Leadership

Laying The Foundation: The Growth Of A Leader (Part Eleven)

By jgiroux ⋅ October 25, 2008 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

This is Part 11 of the Laying the Foundation series on Thursday Leadership Lesson from National Community Church. As we build our groups and ministries, we must ensure that we are building on a solid foundation. This series will explore characteristics of leaders who lay and build on firm foundations. Today, we will talk about the Endurance of a Leader.

Paul told Timothy, “Fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:5b). Ministry is a life-long race we must run, but sometimes I run it like I’m stealing second. In other words, I feel this pressure to make a quick leap and run as fast as I can so I won’t be disqualified. In that moment of nervous thrill, I pay no attention to a twisted ankle or a fellow teammate. When you steal second, you don’t care who you might run over and you don’t pay attention to anything other than that white square bag. You just run. But fulfilling our ministry will never happen if we constantly do ministry like we are stealing second. We’ve got to find a pace and rhythms that allow us to finish well. We’ve got to take in our environment and the players around us.

Here’s the question: can you do what you are doing now for another 25 years?

I don’t think I’ve ever met a leader who didn’t want to finish well. Who wants to burn out or fall morally? Who sets out determined to fail? And yet many leaders experience the very thing they hope to avoid. Today, I want to talk about the Endurance of a Leader. If we want to lay a solid foundation, then it’s imperative to know what we plan to build on top of that foundation. We must begin with the end in mind and know what we want that to look like.

I’ve been doing small groups for about 10 years, but I am totally unqualified to talk about what it means to finish well. Next week, you’ll hear my spiel on rhythms and delegation and accountability and all that stuff that helps us finish well. But today, I’d like to introduce you to another voice. It’s the voice of a man named Pastor Ray who shared 51-years of ministry experience with a small group of 12 pastors and church leaders. All of this is lifted straight out of Leaders on Leadership by George Barna. These lists come specifically from Chapter 8, written by J. Robert Clinton and Richard W. Clinton, The Life-Cycle of a Leader.

A leader who finishes well is one who:

• Maintains a personal vibrant relationship with God right up until the end
• Maintains a learning posture and learns from various kinds of sources, but especially from life.
• Gives evidence of Christlikeness in character through the fruit of the Spirit in his life
• Lives out truth in life such that his convictions and the promises of God are seen to be real.
• Leaves behind one ore more ultimate contributions—that is, a lasting legacy
• Walks with a growing awareness of a sense of destiny and sees some or all of it fulfilled

Seven major barriers to finishing well include the following:

• Finances- their use and abuse
• Power- its abuse
• Inordinate pride- which leads to downfall
• Sex- illicit relationships
• Family- critical issues
• Plateauing
• Emotional and psychological wounding

Five things a leader can do to enhance their chances of finishing well:

• Have a broad perspective on a lifetime of ministry from which to interpret ongoing ministry
• Develop an expectancy for renewal. All leaders should expectantly look for repeated times of renewal. Most leaders who have been effective over a lifetime have needed and welcomed renewal experiences from time to time in their lives.
• Practice the disciplines. Leaders need discipline of all kinds. Especially is this true of the spiritual disciplines
• Assume a learning posture. The single most important antidote to plateauing is a well developed learning posture.
• Have mentors.

All of us desire to hear those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21), and it’s never too early to begin laying that foundation. Many of us need to make some changes, and those changes might be painful to us or to others. But if we want to have an enduring heart, we must find a pace and forms of ministry that are sustainable. We may need to say “no” to leading that second group in order to say “yes” to personal mentoring. We may need to carve out time to read and develop our leadership gifts.

What are some other things we can do to develop an enduring heart?

About The Author: Heather Z. is the Pastor of Discipleship at National Community Church in Washington, DC.