My Most Current Thoughts on Big League Leadership Development

My first bloggish thought ever on this site centered around the idea that God is positioning Next Level Church to break into the Big Leagues in the near future. Consequently, as of late, I’ve really been praying about what that means for me personally as a leader. This morning I was on my “prayer ride” (which apparently is what I do now since I’ve been riding my bike again) and here are a few thoughts on my personal development that I need to begin working on:

• Focus on keeping your heart right and surrendered before God. I believe one of the biggest keys for our church breaking into the “Next Level” or The Big Leagues has to do with my yieldedness as the senior leader. Leadership and spirituality flows down. I love what Francis Chan said at the Orange Conference I attended 2 weeks ago. He said, “If you don’t love Jesus with all your heart, it will be impossible for you to make disciples who do either.” So needless to say, I’m really making my heart tender before God these days.
• Focus on living as a light to the world. As I mentioned in my message from the ARCADE Series – Part 1, this thing is real inside of me. It’s not enough for me to just lead this organization where God wants it to go, I’ve got to really live this stuff in the unbelieving community around me as well. I’m working on this one. “God give me the courage and boldness to be a light for you.”
• Focus on seeking God’s face. When I was a teenager, i had a preacher tell me once, “Matt, it’s not enough to just seek the hand (or blessing) of God. Everybody does that. If you’re going to become who God wants you to become, you’re going to have to seek His face (the characteristics of God).” I have never forgotten that. I don’t just want the blessing of God on Next Level Church, I want the very attributes of our God to be upon us.
• Focus on becoming the leader God has called you to be. I know that in order for NLC to break into the bigs, I’ve got to work on my own leadership. As leaders, we can never find ourselves at a place where we think that “what got us here, will get us there.” We have to keep learning and growing in our leadership.
• Focus on making sure God gets all the glory. At the end of the day, I want more than anything for God to be the one with all the glory. I hope and pray that when people come in contact with this thing that is Next Level Church, they will say, “Wow, I think I just saw the image of Jesus.” That’s something I can live my life for.

So here are the challenge questions for each of us:

1. 1 to 10, how surrendered is your heart to God right now? Where are you holding back?
2. 1 to 10, how much of a light are you to the world around you? If someone from your work place showed up at NLC and saw you, would they be surprised? Would they be offended that you didn’t invite them sooner?
3. Have you been seeking God’s face lately? When was the last time you escaped from your overscheduled life and simply prayed, “Jesus, show me an attribute of you I’ve never seen before?”
4. What is your strategy for leadership development? Are you a better leader today then you were 30 days ago? In what way?
5. If people threw a party in your honor, how long would it take for them to talk about your life before the words, “resembles Jesus” came up?

Thanks for reading my Bloggish Thoughts on Big League Leadership…