Leadership by Necessity Not Choice
Transformational Servant Leadership
I’ve always been more comfortable as a follower than as a leader. I am first a follower, a follower of Christ, a follower of the people who have been put in my life to lead and direct things of which I am a part. If you don’t learn to follow well you can never lead well when that necessity arises.
I like it when someone else has the pressure of taking the risk, when someone else takes the hit when something goes wrong, someone else has to make the hard calls and I can do what I do best without those added pressures. But throughout my life I keep finding myself in the place of leadership, not because I want to be or need to be, but because it is necessary to steward the call of God upon my life and to accept the weight of giving something of myself and my experience to someone who is on a transformational journey themselves.
I would not say that I am a gifted leader. Because leading what I saw in my spirit was not an option I did my best to learn. I worked hard at learning what a Christ submitted leader was and how they should lead and respond. I worked hard to understand that the way the “world” leads is different than the way Christ calls us to lead. As a Christ-following leader, Christ is the lead leader and I follow his lead. As a Christ-following leader I am a servant leader, meaning that for me to lead is for me to serve. When I of necessity lead, I do not seek to achieve the things that I want, the things best for me, but I seek to serve Christ and those who depend upon me to be a good leader for the sake of Christ and them.
As a Christ-following leader I am a transformational leader. Jesus’ leadership was about leading people toward personal and spiritual transformation. I cannot transform anyone but I have learned that if I lead like Jesus I can cause transformation in someone else by leading them to the source and resource of transformation. As a Christ-following leader my only focus is serving the mission of Christ and leading in such a way as to accomplish the mission while simultaneously lifting, nurturing, encouraging, and causing Holy Spirit initiated transformation in their lives.
