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To get life and understanding from the Spirit, follow the Spirit step by step! Galatians 5:25 (OGV)
Let’s assume everyone is a leader.
Yes, you!
A leader has influence as an owner of a business, a manager at work, a small group leader, even a parent or grandparent. All of us have others that we influence and all of us are leaders.
I’ve watched a trend through the years – leaders grow up to be consultants. Consulting is the “Promised Land” of leadership. Not actually leading but consulting! Leaders have the nasty business of being responsible, wading into the messes that others make, and even when solving a problem, too often derided by everyone.
Consultants – some having never led a business – get to tell business leaders what to do; some – having never led a church – get to tell pastors what to do. The consultants are ultimately not responsible for anything.
I admit, I want to be a consultant.
There is a place for the advice of others. When a fellow cyclist recently told me that my derailleur needed adjusted on my bicycle, I was able to find a YouTube video that told me not only what a derailleur was, but how to adjust it.
Leadership is a difficult business. Get all the advice possible. Read books, listen to podcasts, read blogs, pay big fees to consultants.
I admit that I am being cynical. Sorry!
In the end times leadership will be even more difficult. Because of 2020, what we find about leadership in 2021 will not be what the consultants learned in 2019. I was talking to another church leader this week and I told him: “It’s like all church leaders have been thrown into the deep end of a swimming pool together, and no one has figured out how to climb out.”
It is a time for all of us to listen to the Spirit of God. Consultants will not be a great help as they give advice on what they have learned in 2019! We don’t have to worry about the 2020 impact on 2021; the Spirit of God knew 2021 before He created time in year 0!
Galatians 5:25 has one of my favorite leadership words – stoicheo! It means “to walk alongside”; it means to “keep the same cadence”. Paul writes to “keep in step” with the Spirit.
The Spirit is our consultant.
To keep in step, to get in cadence, and stay in cadence, practice the following three disciplines:
- Don’t give up. Perseverance is the key to following God. I read that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in a topic or discipline. Ten thousand days would be 27 years.
- Don’t forsake the assembly of the saints. In accountable relationships we have the benefit of what others have learned. The 27 years can be found in the cumulative assembly of the church. Hebrews 10:25 says: “Don’t forsake assembling together but encouraging/teaching one another as you see 2021 approach.” (OGV!!!)
- Grace! A mature Christian learns to receive grace and extend it to others. 2019 is teaching us that grace is a valuable commodity.