Over the weekend I have had dozens of people joining my Twitter group and following me. I am not sure if it is due to some kind of marketing scam (i.e. if I tweet about coffee I get a Coffee Company following me or I mentioned Hospital yesterday and got some Healthcare person following me!) or whether the UK is starting to get hold of Twitter which has been around for quite a while especially in the States, but...
...one of the most basic principles of Leadership is that you need followers. Someone once said if you think you are a Leader and you turn around and no one is following then you are not leading you are just taking a hike!
Since the age of 13 I have known that I have been called to lead people and specifically to lead the Church. The problem is being English we don't like to talk about our ambitions and leadership is always seen as such a lofty ambition. I don't like to make loud statements about the things that are so personal and important to me, I would rather carry them in my heart and see what happens (doesn't sound much like a leader to me!). At the age of 16 the Church I attended had a split and people scattered, my Dad was the Church Pastor - I didn't want to be a Church Leader any more, I had seen too much. Then over the next decade God kept prompting me to take up my gifting of Leadership and not to hide it - easier said then done. I thought of every excuse and allowed other people to push the gifting down in me rather than let it rise up as God intended. Eventually I did start to take on Leadership responsibility but always with a reluctant obedience.
Although I carry a Leadership role within the Church here in Southampton I am always hesitant to declare myself as a Leader and prefer just to be seen as part of the staff team in case I was misunderstood as trying to be something I was not. Ironically I was trying to be something I was not and God was on my case...
Last week at two separate Leadership meetings I was called out and prayed for specifically around this area of Leadership with the challenge to break off any old words that may have discouraged me and to step into the role that God has for me. So this week I am determined to start stepping into Gods plan for me, to take on the role and responsibility of leadership and lead well. I can't believe how hard this is to write on a blog, I am double checking every word in case people criticize and ask where is the humble leader who serves others? But at the end of the day I need to respond to Gods words on my life and not what other people may think or say - easier blogged than done!
Anyway enough said I need to get on with leading, anyone up for following?
Leadership in the Church - it's a calling!
3 comments:
You go for it Sim! It's exciting to hear how God is using you and to hear how those gifts that were in their infancy when I knew you as a teengaer have developed and blossomed and are being used for His glory in the church you help to lead today. Philippians Ch 4 v13 - God bless you and your family :)
Nico and I are right behind you!
To the ends of the earth!
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