Feeling led by the Lord, and responding to the request of fellow pastors to share his leadership insights, John hosted a church growth conference in Lancastor, Ohio, during the mid ’70s. Success in that effort prompted Wesleyan World Headquarters to offer him the position of Executive Director of Evangelism. He accepted, seeing it as an opportunity to help pastors on a national scale. Success was again achieved: the 15 churches he worked with experienced a remarkable 50% increase in their growth. His year-and-a-half stay at Wesleyan Headquarters was rewarding, but he felt the call of the Lord to move on.

His next post was senior pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, California. Under his skilled guidance, Skyline became one of the largest churches in America. Sunday service attendance grew from 1,000 to 3,300, and the number of lay ministers increased from 112 to 1,800.

As John’s congregation blossomed, so did his ministry to pastors and other kinds of leaders. The eventual result was the founding of two currently thriving leadership organizations: EQUIP and INJOY.

EQUIP is a non-profit, international group dedicated to developing leadership in the church, academia, and the urban community. INJOY is a similar operation focused on helping leaders maximize their potential in ministry, business, and family. A major facet of these efforts are John’s seminars and conferences, in which he offers valuable instruction to everybody from ordained ministers to corporate executives to concerned parents. Other mediums for teaching are his best-selling books and videos.

Among his popular works are Developing the Leader Within You and The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. The former examines different leadership styles and outlines the principles for inspiring, motivating, and influencing others. Zig Ziglar calls it "must reading for corporate and aspiring executives." The latter presents numerous examples of effective leadership from the worlds of business, politics, sports, religion, and military conflict. These examples serve as proven models to follow when leadership duty calls. Both books also come in video form.

Maxwell continues with the leadership theme in his recent releases. With titles like Leadership Promises for Every Day, Attitude 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know, Thinking for a Change, Teamwork Makes the Dream Work, and The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player, it's clear that he wants to provide people with the tools to become leaders.

The pastorate, church growth conferences, the Wesleyan Headquarters, the Skyline Church, EQUIP, INJOY...for 30-plus years, John Maxwell has led by example. .

John currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife and two children.

Topics
Becoming a Person of Influence (Personal Growth)
Developing the Leader Within You (Leadership)
Developing the Leaders Around You (Leadership)
The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork (Teamwork)