My first resolution of the year is to be a better follower.
All Christian leaders are followers. Nobody gets the top spot in this organization except of course God. One of the things I've learned this last year is that your Christian leadership ability is tied closely with how you follow God.
A person who isn't following God very closely isn't going to be able to lead in a godly manner or influence God's people. God isn't going to bless that person with a supernatural ability to lead, and that leader won't be leading in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I find myself in that position more often than I'd like to admit. I find myself reading the Bible only to study for my writing, or for curriculum development, or to teach a bible study. In those times I'm not having a relationship with God, I'm using Him as a resource. Like a library. I seriously doubt He honors that, and I can tell when I'm drifting away from Him even though I'm in His word every day.
This year, one of my main goals is to really develop a living relationship with God.
I want to be closer to Him. I want to know Him better.
It's more than a matter of reading my Bible more. I read it a lot. I'm planning on meditating on His word, spending more time in prayer, and especially in listening, and spending some serious time in solitude and quiet listening to Him.
A Christian leader needs a close relationship with God. It is from God that a leader's abilities and work flow.
What are you doing to draw closer to God this year? How about right now?
Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt
Showing posts with label resolutions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resolutions. Show all posts
Monday, January 3, 2011
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
A New Year for ___________
I used to think that New Year's Resolutions were stupid. I didn't see the point in making a bunch of resolutions that I was going to break in a couple of weeks. I've lightened my opinion a bit, however, because for any leader, goals and aspirations are a good thing. They keep us moving in a direction and give us something to measure against and celebrate.
My wife and I sat down last night and worked out our personal goals for the year, but I wanted to share my personal leadership resolutions with you, and hope also to hear from some of you about your resolutions.
For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be talking about some of my resolutions, detailing them, letting you know where they came from and why. For now, here is a list of my resolutions:
1. I resolve to Follow
2. I resolve to Learn
3. I resolve to Grow
4. I resolve to Lead
What's your New Year's Resolutions, and why?
Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt
My wife and I sat down last night and worked out our personal goals for the year, but I wanted to share my personal leadership resolutions with you, and hope also to hear from some of you about your resolutions.
For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be talking about some of my resolutions, detailing them, letting you know where they came from and why. For now, here is a list of my resolutions:
1. I resolve to Follow
2. I resolve to Learn
3. I resolve to Grow
4. I resolve to Lead
What's your New Year's Resolutions, and why?
Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt
Friday, January 8, 2010
New Year's Resolutions Part 3
My last resolution is also the hardest.
Resolution 3: keep my resolutions.
I’m sure you can recall making a resolution, being very excited about it…for about a week, and then just lamenting the fact that you can’t keep your resolutions (if you can’t recall anything like this happening, then you need to be writing this, and not me).
Keeping my resolutions is a mixture of keeping the excitement, the determination, and the importance of my task at the forefront of my attention. Here’s my plan of attack for this year:
Read. A lot. Reading always keeps my attention focused. Two of my dominant strengths are input and learner. I love to read, and it helps me stay focused on the task at hand. It also keeps my subject close to my thoughts at all times.
Collect Blogs. I’m collecting quite a few leadership blogs on my igoogle page. I’m finding that over time I’m refining them more and more, so if you think that reading blogs about your resolutions will help you stay focused, here’s a couple of tips:
1. Look for blogs that are relevant to your resolution; in my case: leadership. If you want to get involved in some other blogs, then sort them in another file, another reader, or another page, so you can concentrate. Given the choice of reading a blog about work or about your favorite sports team, you know which one you’ll pick.
2. If you find you aren’t reading a blog or that it’s not helpful, delete it. It will only clog up your reader and make it less likely that you’ll wade through the bad stuff to get to the good.
3. Always be on the lookout for fresh content and new blogs.
Just Do It! Nothing trumps getting your hands dirty. If your goal is to start a leadership team, then the best way to keep your resolution is to start a leadership team. Tell other people about what you want to do. Enlist their help. You are less likely to drop the ball when it will be embarrassing to do so. Lay your groundwork, and prepare. The more you invest in a project, the more likely you’ll be to carry it off. This week is my jump off, and already I’m putting into play the foundations for expanding my leadership team, and I’m starting to organize a leadership seminar.
I pray that you carry through on your resolutions.
Question: If you have resolutions about leadership, what are they? How do you plan on carrying through with them?
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
Resolution 3: keep my resolutions.
I’m sure you can recall making a resolution, being very excited about it…for about a week, and then just lamenting the fact that you can’t keep your resolutions (if you can’t recall anything like this happening, then you need to be writing this, and not me).
Keeping my resolutions is a mixture of keeping the excitement, the determination, and the importance of my task at the forefront of my attention. Here’s my plan of attack for this year:
Read. A lot. Reading always keeps my attention focused. Two of my dominant strengths are input and learner. I love to read, and it helps me stay focused on the task at hand. It also keeps my subject close to my thoughts at all times.
Collect Blogs. I’m collecting quite a few leadership blogs on my igoogle page. I’m finding that over time I’m refining them more and more, so if you think that reading blogs about your resolutions will help you stay focused, here’s a couple of tips:
1. Look for blogs that are relevant to your resolution; in my case: leadership. If you want to get involved in some other blogs, then sort them in another file, another reader, or another page, so you can concentrate. Given the choice of reading a blog about work or about your favorite sports team, you know which one you’ll pick.
2. If you find you aren’t reading a blog or that it’s not helpful, delete it. It will only clog up your reader and make it less likely that you’ll wade through the bad stuff to get to the good.
3. Always be on the lookout for fresh content and new blogs.
Just Do It! Nothing trumps getting your hands dirty. If your goal is to start a leadership team, then the best way to keep your resolution is to start a leadership team. Tell other people about what you want to do. Enlist their help. You are less likely to drop the ball when it will be embarrassing to do so. Lay your groundwork, and prepare. The more you invest in a project, the more likely you’ll be to carry it off. This week is my jump off, and already I’m putting into play the foundations for expanding my leadership team, and I’m starting to organize a leadership seminar.
I pray that you carry through on your resolutions.
Question: If you have resolutions about leadership, what are they? How do you plan on carrying through with them?
Training Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,
Matt
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