One Life

What does it mean to love the people you are leading?

It is easy to love someone in our mind or have an attitude of love towards them, but that doesn’t do much for them. God’s love for us was sending His son to take on our sins and die for us, so that we may have a chance of living life to the full. That is the essence of Love, Jesus took care of our most important need, not just some feeling or companionship (although that is also part of love).

The story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 tells of a man who saw another man that had been attacked, the Samaritan “had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ “ He may not have liked the attacked man, or even spoken to him much, if at all, because of the state he was in. He didn’t send him a valentines card, he didn’t give him a hug, he saw the need of another human, went out of his way with time, money and energy to help and made sure that man was alright.

To clarify, I am not condemning hugs or valentines cards because I would probably prefer it if I had more of both. But when Jesus told us to “love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” I think he meant more than hugging and empathising with them. He even later goes onto say “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” That’s what he did for us. That’s big.

I am not saying we are all called to die for our friends, but as a church if we are willingly choosing to love people like the Samaritan did and Jesus told us to, others would not visit the church and say “aren’t those Christians really nice”, I think it would be more along the lines of “the amount of love these people show is inhuman!” And it is, as it comes from people who have been loved so much by their God that they choose to try and show that love to others. As leaders we want to be at the forefront of the decision to radically love people.

The Occupy movement is a self-proclaimed “leaderless” movement. But can it survive like that?

You may have noticed it on the news; the biggest group of Occupy protestors in the UK is based outside of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Their slogan is “We are the 99%” and they primarily challenge social and economic inequality, and how a small minority controls those problems. Which basically means they are unhappy with a small amount of rich people deciding what goes on for the majority of others.

It started off with no formal leadership group or groups with any authority. But this had to change as the movement grew. Autonomous working groups were established to run things like looking after sanitation in camps, but these of are said to be “facilitated” not “led”. This at least shows they recognized some need for organized decision making.

One issue they have is involving everyone in decisions. It means everything takes a long time to decide, as ideas have to be constantly put forward, amended and voted on. Furthermore many people want different things, there is no-one driving discussions.

Academics such as Prof. Gabriella Coleman, think it is inevitable leaders will emerge from occupy groups, they can’t not: “a core group of leaders will develop of original working groups, which will be hard to break into six months down the line”. It is hard for new people to join a long established movement and not be led in some way by the long-term members.

But surely there is a need for leaders? We vote political parties and world –leaders in to govern our country because we trust them to be able, know more and make better decisions than we would. During the economic crisis in 2008 I heard someone interviewed on the news say something along the lines of  “my six year old could have done a better job than that idiot Gordon Brown” … well I am not sure they could to be honest. Leaders aren’t always perfect but they are there for a reason. 

In Ephesians 4:11-13 Paul tells us how God has gifted people in different ways to help lead and support the church, it is not run by free-for-all or a by popular vote. I wonder if the Israelites would have ever made it to the Promised Land without the leadership of Moses? 

Outside one Occupy camp there is a sign saying “We’re here, we’re unclear, get used to it”. Without leadership is “here” and “unclear” all we can hope for?

And so it’s 2012! What awaits us in the year ahead I wonder?

For me personally 2011 seemed like quite a fight. I didn’t see it coming, and I didn’t do so well on some days, but it feels like God has led me every step of the way, and now I’m standing on the other side. So what do I see? (I hear you ask!)

2012 is a year to Receive Power (sounds like a good name for a conference!). God is going to break out afresh and demonstrate his power in and through hungry people, people who know that there is more, and are willing to press in for it. Stories of revival are dim and distant in the UK, almost out of living memory, and God wants to change that this year. The church has grown tired of the word ‘revival’ because it hasn’t been seen for so long. But that’s exactly the environment to which it has been birthed again and again, and usually it’s the young people who usher it in. The year ahead will see young people catalysed in the things of revival, reminded that there is more and that we can’t settle for what we see today. Tomorrow is brighter, and we’ll see solid evidence of that in 2012, leading into much greater things in the next few years.

I truly believe there is a fresh wind blowing. A corner has been turned. Those who are ready to follow, wherever He calls, will become significant shapers in the UK over the next five years. It’s like God is ready to place His favour on people, and will establish His ways in and through them. It won’t all be easy, but it will be absolutely incredible to watch!

I pray that you will know His presence this year, and that you will be fully prepared to ‘Receive Power’ from God. He is willing, able and ready to pour it out. Are you ready to Receive?

I have heard it said, “70% of leadership is self leadership” which from one respect can look like a self-centered and selfish view of leadership, but I have found this principal to be continuingly more and more true in my leading of others. 

I have been ineffective at leading in the past, when 1) What I am saying/doing is not from God. 2) My Life hasn’t backed up what I am saying.

When people see God at work in you, they want to be led by you, and so they should be! As it is God is God, and He is Amazing! When leading as soon as I have tried to fall back onto my own strength (which is most of the time) the things I do seem to have less of an impact. In the same way I hope some of this blog has something of God in it, but most of it is probably my worthless babel.

The authority of what you say comes from what you do. If you do not do the things you say or do not do them consistently, people are not going to respect your leadership or take what you say seriously

So I have seen leading myself as trying to become evermore led by the ultimate, supreme and mighty leader of the universe Jesus and striving to live with more integrity. (All pretty obvious so far, but true!)

Some of the things I try: making sure I am actually reading my bible and praying (having a set routine helps me do this) instead of just intending to makes a big difference to how close I feel to God. Spending time “studying” (learning more about God) there is great teaching available online and endless books.  Living rightly and trying to break old patterns can be really difficult but vital if we want to be more in step with God.  Asking God to change my heart and having someone to be accountable to, I have found greatly helpful in this.  And having someone older and wiser to talk with is fun and really helpful.

These are just some of the things I have found useful, but it doesn’t mean you have to have it all sorted, or be anywhere near sorted, but if us as leaders try to make sure we are leading ourselves towards God I believe it makes us better at leading others in the same way.

So I would argue taking lots of time to invest in yourself as a human being as a leader is not selfish. 70% seems a large amount but I think the more time I have spent leading myself, the more space I have allowed for God to work in my life and my leadership.

(If you want to read more on self-leadership, Bill Hybels is a master http://www.buildingchurchleaders.com/articles/2001/le-2001-003-13.86.html?start=1)