Accidental Leadership: How the Best Church Leaders Step Up Without a Plan

Accidental leadership can shift our understanding of what it means to lead. By exploring Jim Cantrell's journey, we learn that impactful leaders often arise from unexpected circumstances and that true leadership is about recognizing opportunities and mobilizing others.

• Introduction to Jim Cantrell's journey and the concept of accidental leadership 
• Leadership defined as recognizing opportunities rather than pursuing titles 
• Holy discontent as a driver for innovation in leadership 
• The importance of foresight and seeing around corners 
• Highlighting the necessity of collaboration in effective leadership 
• Encouragement to take action rather than waiting for permission to lead

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

What if I told you that some of the greatest leaders ever never actually planned to leave. Think about it. Think about the Wright Brothers, the first inventors of the cell phone, or maybe those pushing space exploration forward. Were they just dreamers, or did they really see something that the rest of us didn't? Today we're going to be diving into that here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes and I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. I'm so glad you're here, and today we're going to dive into the story of Jim Cantrell. He's the CEO of Phantom Space and he calls himself an accidental leader.

Speaker 1: 0:48

I saw this article over at Forbes and I thought that his journey might just change how we could see leadership in the church, and it could change you and how you lead potentially. So stay with me. We're going to talk about that here today. So first of all, I'm taking this from the article. I'm going to try and put the link down in our comments as well. But what is accidental leadership? Most of us think of leaders as people who step up intentionally, but what if leadership finds you instead? And that's what Jim Cantrell said. He said that he never really set out to be a leader. He wanted to race cars but, according to him, his life had other plans, pulling him into the space industry, where he became a part of NASA. He was a part of SpaceX. He was part of other groundbreaking ventures, and his story proves to us at least it was a reminder to me that leadership isn't necessarily about titles. It's about recognizing opportunities and taking actions.

Speaker 1: 1:53

So leadership often emerges when people refuse to accept the status quo and decide to solve real problems. Bill Hybels, are we allowed to mention Bill Hybels? I think I'll check with legal. I think we are. Bill Hybels always called this the holy discontent. It's right. It's when God brings something to your mind that you see could be better or could be different. So that's what he called it. And leadership often emerges when people refuse. That's what he called it. And leadership often emerges when people refuse. They see something that just could be better or a problem that they feel like God has called them to solve. So that's really important. And leadership.

Speaker 1: 2:34

Another way to look at it is leadership is about seeing around corners. Cantrell's friend once said if I could have any superpower, I'd want to see around corners. And Jim thought thought first. That sounds boring, but when you think about people who have really shaped history, who have changed culture, like those who imagined like the Wright brothers flying those airplanes before airplanes imagine there was. There were no airplanes, right, and the Wright brothers looked up in the sky and saw nothing and they thought I'm, I'm. They probably saw a bird and thought I'd like to fly like a bird, and they made it happen. But they could have never looked forward in seeing commercial airliners or seeing the space travel. They didn't even know that was possible. But they all had this kind of ability to see around the corner. And that's what Jim saw. He saw the future of space wasn't going to be just about exploration, it was going to be about opportunity. And he saw kind of space we'll call it space 1.0, walking on the moon. And then he saw space 2.0, which is maybe some of the commercialization we're seeing now, and space 3.0, which is more digitalization, before most people even thought about it.

Speaker 1: 3:55

So the best leaders are the ones who can anticipate needs even before they arise, and a lot of times they just have this really innate ability to see things before anybody else and to see around corners. And then leaders don't wait for permission either. Cantrell says that he became a leader because he was tired of how things were, and again going back to that holy discontentment. That's what really drives a lot of innovation in the church is you see something that either isn't working or could work better and you try to lead your way through that. Cantrell didn't wait for permission. He just started on trying to figure out how to solve the problems, and too many people sit back and are waiting for the right time or the right circumstances or somebody to tell them that they're ready. But leadership happens real leadership really happens when you stop waiting. If you see a problem in your church, where you work, in your community, what would happen if you just tried to step up and tried to start solving it? That's how accidental leaders are born. So if you wait for permission to leave, you'll be waiting forever. Who's going to give you that permission? So just start now. That's the takeaway, okay. And then you do need the right people.

Speaker 1: 5:07

What's one of the biggest myths of leadership? Probably thinking that you can do it on your own. You can do it alone. Cantrell says that every big success that he's ever had came because he surrounded himself with the right people. He didn't build phantom space alone. It's not a one-man company. He didn't launch Mars exploration technologies all by himself. So leadership isn't it's about bringing the right people together to make things happen. Here's your challenge who's in your corner? If you're leading or about to step into leadership, make sure you have people that share your vision.

Speaker 1: 5:45

Let's go back to our premise here. Is leadership really accidental? I don't know, maybe, but I do think one thing is clear the best leaders aren't the ones who chase the titles. We talked about this a couple days ago here on this podcast. The best leaders aren't chasing titles. They're called into something. They're the ones that can solve problems. They're the ones that have this burden, this passion. They can see around corners. They can see what is and what could be or what should be, and they try to step into that problem and move to make the church and the world a better place.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Hopefully this video helped you today. I love taking real-life examples outside of the church and kind of relating them to what we need to do or some things that we can learn, some lessons we can learn as church leaders. So I hope it's been helpful to you and I'd love to hear your comments. You can leave your comments wherever you're listening or watching this. I would love to do that, but you can also reach out to me anytime podcasting at chemistry or podcast, I'm sorry, podcast at chemistrystaffingcom, and I'm one of the co-founders at Chemistry Staffing. If there's any way that I can help you or your church with staffing, with hiring, with compensation, with anything healthy church staff relations, I would love to be able to hear your story and see if there's any way that I or someone on my team can help you. So reach out anytime podcastchemistrystaffingcom. I am so happy that you joined me today. We're here every Monday through Friday. I hope you'll join me again right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Thanks so much, you.