Last week a few of us from Restore flew out to Chicago to attend our New Thing gathering at Community Christian Church. New Thing is the network of churches that we are a part of, all with the same passion for disciple making and church planting. It was a huge encouragement to learn how God is at work here in the U.S and in places as far as Eastern Europe. This was a great time of vision casting and connecting with other church planters.
During one the sessions Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Church was interviewed and asked questions by the audience. He was asked "What advice would you give to young leaders?" His answer to this question was very sobering for me. He answered this question by telling us his greatest concern for young leaders which is our lack of self leadership. He went on to tell us that this is something his staff has been working on because they see the importance of healthy leaders if they are going to be good leaders of Willow Creek.
So what is self leadership? I have learnt from other leaders that the leadership of self is a journey and never a destination. This journey is intentional growth and reflection in the areas of
Relational Intelligence,
Physical health,
Spiritual formation, and our
Mental health. When leaders take their growth in all these areas seriously they will be more successful in leadership of others. My goal for the new year is to be more intentional in my self leadership. Are you with me?
Healthy leaders reproduce healthy leaders, healthy churches reproduce healthy churches.
