Good to Grow: marriage, character and stamina!

Other topics of importance in leadership and that I deal with in the book Good to Grow are marriage and character... and the stamina that is needed to go with them!

‘It has been my observation that sometimes the limiting factor of a ministry’s effectiveness and sustainability has nothing to do with the leader’s capacity or gift – or that of the team. A weak leadership marriage, rather than being a place of rest and refreshment, becomes a limiting factor, sometimes tragically derailing the whole deal.’


‘The personal life of the leader and their corporate leadership are totally linked together in my experience. Our culture has made a huge mistake in separating the private and the public. Integrity, whether in private life or public arena, is always an issue of character.’


‘I broke almost every rule and boundary I have ever set for myself and taught to others, and began working seven-day weeks, even while on holiday. Deb and the boys were remarkably supportive. There are times in life when you just have to ‘up your game’, and I know myself well enough to know that I can go to another level for a relatively limited period of time, say three to six months. Good leaders generally have something in the bag for the ‘Big Push’ moment. It could be in the first year of planting a church; here it was for a building project. The greatest danger in a period like this is that what starts as a short term push turns into a lifestyle. Ten months later I hit the wall. I started to observe that I was reacting more emotionally in meetings when conflict was involved - and it all came to a head in one particular week which included Deb requesting I stop looking at my emails on my iPhone during lunch on our day off.’