Joe Hoagland
Leadership is contextual. You can learn a lot from renowned leaders inside and outside the church but not everything they teach will automatically translate to your context.
We have to work hard to be contextual in our leadership. Here are some thoughts on how to do this:
Become Truly Invested in Your Community
A contextual leader must know the community where they lead. So many church leaders are isolated in their little circles or they are isolated within just their social status and that is it. To truly be a contextual leader the leader must be invested in the community. They must be visible and accessible to the people they want their church to reach.
A leader that is isolated from the community or one that is removed from it will never be effective.
Get involved; truly invest in your community. Find somewhere to volunteer and go for it.
Learn from Local Leaders
We all like to learn from the national leaders who have made a name for themselves by building churches and speaking at conferences and writing books.
Many times, when we want to develop more contextual leadership we need to learn from leaders already in the community. Are you wondering how your church can help people with their physical needs? Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, go to the leaders who have made a difference and ask how your church can help.
The national leaders can certainly teach us a lot about what to do as leaders but don’t neglect those already in your community trying to make a difference.
Develop programming for what your community needs, not what you want it to need.
A lot of times church leaders can fall into the trap of thinking that something works somewhere so it will work here too. This is not always the case. After you have become involved in your community and learned from local leaders, start to develop programs and systems to make a difference in your specific context.
What Would You Add?
How are you contextual in your leadership?
This article originally appeared here.