Central Christian Church Message Podcast

The Pace of Grace | Summit Weekend 2021 | Pastor Michael Todd

May 23, 2021 Central Christian Church of Arizona
Central Christian Church Message Podcast
The Pace of Grace | Summit Weekend 2021 | Pastor Michael Todd
Show Notes Transcript

Want to increase your influence while also keeping your sanity? Sometimes we can think that the busier we are the more productive we are. However, what if having margin in your life is what you actually need to succeed? Join us this weekend as we watch Michael Todd’s message from the 2020 Global Leadership Summit and learn some incredible insights from his journey.

Cal Jernigan: [00:00:00] Well, hi everyone. Hey, and one more time, as always welcome to Central. So glad that you're with us. You know exciting things are happening around here. And, oh man, last weekend we had a baptism weekend and I got to tell you incredible things happended. Over a hundred people got baptized and I, I don't know how to say this, but one is young as nine one as old as 90,

[00:00:19] got baptized. And man, we were just rejoicing across all of our campuses. Again, if you want to get baptized and you haven't yet, it's not too late, just let us know and we'll work with you and do whatever we can do to assist you in that. Well, listen, if you've been around Central for any amount of time, you know, that there's something kind of near and dear to our heart and that is developing leaders. Leadership matters.

[00:00:39] And we just believe that everything rises and falls on leadership. And so around here, we place a very heavy emphasis on developing leaders and literally identifying, training, releasing. And you know, it's just, it's what matters. Especially in times like we're living in right now. Leaders make the difference.

[00:00:57] Now a lot of people go, I'm not a leader, so you can't be talking to me. All of us are leaders. It's just the degree at which we lead and really how effectively we lead. Everyone gets better when a leader gets better, everyone wins. So to that end every year for about 15 years now, we have hosted what is called the Global Leadership Summit.

[00:01:18] And the Global Leadership Summit brings together from all across the world, some of the very best leaders and they share in, in literally like 30 minutes segments, their very best ideas, uh, cutting edge ideas, very best practices that will make a difference in helping us to get better. And because of this, we, as the years go by just keep like brick on brick on brick, getting better and better and better.

[00:01:43] Now here's what's happening on the fifth and 6th of August of this year. We're going to host it again now last year, because of COVID, we couldn't host it. So we had to do it just online. This year what we're going to do is we're going to host it in Mesa, we're going to host it in Gilbert and we're going to offer it online.

[00:01:59] What you need to know now is that it is an, a very important event that you simply don't want to miss know what happens every year. This people go who go to it for the first time. I had no idea. Why didn't you tell me it was this good. Why didn't you tell me I would never have missed it if I had known.

[00:02:14] So what we do to make sure that doesn't happen is before Summer hits, we give you a preview. We give you a glimpse, an idea, just a chance to kind of experience just a snippet of it. So we take, one of the messages from last year dedicate a Sunday dedicated weekend and go, we're going to show that so people can get a taste and a flavor

[00:02:33] it. A flavor of it. And so that's what we're going to do right now. You're going to get to hear a guy named Michael Todd, and they'll introduce him here in the next segment, but I just want you to understand it matters that you and I learn how to lead better and we can't get better if we don't put our heart and our energy into it.

[00:02:48] So when I show you this, and at the end of this, I want to encourage you sign up now. Be a part of this. You will be better. Your family will be better. Your work will be better. Everyone who comes in contact with you will be better. It'll be a better world. Bless you to that end, watch this then get ready.

[00:03:05] Summit Introducer: [00:03:05] In 2015, Michael and Natalie Todd were entrusted with Transformation Church by the founding pastor. To continue to reach their community, city, and world with the gospel presented in a relevant and progressive way. Recently purchasing the Spirit Bank Event Center. They have over 5,000 live attendees and more than 120,000 people online each week.

[00:03:32] In keeping with the church's aspiration to represent God to the lost and found for transformation in Christ. Todd continues to provide God to a multicultural, multiethnic, and multi-generational audience. His influence reaches far beyond the church walls with his talks widely watched through various social media sites and several having over 17 million views,

[00:03:55] on YouTube alone. Todd released his first book in April, 2020. Relationship Goals. Please welcome Michael Todd to the Summit.

