Sometimes I have trouble looking ahead and seeing where I, or the people I lead, need to go. It’s great to have friends and co-workers who can step in and lead your vision out further. Although vision is foundational to anything (you need to know where you’re going or what you’re building), it’s only part of leadership.
If I see point A, and want to get to point Z, the question of “how” begs to be answered. Seeing A, J, R, Z is one step better, but there are few people who can intuitively see the remaining steps between each checkpoint. This is hard for quick-learners to understand, but the majority of people need to be shown A, B, C…J, K, L…R, S, T…X, Y, Z. Yes, this takes more time, time that leaders guard tightly, but in the end this added time results in more people getting from point A to Z.
As someone called to full-time ministry in the church, my job is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:12). I am constantly wrestling over how to follow Jesus faithfully as a disciple and make more faithful disciples. These questions have been helpful to me as I try to figure out how to help people move along in discipleship:
“How did I personally get to where I am now?”
“What were the influencing experiences?”
“Who was most helpful to me in these experiences?”
“What pieces were most difficult for me to learn?”
“How can I pass this along to others?”
What questions do you ask to help think of your own growth and how to lead others? And how do you see the above questions answered in your own life story?
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