Being a Leader

Let us be honest about what leadership in a local church really is. It is nothing more, and nothing less, than a call to service. It is a call to be a servant to others, and sometimes to others who will drive you crazy, who will never say thank you, who may even think they are doing you a favor by showing up to be served. It can be a thankless job, one that no one really wants to do.

Being a Christian leader is not an opportunity to give orders, to exercise power, and to tell people what to do. It is not a place where your wish is another person's command. It is rather a place of coming to someone and asking how you can serve them, of kneeling to wash the feet of people who may seem completely undeserving. And when you are done, some of them will turn around and ask who you think you are. Yet that is exactly what we sign up for when we accept a place among the leaders of God's people.

So it begs the question: why? Why give our lives, our invaluable time and effort, to this? I hope it is not simply because no one else was available, or because someone begged us. There has to be something deeper. That is why I want to share three things that, if we practice them regularly and keep them in front of us, will help us not only weather the assault that comes with leadership but truly thrive as leaders.

First, faith to recognize your calling

The first key is the faith to recognize the work of your ministry, to know that you are called by God for a specific work. There is a real difference between a Christian and a minister, between a listener of Jesus and a laborer with him, between a believer and a bond-servant. The difference is that one has recognized his or her calling and the other has not.

One person says, as Paul did, necessity is laid on me; woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. The other says, it is not convenient for me; why should I preach? One says, his word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I could not hold it in. The other says, I kept my mouth shut, because the opposition against me was too hot to bear. One, knowing the terror of the challenges, still says, compelled by love, we persuade people.

What makes the difference? One of them, by faith, has encountered the beauty of God. God has shown him something, a heavenly vision to which he cannot be disobedient. But note this carefully: being called, or recognizing your call, does not make you better or superior, and it earns you no extra points. Paul says he gets no special reward for it, because it is a compulsion, a trust given to him to manage, an obligation he owes and will give an account for. The gifting on your life, which creates your calling, obligates you.

So let me ask you honestly: do you recognize yourself as called to whatever it is you are doing now? Have you begun to see it not as a task assigned by a pastor, but as a call from God, something you are compelled to do? Make Psalm 90:17 your prayer: let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands.

Second, faithfulness to work your ministry

The second key is faithfulness, a commitment to actually working your ministry, because the day is far gone and the night is coming. We really do not have unlimited time. How will you rise above all the challenges that will face you as a leader? You have beheld a beauty that compels you, and you work as one whose time is going away.

That means you roll up your sleeves, quit making excuses, and find a way to succeed. Paul knew that nothing but trials and afflictions awaited him, that it would be a hard road, but he had made up his mind to work his ministry, to run his race and finish it. To work a ministry means to figure out a way to be both effective and efficient in spite of all the odds.

That there will be odds, challenges, problems, and opposition is a given. They are all there to make you give up, quit, and throw in the towel. But by working your ministry through the help of the Holy Spirit, becoming both efficient and effective, you can outlast even the toughest challenges. Managers are efficient; they do things well. Leaders are effective; they do the right things. To grow and last, you have to do both: get better at doing things right, and better at doing the right things. Why? Because with each passing day, you are losing time.

Remember the word to Joshua: he was old, and yet there remained much land to be possessed. After all those wars, all that effort, there was still ground to take. So here is an action point: make a list of the land you still have to conquer, the things God has called you to possess. Is it praying for the sick? Raising up a prayer team? Writing something that stirs revival? Name three, and then ask what training or mentorship you need to reach them.

Third, wisdom to work on your ministry

The third and final key is wisdom, and by this I mean the wisdom to work on your ministry, not just in it. The psalmist prays, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. To number means to measure your progress.

Why measure? Because you can only improve or manage what you are measuring. You cannot afford not to get better in your ministry. It is not enough to recognize your calling and commit to the work; you must diligently work on it, striving for mastery, striving to be the best you can be at whatever God has called you to. Get better in terms of reach, effectiveness, efficiency, and results. To do that, you need clear metrics, honest measures.

So how do you measure yourself? What are you counting? You need a kind of scorecard that tells you how far you are progressing in the work of your ministry. If you are an evangelist, perhaps you count the number of souls reached, and the many still to be reached. If you carry a prophetic gift, you weigh the words given that came to pass. And you honestly count the times you sensed God speaking and held back.

Counting humbles you, because it forces you to look at how far you still have to go and how much you still need God. And at the same time it encourages you, because it shows you how far you have come and that your life has not been wasted. Number your days, so you can grasp both the enormity of the time you have and the preciousness of the time you have left.

You will thrive

Here is the honest truth. You will have challenges. You will have discouragements. People will misunderstand you and sometimes have a bad attitude toward you, and that will include the very people you are pouring your life out for, and your fellow leaders too. Some will be suspicious of your motives. It will happen. It would be naive to expect anything else, and arrogant to expect to be treated better than our Lord was.

Jesus faced it. Paul faced it. Peter faced it. Every single servant of God went through it. Yet they all thrived, and you too will thrive, if you do what they did: recognize that you were called and recognize the work of your ministry; remain steadfast and faithful, committing to work your ministry with both efficiency and effectiveness; and grow in wisdom by diligently working on your ministry. God wants you to thrive as a leader in his house, no matter how people treat you. Serve on.