Rick Warren
Who is he? If you have gotten hold of his international best seller Purpose Driven Life as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago, you know this guy. Rick Warren is, first and foremost, the founder and lead pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California. He first became popular among pastors all over the world through his book Purpose Driven Church. Early this decade, his book The Purpose Driven Life became an international best seller selling 40 million copies worldwide. He is a passionate leader, teacher and innovator. His passion is to teach young leaders and minister to the poor through his P.E.A.C.E Plan.

How has he created an impact in my life? My first encounter with Rick Warren is through his book Purpose Driven Church. During that time, I was a discontented member of the church where I grew up . I find no purpose in going to church. I see church as a boring place, an activity with no meaning except for pleasing an angry God. Through his book, I learned that church can be exciting, relevant and life changing. I started to dream of a church where people are excited to come to, lives are being changed and everything from music to the message to the weekday activities are culturally relevant. I should say that our church in Makati, Grace Place, is a product of that dream.

What I learned from him? Aside from the dream that he helped developed in me, I learned a very important leadership principle from Rick Warren: Its not about me. These very words are the very first words of his PDL book. It is, by nature, our goal to protect ourselves, to do things to satisfy ourselves. But if we'll discover the very purpose of our life, we'll realize that it should all start with God. It's not about me, it's all about Him. Then it goes down to the people around. It's not about me, it's about others that I should take care of as God would. This very principle is not only applicable in leadership, but also a great starting point in our quest in finding the purpose of our life.

How has Rick Warren helped you discover your life's purpose?

I'm a freak on improving my leadership knowledge and skills these days. I guess demands at work, the church in Makati where I'm involved with and family are reasons behind this. This week, I'm going to share with you leaders that I admire and how they have created an impact in my life. It is my hope that you'll learn from them, too, through this week's series of posts.


Peter Tanchi

Who is he? Peter Tanchi is the founder and senior pastor of Christ's Commission Fellowship. This organization has grown from a few friends meeting at their garage in the early '80s to thousands of members today. He is a great, engaging public speaker and a very strong, passionate leader.

How has he created an impact in my life? During that time I consider as my personal "grace awakening" sometime 2001, CCF was my haven. In that time of pain and confusion as I break away from my religious heritage, Pastor Tanchi provided answers and inspiration. When I was ministering to Joy, I brought her to CCF. Peter Tanchi was one of those that God used as she gave her life to Jesus.

What I learned from him? While planning for birthing Grace Place, we would usually attend his seminars. I will never ever forget this one principle I learned from him: The kingdom mentality principle. He said that (in the context of the church), knowledge is never meant to be kept rather it should be shared. In the midst of the diversity among Christian churches, he also reminded us that "we're on the same kingdom, on the same team. We should work together in expanding the reign of God in this earth". As a result, even if we are not part of the CCF network, he provided free resources (something that they built through the years), free seminars, and even invited us to see how they do things hands on. This same principle is what I'm using as I lead my team at work and as part of the leadership of Grace Place.
`
If you know Peter Tanchi, can you share how he impacted your life?

I'm back from a holiday blogging haitus.

I don't normally start a year with a resolution. Instead, I set goals that I try to reach.

Here are my goals for 2008 that I thought I would share.

1. Learn 1 particular programming language. I'd like to try Java.

2. Be active in professional clubs. I'm a member of Philippine Internet Commerce Society (PICS) but have been inactive. Recent events in my professional life shows that there's power in partnerships within the industry where I belong. So I'm going to do just that.

3. Release one rockin' web application. Can't expose more details here, but it sure will rock.

4. Plan a really great weekend getaway with Joy for our 5th year anniversary. That's this July. Ganns gave me an idea. ;-)

5. Learn how to Communicate for a Change.

6. Release more blessings in writing through this blog -- it's.not.about.me.

7. Read the entire Bible in NLT

8. Be a better husband to Joy, a better father to Johann, a better leader to Grace Place and Team Sparrow, and a better follower of Jesus Christ.

Partnership is God’s idea.

When God instituted marriage at creation, he said that it is not good for man to be alone. He created the woman to partner with the man.

In your spiritual life, God designed it that everyone should be part of a spiritual family called the local church. If you’re just a church goer and not really living life with your church family, you’re missing a lot!

In business, I’m learning these days that partnerships should not be disregarded. The reality is, we don’t know it all, and we can’t do it all. A project may need multiple technologies, and we can only offer one. The best solution is to partner with another company — which we formerly consider as a competitor — and, instead of compete, we cooperate.

Bottom line: the cliche “No man is an island” rings loud and clear on me these days. It’s humbling to understand that we’re not perfect, we don’t know everything, and we need each other to compliment each other’s weaknesses.

(I recently made a series of posts on Identity -- 1, 2, 3 -- but this series of posts is a notch higher. Credit goes to Craig Groeschel for this series. He is kind of like one of my leadership mentor on the web. He recently sent this series with the same title but targeting leaders in particular. I thought of converting the idea for the "regular guy" in all of us.)

When people talk about "esteem", it usually has "self" before it. I've heard some say that to be successful in life, one has to have a good self-esteem. I'd argue for another kind of esteem which we can call "spiritual-esteem".

Let's define spiritual esteem this way: To find our identity in Christ, not ourselves, our performance, or our achievements.

In life, we often find our worth in one of two things:

• What we've accomplished.
• What people think about us.

I've had this problem in years.

When I receive good grades, I felt good about myself.
When I go below what is expected of me, I felt bad about myself.

When my boss commended me, I felt such a great worker.
When my boss reprimands me, I felt lousy.

In business, when things are going well, I feel a better entrepreneur.
When numbers are low, I feel I'm a failure.

I even have this problem as a leader at Grace Place.
When attendance is high, I, as one of the leaders, feel successful.
If attendance dropped, I feel like a looser.

No amount of "self-esteem" could fix my problem. I needed (and still need) true spiritual esteem. I need to know "who I am in Christ" and find my security in Him alone.

You are not what you did, what you do, or what you are going to do. You are who Christ says you are.

In what areas of your life do you need better “spiritual esteem?”

You're may not like everybody. But we need to be at peace with everyone." -- Josh Mahinay.

Josh, for those who do not know, is our worship leader at Grace Place. Last night at our leadership group, he uttered those simple but profound words -- out of nowhere.

It is false to think that to be friendly, you need to like everybody. That's just isn't possible. We have different personalities. God has wired us differently. It goes to say that there will be conflicts of personalities. Some people, they'll just get into your nerves. And, as far as I'm concerned, it is ok not to like them.

But...

We need to be at peace with everyone. In any group, this is crucial. May it be a classroom, a barkada, a huge clan or a church family-- while not everyone will like everyone, peace is necessary. How does this principle apply to us on a practical level?

* We can always agree to disagree. Opinions differ from one person to another. In any discussions of opposing opinions, there will always be a dead end. And when it happens, the best way to resolve it is to agree to disagree.

* We can all be friends without being close friends. Yes, there's a difference between the two.

* A good leader is a good follower. Are you in a club? Or part of an organization? Or a church?  There are leaders among these groups that lead the way of your organization. There will be times where you will disagree with their decisions, but to be good leader yourself, you need to know how to follow. The Bible calls this "submission" (Heb. 13:17). As long as you support the vision of your group, obey your leaders even if you don't like their decisions. That way, conflicts can be minimized.