Leading Down challenges your motivation. How do you lead those who follow you. Would those people who are paid to follow you do so if they weren’t paid? What you are building determines how you relate to those you lead.
One of my professors at college used to say that if you are leading but no one is following you are just going for a walk through the woods. If you are a leader it is assumed that you are leading someone. Most people reading this if not everyone reading this is leading someone else. How we lead those who we are leading is significant for them and for us.
How you lead others reveals much more about us than we realize. It reveals what we are building and where we place our trust. The temptation that every leader faces is how will I use the influence that I have been given. Far to many leaders lead in such a way that they are building their own kingdom. I feel the pull toward building my kingdom every day which is why everyday I preach the gospel to myself. I have to continually remind myself that it is what God has done for me in Christ Jesus that empowers me to live and to build. I am continually humbled by the greatness of Jesus and the sinfulness of me.
One of the pet peeves I have is people using the words “gospel” and “grace” who have no idea what they mean. It actually makes me angry and I believe God angry that people abuse grace and the gospel to build monuments to themselves and not lay down their lives for those they are leading. Preaching the gospel of Jesus with your mouth has little effect if you are preaching the gospel of self promotion with your life. If you want to be great be small if you want to lead serve. That’s what Jesus demonstrated to us and what the gospel demands of us.
Leader please stop using people to build a monument to yourself that will one day burn. Invest your life in others preach the gospel and you will have joy true joy. A joy that is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Questions to ask yourself as you Lead others.
1. Am I doing this for Jesus or for me?
2. If I do something great and someone else gets the credit am I ok with that?
3. Do I love the people I lead or do I love leading?
4. Is my life hidden in Christ?
5. Am I on a regular basis doing things that don’t make conventional sense?
6. Am I daily preaching the gospel to myself and then with my life?
7. Do I demand from others what I am not willing to give?
8. ls there anything in my life that if I were to lose that thing I would feel as if my world was over?
9. Am I speaking truth to those I lead because I want to be right or because I love them and want them to grow.
10. Am I a good follower?