Wednesday's Leadership Though for Mar. 25th- What do I value most?

Mar. 25, 2020

The definition of leadership “a process of influence.  Anytime you seek to influence the thinking, behavior, or development of people toward accomplishing a goal in their personal or professional lives, you are taking the role of a leader. – Ken Blanchard pg.5

Matthew 22:36-39

³⁶ “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” ³⁷ He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the greatest and most important command. ³⁹ The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

“Most companies that have stated values either have too many values or do not have rank ordered values.  Research shows that if you really want to impact behavior, you can’ emphasize more than three or four values, because people can’t focus on more than those.”  Blanchard- 90

Why is leadership so complicated?  Is it because we have made it to complicated?  Have we tried to “steal” other ideas from churches or companies and have tried to be a company or church that we are naturally not?  We see another church succeeding and we try to mimic what they are doing.  We are not true to ourselves and what God has gifted us at doing. 

As we come back to the words of Jesus (in red)- Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment.  He was asked this because they were trying to trip Jesus and get him to incriminate himself.  However, Jesus navigates the trick question and is able to speak truth to us.  We are to first love God with all we are.  We are to not give just 25% or 64% but love Him with 100%.  Our relationship with Christ is not something that we do, but it should be who we are.   Secondly, after we love God- we are to show love and compassion to our neighbor.  We cannot love someone fully unless we have received the full love of God.  After we have received that full love, we are then able to pour into others to love them. 

In leadership we get sidetracked by loving people first.  Let me be clear, people are so important in church life… without them there would be no church.  However, we should not be loving them at the expense of love God first and wholeheartedly. 

I am trying to simplify leadership- make it easier and clearer.  In our leadership- let’s make sure our relationship with God is solid and we love him.  Secondly, out of the love we have received from God- lets pass that to another person or two.

Questions for my leadership:

1.      Am I taking time to deepen my relationship with God before I lead?

2.      Am I taking the time to focus on a few individuals and love on them?

3.      How could my leadership be strengthened if I love God first and then focused on people secondly?