[00:04:34] Mike Todd: [00:04:34] Global Leadership Summit. How are you doing? I am Michael Todd. And I just wanted to wake you up real quick. I know that you are in all kinds of places all over the world from coffee shops to board rooms, to, um, places where your kids are running around and you're trying to gain leadership just over the kindergarteners, right?

[00:04:55] I want to say, I am proud of you and I am so grateful and honored to be here with you. Um, that little drum spazz out thing that I just did is going to make second in a mo make sense in a moment. Because today, I want to talk to you about your leadership in a way maybe you've never really thought about it. Today,

[00:05:15] the title of my talk is The Pace of your Leadership. And now this may be an interesting topic and subject when we talk about leadership, because there are all kinds of leaders watching right now. There are leaders that have influence over thousands of people. They are leaders that have influence over a few people.

[00:05:36] It doesn't matter how many people you have a leadership over. We know that when the leader gets better, everything gets better. And so I want to talk to you as a leader, an individual today. And I want to talk to you about the rhythm, the pace, the tempo of your leadership. Now this has a real, um, a real, a real soft spot in my heart because the pace of my leadership almost took me out and I want to share very transparently

[00:06:08] or we say back at home, very HOT. Humble, Open, and Transparent. We want to share HOT about what the wrong pace can do in your leadership, but what the right pace can do in your leadership. And, and I'm going to be the one to tell you, I came all the way to the Global Leadership Summit to be at your house in your board room with your team right now, to tell you something that somebody probably should have told you, many people that are watching this right now, your pace is too fast.

[00:06:39] You've been going at a pace that is unsustainable. We are in a cosmic slow down right now. And when I, when I survey the land of most leaders, this elite leadership landscape, most leaders feel more overworked. They feel more tired. They have more anxiety. They are dealing with depression and all of these different things.

[00:07:02] Statistics are proving it all over the board because the leadership pace is out of place. That is unsustainable. Now I want you to sit in that for just one second. I'm gonna take my glasses off. I want you to look at me, me and you right now. If you really think about not the success that you have been brought in your company, in your family, in your school, but how do you feel?

[00:07:27] Many of us would not be as successful as we look internally. And today I want to help you with that because if we get the right pace in our lives, everything changes. Let me tell you about me. When the pace changed, for me, it was December, 2017. And I remember it. I was two years into leading a church that I took over.

[00:07:52] I was 27 years old. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just trying to beg people to stay a part of our organization. And I was doing everything that I knew to do. And I heard this resounding uh, um, um, instruction from the inside, say that you need to slow down. You need to change the pace. And I was like, how in the world can I change the pace?

[00:08:14] We don't even have anything. There's only 300 people, a part of our organization. What is going to happen if I change the pace except I'm going to fail. And then this is all going to be over real quick. And I heard it again, changed the pace, slow down. And because I'm a man of faith, I check everything against the word of God.

[00:08:32] And if you just ever look at the leadership qualities of Jesus, forget all the faith stuff for a second. This man was a, an amazing leader. And let's look at some of the leadership principles. I looked at the word and I found out that Jesus fulfilled everything that was ever spoken about Him, did it in three years,

[00:08:52] and you never hear about him running to his next appointment. Now that changed my life, because I want you to think about this. If you add three years to take your business, your team, your company, your conglomerate, your girl scout troop from being a startup to being a world renowned brand leader that would last for 2000 years after you weren't around.

[00:09:17] Most of us would be working and overworking killing ourselves, or what I like to call striving. But what I've found is that there was another way to find the right pace in leadership. And I call it striding. I want you to write this definition down. The word stride means to walk with long decisive steps and a specific direction.

[00:09:40] Now, when I first found this definition, let me be honest with you, I hated it. Because I don't walk nowhere. Why we walk in and if we can run, why, why, why don't we get there faster? But what I found out is that the pace of walking last longer, you can go further with this. And I had to practically practically do this in my life.

[00:10:02] In 2017 December, I canceled a bunch of things that our organization was about to do. And it was almost if I was, I was watching or about to watch everything that we had tried to build, go down and I found the secret, and I'm hoping that some of the leaders that are listening right now who are grinding and hustling and going after everything.

