Leaders’ Retreat Presentation, September 25, 2010: a Specific Mindset, a New Way of Thinking (Part 2)

Persistence is one of the hallmarks of a solid church and institution, and at the last meeting we were able to accomplish something very beautiful. I think the pace we established and the way we flowed were wonderful, and I hope we do not let our guard down but always maintain that same pace. I know accidents happen, things happen, and all that, but what often happens in institutions is what they call institutional drift—there are many names for it—but it is as though things begin at a certain level and then gradually get forgotten: visions are forgotten, mission statements are forgotten, agreements are forgotten, assignments are forgotten. It is as though something is practiced for one or two months, and then that attention that is so necessary for the proper functioning of every institution is lost.

And one of the things I fervently desire as the pastor and leader of this institution is for us to cultivate a culture of—we talk about excellence, and Pentecostals love to talk about the word excellence, but it is like a cliché whose true meaning we do not really understand. Excellence is effort; it is sweat; it is boredom; it is making yourself overcome boredom. That is excellence. It is not something pretty, magical, or delightful; it is a lot of work. And your ministries, my ministry, our lives, my life, and everything we do must reflect that high standard and that effort. Let us simply understand that, because when we begin this late, everything declines and then everything seems to lose its rhythm. And it is very easy to say, well, this happened or that happened; there is always a reason. But it is good always to do everything possible in our lives, and if we make a mistake, we admit it and move forward. That is what I want to do, because I want you to become accustomed to that in your ministries and in your lives, and I also want to become accustomed to it in my own life.

So, thank you; forgive me for that, but we are going to catch up and finish at the time we said we would. Well, that is the question. I am going to give a solid 45 minutes for—I am trying to learn to do that too. Thank you, Miguel. That is merely a metaphor for something we want to learn: that aspect of diligence. But again, Wendy began very well with that idea of a body and the importance of structures. A body needs bones; a church needs structure.

When we come here and worship the Lord, and the Spirit moves, and there is blessing, and God flows, behind all of that are people who cleaned the bathrooms the night before; Brother Roberto arranged the chairs; the electricity was paid because people tithed; someone opened the doors first thing in the morning; signs were put up for the parking lot; someone was assigned to do that; and someone was paid to do that. There is a whole structure beneath the magic. Am I making myself clear? And many times we do not understand that. Do you know why? Because we are not taught that, and the Latino world has it doubly hard, especially churches like ours, because we are Hispanic or Latino and because we are charismatic Pentecostals, since that is often not emphasized in our world, either culturally or spiritually.

We have a very fiery church, but it lacks structure. And I believe that God has given me something like a word that I believe is in some sense prophetic. These days, wherever I go, God seems to lead me to speak about that: the importance of developing a new way of thinking, a different mindset.

How many of you were at the last leaders' retreat? That is what we talked about, remember—a new way of thinking. We said that the church of Jesus Christ needs to develop a new way. The world is expert at this, and that is why it is miles ahead of us and has such an advantage over us. People in the world understand this very well. We, the people supposedly filled with the Spirit, do not understand it, and that is why our churches are always limping.

What we have is very good rhetoric; we certainly have that. We can outtalk anyone. We come to church and, in no time at all, we say, “We declare it, we have it, we do it, it is mine in the name of Jesus, I can do all things through Christ.” Then we leave here, and our lives do not express that.

And what God has placed within me is a hunger for integrity in that regard, so that our lives and our ministries reflect what we say we supposedly have and want. And that should be reflected in every area. And to get there, we must go through these processes: structure, learning to think in terms of structures, and developing that left side of the brain.

Why did I choose this topic? If you look there at the elements of an entrepreneurial mindset, I am going to continue with that in a moment, and I am going to... but there are so many other things I want to say that I will cover whatever I can in the time I have. And I want to continue with this subject because I do not want to move away from it for quite some time, not until what I mean by it is understood and we can internalize it as individuals and as churches.

And I was saying, remember, that there are two faculties in the Christian life. One is what I would call the spiritual, mystical faculty, the part that has to do with the gifts of the Spirit, the anointing, holiness, spiritual warfare, worship—all those things that open magical doors in the spiritual world—and prayer. That is very important. A sound, strong spirituality; devotion to the Word; knowledge of the Word of God; the powerful use of the Word of God. All those things are tools I would describe, so to speak, as spiritual: the gifts of the Spirit.

