It is an awesome privilege to coach leaders. Every leader is crafted in God’s image with a plan in place before birth. God designed each leader with unique gifts, skills and experiences providing a mosaic of latent ability to accomplish His purpose.
Ministry leaders have a wonderful calling. They demonstrate God’s love to other leaders, volunteers and friends. Christ demonstrated his leadership through service by setting an example. Note, “…Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…” (Matthew 20:26-28)
Leaders, we are at a decision point. We cannot lead by tradition and ‘the way we’ve always done it’. It isn’t working. Haggai suggests we need to “Consider your ways” (Haggai 1:3). Christ confirms, “no one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). We need Biblically based Servant Leaders who are effective. The sometimes leading, sometimes following, indecision style that leads with control or the guru of the month club doesn’t work. Christ said, “Every kingdom (church, business, corporation, family) divided against itself will be ruined” (Matthew 12:25).
Servant Leadership is alive and healthy in many church and business settings. These value driven organizations recognize the individual gifts of their people. The service they provide is a priority and foremost in their thinking. Their vision, values and policies are infused with Servant Leadership. They live, breathe and duplicate themselves through loving and caring service.
Prisoners of Hope, Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer were asked, “But aren’t you really going to Afghanistan to try to convert people to Christianity? Isn’t the work with the poor just a way into people’s lives so you can preach to them?” Their response is typical of the Servant Leader, “the word ‘convert’ does not accurately reflect our intentions; it implies something vaguely manipulative, even dishonest. What we wanted to do was serve the Afghan people because we felt God had put a special love for them in our hearts”.
Leadership is serving. The effective Servant Leader is consistent, future driven, results oriented and has positive character skills. Effective leadership begins with each small transformational step toward Servant Leadership.
Look at your work and decisions today. Are you serving?
Yours in Service,
Laurie D. Kennedy
Leadership Coach