Follow Me

Those two words define what being a leader is all about.

As a Pastor of a church, I am constantly looking for leaders.  Would you be surprised to know that they are difficult to find??  You would think in a congregation, surely, there would be at least SOME who could lead, or would WANT to lead.  

These are young students who each lead by example in their church - come on!

What I find when I ask people to lead is that people look at me like I just asked them to sell their house and move to Africa and be a Missionary.  I get a “deer in the headlights” stare.  When they think of being the leader, their mind races with scary thoughts:

Responsibility                         Public Speaking

Organization                            Recruiting a Team

Problem Solving                     Time Commitment

Conflict Resolution                  Hard Work

Under lying in all of these words is a foundational fear that they have about taking the leader position:

I’m not good enough to lead

When we think of a leader, we envision greatness, wisdom, strong at all times, vision.  We look at others who lead so well and we feel we don’t measure up.  We reduce ourselves so much by our weakness, our loss for answers, our lack of skills or experience, that we tell ourselves before we even get started:

I am not worth following

no one would follow me

Believe it or not, I get scared sometimes when I endeavor to lead others.  The way I am able to overcome this paralysis of fear and self doubt to lead is by looking at the life of a man who led the church in the 1st century.  This man preached the story of Jesus to opposing audiences.  This man established groups of those who believed his message of hope, calling these groups “churches.” This man recruited people among those groups who he saw potential in, and developed them to take leadership in the group.  He began coaching his leaders and his churches through writings.  We find these writings in the Bible, that were letters written by this great leader, the Apostle Paul.

Paul, however, was actually a humble man, a man who admitted he had flaws and fears.  He experienced the lonliness in leadership, and the fear of failure.  Yet, he understood that he must step up to the calling of Jesus Christ to become a leader, so others could follow.  

Listen to Paul’s bold statement:

Follow Me as I Follow Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:1 MEV

Paul puts himself out there to be a leader for others to follow, to anyone who will listen.  Wow - that is a bold move.  And yet, notice how he follows with his admission that he, too is following someone.  Paul wants everyone who dares follow him to know that he is also a man under submission.

Paul sets a great example of what Biblical Leadership looks like:

Follow me, as I follow Christ.

Lead with Confidence, Lead with Humility.

With this two part formula, ANYONE can lead.  Knowing that even a person who does not have all of the answers, all of the gifts can still lead because true leadership is remembering you are just leading others to the true leader, Jesus Christ! You can take the pressure off of yourself feeling like you are the perfect leader - your objective is to simply point people to the one who is perfect - Jesus Christ.

Some of the greatest leaders I know are our Founding Pastors of Christ Fellowship in South Florida, Pastor Tom & Donna Mullins

Some of us lean towards the confidence-side of this equation.  You are an over-achiever, a take-action kind of person.  You may have been blessed to have had someone invest in you and build you up so that you have a strong self identity and a defined calling on your life.  This is awesome! The challenge for you is to remember that you alone are not enough, that you need others in your life to hold you accountable.  And above all, you need to realize that it’s not about you - it’s about pointing people to Jesus.  Don’t be too self-reliant.  Your skills and strengths are gifts given to you by God, so use them.  But, be mindful that you are just PART of the equation.  As my wife as coached me, “don’t get in front of God.  Give God room to lead.”

Others of us lean more towards the humility-side.  We don’t think we have anything to offer.  We don’t know where to start.  We are quick to jump in to serve, to follow. This is awesome too! What a great servant’s heart.  Always keep that mindset.  But, you need to know that God has called you to lead others, bring others along.  As my Pastor, Todd Mullins says often at Christ Fellowship “others are waiting on you, others who are far from God are depending on you to step up to make an impact!” As followers of Christ, we are called to take our place of leadership.  You can lead boldly, because you are not leading alone.  Jesus Christ lives in you and will give you the strength, the vision, the wisdom to lead.  YOU CAN LEAD.  YOU ARE CALLED TO LEAD.

My parents taught me so much about self leadership and leading by example - I have so much respect for them!

I want to challenge you today.  I want to light a fire under you.  You can lead.  You should lead.  Lead somewhere, in some place.  Someone is waiting on you to lead.

I challenge you to see the people around you - God has put you in their life for a reason.  

With Confidence, and with Humility, boldly say to them:

Follow me as I follow Jesus Christ!