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Andy Stanley on How Leaders Make Their Mark

Andy Stanley opened Catalyst 09 with an illustration from the Ridley Scott movie, Kingdom of Heaven. In this movie, set in the medieval Crusades, the blacksmith has a phrase inscribed in his shop in Latin: "What man is a man who does not leave the world better?"

Andy then set up this tension: If you have the leadership gift, you want to make a mark, to leave the world better. But you won't know your legacy, even your greatest mistake, until years later. The defining moment will happen when you don't know it's happening. So the problem/challenge for leaders is you don't know the thing you'll do that will make the biggest difference.

What to do? Andy drew insights from the Book of Joshua:

When Joshua enters the Promised Land, he is on the verge of making his mark. The incident that I believe marked Joshua is when he's a couple of days out from attacking the city of Jericho. In Joshua 5:13, Joshua saw a man in front of him with a drawn sword. Joshua asks him, "Are you for us or against us?" ...

March
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