Being Impressive: A Subtle Snare for Christian Leaders
One of the joys in my life now is getting to work with various organizations around the country and meet the amazing people who lead them. There are thousands of gifted and God-shaped people leading churches, nonprofits, campus organizations, and businesses in communities all over the world. Most of these leadership veterans earned their stripes “in the trenches” and are among the most effective leaders you would ever meet … and yet few will ever know who they are outside of their group.
When I encounter young leaders who are discouraged, one of the consistent reasons I discover for their discouragement is that no one is noticing their leadership. They unknowingly seek some validation and notoriety for their work. And, truthfully, it may be because no supervisor or committee is commending them. Ministry is naturally discouraging, so encouragement is necessary!
One of the not-so-subtle snares of leadership is the desire to be impressive. You can see where this emerges too since leadership involves treating others well, communicating well, and measuring effectiveness (the “how well am I doing? factor) by people’s responses. As people respond favorably, we feel like we’re leading well, but we sometimes aren’t satisfied there and want MORE people to respond favorably.
It’s a tricky turn since the goal of the Christian leader really isn’t to make people like us. Our goal is to help people follow and model Jesus more closely in their lives and work. And that’s difficult to measure. It’s easier to look at our position and title and take satisfaction in our reputation or authority.
Young leaders have to wrestle with this. I did too. After serving as a national trainer for a campus-focused ministry organization, I became a youth pastor in a fantastic church in a small town while attending graduate school. I had no large position or fancy title and in that process I had to answer, “Can I go and serve Hope Church even if no one ever knows?” And I could. And did for 7 fantastic years. When the faculty position opened at Bethel College, Kel and I prayed about it and asked, “Can I go and serve Bethel College and teach the students who come there and that be enough?” And I could. And have for 12+ amazing years.
The fundamental question as you follow Christ in life is to ask this leadership question, “Can I serve (insert your organziation here) and do so without any notoriety?“ If you can answer that affirmatively, then you can throw your all into your work and find a blessed simplicity and freedom from having to impress others for job satisfaction.
But, it’s tough to do, isn’t it? After all, I just shared how well I am now doing at this, right? Not so fast. I recently spoke at a conference for a handful of minutes not too long ago and came away so very irritated at how it went. Driving home, I called Kelly and had to process with her (she has a background in psychology and counseling) why it was generating such emotions. It was an informative presentation, nothing that needed to be special, but it bugged me to an extreme and I couldn’t shake those feelings. As we talked, we agreed that the issue was that I wanted it to be impressive and it hadn’t been. Really, I wanted to be impressive (read: perfect) and it wasn’t.
And that’s one of the subtle snares of leadership: As we learn to communicate better, we push our pride and reputation as part of the goal for communicating and make it less about the communication and all about people’s impression of us.
I want to be an encouragement to you that what you’re leading is important. You are part of a large group of Christian leaders who wake up each day to serve in their leadership positions with fanfare. What you and I do today no one will clap or notice except those whom we touch – and no one will see the behind-the-scenes work you do for your organization. But, you’re doing well. You do not need validation from the outside. Your leadership matters.
As you lead in the coming weeks, be alert to moments where pride may pop its head up and want to make it all about you being impressive. Be real instead. Be faithful. Don’t give up. That will mean more in the end – and be longer lasting too!
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