[00:10:22] And you're not really whole, but you're trying to do everything that, that, that, that it seems to be the thing that you're supposed to do. I hope you hear me. I'm living proof today that when you find the pace. The right pace, everything changes. I call it the pace of grace. It's that sweet spot between great results and genuine rest.

[00:10:44] I just said a cuss word for some of y'all rest is a cuss word for people, but I'm telling you that this is the place where everything starts working. It's that fine line between hard work and health and wholeness. It's that tension between tremendous stats and true inner success. That's what real leadership that will last has to have.

[00:11:09] It has to have the right pace. And I have a question for you today, wherever you're watching from whenever you're watching, is everything in your leadership, moving at the same pace. See for many of us, it's not. Do you have leadership unity. Like is your integrity and your health and your spirituality and your family and your character and your peace and your joy and your fulfillment.

[00:11:36] Are they working together in harmony making a beautiful sound? Is it moving at the same pace? See, when I played drums earlier, the one thing that you have to realize when you play drums is that there's a lot of different things happening all at the same time. And many times people don't ever get to see the, the, the inner workings of drumming.

[00:12:01] And so if you've ever wanted it to be a drummer, here is your class at the Global Leadership Summit. I have a right hand or left hand or right foot and a left foot, and all of them are independent and all of them want to do their own things. Sometimes like our businesses or our organizations, my, my right hand or our, my company wants to go at one pace.

[00:12:23] And then my family wants to go at another place. And then my, my investments want to go at a pace and then my recreation want to go on and pace. And what happens is because they're not all in unison, it sounds like this

[00:12:40] And that is garbage. Okay. But what happens when my leadership. With my job in my family, in my integrity and my recreation, what happens when they work together

[00:12:59] Synergy

[00:13:05] And you make music because we've all started working at the same pace. May I suggest to you some of us. Are out of whack in the pace of our leadership, that we're going super fast at one thing, paying no attention to another thing. And there's no cohesion and unity. And today I'm challenging you to find the pace of grace.

[00:13:29] See, the thing that you need to know is that, that, that the pace is not fast or slow. The pace is set. I need your participation. Everybody that's watching me right now. Clap your hands like this. Come up, everybody in the auditorium. Come on, clap your hands right now. Everybody. Everybody. Yo, come on, everybody.

[00:13:49] Come on, clap with me.

[00:14:00] Okay. Now watch. You're still clapping on the pace that I set. And when you find the right pace, it's easy for a team to follow you. There were hundreds of thousands of us, right then clapping at the same rhythm all around the world, because it was at a pace that everybody could go. What I'm encouraging you is that if you find that right pace in your leadership, the pace that is not just going fast, that works slow at home.

[00:14:34] Um, um, sometimes in rest and other times you're not doing things in integrity, but if we find that unity and that leadership pace, it changes everything. For me, after I made the decision and I want you to hear me say this because some of you are watching me right now and you want to get up and you want to go to the restroom.

[00:14:54] And this is where you want to clear your throat because I'm in your house. See, because I'm in your business right now. Cause this is the one thing that you don't want to do. You don't want to slow the pace down you, some of you don't want to speed the pace up. And what I'm telling you is when you find the pace of grace, where everything gets the measure of attention and health that it needs.

[00:15:12] Everything changes. And let me tell you some of the things that happened to me, because I shouldn't be on this platform right now, but the only reason I'm on this platform right now is because I made a decision privately that changed the trajectory for my life publicly. I'm just going to be the proof today because somebody needs to know, will that work,

[00:15:32] if you change the pace? I didn't think it would either. But I'm standing here today as a living witness. What will happen when your leadership pays gets in alignment all the way around your life? I was given a larger platform for the organization's mission and ministry to go forward through social media.

[00:15:55] Let me tell you what happened. 2017. I preached a message called Relationship Goals. After I made that decision to slow the pace down. 15 days later, it went viral. 2 million people watched it in 48 hours. I didn't know what was happening. Black Panther was out at the time and I was getting 10,000 Instagram followers every day.

[00:16:16] My name is Michael Toad. I thought that they thought I was Michael B. Jordan. It was just, it just kept coming. And I was like, what is going on? But I gained influence in all of us. Know what, what leadership really is. It's just influenced. I gained influence in that time of millions of people. Another thing that happened because I slowed the pace down, it was the result of the right pace.

