Scriptures: Leviticus 19:2, Romans 3:23, Ephesians 4:7, 1 Peter 1:16

Embrace Imperfect

We all want to be part of the perfect ministry and to be the perfect leader. But perfect isn’t possible. And an overemphasis on this impossible standard will begin to destroy our ability to lead effectively. 

Still, there’s something about high-capacity leaders in ministry . . . We still reach for perfection. And at times, it feels like our role as believers is even pushing us toward perfection. Consider the verses that say, “Be holy, because I am holy,” found in both the Old and the New Testament (Lev. 19:2; 1 Pet. 1:16). Doesn’t that feel like a call to perfection? 

Well, yes, technically, but we also know that we were freed from perfection because Jesus gave his perfection to us. So for our purposes, holiness is about being set apart for the work of God. It’s not about us being perfect. It’s about embracing Jesus’s perfection. 

When you’re willing to embrace imperfection, your leadership can flourish. You can increase your leadership capacity by embracing the following truths: 

1. Ministry is imperfect. 

2. Your leadership is imperfect. 

3. Your team is imperfect. 

Now, don’t make the mistake of thinking these truths are a reason for celebrating incompetence or mediocrity. There is power in pursuing excellence. The distinction that’s being made here is between perfection and constant improvement. If you strive for perfection, you’ll never hit it and you’ll always be frustrated. But when the goal is improvement, you will be able to witness progress and then you’ll have something worth celebrating. 

Allow for mistakes. Then use them as a chance to get better with your team. Don’t celebrate the mistake; rather, celebrate the opportunity the imperfection presents: a chance to learn and grow. 

Jesus doesn’t want a perfect church; otherwise, he’d do everything himself. Jesus chose flawed people to partner with him, to grow through his teachings, and to accomplish the extraordinary.

Scriptures: Proverbs 13:20, Proverbs 27:6, Proverbs 17

Surround Yourself with the Right People

Just like one small spark can start a destructive forest fire, one small spark can also create life-giving momentum. It can fuel excitement for a good cause. It can lead an organization to accomplish incredible things. It can give people vision and purpose. 

You can be that spark. 

Insecurity whispers that you aren’t enough, and it can eat away at your energy to lead. But to maintain healthy, high-capacity leadership, you need to have a strong inner sense that you are enough. 

But how do you know you’re enough? Like, really know? One factor that comes into play is the people you choose to surround yourself with. 

Our nature as leaders is to surround ourselves with people who either tell us how awesome we are or constantly bring up areas where we can improve. This tendency partially springs from our need for approval. We listen to advisers and friends to make sure we’re doing well. When the flatterers tickle our ears, we feel good. When the critics tell us what’s wrong, we know what we need to change. Hopefully, you aren’t surrounding yourself only with flatterers. At the same time, you shouldn’t surround yourself only with critics. Neither of those extremes is healthy. 

Critics who are only critics limit what we can accomplish. On the other hand, if we’re surrounded by yes-men and yes-women, it results in narcissistic leadership that burns out in brilliant blazes of ugliness. 

True friends lift us up as well as correct us. As healthy leaders, we need a balance. We need people who will encourage us in times of struggle but who will also tell us the truth even when it doesn’t feel good. The goal is to find balance in our friends so we don’t walk in the delusion of our awesomeness or in perpetual discouragement. 

Now, there’s one other unhealthy extreme in leadership. It’s the person who doesn’t ever let the people who support them know who they really are. We’re talking about the person who hides their true self and never lets anyone get close enough to them to truly support or critique the things they do. 

In order to be a healthy leader, don’t hide facts, doubts, hopes, and fears from your people—and don’t hide the true you! You’ll accomplish far more with a group of people who truly know you and support you. Surrounding yourself with the right type of people while remaining honest and sincere is one of the first steps to knowing you’re enough and to leading from a healthy place of confidence.

Scriptures: Proverbs 11:24-25, Philippians 2:3-8

Humble Yourself

Humility is one of those difficult concepts in Christianity. Do you know the classic story of the church deacon who was given a blue ribbon for being humble? The problem was they had to take it away from him for wearing it. 

Pastors love to tell that story, but the truth is, it misses the point about what humility truly is. If you’re humble, you can say you’re humble. Jesus did. When he said, “Let me teach you because I am humble” (Matt. 11:29 NLT), he wasn’t bragging. He was acknowledging the truth of the situation. 

