Paul and Julie Cook pastor Life Central Church in Dallas (Plano), TX. Life Central is a church “Reaching people far from God and bringing them into a discipleship culture.” It was my privilege to recently sit down with Paul to talk discipleship and leadership.
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Listen as Pastor Cook talks about:
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What it’s like to serve in the same place as a second and first chair leader.
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What first sparked his desire to be a student of leadership.
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How he avoided the mistake of forcing others to learn leadership the way he did.
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Elements of leadership that work at Life Central.
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His role as the leader and God’s role as the visionary.
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Why he doesn’t have to invent vision, he just has to discover it.
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What he learned by going through a re-visioning of his church’s corporate identity.
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How he sees preaching in the context of where the church is going.
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Why he preaches to lead and does not lead to preach.
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How reaching to be multi-generational helps the church stay vibrant.
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His realization that he is not the answer for his church.
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That it’s OK to go at God’s pace.
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Why it’s best to have a discipling culture and not just make disciples.
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The thing that makes him want to hire someone.
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Why he doesn’t want to hire workers or facilitators but reaches for developers.
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How to know when to hire and when to stop adding more workload on others.
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How he views his stewardship over employees.
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Why second chair leaders are better at knowing what frustrates the church.