Charismatic Pentecostal people fall in love with that and forget the other part, which we see in many, many different parts of the Bible. The problem is that we are taught to focus on only one part, and we do not pay attention to the other. The other part is what I would call the strategic, intellectual, cerebral part—the part involving administration, discipline, execution, study, self-control, and the development of one's leadership. It is that whole part we do not like because it sounds boring to us: structure, organization, planning, and all these things, because we think it contradicts the other part. And both parts are necessary.

I think many people believe I am not spiritual enough or knowledgeable enough about the gifts because I emphasize this so much. And sometimes, when there is a moment during the service when I stop someone, or say that we have to move on, or whatever it may be, people think, “He is stopping the Spirit.” That is because we do not understand that there must be a balance between the two. If I had time, I would develop this further, but a balanced spirituality needs both dimensions.

If you are very strong in one area and weak in the other, you are going to limp. And you will be missing something very important. Understand this, because if you do not grasp it, you will be deficient throughout your entire life as a leader. People ask me, “What are you seeking? What is your vision, Pastor?” My vision is a balanced church, a church that can travel along those two rails of the spiritual Christian life. And if you take me seriously and take this seriously, I assure you that you are going to grow and develop greatly as leaders, and our church is going to continue growing more and more each day.

That is something I want to emphasize, and I wish I had more time to develop it, but I will leave it there for the moment. Now, let us turn to this, because why are we saying all these things about these forms? Why are we holding these meetings? Because we made an agreement that it is important for all our leaders to flow in harmony and according to certain shared values, so that we do not have one sector of the church thinking, “No, this church should go in this direction—the spiritual direction: more fasting, more prayer, more holiness, more praise, more all-night prayer vigils,” and another group saying, “No, more discipline, more administration, more organization, more technology, more strategy,” with each side throwing stones at the other because we do not understand that it is both things. Am I making myself clear?

So we hold these meetings because we want to foster a church that flows in harmony, with all the leaders receiving the same diet, being trained, taught, and growing. For example, when our brothers show these forms, perhaps we do not have all the answers right now, and perhaps everything was not entirely clear, but that is how one begins. When a child begins to speak, the child starts by babbling, and one patiently encourages the child until the child speaks in clear phrases, clear words, complete sentences, and then paragraphs.

And that is what happens with this. We are trying to develop these forms and these agreements so that everyone knows and there will not be that confusion. For me, the most important thing about that discussion—because I could not follow all of it at the time—was our lack of coordination concerning whom to call in an emergency. It is not so much the form, because that brings something to light: many times we resort to centralization—“Let us call the pastor; let us call Gregory.” And then there is no delegation, no decentralization, and one person ends up carrying the burden.

Now, when a church knows, “No, that is the leader in charge of that department; that person is the one you call; that person is the one you go to, not the pastor,” then that kind of decentralization creates a healthy church. Why? Because if the pastor dies of a heart attack, what is going to happen then? Where will people go? As an institution grows and develops, it must increasingly learn to do without its main leader or founding leader. That is a law of institutions, whether it is a church, a nonprofit, or a corporation. The more it depends on a single person, the weaker it is, because if that fragile support collapses, the entire structure goes down with him or her. And that is why decentralization is necessary.

How many visible columns are there here? One, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7—and there are others that cannot be seen. If one falls, if one breaks, I think there may still be time to reinforce it; but if there were only one, everything would come crashing down. So it is very important to have decentralization. That is one of the hallmarks of a well-developed institution, whether it is Pentecostal or not.

I am telling you, all the prayer in the world will not save a church that lacks structure. That is simply the way it is. I know very spiritual churches that are a disaster, and if I could, I would give you a very recent example of that. Let us be balanced, brothers and sisters; let us not be children. We have to move on to maturity now; this church must continue moving toward maturity. Am I being a little gloomy or not?

