Back in October of 2019, I was struggling with the topic of leadership. I believe there are basic overarching principals of leadership that every good leader should follow. However, I also think that there is a need for different types of leaders with varied skills and gifting.
Specific leaders are crucial to certain circumstances. A quick look throughout history demonstrates how different leaders thrived amidst incredibly different circumstances. God provided the enslaved nation of Israel with Moses. While Saul had some leadership skills, he was replaced with David because he lacked humility and devotion to God. Abraham Lincoln was exactly who the United States needed during the Civil War to hold the country together. Britain relied upon the grit and stubbornness of Winston Churchill to survive the German onslaught.
None of those leaders were perfect. They all experienced their fare share of failures. And yet, they managed to have an incredible impact on the world. They stand out because they doubled down on the skills and gifts God gave them.
When I looked at my own context of leadership, I was struggling to be mindful. I didn't think that I was doing a great job utilizing or feeding my skills and gifts. I just kind of existed. I was handling my responsibilities as they came to me without reflecting on the past or looking to my future leadership opportunities.
I knew that needed to change. So I looked to Loren Reno in his book, 10 Leadership Maneuvers, for advice in creating a personal statement to guide me. His recommendation for mindful leadership was to create a leadership model or statement.
While I took a slightly different approach structurally than Reno, the objective was the same. I would make a model that I could easily remember and use to remind me of the type of leader that God has created me to be.
I relied on the answers to 4 questions to help me write a statement:
1. What are my top strengths?
2. What are my top spiritual gifts?
3. What are my negative tendencies or sin struggles?
4. What are my God given passions?
Through prayer, reflection, and accountability, I was able to narrow it down to 8 key words: humility, discernment, serving, shepherding, passivity, sloth, community, and reconciliation. I managed to organize them into a sort of mission statement that I could remember. Then I found verses on those topics I could memorize. Finally, I turned it into a graphic design that I could display in my office as a constant reminder (the image included in this blog post).
So far, I'm finding that it has been a wonderful reminder of the type of leader God wants me to be and I find myself referring to it frequently. It has helped motivate me to be better at memorizing more passages of Scripture and to be mindful of how I'm leading.
I also think it is important to note that it hasn't made me scared to accept leadership roles that I know will be challenging or don't fit perfectly with the strengths, gifts, and passions I laid out. I actually think that it has been a helpful reminder that God has blessed me with those things despite my failings in other areas. I get to rest in the truth that all things come from God, and that I must rely on Him to lead me.
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