5 questions with Dave Ferguson – A Leadership Profile

I’m committed to bringing you great content, so I landed a huge interview with Dave Ferguson Lead Pastor and Spiritual Entrepreneur of Community Christian Church and New Thing Netork, Co-Author of  The Big Idea. I asked him 5 questions that would stretch you as a leader. What impresses me about Dave is his God-sized dreams. I met Dave via his amazing breakthrough book THE BIG IDEA. If you’re a pastor or ministry leader you need to read it. If not, you need to buy your pastor one. His book will help mobilize your church by helping it clarify the message it communicates. Tune in to our short interview, but I’m warning you: Dave’s passion is contagious.

1. How did you get from here to there? (short recap of your professional career)
   When I was a freshman in college the single compelling question that I could not escape was, “for what will you trade your life?”  I had thought seriously about going into law; but the only answer I had for that question was to “help people find their way back to God.”  I knew that the way to do that was through a local church.  I knew that most existing churches either would not be able to tolerate me or I would not be able to tolerate them so my brother, wife and three friends from college all started a brand new church in my hometown, Chicago. 
2. Please identify one of your leadership weaknesses that’s been exposed while the Pastor at Community Christian Church.
   I am not good at raising enough money in enough time.  Too often my vision has outpaced my ability to raise money.  On at least one occasion when we were starting a new campus or some endeavor we didn’t get all the money we needed till the last minute.  The result was it caused a lot of chaos and sucked some of the fun out of what should have been a great time of celebration.
   
3. How have you closed that leadership gap?
   I have brought people on staff to help fill that gap.  I have also put safeguards in place so that we cannot put ourselves in that difficult position.  I have also tried to improve my leadership skills in that area.
   
4. I applaud your vision for NewThing Network. What is your “God size” vision for it?
   We want to be a catalyst for movement of reproducing churches.  When we sit down and strategize we start with 1 billion people and work backwards.  One billion is about 16% of the world population and a tipping point for influencing the entire planet.  It sounds grandiose, but that is where Jesus started, “…all the world.”  We have found that by using that as a starting point it causes us to dream bigger and think differently – for the better.  The immediate goal is to recruit leadership residents for at all of our NewThing churches.  I want to give young leaders interested in planting a new church to have the best possible experience and training.
   
5. Give us The Big Idea (1-2 sentences) behind your breakthrough book The Big Idea and why you wrote it?
   We bombard people with more information every weekend than a Christ follower can possibly apply and live out. In so doing we implicitly communicate that you don’t have to live out the truths of scripture you just have to sit there and let us bombard you with them.  The solution is to give your people one BIG IDEA every week and challenge them to live it out.  We believe the BIG IDEA is one the reasons we are experiencing incredible missional velocity.

Thanks for the lessons in leadership Dave! I’d like to ask you the reader…”What are you willing to trade your life for?” I’d like to know – if you’re bold enough please comment below.