Over the past 40 years as a Christian leader in the workplace, ministry and church I have heard many talks, lectures and sermons about how to be more effective.
The vast majority of these were well grounded in biblically sound leadership principles, delivered by gifted brothers and sisters from around the world.
That said, we live in a performance based world and so quite often the focus of such talks has been on how to grow the efficiency, impact or output of organisations, ministries or churches.
In my experience, we have been guilty of over focusing on numerics, without due regard for the health and well being of those we are expecting to produce the result.
Healthy teams and healthy leaders have greater and longer lasting impact.
Each of us are comprised of three distinctive parts; body, soul and spirit.
Therefore, by health I refer to:
a) physical health
b) emotional health
c) spiritual health
For each of us to maximise our impact things need to be well with all three parts of our being. We need to look after our physical bodies, but so too we need to ensure that our spirits are being nourished through our relationship with God and that our minds are being renewed by God’s Word.
In 1 John 1 we see the connection between health, prosperity (productivity) and our souls.
John says ‘I wish above all that you prosper, even as your soul prospers.’
Our soul refers to our mind, will and emotions. So, if our mind, will and emotions are not in a good place we will not be able to have sustainable impact for the Kingdom of God, whether that be through God honouring businesses, ministries or churches.
Self Care and Leader Care
Each of us needs to regularly review what it is we need to do to improve our physical, emotional and spiritual health. Failure to take appropriate, timely action will greatly decrease the impact we can have in the months and years that lie ahead.
That said, those of us who govern and lead businesses, ministries or churches, locally or globally need to consider what is our responsibility, before God, to care for the leaders God has blessed us to have as part of our team.
Developing an effective Leader Care programme should be high on the priority list of any organisation seeking to grow the depth and width of its impact.
Transform The World’s response
From the beginning of Transform the World our key focus has been on the ministry of encouragment. Yes, our teams also engage in programmes designed to equip and empower leaders, but we believe that it is vital for leaders to be encouraged if they are to be able to implement the learning they have gained and if they are to continue to be passionate about what they have been called, or employed, to do.
A discouraged, disappointed or disillusioned leader will struggle to maintain their impact, never mind continue to lead and inspire others who may have the potential to achieve even greater impact.
In the Acts of Apostles, I believe we can trace how the nature of Paul’s missionary journeys shifted from teaching and church planting to leader care. We particularly see this in Acts 20, as Paul approached the latter stages of his ministry. In verse 2 we read that Paul went about from place to place encouraging the believers wherever he went. Clearly Paul believer that encouragement was vital if the churches he had planted were to be able to have sustained Kingdom impact.
In line with the ministry of the Apostle Paul, Transform The World, commits to helping Kingdom workplace, ministry and church leaders have greater, sustained impact by coming alongside organisations as their ‘Encouragement Partners’.
By developing a global encouragement team we can see thousands of Christian leaders encouraged, resulting in healthier leaders, healthier teams and more sustained impact for the Kingdom of God.
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