Jesus was bold in his humility. For him, humility wasn’t weakly pretending that he didn’t have the most important things in the world to teach his disciples. Humility isn’t denying the truth; it’s denying yourself. Humility is revolving yourself around others instead of having them revolve around you. 

It’s important to accurately understand humility because it can be difficult in high-functioning leadership. On one end of the spectrum, you have leaders who are bashful about leading for fear of appearing prideful, and on the other, you have narcissistic leaders who make the whole organization about themselves. If you’re the former, you probably aren’t getting much done. If you’re the latter, there’s a real problem and a huge potential for burnout (not to mention moral failures). 

If ever there was a leader who could develop narcissistic tendencies, it would be Jesus. He performed miracles that baffled the world. He had thousands following him. People went to their death for Jesus. Yet he was humble. How? 

Jesus always served his disciples in a greater way than they served him. Yes, they did the tasks Jesus told them to do. But Jesus always humbled himself to a position of a servant for them. He showed that every part of the organization—his ministry—mattered. 

Humbling yourself in a way that leads to long-term, high-capacity leadership is choosing to revolve your life around others. It follows Paul’s advice in Philippians 2:4—“not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (NIV). 

Humbling yourself means refusing to sacrifice individuals on the altar of the organizational vision. It means directing, correcting, firing, and promoting from a place of love and genuine interest in the value of others, not seeing them just as tools of the organization. 

God exalted Jesus for his humility, and that promise of exaltation is made to us as well. When we adopt the same attitude of humility and service that Jesus had, God lifts us up. We don’t have to worry about showing others how great we are; we can trust God to take care of what needs to happen on our behalf.

Scriptures: Proverbs 21:21, Matthew 6:21, Matthew 6:33

Operate from Your Values

This world wants us to compromise our values. Culture wants us to choose finances over family. Performance over peace. Influence over impact. The world wants us to chase things that lead, long term, to dissatisfaction and exhaustion. 

Unless we—especially as leaders—keep laser-focused on the values that will lead to life, we’re doomed to such a future. However, when we stay on the path that leads to life, focused on God-given values, we can experience longevity in leadership. 

Your values are a road taking you to an eventual destination. If you have the wrong values, you’ll find yourself on the wrong road and headed for the wrong destination. Take the time to understand where you are and recognize where you want to be, then make it your goal to move toward that desired destination. 

As you move forward according to your values, you’ll also be faced with decisions about how you spend your time and what’s most important to you. Your values will inform your priorities. It’s important to continually ask yourself this question: “Do I have my priorities out of order?” 

Priorities are the things we set as authorities in our lives, and we have to be careful what they tell us to do. Bad priorities will exhaust us. They’ll set us up to lose things that truly matter in life. Good priorities bring peace to our lives. Even more than that, good priorities, when acted on, often lead us to the blessings God desires for us. 

Proverbs is filled with lessons that doing what’s right, letting truth win out, and obeying God can lead to riches, long life, and influence. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (ESV). When we put the right things first, the other things come along. 

But it will never be easy to get—and keep—your priorities in order. Life will always try to get them out of whack, so it’s important to take the opportunities you’re presented with to reexamine and adjust your priorities. This will help you transform your values into life-giving actions. 

True values, God-given values, aren’t something you can just make up as you go along. Look to God and his leading. Work to understand what he has placed in your heart. You can trust that God will strengthen and encourage you as you move toward his calling.

Scriptures: Psalms 23, John 14:26-27, Philippians 4:7

Embrace Peace

Shalom. It means peace. But there’s more to the word than that. It’s a culturally important term that has endured for thousands of years for the Jewish people. It carries a sense of completeness, wholeness, and being fully satisfied. 

That’s the peace God wants for you. And that’s the peace necessary if you’re going to last as a high-capacity leader. Of course, that doesn’t mean there won’t be conflict. Shalom peace isn’t about a lack of conflict; it’s about a mental and emotional state despite what’s going on around you. It’s the type of peace described in Psalm 23. 

Our culture and society are all about addition and multiplication. Yet peace comes from subtraction. The world says peace comes through knowing more, but could it be that Jesus wants us to know less? The world wants us to read more, listen more, watch more . . . We’re encouraged to consume everything because knowledge is perceived as power, and that power is falsely promoted as peace because it gives us the impression of control. But Jesus doesn’t want us to listen to the world. He wants us to listen more to him—to his Holy Spirit: 

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. (John 14:26–27 NIV) 

We do need knowledge and information to navigate life and make wise decisions, but we don’t need all the information. We need the right kind of information. Be careful and deliberate about the information you choose to consume. 

