Leadership: What is It?

"Self-Leadership is not about what we do; it's about who we become." 

-Dallas Willard.

That was the primary focus this past week as we learned Self-Leadership. In our lessons we discussed topics such as: 

• What is real discipleship

• Living a lifestyle of engaging with God

• Spiritual disciplines

• Emotional intelligence

• Broad and SMART goals

• What are Spiritual disciplines exactly

• Tools to minister with

• Mental health and stress

Understanding what it means to be a true disciple of Christ has already been a strong focus on my heart. So it was wonderful to add to what I am already learning. Including a reminder that relationships work two ways, and that in order for us to have a relationship with Christ, we have to put forth our own end. And by doing this, we get to know Him better and understand Him, His ways, and how to live our own lives like Him. 

I was also provoked to do a little self-examination and ask myself: What is my motivation for what I am doing? God-seeking or Self-seeking? Pride easily slips into my ministry work often. I have to be careful that I am focusing my heart and thoughts on God and not the praise of man.

Our teacher also reminded us that “The distance between us and a close relationship with God is the amount of distractions we carry.”  Then he gave a brilliant illustration of two people in their walk with Christ. He compared our growing relationship with the Lord to ascending a mountain, and explaining that the journey lasts only as long as we keep our distractions:

• One person just wears their warmers and enjoys the climb. 

• The other person has their backpack loaded with their laptop, iPhone, journal, water bottle, etc.

(God just wants us to learn to get rid of all our weight and just enjoy the climb.) 

The person in their warmers is confident that Christ will provide whatever they need. While the person with the backpack tries to be self-sufficient and prepared. But soon, that climber will start dumping things as the climb gets harder, and the higher they get, the more they realize the things they don't need. Christ really is enough.  

The second lesson that stood out to me was learning how to develop goals. This has always been a struggle for me throughout the years, so I was grateful for this as well. We talked about BROAD Goals and SMART Goals, and how to break them down to be sure they are realistic and achievable. 

There is really too much information to explain in a blog, but I looked up a couple of online sources that explain how BROAD Goals and SMART Goals work.

https://www.thebalance.com/smart-goal-examples-2951827

http://www.yourcoach.be/en/coaching-tools/smart-goal-setting.php

Even though we have been assigned to set some SMART Goals for ourselves as homework, I would have done this anyway. I've always struggled with setting goals as I usually set the bar too high, or don't understand the right strategy.

I have been really challenged this week by the topics, and  I look forward to putting what I have learned into practice for both personal and ministry purposes. 

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On a more personal note, I began working with an ECO trainee this past Monday. And it turned out my trainee is the girl I met when I did Outreach in Brazil back in 2014! We'll meet Monday afternoons for about an hour to practice English. This is a great learning experience for me too, to learn how to help others speak a different language. 

On Tuesday I worked with teenagers at a youth center. It was pretty chaotic as these kids just come to hang out and play for a few hours before heading home. I confess I felt a little bit out of my league since I don't know, nor keep up, with what kids are into these days! LOL! But I did learn how to throw a javelin, play ping-pong, and even lost a boxing match (on the wii). I'll have to find out a way to actually hear the kids speak over the loud music they play. But I am pretty proud of their tastes. Here in England the kids still listen to music from the 80's and 90's! I could adapt to that. ;)

My one-on-one got me to open up a bit about some inner struggles I've been having. It's unnerving sometimes to let people in on my life. I'm not used to it. But it's proven to be very helpful in my past. It doesn't mean that I have to tell everyone everything, but rather that I trust certain people to help me learn how to overcome. 

Living on a YWAM campus has proven very good for me. I can't isolate myself from others. I'm held accountable. People check in on me. They notice when something's off. In turn, I am also able to do that for my friends here. We all live together. We all serve together. We all eat together, learn together, struggle together, worship together, pray and cry together.

It's a pretty phenominal thing that we begin every Monday morning with Community Worship; bringing together all the staff, trainees, leaders and families. Sometimes it can become routine, but 9am worship meetings is still a good way to begin the week. Not to mention the weekly Community Intercession meetings and regular Prayer Meetings. 

I love that we get updates and details about what is going on in specific countries, find out which ones are no longer hostile to Christianity, and which ones are getting worse. We learn about the people, the government, and understand what the needs are. There are so many different areas of ministry, and so many needs to be met. It is truly like Jesus said."The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few."