Because these are things I believe are important. Look, let us turn to these elements of an entrepreneurial mindset. I put this here, and I do not know whether there is another sheet as well that talks about signs of an entrepreneurial mindset—less elegantly—but it is there too. I wrote this at the last minute, this morning, before leaving. I said, “Wait, this idea,” and I sat down and wrote it in 30 seconds. I did not have time to type it up, but you will see that it is also important, if I have time to discuss it.

The point is, why this? Perhaps, if you were not at the last session, you will be at a slight disadvantage here, but I beg you to follow along with me. I spoke about that specific way of thinking. If you read Ecclesiastes 11 in your Bible, I believe that what constitutes an entrepreneurial mindset is outlined there in chapter 11, verse 1. So, in a few words—or at least part of it—it says:

“...Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it. Give portions to 7, and even to 8, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the earth... and in verse 6, ... In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not let your hand rest, for you do not know which is better, this or that, or whether both are equally good...”

Why do I speak of an entrepreneurial mindset? The word “entrepreneurial,” I believe, is much more expressive in English. You know what businesses are like. Businesses are always diversifying, developing, looking for new ideas, running various experiments, and testing new products. Look at what Wendy's does. Wendy's comes out with a new hamburger with cheese and barbecue sauce and launches it on the market to test it. If it catches on, they leave it on the permanent menu; if not, they remove it and bring out another one with a chicken quesadilla or whatever it may be, to see whether it catches on among Latinos in the United States.

And they are always testing. They are always doing new things; they are always inventing. That is why it says, “Cast your bread upon the waters; give portions to 7 and to 8”: diversification, inventing things, dynamism, and also that organized mindset that is always thinking about something new, that is planning, that is not content with the status quo but is always seeking ways to develop, ways to develop new forms, new products, and new programs. That is something very, very important for the life of a church.

For me, some of the qualities that we need as a church—because we want to be an entrepreneurial church, a thinking mind, an institution that thinks in these terms—are typical of that kind of congregation or ministry. Think about your own ministry as well: if you are an usher, if you lead a ministry or are working in the men's ministry, if you are an associate pastor of the church, the parents' ministry, English as a second language, or the stewardship ministry, think about ministry as I speak about these things. At the same time, I am also speaking about the church as a church and where we want to go.

I believe that one of the things that distinguishes an entrepreneurial institution, an entrepreneurial church, is a high level of energy and initiative in its leadership. I long to have dynamic, restless leaders, people whose eyes light up, people who are always thinking about how to help their church, how to develop themselves, how to do new things.

Let me give you an example, not to praise Miguel, but sometimes I am sitting here during the Sunday service and I simply glance over or make a gesture with my neck, and Miguel immediately comes to ask whether I need something. He does not do it because he wants to flatter me; it is because Miguel has a very disciplined mindset, one focused on solving problems and helping in some way. And Erenia, for example—to mention other people, because there are many here who could serve as examples—whenever we assign something, she is always looking for a better way to do it, a form, and she has become almost indispensable in many areas of the deacons’ ministry and in other things.

And many of you fall into that category. I am pointing out only two; many of you fall into that category—you are dynamic people. I want this church to be a high-energy church, and I want our leaders to exemplify that, because the indolent leader, the passive leader, the leader who waits to be told what to do, the leader who is content with the bare minimum, the leader who says, “If they do not ask me to do it, then I am not going to do it,” cannot reach the level he needs to reach. We need inventive people.

I believe that an entrepreneurial church is a church where there is a high level of energy, where there is effort. For example, in the ushers’ ministry, a person should not be content merely to stand against the wall, and if he sees someone who came in over there a little way into the service and sees that person looking a little confused, he should not say, “Well, the service has already begun; that is their problem, so let them deal with it,” or whatever. Sometimes we do not even think that; we simply do not think at all. We see the person, but there is no connection between our brain and the situation unfolding at that moment.

An entrepreneurial person, by contrast, sees that immediately, and it is like throwing meat to a hungry dog: he feels drawn to it. There may be a problem; perhaps there is no problem, perhaps the person is simply looking for someone who is saving a seat for them, but something in that person’s nervous system is activated, and he goes because he feels, “They are calling me.” He approaches the person and asks, “Brother, can I help you with anything?” And if not, you see? Do you understand?

