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Leader2Leader: The Multiplication Factor - L2L The Multiplication Factor - Michael Gunnin · CLA+

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  Welcome to the Christian Leadership Alliance Leader to Leader podcast.
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  I'm Scott Brown, Vice President of Leadership Experiences and Resources for the
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  Alliance. This transformational podcast series is entitled The Multiplication Factor
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  and features Christian leaders who share heartfelt personal stories of
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  multiplication. ♪ They testify to God's multiplication of fruit in their life and
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  leadership.
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  Also, these time-proven leaders offer encouragement for the future of other
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  Christian leaders.
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  We thank FaithSearch Partners for their sponsorship of the Leader to Leader podcast.
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  Faith Search Partners drives executive searches with passion and purpose.
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  They understand the importance of these qualities for effective biblical leadership
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  and help clients to find the right candidates who embody them.
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  FaithSearch Partners is highly experienced in faith-based executive search and
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  excels in securing leaders for Christian nonprofits, higher education, ministries,
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  media, and faith-driven organizations.
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  Learn more at faithsearchpartners.com.
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  Now, please enjoy this Leader to Leader, the Multiplication Factor episode.
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  My name is Michael Gunnan. I have the privilege of serving with Walk Through the
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  Bible as the Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer.
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  Walk Through the Bible is a global ministry working in about 140 countries around
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  the world.
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  And at our core, we are focused on Bible engagement.
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  Our core mission is trying to help people to live out God's Word, help ignite
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  passion for the Scriptures, help overcome some of the challenges and obstacles of
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  people reading and engaging with the Bible.
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  And we get to do that around the world and help people to experience and live out
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  God's Word for themselves. Yeah.
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  When I think about my own preparation for leadership, when I think about how
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  God has prepared me, the disciplines that have been important in my own life,
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  preparing me to lead, I always come back to the Word of God, to the
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  Scriptures. um which really shouldn't surprise us when you think about everything
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  that the bible says about itself that it's uh the breathed out words of god that
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  it's um alive and active, that it pierces our hearts, that it is useful
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  for teaching, correcting, and training in righteousness.
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  When you think about all of that, it shouldn't surprise us that when we invest as a
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  leader in into God's Word and we're faithful and reading and engaging in Scripture,
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  allowing God to speak to us through His Word, that's preparing us to lead
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  well. And so when I think back over my leadership journey, I can think back to those
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  moments where I've really, I think, had a heart that was good soil ready for
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  success. God to really work through me.
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  I think it's those times where I was most diligent, most faithful to His Word and
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  allowing His Word to shape who I am, how I live, how I lead, how
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  I minister. And I think that's ultimately where I sense God really working in my
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  heart to prepare me to lead well.
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  When I think about how I've seen God multiply and bear fruit in
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  the organization that I have the privilege of serving with, These past few years
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  have been a pretty remarkable journey for our ministry.
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  We've been in a bit of a turnaround, which is pretty rare within a lot of Christian
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  organizations. Sometimes once you're in that period of stagnation or decline, it's
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  hard to turn around. Five or six years ago, we were in a pretty tough spot as an
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  organization. and having some really hard conversations about sustainability and
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  what the future looks like. And it was one of those moments where I was not
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  serving in a position of focusing on our strategy and our growth and
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  our planning, but sensing that God was preparing me for more.
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  and allowed me to begin to have some
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  influence out of my primary areas of responsibility.
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  And a number of things began to happen together and fall
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  into place. And we began to see God do some pretty remarkable things in our
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  ministry. And we went from years of decline in terms of financial
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  stability and having a clear vision and strategy for the future to...
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  The past five or six years have just been a remarkable season of growth
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  organizationally.
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  And I've had a little bit of peace to play in that turnaround and the strategy and
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  the planning for the future.
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  And as I think about my role in that, it was...
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  It was the work that God had done in me for decades of ministry.
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  to prepare, experiences, roles that I've had where I thought, "I'm not even sure why
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  I'm in this role," but it was all about preparation for where we are serving now.
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  And I think that's a really important message for us as Christian leaders.
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  We often think about future roles and what's next, and sometimes we need to
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  just... sit and stay in where God has us in these moments?
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  What is God teaching us? What is God allowing us to learn?
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  And we may not know for quite some time how God is going to use that as a seed
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  that's going to bear fruit in future years.
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  And I've just had a front row seat of watching that unfold in my own life and in the
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  ministry that I serve as we've gone from a pretty difficult spot to just a
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  remarkable season of blessing and abundance.
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  that we're in right now. I think for Christian leaders who are in a
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  season of difficulty where organizationally things are not great or
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  they're hard –
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  I think just doing the next right thing well and
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  faithfully is what matters.
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  Turnarounds don't happen overnight.
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  They don't happen quickly and they don't happen easily, usually.
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  And that was certainly our case.
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  But we just did the next thing faithfully and God began to bless
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  that.
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  And then where I think a lot of organizations struggle, and this was the big
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  cultural shift for Walkthrough, was we experienced this.
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  renewed season of ministry was really building a very high culture of accountability
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  within our organization where we held ourselves to a high standard of doing what we
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  said we were going to do. So we built plans and strategies and all the things that
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  you have to do as an organization and as a leadership team.
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  But then we held ourselves accountable.
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  And that is, I think, the critical thing that took us from where we were to
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  where we are now.
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  And that was the role that I was able to really play within the organization was
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  pushing us to say, writing a plan.
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  writing a strategic plan, writing goals and outcomes that we want to see, that
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  doesn't get it done. It's when we hold ourselves accountable to do those things that
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  we say that we're committed to do.