WithoutWax.tv by Pete Wilson | Tag Archive | Greg Surratt
Tag Archive - Greg Surratt

The Art of Learning

December 16, 2008 in Church Leadership, Church Planting, Cross Point Church, Friends, Leadership, My Family, Religion, Videos with 41 Comments

Every once in a while I get the opportunity to talk on the phone or possibly even in person with someone I greatly admire. It’s often a pastor I look up to or a leader I want to learn from. When I get my window of time with them I want to make sure I take full advantage of it.

If you want to grow in knowledge, skills, and leadership you’ve got to learn to make the most of these incredible opportunities. Here’s a few guidelines I use.

1) Don’t ask them a question which can be answered on their website. For instance, if you get 30 minutes with Mark Batterson don’t ask him how many campuses they have or where the campuses are located.

2) Don’t spend the majority of your time telling them your story. If  Perry Noble wants to hear your story he’ll call YOU. Spend 20% of your time asking questions and sharing and the other 80% of your time listening.

3) Don’t waste their time by asking questions someone else on their staff is better suited to answer. If you get some time with Greg Surratt don’t ask questions about Sea Coast’s children’s ministry. The only thing he knows about the children’s ministry is what his grand kids tell him. :)

4) Respect their time. Just because Jud Wilhite agrees to take your phone call once doesn’t mean he can talk to you on a monthly basis. Be thankful for the time you got and don’t waste it by using it to try to get more time out of them in the future. If Jud has more time to give you he will more than likely offer it to you.

5) Don’t ask them questions about someone else. If you’re talking with Jeff Henderson don’t ask him questions about Andy Stanley.  If you want to learn from Jeff then ask him questions about his life, his leadership, and his influence. If you want to know about Andy then call Andy.

If you want to be a good leader you’ve got to be a great learner. If you want to be a great learner you’ve got to be an exceptional listener.

Meeting New Friends

September 30, 2008 in Cross Point Church, Friends, Leadership, Multi Campus, Religion with 17 Comments

I love conferences. I’m on my way home, but had a blast! I’ve spent the last two days at Sea Coast Church in Charleston, South Carolina, at the Multi-Site Exposed Church conference.

While each session was awesome at helping us wrap our minds around the mulit-site model, the best wisdom gained has been through the conversations we’ve had with friends in other chuches.

Between sessions Gary Lamb gave me some incredible words about an area of my life which is out of balance.

I had a wonderful dinner on Monday night with Dinno Rizzo, Mark Batterson and Greg Surratt and their teams. In one dinner these guys made my head spin as they challenged and encouraged me in so many different ways. After dinner I laid in my hotel room bed just trying to process it all. This group of pastors is on the front line of changing the church culture in America and around the world.

On Monday I had the opportunity to be interviewed by @murphy24 and @sarahgad on the topic of church leadership. Had a great time and they are developing an amazing tool that is going to impact  Seacoast and eventually church’s around the world.

I also got to hang and converse with new friends like @joshsur, @dawnnicole,  @geoffsurratt, and @shawnwood. They’re all fantastic individuals who are a lot of fun to follow on twitter.

Thanks to everyone for the advice, the wisdom, but most importantly for being the original person God created you to be. I look forward to sharpening each other more in the near future.

Have you recently met anyone who challenged you to look at something differently?

I’m Tired Of This Game

September 24, 2008 in Friends, God, Leadership, Preaching, Relationships, Religion with 72 Comments

I spent quite a bit of time this afternoon writing for the 4th week of our Baggage series. This week we’re talking about envy and this afternoon I’ve been focusing on “comparisons” and how they feed envy inside of me.

I play this game all the time.

I wish I could lead like Jeff Henderson.

I wish I was creative like Scott Hodge.

I wish I could preach like Perry Noble.

I wish I could cast vision like Greg Surratt.

But comparison is a deadly game. The danger of comparison is no matter who you do it with, eventually there is always someone whose prettier, smarter, faster, more connected or higher-up then you. They’re more _______________________.

There is always somebody more.

The danger of comparison is that we find ourselves looking to other people for our value and determining our value by how we compare with other people.

You put two similar things side-by-side and compare them. We all do it when we comparison shop. It’s okay for cars, golf clubs, and shoes… but not for people. For people, comparison is deadly.

We have a tendency to keep looking over our shoulder to see who gets the car we wanted, the job we needed, the spouse we desired.  Who has the most gifted children, the bigger blog,  and whose got the latest iBook, iMac, iPhone or anything else that starts with an i.

I’m tired of playing this game. How about you?