Leadership can sometimes be as simple as taking the initiative. The problem is that initiative involves risk, which can look like ocean waves crashing over rocks.
We wonder what people will think. And what happens if we fail? Or insult someone? Or say the wrong thing? What’s the damage report if we crash?
Paul, who lived and worked in the first century, can give us some insights into leadership. He was a master at taking risks.
Paul’s usual strategy when entering a new city was first to visit the synagogue. There he could connect Jews to the Messiah. Because of their history, they understood much of what he described. That strategy worked well in his travels.
Philippi was a major Roman colony in the first century. When Paul came to Philippi, his approach vaporized. There was no synagogue. There weren’t enough Jews to establish one. And so he had to re-evaluate.*
Somehow he heard about a prayer meeting on the Sabbath outside of town. Roman pagans weren’t likely to attend Sabbath prayer meetings, so Paul suspected these people wereJews and God-fearers. God-fearers were Gentiles who saw something attractive and wise in Judaism, in contrast to the bold claims of the many gods and goddesses of paganism.
This prayer meeting consisted of Jewish and God-fearing women. That explains the lack of a synagogue since it took 10 Jewish men to form a synagogue. Women didn’t count.
Jewish and God-fearing Gentile (non-Jew) women meeting for prayer outside a major Roman colony might prefer some privacy. So, in a sense, Paul crashed the meeting.
That took initiative. He could have bypassed the meeting. Maybe the next city had a synagogue. Perhaps he’d find a group of Jewish men who would listen to his words.
Instead, Paul spoke to the group. If these women knew something of Judaism, they knew that this Jewish man shouldn’t be talking to them. But leadership can be bold, and Paul stayed focused on his goal: to introduce Jew and Gentile to Jesus.
Lydia, a wealthy businesswoman, listened to Paul and believed his words. She was probably a Gentile but, as a God-fearing woman, she was familiar with the Jewish stories. She had heard of Abraham and Moses, of David and Isaiah. She knew something of God’s plan.
Lydia believed what Paul said, and she was baptized. A God-fearing Gentile would have to go through a program of requirements to become a full-fledged Jew, which would culminate in baptism to declare the change from Gentile to Jew.
Paul bypassed that Jewish process. Lydia no longer had prerequisites to complete.God opened her heart to faith, and she was transformed.
She and her entire household were baptized. She had serious influence, and Paul had triggered it by his initiative. He had gone boldly into a place where he might have felt unwelcome. He had gone where his words might have confused.
Initiative involves uncertainty. Paul spoke many times to people who did not believe. He would soon face significant opposition in Philippi and find himself in jail because he went boldly.
A bold leader accepts risks. Things don’t always go as we’d hope. Repercussions look destructive, like those ocean waves.
Leadership is not about taking the safe or comfortable path. It’s about taking initiative, risking failure and opposition.
[bctt tweet=”Transformation. Freedom. These are reasons to risk a crash.” #leadership https://kathybrasby.net/?p=289&preview=true” username=”kathybrasby”]
Transformation. Freedom. These are reasons to risk a crash. Paul saw people in need and he jumped into the situation.
Have you ever taken a risk as a leader? Did the results encourage or discourage you? Have you taken more chances because of that initial decision?
Once I was discussing superstitions with a co-worker who mocked anyone trusting in superstitions.
“I just don’t get it,” she said. “Black cats. Ladders. All that stuff. I don’t get it. Except for spilled salt, of course.”
Spilled salt?
“Well, yeah, when you spill salt, you toss some over your shoulder, or you’ll have bad luck.”’
We live in a superstitious age. We have lucky shirts. We knock on wood to keep away a bad idea.
Superstitions are generally accepted. Think about the athlete who hasn’t shaved for weeks while his team is on a winning streak. Or the one who has to get new socks because her team is losing.
Although I’m not sure what force needs a beard or new socks to influence a game, many people trust those things.
Those beliefs can get modified from a “sure, why not?” effort to a rigid rule in time. That challenges a leader.
Christian leaders may see these rules in several ways. A man writes a check to his church, expecting to get a better job in return. A woman gives up coffee – or new shoes or manicures, hoping to see her daughter in church next Sunday.
I knew a man who came to every church gathering for over a year because he wanted a better-paying job for his wife. When it didn’t happen, he told me that “God just didn’t work out for me.” He quit coming, and I imagine he’s trying a new plan.
People can buy into magical thinking. “If I do this thing, something will happen – or not happen.”
And what does a leader do?
First, what’s wrong with magic thinking? It seems pretty harmless on the whole. But leaders think bigger:
[bctt tweet=”Magical thinking keeps us from pursuing something that might really work. #leadership https://wp.me/pahZ3c-4o” username=”kathybrasby”]
Magical thinking keeps us from pursuing something that might really work.
