Leadership Summit - Floyd Flake

When it comes to stepping up as a community leader, few résumés compare with Floyd H. Flake’s. His roles are diverse — pastor, university president, congressman, author — and his neighborhood impact in New York City is readily visible. Flake is the senior pastor of the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York in Queens and the president of Wilberforce University in Ohio. Under his leadership, Allen Cathedral has grown into a 23,000-member church with senior citizen centers, private school, and hundreds of housing units for members and community residents. Along with its affiliates, Allen Cathedral is the second-largest African-American employer in New York City. Flake served as U.S. congressman from 1986 to 1997 and is the author of The Way of the Bootstrapper: Nine Action Steps for Achieving Your Dreams.

Highlights:

• The biggest highlight was the video profile on him and his church. Incredible impact in their neighborhood.
• Leaders move people beyond their self-serving motives but it begins with the leader.
• Focus on identified needs.
• The church isn't about walls but about building community.
• Keep information flowing. But know there are always going to be people who are just mean and stuck.
• Everyone will go through the fire and the lion's den.

I wish he had told more stories and focused on less information because he was at his best when he was going deeper into his life experiences which are fascinating. I need to get his book.