As I have studied leadership I have found a wide range of books and materials out there to help me become a better leader. I can remember when George Barna, an author and someone who has made a living gathering statistics and then writing books telling you what the others told him, ( I know it sounds simple but there is a lot of math involved..)anyway he had a test you could take on line to find out if you had the gift of leadership. So I jumped in and took the test, pretty much knowing what the answer would be (sigh) and I was right. George, filled with mercy, responded “William you do not have the gift of leadership…you are a shepherd but not a leader. Thanks and I hope this helped… Oh yeah it was a great help! After the depression lifted… just kidding. Really I liked reading that while I did not have a leadership gift, I had the gift of being a shepherd, or a pastor because that is what I feel called to do. Now I did not want to be the one to tell George that I thought a shepherd gift probably had some leadership mixed in, I mean who is on charge out there the sheep or the shepherd? But he is the expert and I am a shepherd and personally I think I got the better of the deal.
Well I have two thoughts on leadership that I am going to share and those of you who read this blog may be the only ones to know, a small but elite group if I must say so myselfJ First I think that the leadership Jesus models for the 12 is servant leadership ..Jesus says in Matt.20:26-28 “ Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave---just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Paul hits this best in Philippians 2 where he says, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” Then he proceeds to write how Jesus emptied Himself and became a servant…you really should read it. So my first thought is that being a leader is being a servant….and I have to admit I think I can do that.
Then as I sit here other thoughts come in I will address another time but the 2nd thought on leadership is this….this is good really so get ready. I think another big part of leading is getting out of the way…. Jesus brand of leadership first began with being a servant and then He said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can only do what He sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” I think Jesus is kind of saying, “I have to get out of the way to see what the Father is doing so I can do that.” If Jesus had to get out of the way or at least decided that what the Father was doing was more important than anything He may have been planning, how much more do I need to get out of the way and see what God is doing? I think the thing I want to do best is to get out of His way to see what He will do…to cast vision , to give direction, and then get out of the way…AND LET HIS SPIRIT LEAD!
Well I am not sure this is making a lot of sense but I think you can catch my drift…There used to be a bumper sticker that said “Lead, follow, or get out of the way!” Maybe I will come up with a new one, “Get out of the way” (to be continued)
Bill
Good Morning, Pastor Bill :-).
ReplyDeleteOne of these days we ARE going to worship with you on a Sunday morning!
I loved this. I too am a "reluctant leader". Really, I just want to do what I am gifted at, which is teach music. But along with that, I have been given this huge vision. And when I have a vision which others may not have seen quite yet, yep, there is going to be leadership whether I like it or not.
Leadership does NOT come naturally for me, yet I find myself often in that seat.
So, that when I AM leading, I tend to need to put lots of thought into it; so much so that I can forget the simple things at times.
Things like you mentioned here: SERVANTHOOD and relative INVISIBILITY. Thanks for the thoughts and for being who you are.
Julie Ayers