[00:16:37] Our organization acquired a huge piece of property that nobody thought we could acquire. Because I was in the place in the space to be able to understand business-wise and logistically what we needed to do. And this one y'all, it blows my mind because if you know anything about our story, I started our organization leading it in a converted grocery store.

[00:17:00] And just over a year ago, this week, we were able to purchase this building and pay it off in cash within five months. It'd be easier to show you then than to tell you. So take it. Short look at this small video.

[00:18:33] Wow. Okay. All of that was a result of the right pace. Now some of you are saying, okay, that could happen for anybody. Let me, what are the numbers? What really happened? Let me tell you what else happened. Our budget went up over a thousand percent over the last three years. I didn't that wasn't a mess up over a thousand percent.

[00:18:54] These are actual metrics because of the right pace. The next thing that happened, is I wrote a book and that's a miracle in itself if you know me at all. Okay. But I wrote a book called Relationship Goals. And because I went at the right pace because I never tried to move outside of my pace of grace.

[00:19:20] When I released this book in the middle of a pandemic, great job, Michael. Uh, for some reason it went number one, New York Times bestseller for three weeks. And it's been on the list for 14 weeks. I cannot tell you how many things I'm just choosing a few happened because I did less. And I was in the place to be able to be healthy enough to sustain the success and the blessings and the great things that were happening to our company and our organization.

[00:19:52] And the greatest thing that happened for me. Because I slowed the pace down because I found the pace of grace that I got in my leadership pace. No, there were things that were trying to rip me out of it. Opportunities, all kinds of things, but I had to stay on assignment. And that's what I'm challenging you, what have you been called to do?

[00:20:08] What is that thing that wakes you up in the morning? What is that thing that you are burdened with? And I'm asking you to stay on that thing with the level of pace that won't be able to allow you to sustain. We don't want to lead her for a short time. That does great. We need leaders for a long time. We need leaders who will be here generation after generation changing the trajectory of the lives that have come before and lives that are coming after.

[00:20:37] And that's why we have to find the right pace in our leadership. Me slowing down the pace, the most important thing. It made me be able to be mentally and emotionally available to lead and love my greatest assignment, which is my family. Affectionately known as the Todd Squad and these beautiful people are God's gift to me.

[00:21:03] And the reason why pace is so important to me is because in the middle of all of this success, me and my wife, Natalie, found out that our only son, had autism. He was diagnosed with autism in the middle of all of this. And had I been going at the pace, watch this, I wanted to go. At the pace that I could have gone.

[00:21:31] I would have missed the opportunity to lead my family through the greatest crisis that we've ever been through. My son is almost five years old and cannot speak a complete sentence yet. And I was there because the pace was right, because I hadn't signed all these contracts and committed to all these things and, and went for more money and all this other stuff.

[00:21:53] I stayed in the pace of grace. I had margin in my life because I found that pace. I was able to go and be with my wife as she grieved. I was be able to show up every week for my son's therapy sessions. And to hear him say one word at a time, I was able to process the pain myself and go through intensive counseling because I had the right pace.

[00:22:17] And now I can stand before everybody that's watching this and let you know that everything that I've achieved does it matter because I actually can enjoy what I have and I'm encouraging. And I'm challenging some of you that have a lot and aren't fulfilled. That have been going at an amazing pace that everybody is clapping for you, but on the inside, you want to crawl away and never be seen again.

[00:22:45] I'm telling you, there is another way to lead. If you find the right leadership pace. And today I'm really bargaining for some people's lives, not your business. It doesn't matter if your business is successful, if you're not successful. It doesn't matter if you get another award, if your children don't like you. It doesn't matter if everybody knows your name, but you can't stand to hear it by be called by one more person.

[00:23:18] What you have to do is find the pace that is sustainable, livable, and that will give you health for your mind, will, and emotions. Let me give you what happens when you have poor pace. Write this down, poor pace produces missed moments, missed meaning, and missed miracles. So many of us are running through life.

[00:23:45] And I want to tell you running is overrated. It is, it is. That's what some of y'all are eating a donut right now. Say I told, I knew Pastor Mike was going. I knew I liked him. No, I'm not talking about you need to physically exercise, okay. But running in life. Running to the next gig, running to the next opportunity.

