Thursday, March 06, 2008

The Capacity Of A Leader 3

I hope you read Part 1 and Part 2 of this short series, "The Capacity Of A Leader". The main point I have been driving is that the capacity of our leadership will determine the size of the church or ministry we lead.

In this part, I want to give a few practical ways a person can develop their leadership as I wrap this up. Make sure you check out the dialog that was created in both of those posts, there were some great thoughts.

I know many people don't want to hear and maybe don't even agree with my point. Tough thing is that when I make that point I already assume many things. I assume a leader is praying and working on their relationship with God. I assume a leader is building themselves up in God's Word. I assume that a leader is walking and living by faith. I also assume that ultimately it is all up to God. Take all that away and honestly what point is there in being a leader in God's Kingdom.

I also see that there is a a duality to our spiritual walk as well as the natural dimension of leadership. These two do function hand in hand in our leadership capacity. What I see often though is that the natural dimension of leading is a short-fall of many church leaders thus hurting their ability to lead.

So...let's get down to a little practicality. I don't want to overload you and I think these are mostly self-explanatory.
  • Grow Yourself Spiritually - Read the Word and Pray. This above anything else is key. Without your relationship with God...nothing else matters. God is the one that will ultimately raise you up, so stay close to him.
  • Be A Reader - Read books of a variety of areas; business, marketing, church growth, systems, spiritual growth. Develop a list and read.
  • Find A Mentor - Going on this journey with someone else, especially someone who is in a place where you want to go can really challenge you to grow. In fact surround yourself with people who will take you to another level. You can do this physically in person or even through blogs, books, cd's/podcasts.
I hope we have challenged you to work on growing your capacity to lead. Remember God wants to grow His church even more than we do...and He wants to do it through us. Don't be the one standing in His way. Start growing today. Hey that rhymed.

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[photo from flikr.com - Baobab on the Planet of the Little Prince]

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