That is high energy. An entrepreneurial church is one where things are happening; an entrepreneurial church, an entrepreneurial ministry, is one where there is momentum, there is growth, leaders are being trained, there are restless people, there are people who are… That is why those ministries grow. Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days it will return to you.

The ministries that grow, brothers and sisters—why does God say, “Mighty and courageous man”? God is always calling us mighty and courageous men and women. Because God likes people who make an effort, not people who are lethargic. When have you ever heard the Lord say, “God is with you, you lethargic coward”? Never. You will not find that in the Bible. No, no. God wants dynamic people, highly dynamic people, who invest, who make an effort, and a church where things are happening. To me, that is one of the qualities: a high level of energy and initiative. Everyone say, “Initiative.” Do not be content to have someone tell you what you need to do; ask yourself, “What should I do?” And God honors that leader, and that leader grows; God blesses and prospers that leader, brothers and sisters. I assure you of that.

Second, in a church, ministry, or leader with a highly entrepreneurial mindset, there is a great deal of experimentation and the establishment of new projects. A church or ministry that is content simply to keep doing the same things, where there is inertia, where what was done last year is what is done today, with the same procedures and nothing new—that person, that church, that ministry does not grow.

I know that sometimes I put a lot of pressure on the leaders or on the pastoral team, because when I see an opportunity, Meche is always trying to rein me in for that very reason. Yes, there are many things that…

For example, we have been talking because God has opened a door to improve how the bookstore operates. It is a very interesting project that has come up. God placed it in my path through a couple of people. I am not going to get too far ahead of myself; we are in that process, but at the beginning that adds a little time and tension. I am not sure that I have all the pieces in my mind regarding it. There will be a little confusion and mess to sort out and clean up in the process, but I know that it is something good; it is promising, it can enrich the life of the church, and it can move forward. I say, “Look, amen.” I seize the opportunity, and along the way I will improve and refine it, and God will provide.

And we could talk this way about so many things. I Wanna is something that has been emerging over the last two and a half or three years, right? And it has really come powerfully to life over the last year or so. There was a lot of mess at first, but little by little—and it was a new thing that draws people. Other things happen as well, other ministries; different things are tried.

A highly entrepreneurial church is one where there is experimentation and the establishment of new projects. As for the leader who is content only with the status quo—brothers and sisters, I love, I adore people who do not wait for me to tell them what to do, but instead say, “Pastor, what do you think of this idea?” Delmi Chacón, or Martínez Chacón, is one of those people who specializes in being restless and inventing new things. Sometimes I merely tell her something and she takes it, and before you know it, she has gone ten times further than what I originally had in mind, and then she puts pressure on me—but that is very important.

There must be experimentation; there must be new projects. There must be restless people who like doing new things. But that requires a high level of energy. It also requires people who are energized by the Holy Spirit, because if it depended on my own strength, I think I would have declined a long time ago. But somehow God renews me, because I ask Him, “Lord, let it not be through my physical strength, but through Your Spirit.” And it is a blessing.

I know that there are many things I could add to qualify that; I agree. There was an error there: 13 is the same as 12. Let us go to 4. Another element of the entrepreneurial mindset: attention to the vision and persistence in the vision. What do I mean by this? Our vision is to be an exemplary church, a model church that exemplifies the best values of the Kingdom of God, demonstrating excellence in social activity, administration, and the training of its leaders so they can be useful instruments and help develop other leaders. That is essentially the idea.

Well, that vision keeps me anchored and motivates me. Every one of those words means something, and I always try to see, “Okay, are we making progress toward that, or is it simply a rhetorical statement we repeat because it sounds nice?” What is the vision of your ministry? And then, every day, in everything you do, are you trying to carry it out?

For example, why are we doing this? Because we want to be good at administration and at training our leaders to be instruments and to help develop other leaders. What we are doing today follows that part of the vision. And every time we meet, every time you give your time to come here, I applaud you and bless you for taking these three and a half or four hours out of your Saturday to come to this. And I love seeing such a wonderful number of you here, representing the best of this congregation and the most powerful ministries of this church.

