In our rapidly changing world, in the midst of uncertainty and anxiety, and navigating between the world that was and the world still to be, leadership is demanding, tiring and stretching. There are added, unique challenges confronting Christian leaders. In such a context, I need to keep reminding myself that I cannot do effective leadership on my own. I am in absolute need of God’s Spirit to be at work in my life and leadership and to walk alongside trusted teammates and mentors.
It was a privilege to lead the closing session at the Australian Baptist National Senior Pastors Gathering today. It has been great to spend time this week with fellow leadership travellers from my tribe – to be in a safe space to share stories, laugh, cry and eat together, be inspired and cheer each other on.
I shared with my colleagues about how I need to constantly remind myself that I can’t “manufacture” a Christ-like life, love and leadership. I am totally dependent on God’s Spirit cultivating these things within me as a “work in progress”.
I spoke of my need:
“To rest” – to rest in God’s peace, love and grace. To know that I am not in control, but God is. To know I can say “I don’t have the answers.” To know I can live with ambiguity. “To be still and know that he is God!” And rest!
“To re-align” – to see that what matters most, before anything that I do as a leader, is to keep re-aligning my identity around what it means to be a loved child of God. I can easily be seduced by a performance, success culture. I can easily look to my own strengths and personal agenda. I can be held back by fear. And so I know I need to keep humbly coming back to my primary calling to grow as a person who looks, lives, loves and leads more like Jesus. I still have a long way to go on this journey, but I am so thankful that God’s Spirit beckons me forward.
“To resolve” – and with God’s help I am esteemed with the opportunity to serve others and to pursue exciting dreams, as I participate in God’s vision to being shalom and justice to our beautiful but broken world. It was great to spend recent days with women and men committed to missional imagination in their communities across the nation. It was exciting to collectively renew our commitment to lead well, to lead for others and to dream afresh!
I felt it may be helpful to share these reflections, as they may encourage someone reading this post. Today do you need to find rest for your soul? Is there a need for re-alignment of identity and purpose? Do you need with God’s help to let go of things that hinder you from daring pursue new dreams? Go well! And let’s remember we need each other on the leadership journey.
APilgrimPens 