The Founder Opportunity C3 Leaders

Charitable Investment Opportunity-Become a Founder

Today, C3 is seeking seed capital to move the mission beyond the existing 30 forums.  Money raised will strengthen the current leadership structure, improve forum development systems, and seek to attract additional forum chair leaders.

Since its inception C3 has achieved significant financial goals year after year.  The 2012-13 budget requirement is $204,000.00.  As of this writing, C3 has a financial plan to secure this funding through strategic partnerships with individuals and corporate givers like you.   

The Board of Directors has agreed to fund $50,000 from personal donations.  In recent days a generous donor has also put forth a $15,000 matching gift opportunity. 

The purpose of this document is to ask you to join the leadership of C3 along with other Founding supporters to make a significant gift to the mission growth of C3. We are asking those who would like to be Founders to contribute $2500 or more in 2012 and to let us know that by May 31. Together we can propel this mission well beyond the existing 30 forums and directly impact the leaders and communities in which we live.

Can we count on you to make a gift today?  You can fulfill your gift by mailing a check to "C3 Leaders" at PO Box 17181 Seattle, WA 98127 or by giving online at he National Christian Foundation  for "C3 Leaders".  One-time, ongoing pledges, and appreciated asset gifts are welcomed.

Thank you in advance for your gift.

Sincerely,

Jon Sharpe                  

Jon Sharpe                              

Executive Director

From Generation to Generation

Jeff Rogers (far right) advocates intergenerational relationship

A conversation a few years ago related to seasoned business leaders thinking about how they were going to spend their time after they stepped away from their careers. One of the key topics mentioned was the reality that when they were climbing their career ladder very few mentors were there to help them as they navigated their course. They noted that many senior leaders had moved away to the greens of the desert and that it seemed like a generation of wisdom was missing from the marketplace.                                      

These leaders began to discuss how they would like to change this in their life time as they moved from busy careers to a place of strengthening each other and the next generation.

The obvious questions all elders will ask as they think about helping the next generation are, "What do we have to give?" "Does anyone care that we are still here?" "In a culture that celebrates youth, emerging technology, communication, and entertainment, what does a seasoned leader have to offer?"  "Will my life of planning, executing, vision casting, and accounting have any meaning to  a new generation?"

Yet as seaonsed leaders have been meeting together with their peers and sharing life at a deeper level in forums throughout the Seattle area young leaders are seeking to relate to them. Seasoned leaders are finding that their life does have meaning for others even after their professional career fades away. Younger leaders are looking for wisdom and relationship not just success princples or tactics.  

Recently C3 Leaders has moved to bridge the gap between seasoned leaders and younger leaders. We are now bringing seasoned leaders and younger leaders together in forums to share in a life journey. Our mission, "leaders encouraging leaders to live and lead like Jesus," propels us to think about the next generation and to give them shoulders on which to stand.

Perhaps you would like to be a part of Generation to Generation? Let us know. jsharpe@c3leaders.org

C3 Leaders Changing the way leaders lead

Our world is in desperate need of leaders who lead with integrity and grace. Too often Christian leaders fall into the same moral pitfalls as their secular counterparts. Leaders need peers who share common challenges, joys, and experiences. They also need peers who share common spiritual values reinforcing their own values.  Christian leaders are often isolated and struggling to maintain their integrity without an adequate ongoing person to person support system.  Christian leaders rarely find that their existing relationships offer safe places for them to be real. Leaders are not usually given the same grace that they offer others. If Christian leaders are going to make an impact in the marketplace they cannot walk alone.

C3 provides peer forums for Christian leaders where they can find a safe place to be real. A place where like-minded people share their lives together. Rich friendships are forged when peers encourage each other to live and lead like Jesus. We build forums by recruiting and training Forum Chairs and members to live a great life where 6-12 peers learn how to walk together in trust relationships. C3 helps leaders learn to live a life based on the values of Jesus. Being a C3 Leader changes the way commerce, community, and culture act and interact.

Turning the Corner

Leaders love to turn the corner, make a change, create space, bring inspiration, see things grow, increase profit, build sustainability, and be rewarded for their efforts. The test for leaders everywhere always comes down to the question of, "Is anyone following?"