Maybe the athlete should work on his technique rather than growing a beard. Maybe she needs better conditioning rather than new socks.
Magic thinking lets us take shortcuts that seem to work but don’t. I know, plenty will defend the broken-mirror/bad luck connection, but have they really charted out those seven years?
Rather than looking objectively at the circumstances, people indulge in magical thinking, which lets them see what they want to see.
So… superstitions keep us stuck
Magical thinking blinds us to the bigger picture.
The man who wanted his wife to find a better job had a worthy goal, but he didn’t look at the bigger picture. Maybe she was sabotaging job interviews because she had self-esteem issues. Maybe her job skills needed brushing up. Maybe her husband needed to go find a job to supplement the family income.
Maybe she was exactly where she belonged because it allowed her the time to care for her ailing mother.
There could be many more significant issues involved.
Magic thinking keeps people stuck. They resist joining a team effort. They ignore painful effects on their own family or their circle of influence.
A Christian leader wants to step in, to guide a person out of magical thinking and into wisdom.
How to do it? A man’s magical thinking drew Jesus in. And Jesus helped. We’ll take a look at that story from Jesus’ life next week.
Have you ever indulged in magical thinking? Do you find it helps you?
You know this person: they’ve been to leadership conferences, paid big bucks for one-on-one coaching, spew all the current buzzwords. But they don’t care much about the people they’re leading. Their team is there to help them climb the corporate ladder.
Somehow, in all the training, they forgot about the people.
And we can be sympathetic. Leading takes some planning, especially thinking ahead to the goal. There are mission statements, purpose statements, three top goals, daily to-do lists…. and none of this is a bad thing.
Leadership planning shouldn’t isolate the leader from the people.
When I was 12, I put together a play for my parents using younger siblings and cousins as actors. In my young mind, they were chess pieces to be manipulated.
Our stage was our family’s living room and my bedroom was backstage. There was a flurry of children rushing to and fro, through the small entrance door of my bedroom.
The inevitable happened. I rushed through the door as my younger brother came in. He was seven. His head crashed against the door frame as I pushed by.
Did I stop to see if he was hurt? I did not. I had a show to put on. When I returned backstage, he was sitting on my bed holding his head and crying.
Did I stop the show to tend to his injury? I did not. I had a show to put on.
I was focused on the production as I saw it and not on the people involved.
Let me introduce you to Jonah. You probably remember Jonah and the whale from the misty past. But let ’s pull back the veneer on a leader of his day.
What we know about Jonah:
He was successful
His full name is given, including his father’s name. That identifies him as a prophet of Israel. As a prophet, he spoke God’s word to others. He had predicted that King Jeroboam would restore the northern boundary of Israel. When that happened, he was known as a great prophet. There were other prophets int hat time but none were given the job that Jonah was given.
He was called a servant of the king
No play on words here. Jonah wasn’t called a servant of God - although he was known for that, too - but a servant of King Jeroboam. He hung out with royalty. He likely knew the inner court on a first-name basis.
He knew what God could do.
He had seen God save Israel even though King Jeroboam was a bad king. A king dedicated to other gods and not to God. But God delivered to Israel not what King Jeroboam deserved but protection out of God’ kindness and grace.
He was a nationalist.
Jonah was concerned with the things that kings and political leaders are concerned with: boundaries and good fortune for the nation of Israel. He was a blue-blood Israelite and proud of it.
Such a leader would expect to hear from God again.
And Jonah did. But God’s words were confusing, to say the least. God was sending Jonah to a hated enemy to warn them. Warn them why? So the destruction might not come?
Jonah was certain that Nineveh needed to be destroyed. Why should he warn them?
Jonah, the prophet and successful leader in Israel, examined this new assignment and he took off the other direction.
It’s clear that Jonah did not care for a group of people that God did care about. He was a successful leader who had forgotten that leadership is about people. We know there are bumps ahead for Jonah but that’s for another post.
QUESTION: Have you ever overlooked the people you were supposed to be caring for?
Leadership happens in odd and tricky places sometimes.
I’ll bet Aaron Brantley would have been thrilled for someone be a leader as he crawled across a concrete parking lot to get help. Brantley was attacked at a busy Detroit gas station, left with a broken leg. He crawled from the gas pump to the gas station door while people drove and walked past him.
Leadership isn’t just leading others. It starts with you and ripples out. It’s about helping even if others aren’t. Leadership is doing the right thing when others are walking away. Leadership is gathering your resources and working.
I don’t mean to condemn the people who walked away. They obviously didn’t know what to do. They may have been embarrassed or busy or a little afraid. Was this a scam? Was this practical joke? Maybe they really didn’t care.
It's clear someone needed to step up. A leader.
Leadership doesn’t spring from our brains without any preparation. We need to think ahead. We need to be intentional about goals and plans. We need to talk to others and get some training.
