Everything has changed. I’m on a new team and I’m no longer a team leader. And although I have not written in two months- sorry about that- I’ve been learning a lot.
It may seem to everyone that the Lord would have been teaching me about leading. He didn’t. He taught me about following.
My first lesson: Being a leader is not the same as being a follower, but being a follower is a great deal like being a leader. The people that are following are actually leaders. Every decision we make shows the kinds of leaders we are. If we choose to support and uplift someone, if we choose to follow, that’s a decision in leadership. Or if we choose to detract from that person, not follow, that’s a decision in leadership. It takes a great leader to choose to fall behind someone else and follow. For example, Moses was so cool, so humble, and so not wanting the responsibility. God knew that, but called him to the most difficult lot of people he could have imagined. Did the unwillingness of the people to follow mean that Moses was a bad leader?
Another thing about Moses was that he did not mess around. When people came to him complaining and told him what a bad job he was doing, he knew they didn’t have a problem with him. He knew they had a problem with the Lord. That’s not to say he didn’t make mistakes or he didn’t need to grow, but he was so secure in where the Lord had put him that he didn’t bother with haters.
And that’s the second lesson. Especially on the World Race, every single person is going through their own process with the Lord. If you’re a leader, you’re going through a process. If you’re not a leader, you’re going through a process. It’s a really good argument against having community if we were meant to tear each other down in these processes. But God gave community, He gave us other people to bless us. If you’re not on the World Race to come alongside others in their processes with the Lord and if you don’t want to take advantage of the blessing of community, what are we doing?
The third lesson he taught me is that we need to believe impossible things. Like David! He was a wimpy little shepherd boy. Come to think of it, Moses was a self-conscious stutterer. God raises up the unexpected, the underdog, to lead in incredible ways.
It’s common for people to have great leadership characteristics. There are some people who are natural-born leaders. Two questions about that: Where are you leading from? Where are you leading to?
It’s not about being the loudest or the strongest or the most charismatic. It’s not about having the qualities, the characteristics of a leader. If you’re not leading from a good place and if you’re not going to lead the people to a good place, it’s horrible.
Just because it’s easy to follow someone doesn’t mean it’s life-giving.
This brings us to Solomon. How do you know who and how to follow? How do you know how to lead? Solomon has all the answers! Proverbs says wisdom sits on seven pillars. It doesn’t come out and say what those seven pillars are, but reading through the book makes it pretty obvious: discernment, good judgment, good planning, knowledge, common sense, understanding, and insight.
It takes all these gifts to lead and to follow. Solomon says in Ecclesiaistes 7:13, “Notice the way God does things and fall in line.” But in the same way, a leader needs to look at the team. How and where do they need to be led? How can I lead well?
Those following need to look at the leader. How is this person leading? How can I follow well? We need to see what God is doing, what He has given us. We need to bless it and we need to fall in line.
Does that mean it’s going to be easy? Does that mean it’s going to be pretty?
As soon as David walked into his anointing from the Lord, things got ugly. He was threatened, chased, pursued, attacked, doubted, lied to, mocked, and disliked. His life was full of bloodshed and murder. Although he was the chosen leader for the people, he was not always on the throne. There were times he was just trying to survive.
Literally speaking, we probably won’t go through these things… but we will go through them. We will feel everything David felt, we will experience everything he experienced. But God does not call us to simply try to survive. He wants us and calls us to thrive. He is not a God of survivors, He is a God of thrivers. He calls us higher, even when we’re in deep dark caves hiding from those who wish to attack us. He calls us higher, He calls us out. He calls us to more so even when those who want to hurt us are right in our midst- easy to kill- we go higher. We refuse to act in survival. How many of us are living to survive whatever we’re going through? How many of us have that survival mindset? God wants so much more for us.
So when Saul is unaware of your presence, when he is defenseless, you choose to thrive.
And on that note… David knew where God had called him to, but he also knew that Saul had already been called to that position. He refused to steal the crown, or even kill Saul. Not only that, but he took it as the highest offense that anyone would kill Saul, the anointed of the Lord. David knew how to follow better than anyone. He was able to see what God was doing and fall in line.
Although the Spirit of the Lord left Saul and went to David, David was still waiting on God’s timing. David knew and respected God’s choice and God’s chosen, and he waited.
In conclusion, I think what it takes to be a great leader is to be a great follower. All you need to know in how to lead is to know how to follow. Because if you’re following well, you’re already leading well.
