Lead Like You’re Leaving

“Leaders can achieve their goals for a time but destroy their organizations in the process.” _Henry & Richard Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership

Disclaimer: The following is written especially to the pastors but the principle is applicable to everyone.

You are not going to win, you’re not going to succeed, you’re going to leave.

That’s the short of it.

Don’t despair!

You will have wins (small w).

You will enjoy successes (same s).

But the truth is, the mission is too great for you to finish (to Win).  That won’t happen until Jesus wins.

So this is what I want you to do: Lead like you’re leaving.

Don’t be that lazy leader who, instead of raising up trained and committed leaders and volunteers, uses his own family to fill all the mission critical positions and then when you leave (and you will eventually leave) the church is decimated because there is no one to fill those roles. 

Don’t be that pastor who gets the church in crazy-debt to build a monument to his own personal vision and ambition and then bails out on them. 

Don’t be that pastor who keeps deferring maintenance in order to protect their salary and when you leave (and you will leave) leaves the church with rundown and dated property. 

Bottom line, don’t be that selfish Hezekiah leader (2 Kings 20:16–19; Isaiah 39:5–8) who is satisfied if things are working out okay for now but cares little for the generations who will follow.

Dear pastors, lead like you’re leaving; leave the campsite better than you found it.

The ONE THING for today: The picture on the desk of the great leaders are not of themselves and their own future, it is a picture of the people they are serving and their future.

“God is purposeful and progressive in the way he leads people and organizations. He does not change his mind every time a new leader arrives. God does not rescind everything he has said once a new leader is installed. Leaders come and go over the years, but God’s plans, purposes, and presence remain constant. Wise leaders understand their place in God’s overall plan and are content to lead on God’s agenda, setting aside any selfish or ungodly motives that may tempt them to “show what they can do.”

_Henry & Richard Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership