Healthy Leaders | Issue 3
Welcome to Issue 3 of Healthy Leaders.
In this issue, we take aim at complicated prayers, selfish self-care, and quick fixes. Also: acting on what we know is true doesn’t require a special word from God. Let’s dive in.
Tom Elliff’s Prayers He Prays Every Day
How about starting your Friday by praying along with Tom and Chuck?
“For a looming sense of the presence of God in my life throughout the day. As a believer, I know Christ is in me, with me, and desires to live His life through me. I want to live with a constant and humbling awareness of that truth….
…For the fullness of the Spirit. Living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit is not only possible; it’s commanded (Eph. 5:18). This is truly the only way others will see Christ in me!...
…For the gifts and graces of the Spirit. As we live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, He both gifts us for service (1 Cor. 12) and graces our lives with the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). Both are necessary if I am to be a faithful reflection of Christ….”
Prayer is not just the lifeblood of a church or ministry, it’s the lifeblood of every leader. We cannot afford not to pray.
5 Practices that Help Turn Prayer Moments to Prayer Movements
Speaking of prayer, here’s Dan Reiland on the subject:
“One of my most substantive lessons on prayer was that for too long I made it too complicated. By complicated I don’t mean to infer that prayer is difficult; although it does require effort because our nature resists stillness and there is an enemy who wants to prevent prayer. I mean it’s not necessary to cover all the disciplines, practices, and facets of prayer and devotion every day.
Prayer is not a ritual we have to get right, it’s a relationship for us to enjoy.
Complicating prayer makes consistency in prayer more challenging than it needs to be. The role of prayer is to connect with God at a genuine heart level, hear His voice, and respond in a way that changes our lives and hopefully, changes the lives of others too.
The practice of prayer isn’t merely for the sake of a spiritual discipline, a routine of spiritual maturity, or even being a good leader, it’s to know God and live for, in and through Him…. As prayer changes our heart and our behavior, then we as leaders change and have greater opportunity to lead others to change. That is where moments in prayer can become a movement in prayer.”
8 Ways You Can Motivate Your Emerging Leaders to Grow
The foundation of Malcolm’s eight ways to motivate your emerging leaders, coincidentally, is to pray for them.
“This is the key thing Jesus told us to do in the face of a leadership shortage: pray! However, this is often the last thing we actually do. The old adage, “When all else fails, pray” is utterly unbiblical. We should bring everything before God in prayer before trying anything else. The significance of Jesus’ words cannot be overstated: His response when confronted with an acute lack of godly leadership was not to put on a “leadership seminar,” but to pray.
Ultimately, it is God who works in emerging leaders “to will and to do according to His good purpose” (Phil. 2:13). So we should pray that God will raise up more leaders, better leaders, present leaders, future leaders. We should pray that God will move on the hearts of the ones in whom there is potential. God is the One around whom the issue actually revolves. Thus, prayer builds motivation.
Ministry Is Tough: When Self-Care Becomes Self-Absorption
Rest and rejuvenation – like prayer – are vital for leaders but often get sorely neglected. We must care for ourselves so we can build others well. But what happens if such self-care is used as an excuse for selfishness? Trevin Wax offers a valuable warning:
“The recent push toward self-care is designed for men and women who assume the long hours, hard work, overextension, and burdens of ministry are just par for the course—an element of what it means to fulfill God’s calling on your life. But what happens when the assumptions are reversed? When the push toward self-care is heeded by people who assume they owe it to themselves and to the world around them to take care of themselves first and foremost, no matter how long or how much that takes, or how much the ministry struggles and suffers in the meantime?
This is when a good thing like self-care gets twisted into inordinate self-focus, to the point that our calling isn’t to the ministry with the care of self as an important element in how we seek spiritual health, but our calling is to ourselves with the ministry as an add-on.”
Wax’s warning should prompt us all to embrace healthy self-evaluation and accountability.
Doing What Is Right Without Needing a New Word from the Lord
In the vein of warnings, Written for Our Instruction offers a helpful clarification regarding taking the initiative to act based on what we already know about God, via the actions of Jehosheba and Jehoiada (2 Kings 11).
“…sometimes we make the service of God a little too mystical. We look for guidance and pray for God to open doors. Some might ask God for a sign before they do something, or expect a special word from God for them personally telling them the right decision to make. Some seek a sense of peace about a decision. While this does exhibit faith in believing that God can do this, it is not a Biblical expectation. God never promises to give each of us personalised instructions on how to live. God expects us to use what we know about Him and His world to make wise decisions about what faces us.”
The Timing of Feedback
And to close this one out, here’s Admired Leadership with a timely take on … timing.
When failure happens, it’s easy to want to fix it immediately. But the wise leader will consider timing as well as content in communication.
“…After an inferior outcome or performance, people are acutely sensitive to even the slightest remarks, preferring to interpret just about any criticism as salt thrown on a wound. They are more apt to reject or react to feedback when in this heightened sense of disappointment.
They look to leaders for encouragement, not feedback, when they have experienced a defeat or failure. In their minds, this is not the time to pile on, but an excellent moment to console and support.
The irony is that leaders are more likely to want to give feedback immediately after a weak performance. This makes rational sense. To their way of thinking, immediately after a weak showing is the ideal time to address or fix whatever issues contributed to the inferior outcome. What better time to consider a pathway toward improvement while the performance is still fresh?
By doing so, however, leaders unintentionally walk right into the lion’s den, setting off a firestorm of protest and reaction in the process. The saying timing is everything applies doubly to feedback.”
Or, as Paul exhorts the Ephesians, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29)
That’s all for this one, friends. If you found something encouraging in this letter, share it with a friend. If you’ve found something encouraging outside of this letter, send it our way. We love to share what our leaders love.
Until next time, we’re with you!
— Chris
(for all of us at LeaderSource)