“You are good, but not that good.”

This is one of the lines I keep hearing from him.

Everytime I get  a chance to have lunch with Joey Bonifacio, I take it.  There are lots of lessons to be learned from this man.  I am just so thankful I have mentors that I can go to and glean from their experiences in ministry, family and life in general.

One of the principles I have learned from him is the principle of FOCUS.  You can’t wear too many hats because the truth is, you only have one head.  You can’t juggle lots of balls because you’ll drop one soon enough.  And you can’t be driving in several lanes because there’s only one YOU to drive that ONE car.

Whether it’s in the area of business, ministry or family, focus is critical.

Your kids will only have one daddy (or mommy) they can have.
Your team only has one leader (if you’re the designated one) to lead.  If not, someone else will have to take that role.
Your business only has one CEO.  If not managing it will be nothing short of a nightmare.
Your small group only has one leader.  Otherwise, it can be confusing.

“At the end of the day, there’s only 24 hours and only 100% in one pie.  You’re good but not that good.” – Joey Bonifacio

(Blogger General’s Warning: Long Blog)

The year started with a word I felt God impressed in my heart – SHARPENING.

Then a conversation with Carlos Antonio sparked it even more.

I remember when my firstborn was about 3 or 4 years old, while in church talking to people, Pastor Steve set me aside to talk to me.

“Paolo, you’re a great dad.” (At this point, I whispered ‘uh-oh’ because I knew the sandwich principle was coming.)

“However, there might be some things you don’t see or even tolerate.  What you tolerate, you’ll never change.”

“When your son runs around the main auditorium and don’t control him, you may not notice but others are getting distracted.”

That moment, I understood what he was talking about.  It was tough to hear but as a new dad, I needed to hear it.

Since then, as a parent, leader and pastor, I’ve received numerous ‘feedback’ which now I am thankful for because it has helped me grow along the way.

Three verses come to mind.

1. Iron sharpens iron. (Prov. 27:17)

If we want to stay on the cutting edge of life, there will be friction.  Sparks will fly.  But it will be for the purpose of sharpening.

Once you stop being open to sharpening, that’s when we get dull.  Once that happens, we stop growing.

2. Open rebuke is better than hidden love. (Prov. 27:5)

You’d prefer people tell you upfront than them talk about it behind your back.

Pride is the number 1 enemy of correction.  We immediately dismiss it by saying, “well… I’m not the only one who does it.”  Or worse, we whisper under our breath saying, “I’m sure you’ve done this before too.”

But does that mean the correction is invalid?  By no means.

Pride is definitely a hindrance to receiving correction.  It really goes before a fall.

3. Speak the truth in love. (Eph. 4:15)

While this maybe the manner, it should also be the motivation.

The manner we should bring the ‘sharpening’ is to be with love.  Jesus came full of grace and truth.  Grace first before truth.

It’s not just the manner but also the motivation.  The reason why we give the feedback or correction is because we love the person.  We want that person to not stay the same way but to continue to grow and mature in his faith and in life.

The next time a person comes and gives correction, remember what Proverbs 12:1 says,  “Anyone who loves learning accepts correction,but a person who hates being corrected is stupid.”

.

That day, we unvelied “JUST ONE”. The battle cry for next year is that each leader lead/train/raise even JUST ONE leader (to go through one2one, Victory Weekend, Making Disciples Training and Training for Victory). So by the end of 2011, we are trusting God to double the number of our Victory Group leaders.

Can this be done in one year? I believe so. Many if not all that came that not thought so too. With God’s grace and us working together, we can continue to see God’s kingdom advance in 2011 as we honor God and make disciples.

Here are a few pictures of what happened that evening.

The Dance Team from Victory Malate started the evening with a bang!

Our amazing hosts (Pastor Jeff, Donita Rose and James Muleta) led us through the program that night.

Jose "Quest" Villanueva sang the baptized version of JUST ONCE to making it JUST ONE!

Pastor Joey shares a powerful message from Isaiah 54 on ENLARGE, LENGTHEN and STRENGTHEN.

Premier Balladier Jeffrey Hidalgo encourages the Victory Group leaders with the song "You Raised Me Up".

"JUST ONE" notebooks for all our Victory Group leaders.

Here are other pictures from that event thanks to Anson Yu (click here), Anne Centeno (click here) and Alfred Albarracin (click here).

Gallup Poll made a research and surveyed 10,000 people.  They asked these 2 questions: “What leader has the most positive influence in your daily life?” and “Can you list 3 words that best describe what this person contributes to your life?”

The second reason given was COMPASSION.

Around 10 million people were surveyed and responded by saying, “My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.”

These same people agreed with this statement:

• are significantly more likely to stay with their organization
• have much more engaged customers
• are substantially more productive
• produce more profitability for the organization

It validates my hunch that while I’d like to become like the leaders I look up to, the truth is, I can’t. Why? I’m not them… and they’re not me.

I’ve fallen into this trap over and over and over and over again. I’d like to be like Steve. I want to be like Joey. I desire to be like Manny or Ferdie. Or maybe like Jun.

He made me who I am because He knew exactly what He has planned for me with the skills, abilities and quirks that I have.

Being secure with who God’s made you to be is key to being the leader God wants you to be. If He wanted you to be the leader you’re admiring, then He would’ve made you that person.

“If you spend your life trying to be good at everything, you will never be great at anything.” – Tom Rath

While Pastor Joey was out for an international trip, in one of our Fort Staff Meetings, we talked about the lessons that can be learned from Aaron and Hur.  While Joshua and the Israelites were fighting the Amalekites, Moses, Aaron and Hur went on a mountain.

The Bible says that while Moses’ arms were raised, the Israelites were winning.  When he would grow tired and put them down, they would lose.

So Aaron and Hur devised a plan.

Exodus 17:12  says, “When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.”

As a result, they won.

We wanted to be Aarons and Hurs to Pastor Joey and wanted to encourage him when he came back from his trip.  Thus, we came up with this video which was the spark that birthed the idea to Pastor Steve’s birthday video.

(click here to watch Pastor Steve’s birthday video)

We all are a ‘second man’ to someone.  Learning to encouraging and ‘raising the arms’ of your leader is critical to see your team win any battle.

While I appreciate how John Maxwell defined leadership as ‘influence’, Jesus defined it differently.

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. (Mark 10:42-44)

Leadership is serving.

This I saw yesterday during our Metro Manila Staff Meeting.  Jam, who is a phenomenal worship leader led us into the presence of God.  He’s the one in the middle of the picture in a white shirt.  While this was happening, I was watching Pastor Joel Barrios (on the far right in red).  He used to be in the frontlines and the one in the middle.  Yet as he has raised so many worship leaders, he has deliberately stepped aside to let others take the lead.

We’ve seen too many insecure leaders today try to stay in the ‘spotlight’ as long as they can.  This is not the case with Joel Barrios – a man who knows how to lead… He leads by serving.

God help me to be like him – a secure leader who loves serve and knows when to step aside.