God has put in leaders.
     • The leadership model in the Church is a bit broken.
     • Current leaders getting healthier will have a positive impact on younger, emerging leaders in terms of them signing on the dotted line.
     • Ministry doesn’t make leaders unhealthy. Unhealthy leaders make ministry unhealthy.
     • The higher you go in the leadership food chain, the less truth you tend to get.
     • One of the most important indicators of a leader’s trajectory is their relationship to truth. Are you a truth-chaser or a truth-avoider?

3. If you could go back in time, what would you tell the younger version of yourself?
   • When you’re young, you regret what you’ve done. When you’re older, you regret what you didn’t do.
   • The greatest theft the enemy does is keeping us from getting what God wanted us to have. The typical thief is fear.
   • The ministry will never deliver to you what only Jesus can . . . a lasting sense of value.