So, if you want to lead others, my suggestion is always this: set the bar for yourself as high as it can possibly be. Study, pray, work, labour, learn, think… whatever it takes to raise the bar so it. Constantly consider what else can you better, how can you improve.
Remember our credibility as leaders is our fruitfulness (see last post here) and if we want to grow as leaders and prove ourselves more effectively we must be constantly improving. Right now I am working on my Th. D. to develop my leadership. I am also being mentored by a pastor who has planted more churches that I have. Not to mention the daily prayer, Word, sermons and dreaming! IMPROVE!
Let me say it like this, and I know I am taking this quote from someone, but the truth is I am not sure who: be a success before trying to help others be a success. Think about it! I had to speak to one of our pastors this week about having a higher standard for yourself than someone else in the church – it’s called leading. If you are the leader you should be more holy and more fruitful, not less!
So, my advice to any leader or aspirational leader is the following FIVE things that will improve you, and therefore improve your leadership:
- Make sure there are people you are accountable to. I don’t just mean in terms of personal holiness, though that is vital, but I mean here in terms of your leadership goals. You tell them – listen, my church is currently 30 people every Sunday, but by November, we are going to get 40 people, I am going to ask the Lord for a strategy and do it, please keep checking up on me. Or whatever kind of leadership it is. There must be goals.
- Be responsible for results. You work on it, stop blaming others. If no one else is willing to work with you, that’s not their fault, it’s yours, you are the leader. Learn how to lead better. Learn how to help others, learn how to relate to others better. Spend more time with the Lord! Stop this victim mentality by blaming everyone else. If God has, for instance, called you to pastor, you have to bear the fruit of pastors. You should be reproducing after your own kind! So start expecting it and learning how to do it.
- Never ask anyone to do anything you are not prepared to do. I talked about this last time, but it is vital You have to study yourself and see where your weaknesses are and hit them face on. If you don’t know, ask someone you trust and respect, and they will tell you. I see many great leaders in the sense they clearly have the skills to lead, but they have too much ego, too many fears about themselves and others, and too many habits that are just self-destructive. You have to deal with these – it’s called discipleship. You have to be able to let others shine for example. You have to be able to build a team. You have to be able to sit down and learn and not always be in the spotlight. All of these are character issues, and they open the door wide open for satan to make your leadership utterly unfruitful. IMPROVE don’t presume!
- Never compromise your integrity. Make sure you know what lines you will never ever cross. Make sure you know how you treat people, and what behaviours are totally verboten to you. Make sure you have lines drawn up in terms of money, relating to the opposite sex, and checks and balances to your decisions.
- Define carefully what a win is for you and your team. What is a win? What is success to you, and do not be deceived by a false success. I would not be happy to grow Tree of Life Dagenham to one thousand people but we are people who are not full of the Word, full of the Spirit, full of the nations and full of love. That would not be my definition of success. I would rather have one hundred people who are open and hungry for the Word, love the Holy Spirit and welcome Him, do not have a racist bone in their body and who walk in true Biblical love! That would be more of a success to me. What is your culture of success and what does it mean? What will you never ever do to win?
Next week: things you can improve!
Inspiring and Challenging Dreamers 