Because you are also here—you want to be powerful leaders, you want to be capable people, and you want your leadership to respond as well. If you gain something good from this meeting, you will go and pass it on to your people, and you will be a contagious leader.

So I am trying to obey that. There is a word used among institutions: alignment—how closely the activities and operations of your ministry are aligned with your vision. It is the same with your personal vision. If you say, “I want to be an intellectually equipped woman, a cultured person who knows something about history and human culture,” well, when was the last time you went to a museum? When was the last time you read a book about art? When was the last time you watched a documentary about some aspect of human history? What do you know about the history of France? Or the history of Colombia? Are you educating yourself? Because if you want to be a cultured person and that is part of your vision, what specifically are you doing to advance that vision?

Luis, as the doctor he is, runs a clinic, and he wants his clinic to reflect the best values—the precision, let us say, that good medicine, a good practice, deserves. Okay, what is he doing to train his employees in that area? To ensure that they read the charts properly, that things are measured precisely, that there are good care and professional practices, that there is good customer care, that bills are sent on time and paid on time, and that there are no errors. Do you understand?

In other words, how is your practice aligned with your vision? Whether it is your ministry, your personal life, or our church. That is why we do these things, because if we say that we want well-developed leaders, well, that is not accomplished during Sunday services; that is not even where it happens—well, part of it happens in discipleship, but no. It is in moments like these, when we address very concrete matters and create a mindset, that these kinds of things are achieved. That is why this is important.

There is a time to pray and to fast. To some people I say, “Fast and pray”; to others I say, “Look, fast less and study more. Speak in tongues less and take an English class for me. Do not show up at church on Wednesday for six weeks; take a Microsoft Word course for me, and let that be your worship of the Lord. As you strike the keys, say, ‘Lord, I worship You, I bless You. Thank You, Father.’ Let your fingers worship God by saying, ‘I want to be the best instrument I can be for God, and I need this tool.’”

You know that the monks of the Middle Ages used to say that work was a way of worshiping God. And so, through their work on the land, the construction of their monastery, and washing the other monks’ dishes, they were worshiping the Lord. Work worships God. Our minds are too narrow, brothers and sisters; we must leave behind a childish mindset and enter into the maturity God requires.

So it is important to pay attention to the vision and persist in it. We have been at it for years, and we still have not fully achieved it, and we never will, but we must persist in it. If you fall off the horse, get back on. Okay, if we fail at something today, I am not saying it to attack anyone; I am simply saying, “Okay, look, let us move forward in this.”

One of the things about Latino churches, Pentecostal and charismatic churches, and many other churches as well, is that things are not talked about, and we think that when people talk about them, they are fighting. No. On Thursday we had a very substantive, hour-and-a-half meeting with the worship leaders. We discussed beautiful, strong, clear things, but I left there joyful. How wonderful that in our church things can be discussed without people coming to blows. Important, uncomfortable things and everything else can be said. An institution needs good communication—tough, difficult, tense, carefully worked-through communication—and when it is over, we should embrace and see one another as brothers and sisters who are now even closer because we understand one another better.

That must be promoted. One of the qualities of a great institution, a great ministry, WPG, or whatever it may be, is painful communication in the love of Christ, with mercy, love, forgiveness, and a willingness to reach a solution, however long it may take. Any institution, any group—worship, for example—do you know how many months we have spent working that difficult dough in the worship group? But I remain there and stay committed to it, because I must persist in the vision, and I can see that yes, we are improving little by little. And strong communication does not bother me, because reaching the vision requires honesty; it requires transparency expressed in the right way.

There must be communication in your marriage, and whatever is unhealthy must be discussed. There must be communication in a friendship because there is a vision of what we want. So, attention to the vision and persistence in it.

Strategic thinking. I put many things here; it was a brainstorming session one day. Strategic thinking—we must think strategically. We are doing that here by gathering together. This is one of several other meetings we will have, and the second one we have held, and we have been at this for years, because we have a strategy. We want to move in a certain direction; we are strategizing.

That building we are putting up out there is part of a strategy; we want to conquer. And to conquer, you need fortresses, you need tools, you need weapons, because strategy presupposes that there is a long-term target and that there is a series of actions that will be planned and taken in order to reach that target. That is what strategic thinking is—I do not have time to cover it all.

