How to know you're a leader

Imagine being given the opportunity to go overseas on an all-expenses paid vacation — a trip you’ve dreamed about for more than 10 years. The only catch? You and your spouse would have to leave your new baby at home and fly across the Atlantic Ocean. 

Before becoming a parent, the answer would have been easy: “Yes, of course!” But as a parent, decisions like this are more difficult. What if the plane crashes or something happens to you while you are away? The considerations and amount of planning changes when a child is involved. 

In wisdom, you would prepare for someone to care for her if anything were to happen. You might write a legal will and appoint trusted family members to be your child’s parents if you couldn’t. 

As parents, we learn to make hard, even morbid, decisions because we care more about our children and their future than avoiding awkwardness. Choosing who will lead, guide, and love your children in your absence is a decision to put their well-being above your own. 

For many parents, this is the “moment” we begin to feel like parents — when we put our children’s long-term well-being above our momentary feelings. In Numbers, Moses faces a similar turning point. Moses loves the people of Israel like a parent loves a child, and he shows it by appointing someone to replace him when he’s gone. 

Like Moses, good leaders care more about the long-term benefit of their people than their position or title. As a group leader, a time will come when you have to put the group’s long-term spiritual growth ahead of your position or feelings. 

It’s in those moments, not the ones where we’re teaching or tweeting, that we know our love for people is real. When we reach a place where we would give up title and position for our group’s long-term spiritual health, we know we have the heart of a leader. 

Reflect:

• What is one thing you can do now that will benefit the long-term spiritual growth of your group? If you’re not sure where to start, ask God to help you see group’s needs.
• Is there someone in your group who could lead a group one day? What can you do now to equip them to lead in the future?