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| Michigan flowers |
Here's a clip from my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church.
Out of my desire to be a good leader for Christ, I have
read many books on leadership. Some of them had titles like this: Fifty Keys to Leadership.[1] To be a great leader, I
needed to keep these principles always before me. Plus, I needed to assimilate twenty-five
keys to motivating people, twenty-five more keys to a sound business plan, read
the top twenty-five classics on “success,” and evaluate it all by using 25 Need-to-Know Performance Indicators.[2] In addition, I read John
Maxwell’s The 21 Indispensable Qualities
of a Leader,[3]
and then The 21 Irrefutable Laws of
Leadership.[4]
Now, decades later, I don’t remember most of these keys and
qualities. But I do remember coming to a point where I thought, for a brief
moment, “I was wrong. Pastoral leadership is
rocket science!”
As I read the story of Jesus, I see his leadership
keys and indicators coming down to one thing: Follow me. “My sheep,” said Jesus the Greatest of Leaders, “hear my
voice, and follow.”
This was something even the unschooled, idiot disciples
could do.[5] Hear the voice of Jesus. Follow. That is what I think pastoral
leadership comes down to.
What about the “indispensable qualities” and the
“irrefutable laws?” I see them as the inevitable fruit of an abiding life. That
is, once the abiding life is engaged in, transformation into Christlike
qualities happens, like blueberries on a blueberry bush. You become,
inexorably, a servant, a discerner, an influencer, and so on, all because of
Christ, the hope of glory, in you.
Leading a Presence-Driven Church cannot be rocket science,
though it might sometimes feel like you have been tied to a rocket and
launched. Presence-Driven Leaders simply do this:
1. Abide
in Christ
2. Saturate
in the Scriptures
3. Listen
(Discern God’s voice)
4. Obey
[1]
This is not, as far as I know, an actual book.
[2] By
Bernard Marr.
[3]
One of the greatest, most impactful sermons I ever heard was by
John Maxwell at a Promise Keepers conference.
[4]
Both by John Maxwell.
[5] Acts
4:13 says, When they
saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men,
they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. “Unschooled” is the Greek word agrammatoi; “ordinary” is
idiotai.
