Have you taken the Strengths Finders test? I have, several times. I've always loved my top two strengths but my third strength, oh that third strength, was always an embarrassment to me. I was ashamed of it.
Significance - You want to be very significant in the eyes of other people. In the truest sense of the word, you want to be recognized.
Even writing that feels shameful. (Lord, help me to embrace how you have made me and submit it to you. Use every part of me for your glory.) But for many years I did strive and feel validated by achievement. But in these last few years, the more I've grown closer to the Lord, the more God began reframing my heart and mind to see only God as significant and me as the worshipper. My role as the woman in the Bible who used her most precious oil to pour it on her Savior's feet. I tell you all this because in my little corner of leading, I see that the need for influence has permeated our culture - both in and out of the church.
Louie Giglio recently said that (and I paraphrase) instead of trying to start some big ministry, this next gen should join what is already going so they can learn how to lead - by serving.
Timothy Willard recently had this to say on the topic:
we now live in a culture where influence is currency. And anyone with enough money or with enough provocation can gain influence. It is now sought by even the younger generations. I mean, we literally call people with big followings "influencers". Why do we call them that? Because we associate scale of platform with credential. Now anyone with a following can say something about a topic and be considered an expert even if they possess nothing but a hobbyist's curiosity. We're told leadership is influence so we do our best to build influence and that is done these days by building "a following". We say, I want to lead so I better build a following. How do I know this? Because I've been in meetings with orgs and church "leaders" who've literally said; "I want to leverage my influence" or "I need a book deal to gain a following". What I am saying is that it's inaccurate to say that leadership is influence. It's not.
If leadership is always connected to the actions of the followers then emerging generations will not understand that you can lead by standing alone. What if we expressed the idea of leadership as less of how your followers respond and more about the type of person you and I seek to be as people on the frontiers of life - going first, guiding, showing by the way we conduct ourselves" Think of C.S. Lewis. His influence still swells like a cultural tidal wave. Did he seek influence? Or did he keep his inner circle small, put his head down and do the work..?" Think of those men and women in your life who are not well known (cultural currency of influence) yet do the work of taking you by the hand and humbly guiding you to the stream that gives life. It is the man or woman who does the hard work in the quiet humbly before the Lord, lovingly guiding the ones God puts in his/her care, who leads with beauty and elegance.
Now there's an idea. what if we associated leadership less with business world terms and instead associated great leadership with elegance, beauty, humility, harmony, virtue? There's a better way to teach the young about leadership. I believe it begins in the wilderness not the social media feed. It begins with the understanding the upside down ideas in Jesus' economy of influence: "... servant of all."
Jesus didn't go to the cross to gain significance, Jesus went to the cross out of obedience (Matt Redman). And look what happened. From His obedience, came the significance.
Lord, search our hearts and minds, purify our intentions and desires, so it is only you we strive to serve, not our own egos.
To God! To God! To God!
