Very recently, I made the decision to step down as a missional team leader on my campus and pursue another adventure the Lord has been calling me to trust him with for some time now. Every year our movement kicks off the school year with an annual leadership retreat where we pray, we play, and we prepare for the upcoming school year. It was there that I publicly shared with all our leaders my plans to step down as the team leader and begin pursuing the call I felt the Lord was placing on my heart.
There’s all sorts of emotion and doubt and excitement and trepidation all packed into a decision like that. But when I decided to step down and leave the role of MTL, I must admit that the anxiety I felt deep inside wasn’t because of my unknown future - it was because of the future of the movement after I leave. My argument, and one thing I’ve learned from experience, is that practically, if you’ve led well, everything will be fine. Easy? Maybe not. But it certainly shouldn’t fall apart without you.
Question: How do you really know when you’re leading or have led well?
One way to find out is when you leave behind those you’ve been leading, and encourage them to fly on their own. Jesus did that. After three years of on the job training he gathered around him all the disciples and said, “I have to go, I love you guys but you can handle this. I’m going home.” And just like that, he was gone. With instructions in hand, the vision in mind, and their training complete, the disciples moved on and, in my opinion, did a pretty darn good job.
The leadership model that Jesus leaves behind is something I’ve needed to be reminded of and regard a bit more than I have. Not only for my own effectiveness as a leader, but also for the health of my heart. Here are, in my opinion, the four primary things every leader can do to ensure he or she leads well:
Remember the Gospel. The truth is, it’s the gospel that frees peoples hearts - not our leadership. The gospel reminds us that God’s love for us is not based on what we do or how well we do it but rather on the sovereign choice of God to love us. This love is proven through the death of his son Jesus. You are loved, the ones you lead are loved, the lost you’re going after are loved. Everything in your leadership should be saturated with the gospel. When it is, your heart (and essentially everything else) will be guarded from pride and self-interest. “For the love of God compels us”
Keep the vision constantly in front of those you lead. Jesus made it clear over and over again that he was going to the cross. But the disciples still didn’t get why until way after it all went down. And then, by the 3rd chapter of the book of Acts something clicked and the disciples said, “Oh, we get it now.” Always keep the vision in front of those you lead. I would repeat in various ways and in various contexts what the vision of our movement was: to give everyone on campus an opportunity to know someone who truly followed Jesus. Every opportunity I had, I beat the drum of reaching the campus - all of it. It took some time but eventually it took root and now we’re a movement that’s working it out. Here’s the vision simplified: “Go make followers of Jesus wherever you can find people.” The leaders I’ve left behind are doing just that.
Give the ones you lead a ton of opportunities and power to lead. Whenever I was asked about what we should do or what I thought about a situation, I would always respond with, “Well, what do you think we should do?” or “I don’t know, you decide.” Not only was it helpful in limiting the amount of needless work I had to do but I made it a point to always put the ball back into the hands of our leaders. If it was in line with our vision, I let them go for it. Sometimes that blew up in my face, but not often. And in reality, who cares if something fails: the gospel is still true, right? You bet.
Move on to other things and leave behind a vacuum that God can fill with someone you’ve trained. One of my biggest fears moving forward in faith was, “What if there’s no one to pick up where I left off?” It was hard to trust him for another leader who would replace me when there was no replacement in sight. When Jesus left, he encouraged his disciples by saying, “Go, don’t fear, I will always be with you.” I don’t believe Jesus was worried when he left. His confidence was in the capable hands of God the Father to accomplish everything he wanted to accomplish in establishing his Church. God is able to continue what he started, with or without us. This has been an invaluable lesson to me and, again, one that must be rooted in the gospel. I am loved, but not desperately needed. There is only one who is needed like that and his name is Jesus. This has freed me and our students up to keep moving forward in faith, trusting God for other opportunities to advance his kingdom. And trusting him with what’s left behind for someone else to pick back up.
After telling our leaders I would be moving on, rather than throwing rotten garbage and tomatoes at me (which I feared they would do), they all essentially said “cool” and then moved on. It was in that particular moment I realized I had been doing my job well. I had trained them to lead, to trust the Lord, and pursue the vision and mission of reaching the lost for Jesus on their campus. While I secretly hoped they desperately needed me, they really didn’t. And I knew the Lord was saying to me, “Well done. They’ll be fine. I think I can handle this.”
Lead with these four things in mind and you’ll be a great leader, just like Jesus.
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