Leadership Matters – Meet Dishon Mills

Dear GCI Family and Friends,

It may sound cliché, but we do live in challenging times. The struggles with and through COVID-19 continue; the politics and elections in many countries are more divisive than they have been in years; there is the constant fight for our personal time, attention and resources (not that I am a conspiracy theorist, but the documentary The Social Dilemma on NetFlix made me think); and there is a great need for racial reconciliation and equality. Amid all this, we have our unified mission to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ into the 21st-century world – not a small task. And I especially think about how best to share the gospel with Generations Z and Alpha.

Leadership matters – this concept shows up across all eras of history and certainly is needed today. In a recent internet search, I came across a site for the organization “Leadership Matters for America.” (While we do not affiliate with or endorse this organization, their site provided some useful information that follows.) They identified the markers below as vital ingredients to leadership:

• • • Strategic Thinking: We want someone who can bring about the right change not just out of rage but with the right thought.
    • Planning & Delivery: Planning the right course of action and making sure that the action has brought you to the right place.
    • Persuasion & Influence: All the planning will go to waste if people do not understand the right way to be the change.

These are excellent qualities that we want for all our GCI leaders and they certainly align with Christ-centered leadership qualities described in Scripture. This leads me to an important and exciting announcement.

We are at a juncture where a significant leadership transition will be taking place in GCI. Our current Generations Ministry (GenMin) National Coordinator, Jeff Broadnax, is handing over the baton of leadership to Pastor Dishon Mills in January 2021. Jeff will continue to be one of five U.S. Regional Directors. (See the attached article from Jeff called “The Acceleration Zone”).

In our prayerful and careful process of identifying Dishon for his new role, we were looking at his experience along with the following leadership characteristics we list on our job descriptions that make him a good fit to take on the leadership of GenMin.

• • • • Personal health: lives in community, with integrity, and maintains good spiritual/emotional/relational health.
      • Self-aware: knowing who he is in Christ, having clarity about personal strengths and weaknesses, and is comfortable filling in his own gaps with competent team members.
      • Time manager: well organized and able to divide his time between specific activities and effectively fulfill work-related goals.
      • People skills: the ability to deal with a wide range of people in a friendly and effective way that achieves good results.
      • Life-long learner: continuing to grow in knowledge and capacity, especially in the areas of youth culture and development resources for Christian ministry in the 21^st century.

Above any life experience or leadership qualities, there is the matter of spiritual calling. Is this a role that the Lord has been preparing and grooming Dishon for? How has Dishon discerned this? And what does Dishon want to share with us as a way of introduction? I will ask Dishon to continue this introduction in his article entitled “Big Things with Small Things,” and in our December issue of Equipper Dishon will introduce a new column. I will end by saying “Welcome to Dishon and Afrika, his delightful and supportive wife. We are so glad that you said ‘yes’ and we are excited to see what the Lord accomplishes through you.”

Looking forward to equipping leaders,

Greg Williams