Category / Spiritual Life

It’s wise to acknowledge the limits of your leadership and lean into all that God has for you.

Your leadership has limits; mine does too. But we don’t have to remain constrained in what God wants to accomplish through us. God provides what we need.

One example is how God continues to encourage, enlighten and equip us as leaders through the power of His Word.

Scripture is alive and fresh every moment. The Holy Spirit translates it into our hearts according to the need.

One morning this week, as I was reading Romans 12:9-21, the words seemed to jump off the page in a fresh way for all of us as leaders.

The power of the Gospel is transformative in nature.

“Transformative: causing or able to cause an important and lasting change in someone or something.”

With that being true, why is it so challenging to see the change we pray for and desire? 

In his very first acts of ministry, Jesus unleashed the power of transformation.

Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons. However, very few encounters were the same. In fact, he said about some demons, “these only come out by fasting and prayer.”

Some transformation or change is more difficult than others. Change, in general, is resisted, some more aggressively than others.

In Jesus’ ministry, some situations were particularly difficult; other times, Jesus was frustrated with his disciples – his leaders, because of their lack of faith.

It’s not so different today.

This is an unsettling time we live in.

• Uncertainty in the Church
• Conflict in our communities
• Division in our country

I often hear this phrase, “It’s getting kinda crazy out there.”

The unsettling nature of our current culture, after time, affects the disposition of your soul. It wears you down. We can barely notice it at times because it’s nearly a constant.

It’s most often described as subtle low-grade anxiety of the soul.

And some would say it’s not so subtle.

Yet we are called to lead people into the love of God and the unity of peace.

How do we do that with so much division?

Competence may get you in the door, but character keeps you in the room.

Character is core to who you are as a leader, whether or not people trust you, and your overall effectiveness for the good of others.

Let’s be blunt.

People simply will not follow anyone they don’t trust.

Being really good at what you do is critical, but character is the bottom line for a spiritual leader.

When selecting a leader, there is a temptation to quickly pass over character and focus on competence and chemistry. We all know character matters; however, good character is often simply assumed. That’s a mistake.

It is good to assume the best, but when it comes to leaders, it’s difficult to “fix” a lack of character. The good news is that you can develop good character.