I remember my first time walking into Willow Creek Community Church for a conference. I was a college senior and my professor had invited me to come with him to a conference on church leadership. I was wide eyed as I walked into a 3000 seat auditorium filled with church leaders from all over the world. I was a sponge. I listened intently, took meticulous notes, and didn’t want to leave. I learned new ideas about leadership, church growth, and personal growth. The three days flew by, and by the end I was overwhelmed with all of the information I had ingested! It was a highlight of my college career.
My first year in full time youth ministry, a youth pastor in the city I was in, invited me to the Youth Specialties conference. I loved the road trip, hanging out with other youth pastors, and was blown away by being in a massive conference center with thousands of other youth workers. My philosophy of youth ministry was challenged, my desire to worship was elevated, my understanding that I was a part of something more was ignited. I realized that I loved to learn. I understood that I was a rookie and I was hungry for anything that I could learn that would be helpful to me.
As I became more of a veteran in youth ministry, I realized that there was a temptation to believe that I already knew everything I needed to know. Conferences were more of a vacation than a learning opportunity. New ideas were just a fad, that would never work and quickly go away. The new young and naïve guy with the new idea would quickly go away. The temptation to stop being a learner was real and the older I get that prideful temptation arises more often.
I have learned after 25 years to always be a learner. I have learned over 25 years that the ways I learn can come from many different sources. I enjoy going to conferences with thousands of people to worship, be challenged with a new thought (or reminded of an old idea), to connect with people who are not like me, and to celebrate as a team. I am learning to engage younger people in my life and asking the Holy Spirit to show me what I can learn from them. In every conflict, I ask Jesus to show me what I can learn from this situation (whether it is a valid conflict or not). I have a desire to find older people, who have been down the road I am heading to learn from and to be challenged by. I love to learn.
I also, have realized that the roadblocks of learning in my life look a lot like pride, preference, self protection, and apathy. I know that I can pretend to be successful by leaning on what I already know. I can lead ministry in a way where people feel good, people come to Christ and grow in Him, leaning completely on my previous 25 years of experience. I can get by with what I already know, but I believe that the best thing I can do is help make the next experience more effective than the previous experience. The best way I can do that is to be a life long learner.
I heard a great presenter once say, that most successful leaders are not the most creative people with the most unique ideas, but instead are the people who can gather the most tools, ideas, experiences and put them in a bucket and when they begin the process of moving forward, they can successfully decide what tools in their bucket are the right ones for the particular project. He challenged us to not focus on creativity but instead invest in adding ideas, methods, experiences into our bucket so that we have more options when it comes time to decide on the next step.
I have learned over 25 years of ministry to decide to always be a learner. Fight against pride and self protection. Go learn a new method, a new technology, a new thought. Make a new friend, a new connection, a new mentor. Keep collecting experiences in your bucket. As you learn, allow the Holy Spirit to lead you as you discern what the next step is in your life, ministry, and direction.