GrowLeader Podcast with Chris Hodges

Episode 69 | Models & Mentors
Date: January 6, 2025

Episode Overview

In this dynamic New Year’s episode, Pastor Chris Hodges and co-host Matt* discuss the vital roles of models and mentors in leadership growth. Chris shares personal stories and actionable strategies for seeking out inspiration and guidance. The conversation emphasizes the importance of starting the year intentionally—with prayer, fasting, and a practical growth plan. The episode also previews upcoming GrowLeader events and provides concrete tips on leveraging mentorship for personal and organizational success.

Main Themes and Purpose

• Intentional Leadership Growth: Start the year by seeking out new models and mentors.
• Spiritual Renewal: The importance of prayer, fasting, and committing initiatives to God.
• Practical Steps for 2025: Creating a personal growth plan centered on learning from others.
• Mentorship and Modeling: How to find, engage with, and add value to mentors and use best practices from other leaders and organizations.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Power of New Beginnings

• Starting the Year Well: Chris encourages leaders to view the beginning of the year as a “fresh start” for both spiritual and personal growth (00:55).

  • "God's willing to give you that any day you ask him, which makes him so wonderful. But I love the idea of just, hey, clean slate, fresh start, all things new." — Chris Hodges, 00:55

• Committing Plans to God: Chris discusses his practice of developing annual growth initiatives, which he then “commits to God,” highlighting the biblical truth that no plan succeeds outside the Lord’s guidance (01:26).

• 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting: Chris shares his decades-long commitment to beginning every year with focused prayer and fasting, and warmly invites listeners to join, assuring it’s “not too late” to participate (02:33).

  • "I will attribute anything that God's allowed me to do back to the fact that I've started the year just desperate, desperate for his presence." — Chris Hodges, 02:33

Establishing a Personal Growth Plan

• Models and Mentors: Chris challenges listeners to intentionally seek out two things:

  1. Models: Other churches, leaders, or systems that can serve as inspiration.
  2. Mentors: People who can provide wisdom, feedback, and personal development (05:52, 18:41).

• Annual Habit: Each year, Chris makes it a point to visit and learn from other churches, picking up “best practices” to adapt at Highlands.

  • "I try to find two to three churches every year that I just. I know they’re gonna be able to teach me something, show me something that they do better than us, and always jokingly say, better than us for now, because I'm going to take it home and I will. I will make it better, and they'll have to come learn it from me." — Chris Hodges, 11:08

• Don’t Fear Borrowing: Chris dispels the myth that leaders must originate all their own ideas:

  • "Rick Warren says imitation beats innovation every time... when you get to heaven, God's not gonna ask you, 'Oh, by the way, was that your idea?'" — Chris Hodges, 09:53

Practical Application: Models in Ministry

• Everything Is Modeled: From church signage to service flow, Chris explains that nearly every aspect of Church of the Highlands can be traced to another model (10:22).

  • "Every church does something better than us, every one of them. And I will find it. And I love finding it. It's fun for me to find it." — Chris Hodges, 11:36

• Vigilant Observation: Conferences are not just about main sessions—Chris inspects hallways, kids’ spaces, and information centers, always on the hunt for new ideas to bring back home (11:35).

• Ongoing Learning: Chris regularly listens to up to eight sermons a week from various leaders, both prominent and lesser-known, as continual “model research” (12:16).

Embracing the Role of Mentorship

• Mentorship Types: Chris describes two forms:

  1. From Afar: Learning via books, podcasts, and observation without a direct relationship.
  2. Direct Pursuit: Proactively seeking out mentors by adding value to them first (18:41).

• Adding Value to Mentors: To attract mentorship, Chris advocates finding out what matters most to the mentor and getting involved in their passions as a way to build relationship (19:45).

  • "If you want somebody to notice you, go ahead and own what they own. Love what they love." — Chris Hodges, 20:40

• Prepared Students Attract Great Mentors: Chris stresses:

  • Come to mentorship meetings with a list of questions specific to the mentor’s expertise.
  • Be a “great student” by preparing, taking notes, and following up (21:44, 22:59).

  Example: A mentee named Jason comes with precisely timed questions and immediately emails notes back, setting a high bar for engagement.

Upgrading Your Approach: Upcoming Events & Mentoring Opportunities

• GrowLeader Events for 2025:

  • Weekend Services OneDay: March 13th - Deep dive into every aspect of Sunday experiences (14:39).
  • Next Gen Ministries OneDay: April 3rd – Focusing on children and student ministries (16:46).
    • "If after the service, the family now is in the car and the kid says, Mommy, can this be our church? You don't have to have good music and message." — Chris Hodges, 17:58

• Monthly Mentoring Call: Chris offers up-to-date, highly relevant leadership teaching and Q&A directly to participants, making himself available as a mentor for 2025 (23:37).

Practical Tips and Takeaways

• Have a Focused Approach to Questions: Only ask mentors about their area of expertise, not generic or unrelated topics (25:33).

  • “Your first responsibility is ask questions that are totally based on their skill sets and their values.”

• Sample Mentor Questions (29:29):

  • What is the greatest leadership lesson you have learned or are learning?

  • What are you learning right now?

  • How has failure shaped your life?

  • Who do you know that I should know?

  • What have you read that I should read?

  • What have you done that I should do?

  • What questions should I have asked that I didn’t?

  • How can I add value to you?

  • “Probably... the most important question I’ve asked my mentors: 'Who do you know that I should know?'” — Chris Hodges, 29:29

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "God's gonna ask us all: Did you reach your full potential? Did you take what I gave you? Matthew 25, and did you multiply it?" — Chris Hodges, 09:53
• "You didn't make your own car. You took a proven model of something somebody else invented and you had no problem doing that. And I don't see any difference...when it comes to finding models and best practices of churches." — Chris Hodges, 10:07
• “If Sunday doesn't work, it's going to be really hard for anything else to work." — Matt, 16:12

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Annual habit: Seeking new models, starting the year right | | 02:33 | The impact of 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting | | 05:52 | Introducing the importance of models and mentors | | 09:53 | On the value of imitation and models | | 11:08 | Every church has something to teach you | | 12:16 | Listening to multiple sermons weekly as ongoing modeling | | 18:41 | Defining the difference between models & mentors | | 20:40 | How to get noticed by and add value to a mentor | | 21:44 | Being prepared for mentorship/personal example | | 23:37 | GrowLeader’s monthly mentoring call details | | 25:33 | Tailoring your questions to mentor’s expertise | | 29:29 | Sample questions to ask mentors |

Action Steps for Listeners

• Begin 2025 with intentional spiritual practices: Engage in prayer and fasting.
• Develop a personal growth plan: List models (churches/leaders to learn from) and mentors (people to pursue relationships with or learn from afar).
• Attend GrowLeader events or join mentoring calls for targeted learning and community.
• Prepare for mentorship by researching and bringing focused questions—and always seek ways to add value in return.

Conclusion

2025 is the "Year of New Beginnings." Start fresh by identifying both the models you will study and the mentors you will pursue. Implement best practices, stay humble, and commit every plan to God. As Chris says:
"Models, mentors, everybody. Start your year off right, knowing what you're going to do in those two areas." (30:40)

For resources or to find out more about upcoming events and mentorship opportunities, visit growleader.com.

*Matt: Co-host; full identification not specified in transcript, but consistently referred to as “Matt.”