Community

In our leadership contexts, and crucially, within our natural and preferred leadership styles, let us never forget to consider whether our approaches are genuinely reflective of Kingdom values or not.

Too often we get the sequence of events backward. We correct far more than we pray or encourage. The result? No change.

When we first choose to live as foreigners we are prime for the suckering. We are wide eyed and overflowing with enthusiasm. There are seven great deceptions, and most of us fall for at least five. I have personally tested them all. You know . . . for research.

Honoring your predecessors gives them the freedom to support you. Former pastors are flawed humans who may be unsure about how much of a difference they really made. Acknowledging the ways they have been used by God can give them greater freedom to celebrate how God is using you.

When close friends and colleagues approach us with problems, it may be difficult not to offer solutions immediately. In a position of leadership, we often believe that is the best way we can help. Ahadu shares an experience where a counterintuitive strategy of prayerful counseling produced fruitful results.

Research studies all seem to return to one major theme to explain the exodus of church members: a sense of some need not being filled. In other words, these members have ideas of what a local congregation should provide for them, and they leave because those provisions have not been met. But many times, probably more than we would like to believe, a church member leaves a local body because he or she has a sense of entitlement.

Pastors are surrounded with people. We confer with them in meetings, conflict with them in ministry, visit them in hospitals, counsel them in crises and train them in seminars. We pour our lives into them. But who pours their lives into us?

What started as a romantic bike ride had become a small intimate adventure. I had inadvertently awed her with my relaxed trust in her steering. And boy did I reap the benefits, scoring big points with my new wife. Not a bad idea on your honeymoon.

"If only my people would just do what I ask!" I've heard too many leaders utter those words and then, in their frustration, implement solutions that don't seem to make things better. Maybe leaders can sharpen their approach with a simple shift in the question they ask themselves.

Leaders can be prey to many dangers from the outside and within. Consider a leader’s fear of being vulnerable. Clinton shares a case where vulnerability led to greater trust.

“I'll let you in on a little secret. Jill and I work really hard to keep a relational connection in the midst of marriage ministry. Emotional and physical closeness aren't a given. We have to make time to connect to just be husband and wife in an ever-evolving relationship. And there's nothing as good as prayer to connect (and to repair us).”

Let’s spread more kindness this year, without expecting anything in return. This week let’s commit ourselves to a simple act of kindness each day at our workplace.