Reflections on Leadership 3: Who's leading What, Where?

I have shared already that leading the Body of Christ is about where God want to go with the group, so now the question of leadership comes to: Where is God leading them?

One often overlooked perspective is that where God wants the group to go will not, just because you have been elected a leader, necessarily be where God wants you to go; part of the confirmation of one's calling as a leader is to see that those two things, where God is leading you and where God is leading the group, work together in some way. Therefore, where your group goes, the path that you as a leader is called to clear out, will be directly related to where your group is with God; where you are going is to be their next immediate step.

At all times, your people are learning to be better disciples (I hope that is the case anyways), and your job as a leader is not to be the beacon up front a mile away, having no connection to the group but always signaling "come here" (like pushing for street evangelism, when you have a real inkling that a lot of your group have never truly encountered Jesus, let alone share Him). Neither is it your role to be keep yourself in the middle of the pack, trying to be "humble" and be one of "them", but never answering your call to lead.

Taking myself as an example, as of this writing, I have been out of school for over a year. That does not necessarily mean that my time here at Mac is over though. I know that God has placed on my heart a fiery conviction, an overwhelming zeal, to rediscover church; to realize the glory found in the New Testament Christian community in the here and now. And Mac is the one place where I know lots of people, more than any other place I'm connected to, who want to see exactly that too. Plenty of other people here, believers and non-believers alike, are wondering if there's more to the Body of Christ than two hours worth of emotional music and convincing teaching.

I'm blazing new trails all the time, whether its scrapping the newcomers team so that we could empower our whole community to give our new friends a less scripted welcome, or petitioning the elder board and pastoral staff to allow for more of our lay leaders to speak at service, or throwing a bible lesson out the window for a night because someone really wanted to know if you need to be baptized to be saved. So in that way, leading a student church here at Mac, even though I'm no longer a student, still makes sense for me, because I know my heart is lined up with the yearning here for more than the same old church service, and I know where God is prompting me to go first in that trail is where my guys and girls need to go next.

As a leader your simple task is to be at the front of the pack, to try things first, to fail first (more importantly to admit that you made a mistake first), to inch on forward shouting "FOR THE KINGDOM!!!!!!" first, staying connected to your people all the while, going towards a communal beacon, powered by Jesus Christ. That beacon has a name, it is called vision.

Reflections on Leadership 2: Who's leading What?

As a leader in the body of Christ what are you leading? For so many years I was so confused about this question. My leadership time and effort was spent almost entirely on planning events and programs, hammering out logistics, making sure that meetings went smoothly and according to plan.

This might be the most important point in the effectiveness of a kingdom leader: your job is to lead people. The church of God is people. Your ministry is people. There is no other thing in the kingdom of God here on earth other than people. One quick survey of Jesus' life would reveal that. He never got into government like the Jews thought their Messiah would. He was never into dividing duties to his disciples for programs and events; he just called them together and said "go". He spent most of his time talking, teaching, healing, and loving people as he just so happened to pass by them.

I have seen so many leaders (myself definitely included) simply degenerate into an endless cycle of doing; running events and programs and "ministries". They end up thinking that their primary role is to do things with "excellence", which, while noble, completely negates their calling as a leader.

I often observe a particular question on voting day for campus Christian groups: why do you want to serve in leadership rather than off of it? Most candidates fumble this question because they simply do not perceive a difference. They do not realize that being on the exec, being given a positional leadership role, is a specific calling to lead people. Worse off, most fellowships will vote people in based on their ability to do "ministry", on their competence in organization and administration, rather than on someone's ability to build positive, God-abiding relationships. Many wonder why their fellowship doesn't make as much of a kingdom impact as they'd like, when it really boiled down to the leadership's inability to focus on what the kingdom really is, people, and to instill that focus in others.

Going back to "Who's Leading?", your job as a leader is to help your group follow and realize what God has in store for it, and you simply cannot do that without spending the bulk of your time deeply connecting to people. Leaders are called to be leaders, not just be harder workers.

Reflections on Leadership 1: Who is leading?

As a leader in the body of Christ, what is your job? The (my) typical answers tend to be to shepherd, to teach, to strategize, to organize. All of those things are important, but I believe there is an even greater calling for those of us, who somehow, in one way or another (through no fault of our own sometimes lol) ended up in a position of leading others in the body of Christ. That calling is summed up in a single phrase for me: Leading people into the Promised Land. God has a purpose, a destiny, not just for each follower individually, but for your chunk of the body of Christ as a whole, and your job as a leader is to help them get there.

An even more important question to ask is (somehow I've always failed to ask the simplest questions), who's leading? People think of their answer to that question quickly enough. "God," they say (I don't even know how to start dealing with those people who say "me"). In reality though, in my years of working with other Christian leaders, myself having made the very same blunders, I notice two common manifestations of "Who's leading?".

Some leaders get fixated on convincing, sometimes forcing, other people to come with them, while neglecting to help them see that where the leadership is headed is what God wants. Well, hopefully it's what God wants, I have seen some that just plain try to get people to do what they want.

Other leaders get fixated on following God themselves, often citing that they are leading "by example", and neglect to pass on that God-given vision and direction to the people they are trying to lead. Most are left wondering at the end of their leadership term why no one came with them. John C. Maxwell, a pastor who became famous in the secular business world for his leadership teaching has a wonderful quote that addresses this specific situation,

He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.

John C. Maxwell.

Here's what I've realized about this matter: Leading the body of Christ is not about God leading you, or you leading them. It is about God leading them. That is what a leader is supposed to facilitate.

You see that pattern emerge in Joshua's leadership. As the torch gets passed from Moses to Joshua, God gives Joshua the charge, the vision, of leading His people into the Promised Land of Canaan. First thing Joshua does: tell the people,

And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, "Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, 'Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.'"

Joshua 1:10-11

On the actual day of their crossing,

Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. At the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, "As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before." Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you." And Joshua said to the priests, "Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people." So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

Joshua 3:1-6

Joshua is constantly reminding the Israelites, in words and in action, that God Himself is leading them; literally the Ark of the Covenant is leading the way.

Proper biblical leadership begins when the leaders hear where God wants the group to go, and shares/affirm/refines that vision with the group so that everyone will recognize that vision as God's for them.