Servelloism

You know what’s funny, until May of 2006 I would have never told you I had the spiritual gift of leadership. It would have been the farthest thing from my mind. Don’t get me wrong, I have always been put in positions that required me to lead but I never would have said I had that gift. Here are a couple of reasons why:1. Every Leader that I knew in the Christian world loved a certain leader’s books…I mean ADORED them. Although I think this leader is one of the greatest leaders in the world and a great gift to the body of Christ, his books just didn’t appeal to me. Every time I would be in a room of leaders and they talked about his books they would rave about them and recommend them. Don’t get me wrong the information was great, but for me it didn’t capture the soul of leadership, I barely could get through one of them. this in turn would lead to feelings of guilt around the fact that I would be a inadequate leader in the departments of the church I was leading….Bottom line: The hero of leadership that was put in front of me didn’t relate to me.2. Many of the people who were “leaders” that I new seemed to use “leadership” manipulation tactics to get their OWN way. One of thing that drives me crazy is when I hear these leaders talking behind the scenes about some leadership tactic they used to get somebody “on their side” and then after words joke about it as if they were salesman that closed a deal. Personally, if I ever heard that a leader did something that was done insincerely (that’s the key word) to get me to do something he wanted…that would be it for me. Bottom Line: I think its important to understand personality make ups and leadership helps in order to lead people to where they and we need to go but there is a balance and a tension a leader must walk.3. The “spiritual gift of leadership” was not talked about often. We talked about being leaders and having leaders, but never the spiritual gift of leadership. In my tradition, we talked about the five-fold ministry often. We even made degrees for some of these gifts..”the spirit of prophecy and the office of a prophet”…which I never quite understood biblically…Practically yes, never biblically. We would often say, “he has the five fold ministry gift of teaching.” or something to that matter. So, if you would have asked me before I probably said…I have the gift of teaching…since I love reading and studying and then conveying those truths to people in a way they can understand, and I would have told you I was prophetic since I was pretty in your face when I did teach, also I had no problem confronting or speaking my mind. Bottom Line: There wasn’t the emphasis on 1 Cor 12 spiritual gifts…This I believe has led to one of the greatest mistakes in my church culture and had been “Self defeating” by causing a hierarchy of spiritual gifts. A healthy church environment is a place where all the spiritual gifts are in operation and valued…Which brings me to my next point.4. Because my Dad has a shepherding gift and a gift of mercy people in our church family believed that in order to be a “Sr. Pastor” everybody had to be like that. The reality is that many of the largest growing churches are led by people who wouldn’t even put those gifts even close to what their spiritual gifts would be. This is where Nancy Ortberg’s talk was particularly helpful for me…All of a sudden the lights went on! I could fulfill God’s purpose whatever it might be because God had made me and had made me uniquely me. Bottom Line: Again, the most visible people often define what a position or gift should look like. This is very dangerous because it keeps people from discovering and developing their gift in a way that is unique to them.5. It was never pointed out tome that I had it. There wasn’t anybody who called it out or identified it in me. In my life God has put me in a positions of leadership from the time was young. when I was a teenager I was a patrol leader and then a senior patrol leader in Boy scouts. My high school job at our local grocery store led me to be the produce manager. When I went to college I was voted into positions of leadership without “running for office”. I served as Jr. class president and then student body vice president. I also served as a ministry team leader while attending Bible college. When I came home from college I helped lead many youth groups into a new day of healthy youth ministry through vehicles like our summer camp and the generation conference. I say all that not to blab about myself but to say nobody ever came along and said, “Mike I think you have been given the spiritual gift of leadership. This has been given to you by God and you better steward it.” Bottom line: Ministers and leaders around me were oblivious to the importance of helping me identify and develop my spiritual gifts.Those are some of my reasons…Nancy’s talk has helped me so much personally. As a result I have been more secure in myself and how God made me and also I am able to steward and develop those gifts in a God honoring way. Being around people like Nancy makes me want to develop my spiritual gift of leadership to its greatest degree. I know I talk about him a lot, but I have to say Bill Hybels book, “Courageous Leadership” also did it for me. For the first time in a long time I picked up a book on leadership and enjoyed the entire book. Again, thank you Nancy for helping me grow so much in the last year without ever having met you.