Growing in leadership requires personal commitment. Most people understand this. But, applying this to ‘church world’ takes it to another level. It requires a spiritual commitment and personal choices associated with it. Choices determine your character. Your character is shaped by the day-to-day decisions and challenges you face. If that is true (and I believe it is), then there are strong reminders that go with those choices in life.
For example, you cannot live off somebody else’s spiritual commitment. Your parents or your relative might be the most extraordinary leaders inside and outside of the church, but that won’t transfer to you. Just because your relative is an NFL superstar won’t make you one. You have to make your own choices in life. Someone once said, “You can’t get to heaven on someone else’s spiritual apron strings.” That’s a fact.
In the same way, you can’t hold others accountable for the course of your life. You are as close to God as you desire to be. One of my seminary profs used to say, “If you don’t feel very close to God, guess who moved?” Spoiler alert…it wasn’t God. You get to choose. I’ve discovered that the more time you dedicate to studying and reading about God in the Bible, the more faithful and courageous you become. Consequently, you develop better leadership qualities. In the Old Testament, Joshua succeeded Moses as the leader, but he didn’t become a leader by clinging to Moses’s legacy. Instead, he made the choices that propelled him to leadership. Joshua 20:4 “You may choose for yourself today whom you will serve, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”