We need examples to help us. Especially as followers of Jesus, we want to find God’s guidance. How do I lead as a Christian? Does that look different than other leadership models?
As followers of Jesus, we often look to the Bible. We’d like to find bullet point to clarify Christian leadership. Highlighted principles would be helpful. Maybe we can find some rules of Christian leadership.
Instead, we find stories.
But stories are good. I’ve seen leadership principles pulled from stories about presidents and generals. I’ve seen leadership points gathered from a book about building a boat. Stories can teach us more than we realize.
What can stories teach us?
Real people in real situations
We’re not told proverbs but get to see the ideas in action. We learn of the emotions of people as they interact with real-life situations.
The good the bad, the ugly
The Bible doesn’t sugar coat. We’re allowed to see mistakes, wrong motives, wisdom. The people in the Bible’s stories aren’t perfect but they have the opportunity to learn. And we can learn along with them.
The context for courage
Would you rather be told “take courage” or be told the story of a person who overcame great difficulty to succeed? Courage is more nuanced than it seems. We can get away from platitudes to real-life scenarios.
Heart of the leader illustrated
Stories bring emotion and depth. We walk with the people, hear their fears and concerns, and understand better how a leader interacts with those they lead.
Engaging
We can hang with a story longer. It has conflict, people, setting, a plot. It’s much more interesting than the bullet points we thought we craved.
Fleshed out truth
Not all principles can be put in a proverb or cliche. Stories help us see the truth in its dimensions and layers.
Mistakes managed
Leaders aren’t invincible heroes. They make mistakes. Sometimes the leader in a story figures out the error. Sometimes God corrects them. Often we see it coming, sometimes before the main character does.
The beauty of human relationships
The interaction between people always enriches leadership principles. We don’t lead in a vacuum. Or we shouldn’t. Stories illustrate that beautifully.
Long before Pinterest could puncture our creative bubble, there was the nativity Christmas cookie cutter set.
I sometimes call Pinterest the dream site: I can only do those projects in my dreams.
The cookie cutter set was like that. The box seduced me with photos of beautiful cookies in the shape of Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus in a manger. A little piping of frosting, a few sparkles in the right place and we would have a unique nativity set.
And the best part was that we could do this project as a family with everyone helping.
I bought the set.
Yes, I knew we wouldn’t get the cookies quite as perfect as the photos. We had a two-year-old at the time. He’d produce a cute but goofy little cookie.
It was OK.
I forgot to factor in his mother.
I knew we were in trouble when I pulled the cookie sheet out of the oven. Baby Jesus in the manger resembled a toasted marshmallow.
The sheep – and I’d made lots of them – all were blimps. Some had short fat legs but, since you couldn’t tell where the head was, the legs could have been porcupine prickles, too.
The camels’ longer legs had grown together while baking. “Is this a tree?” asked the six-year-old.
The shepherds had morphed into tall planks of wood and kneeling Joseph was now a giant S.
The kids were game, anyway. They slathered on frosting that was too thin so that the blues and oranges dribbled into each other making a muddy brown on the kings.
Well, I thought those were the kings because of the lumps at the top which I identified as crowns. Maybe they were cows, in which case the muddy brown frosting might make more sense.
I had planned to assemble the stable printed on the back of the box but tossed that after our older son frosted an angel as though it were a donkey. I couldn’t see displaying these.
When we were done, with sticky frosting on our fingers and sparkles drifting to the floor, I studied the blobs of cookies. “Well, this didn’t work out quite like I had hoped.”
My husband surveyed the table, surrounded by sets of eager young eyes, and picked up a cookie. “Then we’d better destroy the evidence.”
I had just finished rinsing the shampoo out of my hair when my cell phone rang. I grabbed a towel. Who was calling?
My sister.
“Cover your eyes,” I said, draping myself with the towel. Water ran down my face.
She hung up.
Should I call her back? Should I dry myself off first?
The phone rang again. It was my sister again. Oh, good, she’d accidentally hung up.
As I pushed the accept button, I noticed that she had used FaceTime this time.
Facetime is a video phone call.
Well, it was my sister and she only had to see my dripping hair.
“Why are you FaceTiming me?” I have a knack for insightful questions.
“I wanted you to see my new tooth.” She’d just gotten an implant and so she stretched her mouth to reveal the bright tooth.
And then she started giggling. “Where are you?”
She tried to be polite. She really did. But her tale about the trip to the dentist and her report on her plans for her day were interrupted by snorts and chuckles.
When the techies worked on the chips and circuits that would allow us to combine phone calls with video, I think they had images of salesmen using charts to illustrate quarterly earnings. Or giggling babies reaching out to touch their grandmother who lived across the country. Or a soldier connecting with his wife and kids from a foreign country.
And I’ll bet all those things happen.
But I wonder if their vision ever included new teeth and dripping hair.
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