Effective Leadership

When you’re a leader, being on mission means learning to serve your team well, bearing the burdens of leadership with humility and grace.

How is Spiritual Formation Relevant to the Current Crisis? Part 2

How can you personally keep your leadership in sync with your own spiritual maturity? All of us need humility to suppose there are levels of leadership that we may not be spiritually ready for, regardless of our other competencies. If we aspire to lead in a certain way, we need to be able to ask: Am I ready for this? Do I have the character it takes to lead well at that level?

I’d like to offer three images that can help each of us who may lead answer those questions:

A mirror

A shadow

A cliff

Let’s look at each of these images in turn.

How is Spiritual Formation Relevant to the Current Crisis? Part 1

There’s no silver bullet for restoring faith in our leaders, but I think that a basic principle of spiritual formation can provide clarity: Growing leadership responsibility can only be faithfully sustained by a commensurately growing depth of character. That’s how spiritual formation is relevant to our present moment. It provides a lens through which to see these cultural crises as a matter of what kind of spirit has been formed in a person, in a leader, and in a community. That spirit—that character—is what we should be looking for as we find a way forward.

Can I Be A Quiet Leader?

People who are quiet by dint of personality have a particular gift to offer the broader Christian community… the habit of paying attention and being receptive comes much more naturally to some than others. The people who “take up the most space in the room” may not notice everything going on in the room. It’s hard to listen while you’re talking; those who talk less can take in more.

Two Christian Men Worship with Their Arms Around Each Other

How Can I Diversify My Social Network?

“What are some ways that I can connect with a diverse group of people, even though I mostly interact with people who are similar to me?”
It’s easy to rush into things with an idealized attitude of what cross-cultural relationships are like; instead, buckle up for a bumpy ride. There will be difficult dynamics.

Why Are Christians So Bad at Conflict?

We Christians bring our own uniquely creative dysfunctions to the world of disagreement and conflict, don’t we? Like with bad movies, the best way to make bad conflict even worse is to add religion to the mix… I can think of at least three modes of conflict resolution that are bad in a distinctively Christian way.

How Can I Help Lead a Multi-Ethnic Community?

Thinking, “this is beyond me” is a much healthier attitude than thinking, “I’ve got this” when it comes to multi-ethnic Christian community.
A measure of hesitance about being in a leadership position as a white Christian in an ethnically diverse community is appropriate.
Given the stark history of exclusion and the dangers of false motives, should those of us who are white even consider stepping into multi-ethnic leadership?

How Can I Lead With Humility?

When I think about humble leaders, the name Kevin immediately leaps to my mind. When I was about thirteen years old, Kevin joined the preaching team at my home church. At that time, he worked as an executive leader at a nearby media ministry, a respected organization with international reach. Kevin was, as they say, a big deal. He made decisions that influenced hundreds of people, and he made them well.

Kindling For the Fire

Fire, for all its power, starts out fragile. When the kindling is gathered and the embers start to appear, they curl around the edges of the twigs, teasing their way into some small purchase on life. A single flame crawls along a sturdy branch, waving like a flag. A bit of thin smoke rises. Then, …

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Want to Become a Spiritual Leader? Get A Spiritual Parent.

Do you aspire to be a spiritual leader? I’ve never been a stranger to ambition. Since childhood I’ve wanted to fix the world and punish fools. Fortunately, since then, the Lord has shown me that I would fall among the fools if I tried.

Yet, the desire to make a difference has lived on. Those