Jesus declared that His view of success and effectiveness was directly tied to His obedience to the Father, not to an organization. We often put too much faith, confidence, and belief in the organization as though the institution is what matters. We make the mistake of measuring our effectiveness, our success, by whether or not the institution is growing.
Let’s be careful that we don’t by-pass relationship with God to get on with the activity, and start worshiping at the altar of what we do For Him. Jesus was very careful to point out that what He did was through the authority God gave Him. He also worked at maintaining that close relationship with His Father.
That little yellow mask that drops down from the ceiling in an airplane gives life-saving oxygen in a depressurized cabin. Oxygen is something that we take for granted while our feet are firmly planted on the ground. Sam discusses how our relationship with God is as crucial to leadership life support as oxygen is to the physical body. He outlines how self-deception toward responsibilities can be as detrimental to the physical body as lack of oxygen.
Some gaps, like holes in rocky cliffs, cannot be closed. However, gaps in leadership competencies can be closed. Jesus’ model of investing in leaders worked. Sam shares three observations of how leader development tuned toward leaders’ own context increases effectiveness, which makes it an excellent investment.
Most of us are so busy ministering to, or leading and managing others, that we do a poor job of managing ourselves. I want to share powerful principles, from Jesus’ example, for avoiding burn-out ourselves, and to identify the root cause of what often drives us to such destructive lifestyles or behaviors.