Christian Leadership Foundations 7 - SwaySýnishorn

GETTING YOUR HEAD AROUND SWAY

Leadership Devotion

There are two meanings of the noun “sway.” One is a rhythmic movement from side to side. It may describe a leader sometimes, but it has nothing to do with the sway in this Plan. The second meaning is “influence.” This Plan is about a leader’s influence and how they can intentionally develop it.

Before we consider how to become more influential intentionally, we need to ask, “Is sway a good thing?” In the light of the biblical emphases on grace, humility, and servant leadership, should leaders try to increase their influence or wait for God to do it?

Paul’s instructions in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 are insightful on this issue. This passage outlines the qualifications for church leadership which are almost exclusively connected with personal character rather than personal abilities. “Able to teach” (3:2) is probably a gifting. Still, everything else in the list relates to maturity in Christian character and how this character inevitably shows in family life and community reputation. Paul paints a clear picture of the leaders God wants in his church. It’s a challenging and helpful list for us as we consider Christian leadership.

Part of the reason spiritual character and maturity are so important for Christian leaders is that leadership is hugely challenging with powerful temptations. It’s easy for leaders to throw their weight around or “become conceited” (3:6). They may think they are more significant, gifted, insightful, important, or deserving than others. Without godly character, these temptations multiply because the devil is out to deceive Christian leaders (3:7). If Satan can trap a leader, many followers will suffer.

Because of this, you would expect Paul to warn Timothy about the dangers of wanting to have significant leadership influence. Leadership is for humble people, not those who want to get to the top. Christian leaders only seek to obey God and serve people. They should not be ambitious. They should not look for promotions.

We find the opposite. Paul encourages Christian leaders to aspire to the most prominent role in the church – overseer/elder (3:1). In other words, he sees it helpful for Christians to set their hearts on serving in influential positions. It’s good to seek to increase your influence, to desire sway. Leadership ambition is healthy.

However, there is a big prerequisite. It would be best if you recognized what these influential roles require. There are great demands and great temptations. Your character must be able to cope with this. Unless you have been formed well by God, your ambition will be a danger and a detriment to you and those you lead. If your character has been well forged, you should actively strive to grow your sway.

Paul says, “Check your heart and count the cost of what you are longing for, and if that’s all good, then go for it. Aim to be a significant leader.”

You should try to influence as widely as possible and seek influential roles and powerful gifts—to grow your sway. God’s kingdom needs humble but ambitious godly leaders who aspire to make a significant difference through their leadership character and competence—not motivated by their own needs but by the call of Christ.

To Contemplate

How and where do you think God may be calling you to lead in the future? What are your godly ambitions? How widely do you think you could influence? Is your character strong enough to enable this?

Leadership Reflection

In Bobby Clinton’s book, The Making of a Leader, he describes three significant ways in which God forms and grows Christian leaders:

1. Spiritual formation comes through our growing relationship with God and its implications for ministry and leadership. Spiritual formation is basically about grace, love, and heart. It lies at the center of Christian influence. It involves accepting God’s grace, loving others, knowing God and his truth, and living it out in our influential relationships. Spiritual formation is foundational to Christian character and influence and must continue throughout our lives.

2. Ministry formation comes through our growth in leadership skills and abilities as we serve God and learn how to influence others effectively. We are forged as Christian leaders through prayer, study, experience, reflection, success, failure, mentoring, etc., and our gifts and skills develop. This series on Leadership Foundations has focused on ministry formation in the Plans of Crop, Faith, and Team. Ministry formation is particularly important in the early years of leadership when we develop many of our skills and approaches. If we are teachable, it progresses throughout our leadership ministry. We continue to learn how to lead well.

3. Strategic formation occurs when leaders intentionally maximize their sphere of influence and ensure their gifts are used to their greatest effect. As God forms leaders strategically, they move towards leadership ministries in which they can be most productive with the greatest influence. It may eventually lead to what Clinton originally called “convergence” – the stage when the leader’s gifts, leadership experience, and spiritual growth come together (“converge”) to maximize a leader’s influence.

What Clinton defines as “strategic formation,” I have called sway. It’s our intentional progression towards our greatest strategic kingdom impact. It’s deliberately working to increase our sphere of influence and service through God’s leading.

Sway is often not a strong focus until we become experienced leaders. While God is always strategically growing our ministry and leadership, we don’t usually get heavily involved in the process until he has forged our character (spiritual formation) and significantly developed our gifts and skills (ministry formation). That’s why I have left it to last in considering the foundations of Christian leadership.

There will be times when we touch on sway earlier in our leadership journey. We may consider sway when we take on a new leadership role by asking questions like, “Is this a good use of my gifts?” or “Will my leadership grow through this role?” For example, in my early 30s, I felt God prompting me to leave my very enjoyable and effective role as a youth pastor to take on a solo pastor position. I strongly believed that leading a church was the next step in my leadership formation and development. I didn’t have the language to describe this at the time, but I was thinking about sway in my leadership.

For some Christian leaders, sway may never be a big issue. We influence by using our gifts effectively and faithfully serving others, which is enough. We may occasionally prayerfully choose between ministry opportunities, but we don’t need to analyze which gifts are the most effective or strategically plan to maximize our influence. We obey God and serve people.

However, for many Christian leaders, sway will become a growing imperative as their influence grows. Because leaders have limited time and resources, they need to ensure they are in the right place and doing the right things for God to maximize their contribution to his kingdom. They need to think sway.