Hi everybody,
Seems like everybody is talking about it – leadership. Some go so far as to suggest we need to change the primary role of pastor from minister to leader. Leadership may be described as “The process of influencing others to accomplish a task or mission by providing purpose, direction and motivation”. The point is whether you considering leading your church through change, restructuring your church, or even planting new churches it all comes down to leadership.
However, I would like to highlight a key component we often overlook when discussing leading through change. While our work as spiritual leaders involves helping others, encouraging others, inspiring others, and leading others we need to realize that the real change part isn’t up to us, it’s up to each individual. The point is, the only person you can really change is the one looking back at you in the mirror or computer screen. As leaders we can help create an atmosphere to facilitate change, we can build trust in our members and even help provide purpose, direction and motivation but ultimately each individual has to want to commit, has to want to change.
Here’s the real paradox of Christ centered leadership: When the people you lead see change in you (purpose, direction, motivation), they begin to see possibilities in themselves. When they see God’s grace at work in you, it gives them hope that they can experience the same kind of transforming grace in their own lives (true servant leadership). I encourage you, then, to lead first by this simple sentence: “Imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).
Challenge: Do you want to see real change in others? Let them see it first in you!
God bless
Berny