In Ecclesiastes 3:1–8, Solomon talks about there being times for everything. Just like there are times for planting and times for harvesting, there will be times for intense research and consuming lots of information, and also times when you stop and seek peace. Be aware of what season you’re in and respect it. 

As you move through this day and week, be selective with the information you’re choosing to consume and try to carve out more space for God to speak. His words can fill your life with wisdom, reassurance, and a peace that passes all understanding—but only if you make room to listen.

Scriptures: Matthew 18:21-35

Don’t Let Past Hurts Pollute Your Leadership

You can’t get through life without getting hurt. That’s the sad reality of living in a community. People unintentionally (and sometimes intentionally) hurt each other. 

Sadly, church environments are often the worst for hurts. It’s not because people are meaner and more inconsiderate in the church but because we get closer to each other in church than we do in other environments. We perhaps are more vulnerable, which opens us up to deeper hurt. Not only can people hurt us emotionally, but they can also hurt us spiritually. 

If you’re in ministry, you will bear most of that pain because you’re the one having to make decisions people disagree with. 

These situations that cause pain can add up. Certain words, circumstances, names—they can alert our brains to dig up a past hurt. We end up reliving that past hurt even if the current circumstances are completely different because we developed a sensitivity that’s clouding our judgment. 

Sensitivities can keep us from healthy, high-capacity leadership because we respond to situations from places of hurt instead of doing what needs to be done. If we are not aware of our sensitivities and the impact they can have on our lives, we begin to build a false framework. Past wounds become the lens through which we see our current situations. 

In the short term, honest and humble communication can help you work around sensitivities that will hinder healthy, high-capacity leadership. But learning to forgive people is what’s going to set you up to lead at a high level long term. By courageously addressing your past wounds, you can find a lightness in your heart. You can regain the emotional energy that was previously devoted to hurt and instead apply it to your leadership. 

As Jesus’ followers, we’re called to forgive no matter what. But forgiveness is a process. Here are some steps you can take to help you reframe past hurts, release control, and unburden your heart: 

1. Acknowledge the wrong that happened. 

2. Choose to forgive. 

3. Remember with forgiveness. 

4. Don’t discount the good you experienced in that season of hurt. 

5. Move forward in forgiveness in spite of your feelings. 

As you go about your week, try to notice what sensitivities arise and what wounds from the past you may still need to address. Call on God for strength, choose the process of forgiveness, and relinquish control to the One who can turn all evil to good. 

Whether you are dealing with deep hurts or small wounds, talking with a counselor can be extremely helpful for determining your next steps. Don’t be afraid to seek counseling in your pursuit of healthy, long-term leadership.

Scriptures: Psalms 62:5-12, Matthew 6:6

Go Spiritually Deeper

If we’re going to maintain health as high-capacity leaders in ministry, we have to focus on taking our walk with God deeper and deeper. The sad thing is that nobody notices whether we’ve been spending time with God. Nobody really knows if we’ve been living holy lives filled with integrity. They don’t see our prayer time. They don’t see our self-sacrifice. 

Except they do, usually quite suddenly. When things go wrong, when the pressure is on, when we’re shaken, what has happened in secret suddenly comes to light. This happens in both positive and negative ways. 

For some, a tragedy will hit, and the depth of their walk with God will be shown. They’ll stand firm, praising the Lord, saying, “It is well with my soul.” But for others, the foundations of their faith will be shaken, and they will feel lost and uneasy. Their growing anger toward God and his people suddenly becomes apparent. The church becomes a hated place. The crazy thing is, these are the same ministers who have spent hours in the Word throughout their week. It’s not like they aren’t reading the Bible or spending time surrounded by the people of God. 

If we aren’t careful, we can begin reading Scripture and spending time around believers in our role as content creators, not because we’re devouring the Bible for ourselves. Not because we’re experiencing real life-changing community around fellow Christians. 

So what can we say about going spiritually deeper that you haven’t heard a thousand times before? Nothing. You know what you need to do. Make time for God. Ask God to show you areas where he wants you to stretch your faith. Let him show you places where you’ve compromised integrity. Schedule a recurring task on your to-do list to spend time quietly before the Lord, reading Scripture or praying for God to reveal more of himself to you personally. 

There’s no shortcut to depth with God. Relationships require devotion. This will be the most important factor in your longevity in high-capacity leadership. More than that, this is what you were created for. When you walk closely in stride with Jesus, you fulfill your life’s purpose.