How are you thinking about your ministry? Where do you want your ministry to be in three years, one year, two years? And what are you doing to get there? What are the pieces? How have you broken down that lofty vision your ministry has, and what goals and instruments, practices, actions, and relationships are you forging in order to reach point Z if you are at B or C? How is it going to get there? That is strategic thinking. What things are you doing?

Long-term vision. That is part of it; that is why I put them together, because they are part of a… Persisting in the vision means having a long-term vision. Some people do something, and if it does not work, their attention span is very short. That is why I sometimes say to a leader, “Look, I need you to do this,” and he does it for the first three or four weeks, and then it falls by the wayside; he forgets. And that is how we spend our whole lives saying, “We are going to do this, we are going to do that,” and it does not get done. We begin, and then we lose momentum because we do not have a long-term vision.

When you set a goal for yourself, stick to it, keep moving forward, be patient. Do not become discouraged because it did not work well the first time. Keep going. Persist and say, “Even if I do not attain it today, I will attain it later.” That is why that passage says, “For after many days you will find it.” Invest now and think long term, because the vision will come to pass.

And the vision must be clear; you must declare it. “Write the vision,” it says in Habakkuk, chapter 2, “so that the one who reads it may run with it.” There must be clarity. What does your vision consist of? Well, I want to be a good father. What does that mean? It means: I have to spend time with my children, number one; number two, I have to be patient with them; number three, I have to be an active presence in their lives; number four, I have to learn to forgive them a great deal; number five, I have to spur them on and encourage them to become something powerful; number six, I have to ask their forgiveness when I need to; number seven, et cetera, et cetera.

What does it mean to be a good father? That is very broad; it would take ten volumes. Reduce it to ten things and spend ten years working at it until you attain it. And you will not attain it even in those ten years. But we have to be clear.

Specificity is one of the great qualities of great leadership: being specific, being clear, breaking things down into their constituent parts, developing the ability to see things in their proper sequence, not seeing a massive block of principles but releasing them one by one and placing them on the table, and then assembling them again so that they become something living. It is one of the great things: clarity, specificity, thinking small, sticking to one little thing, then working on another, and then working on another. Very important, right?

All of this has to do with that matter of vision, et cetera. Number five—this relates to what I was saying about vision: aligning activities, ministries, and leadership styles with the vision. That is why I said that one of the things we long for is that one day—and increasingly with each passing day—our church will produce a recognizable type of leader.

You know what it said? The Pharisees said—and knew—that they had been with Jesus. Why did they realize that? Perhaps because they reflected Jesus’ values, spoke like Jesus, behaved like Jesus, rebuked demons like Jesus, and healed like Jesus, because they had been infused with the spirit of Jesus. And when they saw them, they said, “Look, that one belongs.”

I believe that at Lion of Judah we are seeking a type of leader and a type of ministry that always proceeds concretely and specifically, bringing clarity; where there is good communication; where there is no abuse of authority; where there is submission to authority; leaders who, when they commit to something, carry it out.

Everything I have mentioned: leaders who take initiative, leaders who have a passion for the Kingdom of God, leaders willing to pay the price, sacrificial leaders, leaders who are generous with their money, leaders of integrity and holiness. What we want is for those values to be aligned with the institution. One of the things that gives me joy—even though this church is infinitely far from perfect—is something someone was telling me on Friday. Josmar was telling me, “Many people say that they come to the church, and when they enter the building, whether during the week or on Sundays, they say, ‘You can breathe peace here.’”

You have no idea how many people have told me that; they have told me that too. I was glad to learn that other people experience it, because I have been told that so many times. I say, “Wow, how wonderful!” I love hearing laughter in this church during the day. You hear a lot of laughter here. To me, one of the signs that a family or an institution is healthy is that there is laughter. If there is laughter, that says a great deal.

And I like the fact that there is always laughter here; people are laughing and making jokes. Are there tensions? Of course there are—where are there none? But what I mean is that an institution must align itself with its values, because we have said that one of the mission-and-vision components of the church is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. I put that there because many churches are very strong in the gifts, but look for the fruit of the Spirit—gentleness, love, humility, patience, kindness, peace—and you will not find it, because they focus on the gifts; they do not focus on the fruit.

