Commitments of a Missional Leader

Recently, I’ve written multiple posts on Mike Slaughter’s presentations at the Bishop’s Retreat (here and here) as well as a couple of his books (“Change the World” and “Momentum for Life”). Here’s one more post with some final reflections and a list of personal commitments.

5 specific commitments I’m making …

  1. Dream daily. I’ve always known that cultivating vision is important, but Mike talked about having a time and place where you nurture vision daily (Mike uses his home office).
  2. Improve the other daily disciplines, too. I also want to focus on and develop/improve some of the other disciplines that Mike lists in Momentum for Life (see this post). In other words, these first two commitments are about refocusing on, and improving, my daily routine!
  3. Recommit to leading the church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. One of the real challenges of leadership is keeping the main thing the main thing. The main thing is making disciples of Jesus Christ!
  4. Mentor potential leaders. One of the things Mike has done from the beginning of his time at Ginghamsburg is to mentor future leaders (in a small group setting). It was a good reminder to be intentional about cultivating new/future leaders.
  5. Practice courageous leadership. Real leadership requires courage. Mike says there’s a constant battle between courage and compliance. Too often, compliance wins out because it’s easier. In Change the World, Mike writes, “Ultimately, you must be a confident and courageous leader who says and does the hard things to ensure the success of the mission” (122). It takes courage to be a missional leader!

Perhaps there’s nothing earth-shattering here. The problem usually isn’t knowing what to do, it’s doing what we know!

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