The Dangers and Pitfalls of Leadership

God is good, I have recently started serving in leadership positions, something I have been wanting to do for a long LONG time.  But in the past few weeks I've been thinking (yes, yes I know; thinking: always a dangerous pass-time).  But seriously, the opening thought was "What are my motives in taking these leadership opportunities?"  From that one question came the talking points for this blog entry.

There are two pitfalls that a Christian leader (well any leader really, but I'm talking to Christians in specific) can fall into.

The first pitfall that Christian leaders can fall into is becoming a leader for the right reasons, but then letting that opportunity become all about the wrong reasons.  For instance, someone (we'll call him Joe) hears that their church is in need of youth leaders (yes, there are more leadership opportunities than just youth leaders, this is just the most obvious.  Joe feels like the Lord is leading him to volunteer as a youth leader, so he does. However, Joe finds that serving is becoming less about being a godly role model for the youth, and more about "hanging out with the cool people" or "feeling important".

If you find yourself in such a mind set, we need to stop and ask the Lord for his forgiveness, and then seek his will about how to continue.  Chances are if we have the wrong motives then we are failing at our task of being a godly leader and setting an example.

The second pitfall that is a hazard for Christian leaders is the mindset where we allow arrogance to start creeping in and we start to think more of ourselves than what is truthful or healthy.

This pitfall and the previous are especially dangerous because they often go unnoticed.  Oh, we might start to believe that we are not as humble as we should like, but the true severity of our arrogance does not cross our minds until we mess up big-time in public and are called out on it.  Even then, it is a very real danger that we just brush it aside with some excuse, when in reality they are probably right.

The Bible says that God hates arrogance (Proverbs 8:13) and as Christians we are called to be humble servants in fact Jesus said that if we wish to be great in God's eyes we should be servants to all.  Something else to keep in mind is that, as Christians we are called to love others as Christ has loved us, and love is not arrogant (1st Corinthians 13).

Lastly in attempting to humble yourself, do not fall for the lie that your work is unimportant and that there is no point to what you do.  If this thought pops into your head, remember the analogy of the church as a body (1st Corinthians 12).  Every position in the church is important, whether you will acknowledge it or not, God calls us all to serve in different ways; the fact that God has called you to serve in some way should be enough to persuade you that what you do is important.