So the activities must be aligned. That is, what is done must serve the goal; the leaders must reflect it. They must reflect an attitude of teamwork, of delegating to others, training others, and stepping aside so that others can grow. All those things are the values to me, and we want our leaders to reflect them. We want a leader not to feel comfortable if he does not reflect them, and we want a whole ecology, economy, and culture to be created so that, when a leader does not fit within the mindset that is characteristic of Lion of Judah, invisible pressures immediately begin to shape him or her in the direction of the church’s mindset. Am I making myself clear?

Because there is alignment. If a leader is apathetic, fails to carry things out, is very careless, and does not submit to authority, invisible forces should immediately align to bend and restrain that until the leader is shaped according to the values of the church. And this church should increasingly produce a style that can be recognized as the Lion of Judah style. That is why worship is so elusive to me: because it is something mystical, mysterious, and spiritual, but there is a product I have in my spirit and in my mind, and I will keep fighting until it comes to pass, because I persist in the vision, because I like to be clear, and because I have to help my leaders become excellent.

One of our goals is for the worship at Lion of Judah to be world-class, something that could be shown on a television screen and watched by 50 million people and would measure up to an audience of 50 million. Not something for 100 people or 50 Hispanics who understand one another and think any little thing is lovely because it is for God. That is what happens in many churches. No, no—let it be world-class.

Why do people like Hilson, and why has it had such an impact? Ask yourself why. Examine it, read about it, look at the product. Yes, they will have their issues too, of course, but it is because there are values that people recognize. And I cannot say, “No, we are fine because we are…” No. We have the Spirit of Christ too. What happens is that we have to persist; there has to be clarity, and there has to be persistence in the vision. Now, there must be mercy and love—I understand all of that—but we must be relentless with ourselves in that regard.

So, alignment of activities. Organizational ability, number six. Continual development of capacity. What are we doing here today? Developing capacity: forms, protocols, procedures, agreements—developing each leader’s capacity. I hope that you return to your leadership role in your ministry and take some of these things with you. I hope you leave here feeling unsettled: How can I produce a better ministry every day? How can I make those ushers shine through their military discipline and have every flattened-out usher get flattened, so that he ends up as a tostón? No, forgive me. What I mean, again, is that the system has to weed people out. Perhaps that person’s calling is not to be an usher; perhaps he should be an intercessor, there in his own home, praying without anyone putting pressure on him or expecting anything from him except God, who understands his language.

But I believe that, again, systems work that way. It is the same in worship and in discipleship. There may be a teacher who perhaps does not prepare for his lesson and is not creative in his teaching. Well, we can try to develop his capacity, but a time comes when the system must remove him gently and lovingly so that the excellence of the Kingdom of God can continue. Do you understand?

And we have to do that because it is for God, and we must represent the Kingdom of God well. So we must develop capacity continually. Brothers and sisters, observe your leaders and observe yourselves, and write down whatever is not right and pray to the Lord about it; also speak to that person about it. One thing I know is that I am not always as generous as I should be when communicating certain things. That is part of my character; I struggle with it, I pray about it, and I believe I have improved considerably. But the truth is that sometimes I have also asked for things so many times that, by the tenth or thirtieth time, I can perhaps be forgiven for being a little impatient.

But again, it is important for us to make lists of the things that are not as they should be and work to improve them, improve them, improve them. Continual development of capacity. And ultimately, there is no ideal way to communicate these things.

A good financial strategy, financial systems and controls. That applies more to the church, but it can also apply to a leadership team. Are we keeping accurate figures? Is there good administrative capacity, et cetera? I am not going to dwell on that.

Another thing: solid governance structures. I am going to say congregational governance, but it could be something else. Okay, how do you govern? Do people clearly know whom to approach if a situation arises? Is there leadership that extends beyond the principal leader? If I am the only person who calls all the shots, that is a serious problem in a church. There has to be governance. There are deacons; there are people to whom I have to give an account, and they give an account to me. There is a distribution of responsibility; there are leaders in charge of different areas; there is decentralization.

