As a leader who wants to successfully reach the next generation of young people with the Gospel, you may find yourself in a start-up situation with your church or mission organization.
NAME REALITY: WHAT’S YOUR “LEADERSHIP VOICE?”
Some of us are more natural “starters” and others are more natural maintainers or menders. That is reality. But if I could submit, from a discipleship perspective whether you are more of a pioneer-type on one end of the spectrum of leadership, or a guardian on the other end of the spectrum, we all need to be open to the Holy Spirit’s desires for our ministry. (As a side note, here is a link to take a really cool, free assessment looking at the 5 Voices of leadership: pioneer, creative, connector, nurturer, guardian).
HARDWIRING IS REAL. SO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT’S DESIRE TO STRETCH YOU TO BE A PART OF STARTING OR RE-STARTING SOMETHING
Jesus intentionally recruited and pulled together a diverse team of disciples who had a huge range of leadership hard-wiring. Some were starters, others were nurturers. Some were spiritual carpenters, others were spiritual doctors. Hard-wiring is a very real thing, so I don’t want to downplay that reality. But one thing I do want to challenge is the calcification tendency in leadership where we may start to believe that “this is just the way I am,” versus a “here I am, send me.” mentality.
CAVES ARE NOT A GOOD METAPHOR FOR KINGDOM GROWTH
Calcification is really cool to look at in caves where stalactites and stalagmites display the awesome wonder of years or centuries of slow growth. But very little grows in caves. In contrast, if you look at a garden or farm, calcification cannot be allowed. Soil must be tilled regularly, soil must be modified, roots must be stimulated, vines must be pruned, weeds must be pulled. All of this activity represents mini-start-ups in the life of a growing ecosystem. Gardens are much more representative of Kingdom vision and values versus dark caves.
Photo by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash
STARTING OR RESTARTING IS MORE AN ISSUE OF FAITH THAN A MATTER OF YOUR HARDWIRING OR SPIRITUAL GIFT MIX
I share all of this just to challenge a bit any tendency we may be buying into, where we are set in our ways or unwilling to start or restart a Kingdom work in our neighborhood or city. By studying the early life of Jesus and how he went about starting a Kingdom movement that is still expanding today we see that he wants his disciples to have an attitude of willingness, not sedentary calcification.
By looking at the life of Jesus, we see how starting or re-starting a ministry to bear healthy fruit is more a matter of faith than an issue of hard-wiring (i.e. your personality, spiritual gift mix, or comfort zone). We are all called to starting or re-starting things at some level as we follow Jesus because that’s just the nature of soil and seed.
ACTION STEPS
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Take some time to identify your “hardwired” leadership voice. If you need help, take the 5 Voices of Leadership assessment.
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Spend some time in prayer asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to you places he may want to stretch you. Ask him if he is calling you to start or restart something.
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Stay tuned for my next post where I will share an activity that will help you gain insight and encouragement from the early days of Jesus.