Steve Carter is a pastor, speaker, podcaster, and the former lead teaching pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. He’s an itinerant preacher and teacher for churches, conferences, and events. Steve is also the author of several books, including his latest, “The Thing Beneath the Thing: What’s Hidden Inside (and What God Helps Us Do About It).”
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Key Questions for Steve Carter
-How is it that stress can bring out false narratives in us?
-To what extent is your book connected to what you went through at Willow Creek?
-How can church leaders currently facing a situation that could lead to serious long-term consequences deal with it well now?
-If a subordinate recognizes that a leader is struggling with “the thing beneath the thing,” how can he or she help that leader to become self-aware and to address it?
Key Quotes From Steve Carter
“I flipped a U-turn, pulled the car over, left my wife and nine-month-old in the back of the car. And I went chasing after these kids who threw a chunk of ice at our car. And as I started to realize why I was doing what I was doing, it was because I was afraid.”
“We are people who live above the surface and we never spend enough time mining what’s really going on underneath.”
“Something happens. You know, you’re going through your day, somebody cuts you off. Someone doesn’t follow through. Someone minimizes you on Twitter. Someone tries to manage you. All of a sudden that’s connected to old pain points in your story.”
“Kids are very, very perceptive. They’re just not always the best interpreters of reality. So kids can perceive that mom and dad are fighting. But it’s the stories that they tell where they get themselves in trouble: Mom and dad are fighting because of me. Mom and dad are getting divorced because of me.”
“I realized that God’s kindness is to actually fill in those pain points, those potholes, those parts in our story where we’ve been wounded. So we don’t have to live in insecurity or creating false narratives, but we can live in the trust and the security of who he created us and made us to be.”
