July 11, 2012 Leadership and Followers

I can see I was looking at the June calendar when I posted yesterday - forgive me please....

I Cor. 11: 1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. (NASB)

Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ Jesus. (KJV)

I've been working on the subject of leadership this summer in preparation for our RA training for the fall, and it is not easy to find just the right thing. There is a lot written about leadership from a professional or business perspective, but I am not sure that is what might correlate with what God calls us to do as leaders.

Just before bed, I always read for about 20 minutes, or more sometimes, but one of the books I have been working on is My Beautiful Idol by Peter Gall. It is autobiographical though it does not cover his entire life. Think Donald Miller with a little more depth maybe. Anyway as he relates his young adult life, he touches on a lot of important themes - like leadership, and in a way that spoke to me....so I want to share a few lines from his book here.

"Leadership is best measured buy the communion it facilitates between the follower and the Father. The question is not how many people follow you, but how effectively they pass through you. Jesus is the way to the Father. Paul says, "Follow me as I follow Christ." Leadership is an usher's sweeping hand gestures, and the intention is to move a person beyond the leader. (Think a few seconds about this image.) Leadership faces forward to the Son and the Father. Real leadership is aware of who['s following."

He goes on to talk about static leadership in the church whose focus is on getting people across the finish line, or saved. His point is that maybe the finish line of salvation is only the beginning of the race. He goes on to say "Pastors could choose to run, could face forward and just go, trusting the spiritual gravity of leadership that is not about influence, but about facilitating communion between the follower and the Father."

Those words stopped me dead cold. I fear that too much of leadership is about influence - just general influence. We tell young leaders that they are role models, influencers, but I am not sure we always help them understand the responsibility that comes with being a leader - the responsibility to God. We make leadership in our culture be all about power whether we like it or not, I am pretty sure that is true.

I like what Gall says here so simply - it is about facilitating communion between the follower and the Father, no matter what we do or where we go.

What do you think?