Spiritual Leadership – Water Break!

I hate using the term “great leaders” but to make a point I have to do so: even great leaders go through battles and the Battle of Transition. My heart was moved this morning to share this simple and very important truth because people can often lose sight of the end goal in the midst of a long discussion. The session of writing has been long, it has been intense and it has been challenging. It makes sense to pause and remember the end goal of this discussion: to prevent all of us from falling in battles initiated by our enemy to destroy leaders just like us.

This discussion is not about bad leaders who fall in battle but rather about helping “great leaders” – that is leaders who really are trying to move down the path and serve their Father in a most excellent way – face and conquer the battles that will most certainly come throughout their leadership. It is easy to slip into simply diagnosing the failures of people and then slip to assuming they are all just failed leaders.

The people that we have written of in this section were and/or are tremendous individuals with great promise. They were/are people who actually were leading (not just talking about it) effectively in a spiritual capacity. They are our friends, our fellow warriors and it is with great sorrow that we recount their challenges and their stories. Perhaps we should have balanced their true stories with other true stories of those who succeeded in all of these battles. Perhaps we can do that in the future articles of this series or during a rewrite of all of this section – but for now, let it suffice for us to remember that we do not right this for people who failed, will fail or who are failing.

This section, these articles, in fact this entire weblog is focused on the “great leaders” being even better leaders and leaders focused on being godly leaders. In regard to the Battles Encountered During Spiritual Leadership Series, everyone will face these battles at some time. The great leader and the leader who is not really leading effectively will all be challenged for no one leader is immune.

The art of perspective is one of the greatest assets to leaders. Stepping back, remembering the objective, getting focused, reflecting on the purpose of all we do as leaders, and making sure that we are “on track” are all essential to effectively lead. I was reminded of these truths just this morning while writing.

We will start tomorrow with the stories of those transitioning from College Leaders to Emerging Leaders, those transitioning from Emerging Leaders to Support Staff, from Support Staff to Top Dogs and then finally, from Top Dogs to Support Staff (the most difficult but most beneficial of all transitions).

For today, will you – the spiritual leader – take just five minutes and pray for every other leader that you know. Pray that they will be effective, tremendous and better than you will ever be. Thanks…