We find leaders in all walks of life. These include pastors, missionaries, business people, stay-at-home parents, educators, politicians, and the list goes on and on. Many will argue that leadership is a learned skill. Others will say that leaders are born. While leadership can be extremely rewarding and satisfying, few will argue with the fact that leadership can be extremely difficult at times. For many, like a soldier, or an assassinated President, or a first responder, leadership has come at the expense of their life. For many, leadership does not come at the cost of a physical life but it does, however, come at a very high emotional cost or physical cost. Are you experiencing any of these symptoms?
These symptoms are just some of the “costs” that we might incur on our respective leadership journeys.
I had a great opportunity to travel to the Midwest this week. I sat in on a couple of seminary classes, I met with lecturers, denominational leaders, and educators, and I brought home two significant takeaways. The first one is that we are nearing the perfect storm in terms of the level of ministry anxiety. While we still have millions and millions of people to reach with the Gospel, technology is shrinking our world. As Christian leaders, we are reaching more people. Leaders are seeing people, broken people, at higher rates than ever before. Managing the stresses of ministry is necessitating adjustments in how we deal with these changes. My second takeaway is rooted in the anxiety arena. The question was asked, why is it that the “costs” seem to be higher today than they were ten or twenty years ago? A lecturer’s answer was very insightful. Today, many Christian leaders seem to operate in the yellow zone or caution zone. They are walking the ragged edge and very close to the red zone or danger zone. It may not take much to put a leader over the proverbial edge. Ten or twenty years ago the typical Christian leader might have been walking in the safe zone most of the time. If you are operating in the safe zone, it takes a lot longer and a lot more stressors to get to the danger zone.
If you are a Christian leader and having a difficult time covering the cost of servant leadership or you are operating too close to the danger zone, contact us here at QuietWaters Ministries. We can help!
The March issue of Compass Online will be titled Covering the Cost of Servant Leadership. I hope you will join me then!
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