The Natural Church Development survey has told us that our top two strengths are Effective Structures and Empowering Leadership. I am curious about what people think about these strengths compared to some of the other characteristics? (If you need a refresher the 8 are listed in my previous blog.) These were not the two strengths I wanted at first glance, but I think they are encouraging.
I believe with good leadership God can change the world. The world will not be changed by followers in the sense that followers are not leaders. If a follower decides to take a different path, they are no longer following, but leading. There are many paths this world leads us down: king of the hill mentality, get all that you can ideas, it does not really matter mindsets. It takes a leader to stop going down those paths and decide to make a difference. It takes a leader to say I want to help someone else. It takes a leader to say no one deserves to be treated that way. It takes a leader to say my life does matter and so do the decisions I make. God calls us to lead the way on loving God and loving others.
So I am excited that we have a strength in our leadership. And as they are empowered by the Holy Spirit we lead for growth in our other areas to have a quality environment where God will grow us in health.
MISSION: Reflect on where your power for leadership comes from. Is it from other people encouraging you? Is it from the experiences you have had in leadership? Does God just place it in your heart? Where are you using that leadership right now?
Please share with me your thoughts on the strengths of our church.
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My attempt to connect each day with God and his people.
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About Me
- Pastor James
- I am married to the beautiful and talented Helen. We have two wonderful children that keep us on our toes. Together we pastor St. Paul's UMC in Williamsburg, Iowa, a congregation that is growing and following God's great adventure.
2 comments:
James, I think a lot of the credit for empowering leadership comes from you being able to delegate. It's nice to know that we are accepted as imperfect beings, trying to improve. And as we stumble along, we may coose those different paths with acceptance. Being a "knob turner" of many years, I have never thought about where leadership comes from. You just jump in and get the job done. Through the years I have learned that with leadership comes responsibility and that sometimes sucks. The past few years have been kinda difficult and I have found myself stepping back to take care of personal issues. Now with the new bulding and church growth, I think I am ready to turn some knobs again. Maybe just a few little knobs to start with though! Jeanie
Jeanie,
Great point! When you lead and take that responsibility you do open yourself up to be seen as imperfect. And if we will continue to be real and not mask our imperfection then it helps others do the same thing. Then we can learn to treat each other with more respect and acceptance instead of trying to prove someone else is imperfect.
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