[00:24:01] If you do not find a page, you will miss the moments that are supposed to bring you joy. You will miss the things you're supposed to learn. The meaning that is supposed to be in it. And most importantly, you'll miss the miracles, the little things, you know, I think about my own life. And my son MJ, and I think about how fast paced I was with my daughter, Isabella, and, and when she was born things I just took for granted, but because I slowed down and my son couldn't speak the things that are miracles now are a lot smaller than I thought miracles would be when he looks at me and brings me to the cabinet,

[00:24:45] and he says, chips, chips. If I was going at a fast pace, I wouldn't be able to let a tear fall down my eye because I saw the miracle of what the doctor said. My son would never be able to do for him to do. I went at a pace that was able to recognize the moments, the meaning and the miracle. And I submit to you that some of you as leaders, as great as you are discontent because of the pace you've been running.

[00:25:15] And I dare you to find that pace, that pace of grace, where you'll be able to see the meaning, the moments and the miracle. But if you get the right pace, let me help you the right pace in your life, the right pace in your business, the right pace in your marriage, the right pace and everything that you do, the right pace allows you to be present.

[00:25:39] And the present is a gift to you. And many of us wake up, day-to-day thinking about what's ahead. And we miss the gift of the present. And I'm asking you, I'm begging you. I don't know how I got on this stage today, but maybe it was for a couple of people who are out there that have been on the treadmill of leadership in the treadmill of life.

[00:26:03] And the treadmill is success. And what I'm saying is you can hit the button and you can set a sustainable pace. We need you as a leader, much longer than you are set up to last right now. And that's only going to come when you set the right leadership pace. So Pastor Mike, how do I set a new leadership pace?

[00:26:24] I'm so glad you asked. I want you to write down these things and, and I don't know your situation. So you're going to have to work this out within yourself, but I promise you, if you start walking down this path, by the time we get here next year, you will be a different leader that has more success because you're healthier and you're better for everybody that you lead.

[00:26:44] The first thing that you have to do is get a vision. You got to give, get a vision of yourself. Rested whole. I mean, vision is what you see when your eyes are closed. Sight is what you see when your eyes are open. And some of you after this, you need to just close your eyes and see yourself. Happy about going to work.

[00:27:02] Seeing yourself excited about the people you work with. I know, I know you can't stand Josh at your job. I know you can't stand them right now, but see yourself having a good conversation with Josh. Come on. Josh is in the room. If Josh is in the room where you're not picking on you, Josh. Okay. But I want you to see yourself right now.

[00:27:19] Clear vision because without vision people cast off restraint, they stopped caring. The second thing I want you to do to reset your leadership pace is I want you to make it visual. I want you to write it down. Nothing's real until you write it down. I want you to write down the goal that this time next month, my pace is going to go to this and this time, the month after that, by this time next year, write it down, put it in your iPhone, put it on a tablet.

[00:27:46] But once it becomes real, it's written down. The third thing I want you to do is be verbal. Tell somebody. Tell somebody, you know what? I'm changing my pace up. Tell your husband, tell your wife, tell your best friend, tell a boss, tell a coworker, say I really got to change my pace in this area so that I can sustain here.

[00:28:05] And once you do that, once you get a vision, once you make it visual, once you are verbal with it, don't violate it. Don't violate what you set. And I know it will be hard. I had an opportunity to do the largest media that I've ever done. Um, next week. And after this session, I'm going on sabbatical. And that has been the pace I've set to take a month and be able to really focus on what I'm telling you about right now, my mind, my emotions, my spirit, and all that other stuff.

[00:28:36] And I had to call that, that person back and tell them I'm not going to be able to do it. And what they did is rescheduled it for a better time. And now I get to walk in more confidence because I did not violate the pace that I set. And the last thing that will happen is the results are going to come and you will have added value.

[00:28:55] Remember this, pace directly affects peace and peace is true prosperity. If you want true prosperity in your business, in your life, you need peace. If you need peace over a long period of time, you have to have a pace. I end with this, success is not just where you end up. It's how you get there. I am praying for every person that is listening to this, that you would find the pace of grace.

[00:29:26] Thank you so much.