Leadership leadership wherefore art thou leadership?

I know. I know my old theater days are getting the best of me today. But seriously, where are the real leaders of today. I know that I hear guys talk about their leadership and talk about their ideas but sometimes it all just seems like talk. In this rant I am including myself just for the record.

• All too often we talk about our leadership more than we act upon our leadership.

So many times I hear people tell me that they are leaders and that they are ready to lead but they have not lead anything thus far. I know, I know you have to be given a chance to lead to prove yourself. But here was my experience. I felt like God had called me to be a Student Pastor and when I knew that, I wanted to do anything to get my foot in the door of that kind of ministry. So here is what I did. I went the student pastor at the church that I was attending and said I want you to teach me everything you know about student ministry and ever bit of time I have off i want to know if it would be ok if I came up here to help you do whatever you need. He said yes and over the next year and a half I did everything fill water balloons, to drive a bus to camp, to teach 7 grade boys Sunday School. But when he felt like God called him to leave guess who he suggested the church hire to fill his position. You guessed it me. Thanks Mike Vauters you shaped my ministry almost 20 years ago.

Fast forward 15 years later. I was working in student ministry at Baylife Church and I had a youth worker come up to me and tell me he wanted to work in student ministry. He said that he felt like he wanted to do it full time and what could he do in our ministry. I informed him that I did not have any paid position and he informed me that he would do it for a "PUNCH IN THE FACE" Steve Frissell you rock man!! That is leadership. BTW when I left to start Relevant who do you think I said should take my place at Baylife. You guessed it Steve.

Then at the launch of Relevant my BFF (James Adair) and his wife felt like they were called to go with us on this adventure. However, we did not have any money to pay him on staff so how could he work at the church and support his family. Well he informed me that he would do whatever it took for however long it took to support his family while he served as a full time staff member for no pay what so ever. He bought and sold houses for 2 years before he ever came on staff and then when he did he raised half of his salary for the first year.

I say all of that to say this: leadership in not found in a vacuum of service it is found in the middle of the heart of service. The person who comes to me with all of his or her degrees and accomplishments does not impress me as much as the person who comes in and say what can I do to see lives changed and what do you need me to do right now. There is an incredible book out by Mark Sanborn that really hits on this point of no matter what you do you can lead if you have "The Fred Factor". This idea is that service is at the heart of leadership. You have heard two of my examples of Fred's now how about you going out and being a Fred.

Leading like Fred seems to me like the example Christ modeled. His leadership was not from a stage but from the streets. The leadership of the men I spoke of was that of active leadership and by active I am not meaning an active tongue. These men lead by acting on their leadership. I am drawn to that kind of leadership because that is the leadership that I think our world is desperately looking for. That is my kind of leadership. That is the kind of leader I want to be.