Our pastoral staff had the privilege of going to a pastor’s conference in Gatlinburg, TN last week. It was the Timothy Barnabas conference with Dr. Johnny Hunt. This is a great conference, and I highly encourage you to try to attend if at all possible. He gave some great thoughts on influencing others that I thought were helpful and applicable. I wanted to share them with you today.
“You teach what you know, and you reproduce who you are.”
- Influence starts with integrity– This is doing what is right in the “little things” consistently.
- Influence is not the same as authority– Sometimes, authority can be abused, but influence seeks to build.
- Influence is about character. Character is what you know you are, and reputation is what others think you are. D.L. Moody said, “If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself.”
- Influence is about being genuine. Be real!
- Influence requires humility. Andrew Carnegie said, “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.”