Leader in The Face of Trail

As I spend time with leaders, I often hear about situations where the leader’s followers have rebelled and called for a different direction, whether it might be a group of youth leaders, worship teams, or even the church senior leadership. I have my self spent a good few times battling it out with apposing thoughts. At some point in time I believe every leader will encounter a situation where their God given calling as well as direction is questioned and may even be apposed strongly. What are the implications of this? I had one leader remind me of a quote I have often heard, “If you’re leading and no one is following you’re only taking a walk”. The quote was followed by a sigh and then the following words, “If this is true then right now I’m failing at leading people horribly, I’m taking that walk”! The words struck home, the quote you might even have heard a few times.

I must admit, I even gave a bit of a giggle and a smile the first time I heard it. It’s sounded so wise. I have known quite a few bad leaders; they simply lacked the ability to manage a group of individuals. They where quite ineffective in what they where called to do. However, the art of leadership I have discovered is not an easy one to master. Good leadership cannot be measured by the capacity of the amount of people who follow. If that where the case leaders would simply be defined as celebrities, movie stars and rock stars. Jesus could have enlisted the nation but he only has 12 and even the twelve often doubted Him.

The truth of the matter is, it is allot more difficult to get people to follow. I suddenly realized in a world where every one stood up for what is good, and right this quote could work. But in a world where there are hidden agendas, and motives, people often manipulate, and sabotage things for their own evil, and self motives. Let me share some light on my experience.

We had a worship team in our church that had an awesome heart for God and seeing people come to worship. They had little skill and only knew a few songs. The team would play in our evening services and people seemed to respond to the worship. One of the church leaders son’s moved back home we will call him Tim. Tim had an awesome ability to sing and play guitar, he had been part of worship teams previously but had never lead any worship. A decision was made to pass the leadership of the evening worship team over to him. His credentials seemed to be, son of a church leader, young, vibey, great voice, and an exceptionally good guitar player. No one stopped to ask the question, what was his personal life like or did he have a relationship with Jesus?

It took about 3 months and he had replaced the old team with new fresh people (he called it). The appeal was made for better sound equipment which would have been great but the church just did not have the capacity or need for the equipment. The request was turned down. Tim immediately spoke to the worship team saying, “The church does not want to invest in you, so I will go and buy the stuff out of my own money”. The team praised him for his gift and scorned the church for their decision. I sat down with Tim having numerous conversations about the team, every time he assured me that he will make an effort to not be so brush. However it did not take long before he simply did not even listen to my words. He was impossible to lead in any direction often openly criticizing the church or any form of leadership. Those around him became followers and took all their frustrations and shared it with him.

Sadly today most of the team has ceased to attend any church and have a strong dislike for any form of leadership. The church suffered dearly since the team left suddenly by their own accord and left with no one to carry the worship. Tim left the church completely.

Tim was a great leader and many followed but that did not mean he lead in a the right direction. I have had the opposite experience where many times we are called to lead in a direction; where only few if any are willing to follow. I have had many a conflict with a Tim in my leadership teams and have found charismatic leadership, if not kept in check often leads in the wrong direction.

It’s amazing to see that many times God calls those who are not in a current position of leading  to lead a group or people. David lead sheep not people, Mosses was part of Jethros house hold working as every one else did, Joseph was disliked by his brothers. Even the mighty David was at one point almost stoned by his own men.

We cannot measure our leadership by means of how many people follow us. If that’s the case leadership can be manipulated. Think of the hold companies have over political loaders whose campaigns are financed through their donations. Or the influence church leaders have over pastors, by means of their appointment. I have even had a few leaders, parents and teenagers threaten my job if I was not to consent to their opinion. If we lead by popularity we are fickle and our leadership is tends to be shallow.

Leadership is deeper it should resound the heart of the mission, uncompromised by selfish motives, or personal gain. It is above our own emotional instability and it calls to the righteousness of our hearts. We cannot lead in good conscious if our motives ore swayed by people. The world we live in is full of bad leaders. Good leaders tend to be few and far between. Leadership I would define is the ability to stay the course God has called you to. Investing in those around you with sincerity and never making the purpose of your leadership about you.

The question is this, after much debate and explaining of ones self and call. Does one take the road that leads to popularity by the decision one takes or does one strive to find the road god has called you to take.  I have always looked at my leadership as a calling. Jesus when he called the disciples gave them the following words;

"But before any of this happens, they'll arrest you, hunt you down, and drag you to court and jail. It will go from bad to worse, dog-eat-dog, everyone at your throat because you carry my name. You'll end up on the witness stand, called to testify. Make up your mind right now not to worry about it. I'll give you the words and wisdom that will reduce all your accusers to stammers and stutters. "You'll even be turned in by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. Some of you will be killed. There's no telling who will hate you because of me. Even so, every detail of your body and soul--even the hairs of your head!--is in my care; nothing of you will be lost.  Staying with it--that's what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won't be sorry; you'll be saved.

Luke 21:12 -19