CoachNet Campfire

I’m sitting in Starbuck’s having just concluded a powerful coaching session with a leader who is beginning to successfully navigate the ministry journey from traditional to missional. While it is certainly true that this journey is one that never ends there are many things to be learned and experienced along the way. Today I asked this leader to share with me some things he’s learning about himself and his journey.  In no particular order they were:

Missional leaders care for their own souls. Too often this is an add-on at the end of any list of leadership characteristics but missional leaders put it number one. We all have so much to do that often we forget the restoration and reflection process for our own souls.

Missional leaders acknowledge Christ’s influence over the leadership process itself and submit all to God. They simply carry out their responsibilities with humility, submitting all their actions to the review of a holy God.

Missional leaders keep asking the right questions. It all boils down to “why do I get up in the morning?” What are my goals? My mission? Often we live truly bifurcated lives…we can learn from the Old Testament teachings that everything we do is an act of worship.

Missional leaders embrace diversity. They do not look for clones of themselves. It is so important for us to recognize that people who are different from us will strengthen the leadership team. “I have purposely sought people who have strengths that I do not have…my task is to get them all going in the right direction.”

Missional leaders submit to the “mirror” test. We have to make sure that the person we see in the mirror in the morning is the kind of person we want to see all through the day. Good leaders must be fortified against the greatest temptation and that is to do the things that are popular though not necessarily right. The quickest way to erode the core of our souls is to not have consistency in our lives…the word of God poured in our lives through the spiritual disciplines.

Missional leaders look far to the future. Leaders need to be thinking about themselves and where their organizations are going at least ten years out. I am not talking about a detailed ten year plan but where will the vision, the church be in ten years? It is not so much planning as anticipation. If the only kind of leadership you provide is the reactive kind, not the anticipatory, not the creative kind, then your church is going nowhere.

What discoveries are you making as you journey toward becoming more missional?