All of this involves good coordination between the principal leader and his team. When I speak about these things, one of the things I want is to communicate my thinking so that you will understand me—why I do this, why I insist on that, why I react one way or another—so that you can understand me. Good communication. I need to communicate with you so that you know my heart and why I do this or do not do that. That is part of it; we do not have time to cover everything.

Diversity of ideas. In a church, there have to be different people thinking, not only the principal leader. Suggestions must be taken into account so they can enrich us.

A decision-making process: decisions are not made unilaterally but are worked through and discussed together.

There is accountability. I have to give an account to you; I am not Moses coming down from Sinai with the tablets for you to obey. I too must give an account of my actions and decisions—why this and why that.

And there is transparency. If something was not done properly, we must admit it, ask forgiveness, and try to improve it. There is a great deal more to discuss.

There is teamwork. What we are doing today is teamwork. I assure you, I have not done much for this event. Thank God for people like Wendy, David Díaz, Erenia, and so many others who have worked. You know who they are. They did 95 percent of it; I came here to do my part, and thank you, Lord—how wonderful that so many people are working. I give glory to God for that. So much gets done in this church, brothers and sisters; you cannot imagine how much. And it is because literally hundreds of people do the work, and glory to God for that. Teamwork. Delegation. Decentralization.

And there is no nepotism. Watch out for that. Do not choose your friends or your family simply because they are your friends. When there is nepotism, it is a sign of a bad system. That is what nepotism is: when a leader chooses the people close to him or his family members and appoints them, whether or not they are qualified. This is not a dynasty; this belongs to the Kingdom. I have nothing here; I do not own anything. Therefore, I cannot say to my sister, or to anyone else, “Here, take this ministry.” No. The point is: Are you qualified? And do you have the support of the others?

I’ll finish with this, quickly here. I put it this way. Signs of an entrepreneurial mindset. For me, when a church is growing, or a ministry is growing, these are like small signs, indicators of an institution, a ministry, a life, a job that is moving in a certain direction. You will see—and I am not glorifying bureaucracy; I do not have time to qualify all of this, and we have to be very careful—but in those ministries there will be lists, protocols, and procedures for doing things. Nowadays, you will see the use of email. It took me a while to get to the point of saying that, but it is true. Clear objectives, measurement: are we achieving what we set out to do? 138 people came. How do we know there were 138? They were counted. Okay, there are lists. How do we know that Awana is worth the money invested and the time and energy? There are results, and they are identified: attendance, children growing, many things. Measurement of objectives.

Execution: people commit to something, carry it out, and continue carrying it out week after week, month after month. There is execution.

In churches, many times, many commitments are made, lists are drawn up, promises are made, commitments are made, people decide to change the world in 10 days, and by the very next day everything has been forgotten. Execution.

Accountability, giving an account to others—that word in English is great. There is decentralization, there is delegation, there is submission to authority—very important. There is honest communication, there is planning, and there are committees, which sometimes make us say, “Committees—that’s bureaucracy.” But these are some of the elements that I believe illustrate something: when you see these things in an environment, not merely because they are present, but because there is life beneath them, because life demands this in order to bring order.

God always creates and then brings order. Look in Genesis; see it for yourself, write that down, and think about it. God creates and then brings order. He gives names, separates, divides, classifies, and that happens as well. Our church has a lot of life and has had a lot of life, and now we are giving that life names, structure, and organization, creating folders for all of it, putting one thing here, another there, another over here, giving this a name.

There are committees; that is, there is organization, there are groups, and so on. All these things—when you see these little things, those little kernels of corn popping up in an environment, whether it is your ministry, your life, your family, your work, or León de Judá as a church—are some signs that progress is being made toward an entrepreneurial mindset.

Brothers and sisters, our time is up. God bless you. Think about these things, and may God enable us as a church to rise more and more each day to that level, because you know what? What is coming is great, and we need to have good nets. Otherwise, our miraculous catch will be lost. So get ready, and this will be a blessing to your lives. If you practice these things, I assure you that your family, your weight, your ministry—whatever it may be—will change; it will reflect the stature, the excellence of the Kingdom of God.

God bless you.