Leadership in Context

To increase our visionary leadership, we have to first understand that God honors and blesses plans. Making a plan is a spiritual thing. We also need to keep our sight lines clean, avoid procrastination, and have a purpose perimeter.

If you want something you’ve never had, you must do something you’ve never done. Translate time into action, make sure you see the vision, change your vantage point, and don’t run from pressure.

People who don’t have vision hurt themselves because they stop when they experience pain. Vision allows you to persist through pain because vision sees where it is going. Vision sees the finish line, which causes the pain to submit to the greater cause.

There is a difference between vision and focus. Vision is the inspiration part. Focus is the discipline part. Vision makes things clear. Focus makes things practical.

We can engage in missions by (1) investigating the place or people that interest us, (2) educating others as to why meeting a need is strategic, (3) stimulating others as to why this is critical to the heart of God, your church, and the people you are reaching out to, (4) creating an opportunity to do something, and (5) celebrating what is happening through your engagement.

In all things, when you obey God, there is a reciprocal blessing and benefit. The benefits of working with other local churches in missions are that you are more effective, influential, and able to develop people. As a local church, if you are not involved in missions with other churches, you can’t be as healthy as God designed you to be.

Missions is about relationship, not just giving money. Missionaries are often the most neglected people in the body of Christ. It is essential when we take on missions that we take on caring for that person, as well. 

Missions are not an addendum to Church life. God so loved THE world. Not just the world in our sphere, but the world as He sees it. Any endeavor in Church life has to be connected to God’s ultimate intention, and that is that everyone should hear the Gospel and see the Gospel displayed. 

Ministry is a privilege. That perspective changes everything. In the grand scheme of things, leadership does seem on a temporal level to be sacrificial, but the reality is that you are getting the best deal of your life. The reward you get for the investment is the greatest thing!

Are you promoting a trustworthy culture? As leaders, we can teach people to be trustworthy, help them to understand the value of trust, teach them how to build trusting relationships and how to disagree without being disagreeable. If we don’t do those things, trust won’t be part of our culture and people will end up not trusting us.

Leaders are set aside by God. The foundation of biblical leadership is responsibility. The ability to respond to God is a leader’s greatest ability. Good leaders have a sense of responsibility, and that is the velocity in which they lead others.

We were created for and need healthy, fun relationships. As a leader, model wisdom and discretion in that and learn to have boundaries. But have relationships, share activities, include others, and have fun! You CAN be friends with those you minister to.

Character trumps charisma. The greatest thing a leader brings to the table is not their oratory skills, but their character. As leaders, we need to have a life that is worth following.

I remember God speaking to my heart and saying, “I’m going to give you a big family, and it’s going to be a major part of your ministry because I want people to understand how much I love people and love children.”—Penny Tucci

The heart posture is this: Lord, You own me. My life has been purchased by You. You own my past that You have forgiven me of, You own my future and my destiny. What do you want for me?

We should be thinking God’s way and not allowing the world to think for us. We should be making decisions based on the Lordship of Jesus in our life, not based on the culture. And we should be saying loud and clear with our lives that children are a blessing.

The less we think, the more we feel. The less we learn to think, the more we rely on our feelings. We need to learn to think through things so we aren’t dependent on our emotions.

The gospel ends with Jesus still personally encountering people and giving them the authority to go and preach the Good News. As His disciples, we need to share the Good News and help people personally encounter Jesus in this new year.