Actually, many follow your leadership whether you know it or not. People follow what we do and what we say. Leaders are often unaware that their actions and their words lack alignment and people seeking to follow them will  be confused when words and actions are in conflict. If a leader talks about generosity but actually lives a greedy life, people following will typically interpret what generosity looks like through a distorted lens.

We have all been called to lead somewhere, somehow, and in some place. Our lives were created to be significant and to be a blessing to others. God did not create us as robots, simply grinding out our daily existence but as unique people cast in his image. To be created in God's image means that we have been endowed with creative juices and that the blessed creativity motivated by God's Spirit is a clarion call for others, a shining light on the hill.

What holds us back from turning the corner? We are often so captivated by our culture and what we love about it that we miss the Jesus Style creative leadership God wants to do through us. If we love our success, our status, beautiful people,  exotic places, and great experiences, too much and too long, we become bifurcated  leaders not helpful for God's good purposes. Those following us when we are double minded, continually have to work their way through a lot of fog.

Seeking to follow Jesus as a leader means that we are seeking to align our words and our actions in sync with Jesus' words and actions. The one who serves the most is the leader. Jesus taught us that if you seek to be great (have incredible impact) you need to be the servant of all.

The way to turn the corner this year is to seek to live our lives with God's purpose in mind and with our words and actions in alignment.

Growing business with values

The values of Jesus are troubling to all of us. His values cut across our ego laden paths. The forum mission to leaders encourage leaders to live and lead like Jesus, is no small task. Our mission puts us at odds with the drivers of our culture; the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes. To practice living the values of Jesus in our culture means we have to face our own enculturation. We often view the culture as that "bad culture out there." However, when we begin to see that, "The culture are us" we realize how tough it is to be free from cultural mores that sap our energies, our vision, and our passion. The trappings of wealth, power, success, etc... so easily ensnare us.

C3 Leaders Launch

Stay Tuned!

A new organization will launch with 30+ forums for business leaders in the Northwest. Not only will the new organization continue to support peer forums but they will also be launching new forums bringing seasoned leaders and younger leaders together. Jeff Rogers, Martin Barrett, Barry Horn, and Jeff Kemp are a part of starting new forums for younger leaders modeling what seasoned leaders have been learning in the peer forum.

Bob Nuber, Chairman of the Board of the new organization sees that forums provide the huddle like experience for forum members helping them to engage the game through effective small group engagement with peers and in the case of younger leaders, with seasoned leaders. Bob says, "This year we want our theme to be, "Breaking the Huddle."

Jerry Brown, Board member and one of the founders of the new organization notes that forums provide the grist for a leader to effectively reflect on their life and then move into appropriate action as they have allowed God enough access in their inner life. He often mentions, "Good leadership is from the inside out."

Barry Horn, board member and founder sees this new organization as a way to radically impact the Northwest as serious leaders begin to reach out in their communities in a variety of ways. A few years ago Barry and Fred Benthin co-founded an organization Liberty Road Foundation to facilitate businesses adopting non-profits to make a big impact in our neighborhoods.

Jon Sharpe

Forum Chairs in the Northwest

C3 LEADERS

Here's where it's taking place...

 

Mill Creek, Charles Doepp

Shoreline, Bob Lonac

Shoreline, Dan Eernisee
Shoreline, Mark Hockman

Seattle, Les Parrott

Seattle, Candace Grisdale

Seattle, Gary Glenney

Seattle, Mike Vandenbos and Jim Shapiro
Seattle, Martin Barrett and David Grieger
Seattle, David Brenner and Tim Weinhold

Kirkland, Jim Gunlock

Kirkland, Dave Odom

Kirkland, Bob King

Kirkland, Teresa Gillespie 

Kirkland, Tim Knapp and Doug Engberg  

Kirkland, Jerry Brown and John Black
Kirkland, Joe Castleberry and Craig Chapman

Bellevue, Tom Coccione

Bellevue, Ward Tanneberg

Bellevue, Larry VanNess
Bellevue, John Heller

Bellevue, Bob Nuber, Jerry Brown, and Dean Johnson

Bellevue, Bob King
Bellevue, Jeff Kemp, Dan Hazen, and Neil Mitchell

Issaquah, Ron Worman

Renton, Dave Mitchell
Snoqualmie, Scott Pearson

Auburn, Ed VanderPol and Bart Brynestad
Tacoma, Chris Ihrig