Enabling Sustainable Leadership
Core Value | Enjoy God
We really do mean it when we say that all of our eggs go in the leadership basket. You, as our leaders, are the ministry. You are the ones engaged in the work of caring for the saints of God. And because all of our eggs are in this basket, it is of the utmost importance that our leaders are healthy and thriving. This section is meant to resource you on what it means to be a healthy, sustainable, flourishing leader.
Whereas the other sections speak to more HC-oriented topics, this one is for you - hopefully providing helpful tools and frameworks for thinking about things like your emotional & spiritual health, as well as the dangers of what it can look like when those things are not healthy.
The Crushing Obligation to keep doing more
This poignant article by author and pastor Kevin DeYoung highlights the sort of Gospel news that offers relief for the anxious “doer”.
Article (5 min)
reflection questions After reading
“At the Lausanne missions gathering in 2010, John Piper made the statement that ‘we should care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering.’ He chose the word ‘care’ quite carefully. He didn’t want to say we should do something about all suffering, because we can’t do something about everything. But we can care.”
Interact with the quote above. Do you agree with the distinction DeYoung makes between caring and doing?
How does this inform how you go about the work of Shepherding?
The Heart of Leader HEalth
In this short talk given to leaders at the Houston Church Planting Network, Jeff Vanderstelt outlines a stirring and biblically sound vision for healthy church leadership.
Video (50 min)
reflection questions After watching
Do you know how to attend to your passions?
As a leader, do you have the freedom to be weak? Or do you feel the pressure to be fearless?
Write one key takeaway on an index card and put it somewhere you will see it reguarly.
Deeper: Real change for real sinners
In this book, Dane Ortlund points believers to Christ, making the case that sanctification does not happen by doing more or becoming better, but by going deeper into the Gospel.
Book
reflection questions After reading
Would you self-describe as someone who has generally domesticated Jesus?
Consider the diagnostic idol questions Ortlund gives in Ch. 5?:
What does my mind tend to drift back to when I lie awake in bed?
What do I spend my disposable income on?
What in other people do I tend to envy?
What is the one thing that, if God were to appear to me today and tell me I would never have it, would make life feel not worth living?
If I’m married, what would my spouse say I tend to give myself to that makes him or her feel neglected?
How would my heart - not my theology, but my heart - phrase the hymn, “When ________, it is well with my soul?”
What do I find myself praying for that is nowhere promised in the Bible?
Consider the folks in your crew. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring the name of one person to mind. Ask Him what core truth from this book could encourage them today.