God inspired leadership belongs to the team that prayerfully balances the challenge of getting ahead with the reality of staying focused. Those individuals who live in the past, talk about the past, re-live former accomplishments and concentrate energy on former days, lose. Last year’s achievements are routine and forgotten. Historical trends are necessary but should not define your future. God’s plan for you and your church is a moving target.
The challenge of God’s moving target is that while you work to improve, our world culture continues to change. Your moving target needs leapfrog towards His plan.
Our world values and culture change on a consistent basis. Christian Leadership in our world today is similar to running in front of a bulldozer. On a given day it is relatively easy to outrun and stay ahead. The bulldozer (current world culture) is powerful, heavy, relatively slow, but very consistent. Nothing escapes its presence. We need to pray. We need to fast. We need to read scripture. Most importantly we need to seek and implement God’s plan for our individuals, our families and our churches. As Christian leaders of thousands of churches and missions world-wide, we need a continual drive to demonstrate God’s love. Hard work, team development, and creatively looking for new ideas will help. However, if you stop to relax, take it easy, or coast, the bulldozer keeps coming. The bulldozer doesn’t allow time to relax. The achiever will be the individual, or group of individuals who consistently innovate and work to surpass previous goals.
As you achieve and break new ground, don’t look back. The old average is just behind catching up and may be ready to pass. When you think you are ahead, don’t sit and relax, someone else is moving up.
Think about it. There won’t be any time tomorrow to think about the future, because when tomorrow comes, part of the future will be gone.
Leadership is … you and your team prayerfully creating your ministries future today and every day.
Yours in Service,
Laurie D. Kennedy
Leadership Coach
Jethro Group
ldkjethrogroup@gmail.com