Congrats.
You just said yes to the most beautiful, challenging, wonderful and terrible experience of your life.
You’ll discover areas of weakness that you weren’t quite so aware of.
You’ll also discover strengths that the Lord is thrilled to expose and help you walk in.
It will be frustrating, time-consuming, exhausting, and not so glamorous.
It will also be beautiful, freeing, energizing, and exciting.
You’re filling an important role. You’re doing a worthwhile job. You’re being trusted.
But please, please don’t let that go to your head.
Not only in a prideful way.
But in a self-sufficient way.
In a boundary-less way.
In an invincible way.
Don’t let it go to your head.
You have been chosen to play a part in other people’s Race, but you have not been appointed to make sure their Race is the absolute best thing of their life.
You have been trusted with the hearts of your precious teammates, but you have not been given the responsibility of changing, molding or creating those hearts into the hearts that God desires them to be.
You have been raised up, which means you have stepped down. You have stepped down to washing feet, washing dishes, and to helping lift others up.
You have been handed the extra weight of leadership, but you have not been encouraged to carry it on your own shoulders, in your own strengths, because of your own skills.
The key is this:
Jesus.
Jesus at the beginning, Jesus at the center, Jesus at the end.
Jesus when you wake up,
Jesus as you eat lunch,
Jesus as you’re falling asleep on the concrete floors across the globe.
It sounds easy and it sounds cliché, but it’s real life stuff.
Your team will suffer greatly when your leadership is rooted elsewhere.
When it’s rooted in yourself and your strengths.
When it’s rooted in how well your team gets along.
When it’s rooted in affirmation and acceptance from people.
When it’s rooted in comparison to other leaders and other teams.
When it’s rooted in how much you can get from it.
I’ve been team leading since day one, and my flesh constantly wants to take me back to every one of those rotten roots. It’s a common temptation. It’s easy to sink into. Much easier some days than fighting to put Jesus at the center and to let Him surround your team and your leadership.
But I promise you this: that fight is worth it. It may be the most important fight you can engage in on the Race – fighting to keep Jesus at the center.
I have adored the three teams I’ve led this year. They have been challenging, they have pushed my every button, they have made me want to pull my hair out…and that’s okay. They have also been encouraging, they have been uplifting and they have taught me about the love of Jesus and dependence on Him every day.
It has been empowering to know that my role as a leader is to serve and love my team in the same way that Jesus would.
Leadership isn’t about figuring out how to be the best.
It’s not about being the super spiritual one, or the one with all of the answers.
It’s not about being the one who has to lead every Bible study and start every prayer meeting.
It’s not about doling out orders and handing out tasks day in and day out.
It’s about learning Jesus, loving Jesus and living the way Jesus would live out your life if He were currently walking in your Chacos, Tevas, Nikes, or whatever shoes are on your feet.
It’s about waking up every day asking yourself,
“If Jesus were walking in my shoes today, how would he love my team, this ministry, this city, and that guy who runs the 711 I go to everyday?”
There may or may not be a part two coming to this with a few things I wish someone had told me before team leading. Or maybe they did tell me, and in that case – it’s things I wish I’d listened to from the beginning. Keep an eye out 😉
PS – SEE YOU SOON, AMERICA.
