Wednesday, July 19, 2006 | |

The Leadership Blog Interview: Erwin Raphael McManus

Erwin Raphael McManus

Bio: Erwin is the lead pastor and Cultural Architect of Mosaic in Los Angeles. Known around the world for its spiritual creativity and cosmopolitan diversity, Mosaic is a community of followers of Jesus Christ committed to live by faith, to be known by love, and to be a voice of hope. Since the early 90’s, Erwin has led Mosaic in a pioneering enterprise whose primary focus is to serve the post-modern, post-Western, and post-Christian world.

Erwin is the catalyst behind Awaken, a collaboration of dreamers committed to creating environments that expand imagination and unleash creativity. Convinced that the world is changed by dreamers and visionaries, Awaken serves the purpose of history by maximizing the divine potential in every human being.

He is also the author of An Unstoppable Force, a Gold Medallion Award finalist; Chasing Daylight; Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul (also companion The Uprising Experience life storyboard); The Barbarian Way; Stand Against the Wind and Soul Cravings, soon to be released at the end of 2006.

Church: Mosaic
Site: ErwinMcManus.com

The Leadership Blog Interview Questions
1. What gives you the greatest joy in being a leader?
Erwin
: creating environments that unleashes the God given creativity in others.
risking everything to create the future.
doing it with friends.

2. What is your biggest pet peeve as a leader?
Erwin
: that i'm not a better one.

3. Who made the biggest influence in your life as a leader?
Erwin
: Jesus -of course.
who knows where i would be going if he had not redirected my entire life course.

4. What books have changed your life?
Erwin
: every book i have ever read.
even more so every book i have ever written.
the one that changes me the most is the one i have not yet written.

5. What's your biggest challenge as a leader?
Erwin: caring about more than i can do.
finding the best idea among an infinite number of possibilities.
fusing imagination with action.
holding tight to both ideals and realities.
holding a thought long enough to act on it.
leaving the universe inside my head and reengaging planet earth.
chosing one idea, one thought , one dream, one answer, one challenge.
yes, its caring about more than i can do.

6. What goals do you have as a leader?
Erwin
: i would like to change the course of human history.
i'm pretty sure we cant pull this off alone-
so we're doing every thing we can to
identify,
develop,
maximize,
and unleash
the god given potental in every person we touch-
to awaken humanity-
any one of them might be the key.
mosaic exists to create the future.

other than that i dont make goals.

7. Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Erwin: with kim.

Erwin, Thank you for being such a great leader, you've made a huge impact on my life and ministry!