The Growing Pains X Sarah Jakes Roberts & Bishop TD Jakes

It goes without saying that power moves from one idea to the next. But how can we ensure that the message stays the same when our methods begin to change? Bishop T.D. Jakes describes ways to enhance leadership succession by respecting practices of the past and embracing creativity of the future.

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I just had this book, Power Moves came out and literally part of the latter part of the chapters talks about how power moves from one idea to a next and how something that once worked in one system, in one generation may not be what works in the next.
I wanna talk a little bit about succession and not just familial succession, but as we see emerging leadership from millennials into workplaces where maybe boomers or Xers have had a particular way of doing things, we see technology changing the way things are done, we see quite literally power moving from one concept to another.
What is one thing that you think an incoming generation must do in order to successfully expand what has already been done while also honoring the people who are maybe still in decision making positions?
First of all, I think that when we think about it generationally, we don’t really give power moves the full credit when we do it by age.
It varies by region. What works in California won’t work in New York.
What works in Chicago won’t work in West Virginia.
There there’s all of those different dynamics other than age, but we generally talk about it generationally and not regionally.
But there there are different approaches.
And and that’s some of the struggle when you go to a conference and you come back with all these ideas.
You also have to siphon them through, will this work in Tuscaloosa?
Uh, will this work in in Birmingham?
And then when you add the generational component in it, our our message remains the same, but our methods change.
The core that creates ministry, uh, is the gospel, and and that’s gonna be what it’s gonna be.
That’s not gonna change. The way in which we express the gospel, receive the gospel, the way in which we are able to communicate the gospel.
For example, the fact that we can stream. Paul never got to stream. He he never got to tweet.
He he never got to post, uh, but we can still communicate the gospel through technology in a way that we didn’t have an opportunity to do before.
And in the local church setting, uh, church music is faddish Like all music, it goes through stages.
Now when you lived a long time, you’ve seen a lot of stages. I’ve seen a lot.
When I came along, the caravans were were before the Clark sisters. Okay?
And then the Clark sisters came along. They were contemporary.
Now they’re considered traditional, and and and and the beat goes on.
And then there’s what’s Christian music, mainstream, worship music, all of the hymns, anthems.
It’s gonna take on many iterations, uh, based on creativity and time.
But, again, the core remains the same.
Uh, you know, you you can you can make you can put bananas in cornbread banana cornbread, but you can’t leave out the cornmeal.
There are some basic things that still are applicable as you try new things and do creative things that are unique not only to the generation but to the individual.
I think you have to be true to who you are, not just true to who your generation is, but true to who you are.
What do you what do you bring to the table irrespective of age?
And then, uh, because you cannot move as a generation, you have to move as an individual who happens to be a part of a generation.
But every person in that generation doesn’t have the same giftings, the same talent, the same education, the same mentality, the same wisdom, the same charisma.
Uh, it it is so individualized.
It’s the difference between the book of Hebrews and the book of Romans. Uh, yes.
They’re both in the Bible, but you can see the style of the writing deviate by the individual who records it.
And I think to thine own self be true is what I would say, uh, to the coming generation.
Being true to your core and your essence and what shaped you, The the both the promise and the pain that shaped you has a lot to do with the power that emanates from you, and that power moves as you age.
Different stages, uh, of parenthood, of marital life, of stage of life you’re in, all of that plays a part in what you bring to the stage.
When you walk across the stage to that mic, every experience that you had leading up to walking across the stage walks with you, And those experiences continue to change, and your worldview changes.
So your depth of revelation is in part based on the eyes that behold the text.
I I can’t tell you how different the text looks to me now than it did, uh, 20 years ago because my life’s experiences the text is still the same, but my life’s experiences make me extract from the text different elements of truth and wisdom, uh, that that add to the style in which Jeremiah writes versus the style in which Isaiah writes, uh, from Isaiah to Ezekiel, uh, who were primarily in the same era, but their style of expressing their revelation, their focus of what was important.
Isaiah is talking a lot about about the the future.
Ezekiel is talking a lot about the conditions that’s going on in Israel at that time.
Neither one of them are wrong.
And I think when we start to get down to right and wrong rather than different Yeah.
Uh, we make a mistake. You know, this is wrong. This is out of style.
Clothes go out of style. Hair may go out of style, but truth and authenticity never goes out of style.
And I think the way you may remain relevant at my age is to be true to who you are.
And the way you remain relevant at your age is to be true to who you are, whether you’re in the corporate world.
Like like, people say, you know, you’re a minister. You’re involved in entrepreneurship.
Uh, we’re getting ready for our Good Soil conference. We’re training people in entrepreneurship.
Well, I’m a minister, but I’m a person too.
And I tell him if I could if I could sing like Marvin Bynens, I would.
But that’s not what God gave me, though he and I are pretty close to the same age.
You know, I’m not gonna be Rob Parsley, though we’re the same age.
I’m not gonna be dollar, though we’re the same age.
There are certain things that we have in common, but you can only give to people what has been given to you.
As Jesus said, as the father have loved me, so love I you.
And so what has been poured into me is all that can pour out of me, and that changes at every every day of your life.
Every meeting you go to, every country you visit, your your vision expands of the world as you travel more as opposed to somebody who’s never left mud tussle.
They’ve got the same bible, but their view of the world when they read the text is imaginary.
But if you’ve been to the promised land, uh, if you’ve been to Jerusalem, if you’ve been to Israel, your view expands as you expound the scripture.