Preparing to work for God

Henry & Richard Blackaby write in their book, Spiritual Leadership (in chapter 2) that leadership is about “being”, not “doing.”  I love that!  I want to “do” that kind of leadership.  He also says that God doesn’t stop us from making mistakes, but rather waits until we do and stands ready to redeem us.  I see these two teachings as awesome bars to reach for as a “young” leader. 

First, the idea of being a leader…  Pastor Cor and I have talked about this before and I routinely see this in him.  I see him not only jumping in and doing the crap with the rest of us, but doing with a joyful heart (at least on the outside.)  One of my former students, Ryan, used to say to me, “listen, doo (I think this was his way of saying, “dude.”  He would just take the “de” off the end of the word…) don’t just talk about it, be about it.”  I have always loved that saying.  I think it says to everyone around exactly where your heart is.  Anyone can talk, most people can even perform a little to create an illusion of heart, but few leaders actually live what they preach.  When it does happen, man is it inspiring!  Those are the people I want to chase after.  Nobody was a better, Godlier leader than Jesus.  And, while I don’t always chase after Him, when I pause long enough to get out of my own way, I love returning my eyes to Him.  

Second, the idea of letting people stumble may not seem right, or may be hard to do or watch.  I remember a time when I was working through a math problem.  I remember my teacher stood above me, watching my every move.  I would look up once-in-a-while, trying to read his face to see if I was on the right track.  I would finish.  He would smile.  I couldn’t wait to turn my work, have him correct and turn it back to I could feel like the smartest man alive.  I got my paper back, and the problem he watched was wrong!  Why didn’t he correct me?  Why did he let me continue when he KNEW that I was doing something wrong?  It took a while, but I finally learned that lesson when I became the teacher, and it’s an idea that I’ve learned to use across settings.  The idea is that if I correct everything people are doing as soon as they are doing it, they’ll never learn two valuable lessons.  One, they’ll never learn that there are consequences.  And, two, they’ll never learn how to solve the problem.  They will only learn how to solve individual steps in the problem.  I’ve used this in soccer.  God does the same thing with us.  He let’s us fall so we learn to solve the problem, and to learn what the consequences will be if we make mistakes.  But, we get a bonus.  We also get to see God’s love and glory when He redeems us.  To be an effective spiritual leader, we NEED to follow God’s example on this one!  (well, everyone, but I really like this one!)

PLEASE share your thoughts... I would love to hear what you think makes a good leader!