Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, GA) began Catalyst Conference’s first official session by discussing leaving a mark on the world. Here is what he said:

What man is a man that does not make the world better?

Leadership is a gift. Every leader leaves a mark. But the challenge is… what type of mark will you leave?

If you are discontent with the status quo and you want to see change, it is because God has put that desire to lead inside of you.

You will never recognize your biggest opportunity until after you’ve taken advantage of it or missed it. You won’t know your mistakes until long after you’ve made them.

The challenge for those of us who are leaders that want to see change is you don’t know the thing that you will do that will make the biggest difference (for good or for evil).

When you study the stories of leaders, they did not know the significance of what they had done until long after they had done it.

The story of Joshua is a great example. God’s greatest concern for Israel was that they would become so wealthy that overtime they would grow less and less dependent on God. But when Joshua was 110 years old, he addressed the nation and said that he never lost sight of the fact that he was dependent on God (Joshua 23:8 & Joshua 23:11). Joshua decided that he would focus on who he is for rather than getting caught up wondering who is for him or against him.

There is no greater joy than to lead your leadership gift into the perfect will of God. Am I willing to submit my leadership gift to a bigger picture and a larger story? Do I recognize that I am invited to be a part of God’s story?

When you finally settle why you do what you do, then you can live your life with a freedom that is unexplainable unless you experience it. God will take full responsibility for your life and leadership once you fully surrender your life to Him.

It is not about your mark. It is about His mark.
It is not about who is for or against you. It is about who you are for.
When God does His greatest work through you, you will have no idea what happened.

Our mark isn’t worth our life. Living to make my mark is too small a thing to give my life to, but to somehow be positioned in a place where God can work through me is something worth giving my life to.

Leaders are going to leave a mark. But the daily question for you is, “Whose mark are you going to leave?”