The World Is Not Changed by People Who Think

Healthy Leaders | Issue 40

Jan 17, 2025

Welcome to Issue 40 of Healthy Leaders. In this issue, thinking is only as good as the action it leads to.

Hello friends,

We’re glad to be back with you in a new year, and excited to get back to growing together as healthy Christian leaders.1

Many of us (myself included) have encouraged headstrong children to “think before you act,” or “look before you leap.” Jesus Himself encouraged the crowds following Him to “count the cost” of being His disciples.

“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:27-28)

There is much need for transformed, biblically-rooted thinking in our lives and leadership — in fact, we developed an entire course called Transformational Thinking. But the more prevalent problem, particularly in the Western world, is not that too few leaders think. It’s that too few leaders act.

In other words, it’s not that leaders don’t look, it’s that they never end up leaping at all.

We see this tendency among the people of Athens in Paul’s day. According to Acts 17:21, they “spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.” But when push came to shove, they either rejected the Gospel outright because it offended their intelligence, or they put off making a decision until they could think about it more (v. 32). Their thinking got in the way of their acting.

Here’s Malcolm with more:

In our work in the nations, one of the ways we encourage leaders to act on the paradigm shifts they experience in their thinking is through applying the Four Dynamics of Transformation to the goals they want to achieve. These dynamics are rooted in how Jesus built the disciples.

“He appointed twelve — designating them apostles — that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” (Mark 3:14-15)

In other words, Jesus created a transformational context around His emerging leaders:

A spiritual environment, involving relationship with God (with Himself, as well as with the Father through prayer).
A relational web, involving relationship with a mature leader (Himself), and relationships with others (the community of the disciples).
An experiential context, involving challenging assignments, pressure and a diversity of learning opportunities.

Then, in that transformational context, He instructed them — the content of development. Context + content = the process of leader development.

Notice that third one, the experiential dynamic. This dynamic activates the power of doing. It prompts leaders to act. So too with the first two in that list. Through the spiritual dynamic we engage with God, and through the relational dynamic we engage with our community. Only through this kind of action can the instructional dynamic carry any power to make real change happen.

We have seen the power of an active context for leaders time and again. One of our powerful sisters in Cameroon testified to it after participating in one of our trainings:

“The training was an eye-opener to me and came at a very critical moment in my life, when I really needed such orientation. When I heard about the training, I was thinking it was another motivational speaking seminar like many others I have attended. I was also skeptical when I learned that you are a Christian organization, since I am from a Muslim background.

To my surprise, after the first session, I could not wait for the next day because I discovered how much I needed this. This has turned my world around! It encouraged me and pushed me back to God as the center of all leadership. I started working on that connection with God from day one of the training. After working through the 5C evaluation, I came up with a design to work with young girls in marginalized communities. I already have an organization ready to collaborate with me in the implementation of this design and many more opportunities becoming available. The ConneXions Model is a game changer. I cannot thank LeaderSource enough for turning my world around. My life has so much more meaning.” (Sister M)

I hope you see in reading this just how joyful and exciting it was for her to take action! Through connecting with God, designing for her goals, connecting with her community, and doing the work, she found purpose and passion.

She turned thinking into acting, and you can too.

What about you?

For one reason or another, the vast majority of people who make New Year’s resolutions don’t end up keeping up with them. Perhaps they bite off more than they can chew, choosing a challenging assignment that was too ambitious instead of a realistic, stretching one. Perhaps they gave up after the first failure. Inertia is a powerful force.

Instead of making resolutions, what about making a simple design for a reasonable goal in 2025? It’s easy: clearly define your goal, then choose one way you can work toward it for each of the Four Dynamics. Here are five questions to get you started.

What goal do you want to pursue? Make it simple, and clearly define it.
How will you connect with God to pursue this goal? (Spiritual Dynamic)
How will you connect with people to pursue this goal? (Relational Dynamic)
How will you connect with action to pursue this goal? (Experiential Dynamic)
How will you connect with God’s Word to pursue this goal? (Instructional Dynamic)

If you’re looking for examples of each of the dynamics, we’ve got you covered.

Get the Four Dynamics Example Chart

And if you mess up along the way, don’t let it get you down. We’ve all been there. Go to God and get back in the race. His mercies are new every morning.

Until next time, we’re with you!

— Chris

Healthy Leaders

The World Is Not Changed by People Who Think

Healthy Leaders | Issue 40

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