Leadership and Mentorship: Lessons From a Few Years in Leadership

Leadership and Mentorship: Lessons From a Few Years in Leadership

I'm not a great leader. I've never been... But I always have something to say... (I don't know if it is a good thing to always have something to say or a bad one, but I'm okay with it.)

Anyway, here is what I have to say about what I have learned from leading in various capacities while on different teams these past 10 years. I'll go straight to the point and keep it as short as possible;

1. When practising leadership, some people or things will never change. Wisdom is when you know which ones and grace is when you understand how to deal with each without compromising progress.

2. Every great leader needs at least two kinds of people; someone who looks them in the eye and points out all the stupid things they are doing, and another one who pats them on the back and tells them they're doing great.

3. Only God has got your back. People will say they do, but they mostly understand so little of the weight of whatever they are promising.

4. People are fantastic. People are messy. Get used to it.

5. Not everyone wants the success of your team or leadership. There are members of your team and sometimes even leaders above you that will always think that you're not good enough. Get used to it.

6. Competing with other leaders and comparing yourself with them are some of the most stupid things you can do as a leader.

7. Your main goal as a leader is to simply glorify God and leave a legacy that gives Him glory. Everything else is overrated.

8. Lead. Be on the front line. Give direction. That's what leadership is all about. If you're doing anything less, you're missing the point.

9. Your passion and vision will be what determines where your team is headed. The lazier and less committed you are, the more your team falls apart.

10. There are so few leaders and mentors today, but so many people with positions and titles, that's the crisis of leadership in this century.

11. A perfect person cannot lead. Leadership is messy almost all the time, so a perfectionist will die sooner than they can make a second step in the right direction.

12. Great leaders never work alone. Never. (I learnt this from Andy Stanley). No matter how good you are, you'll always need people.

13. As a leader, the Spirit of God has got to work in you before He works through you. It's useless and stupid to keep giving instructions you never follow.

14. Do your work, play your part. Leave the consequences to God.

15. Keeping up and practising spiritual disciplines with consistency is what helps to keep you grounded as a leader. Get this document on discipleship and read about spiritual disciplines therein.

16. Learning new ways to lead and being open to new ideas helps a leader avoid moving around in circles.

17. My mistakes as a leader don't only affect me but a few hundreds of people that look to me.

18. People don't have to like you, but they sure do need to know where you stand on the most important issues of life.

19. I'll at any time accept on my team the committed, consistent and available person than the unavailable that seem influential.

20. Burnout, loneliness and depression are never that far in leadership, so delegate and share more.

21. There are always people under and around you that can lead better than you do, so stay humble.

22. People will quit on you. It's normal. Please don't overthink it.

23. Let your word be your bond; and let your actions always agree with whatever your mouth speaks. It is stupid to make promises that you are not ready to follow through to fulfil.

24. So many of us leaders only choose to see those under us through what they give and what they do and not what they can become. That's prejudice.

25. People are always waiting on the leader... Most of the time, they will only do and go as far as the leader does and goes.

26. There is a difference between wanting a leadership title and loving to lead; and a difference between commanding and leading.

27. Leaders are not gods, they're tempted and face challenges just like everyone else. Of all gifts, I think leadership is the most overrated.

28. Only leaders that have been tested and tempted and have hit rock bottom can understand, empathise and pray with people who hit rock bottom.

29. Instead of complaining against leaders, pray for them and offer advice.

30. Team meetings help leadership more than you could ever imagine. Almost all successful leaders hold consistent, true and constructive meetings.

31. Great leaders are some of the most unappreciated people in the world.

32. There are blind leaders who neither have vision, passion nor direction. A life under them is like living in hell.

33. To any reasonable leader, gossip is shit.

34. It doesn't matter how long you've been in leadership or in ministry, you just haven't learnt enough yet.

That's all for now.


Bonface Morris.

God is for GOD

God is for GOD

God is for Himself, there is no doubt about that,
The way He weaves our lives and the way He makes things work out in the universe,
The way He churns His thoughts and reveals His plans,
The way He rows our boats and toasts our plans,
He is for Himself,
God is for GOD.

I know you're asking, "I thought it is written that God is for us, how is He again for Himself?"
And I know you want me to make you understand how He does things only for Himself
I'll show you...
He is not selfish, that is not what or who He is,
He is not self-seeking, that is not what or who He is,
He isn't even manipulative or conceited or dead to the thoughts and desires of men who seek Him,
If He was those things, we would still be dead in our sins;
If He was those things, we would still be wallowing in the pitiful state of our failures,
So ultimately, though He may be for us, in the end, He is for Himself.

When you see the waves of the sea turning your life around,
And you see the fires of the world roaring with a sound,
When you see your failures as a way to turn your eye and ear to Him,
And you see every challenge turning you closer to Him,
Know that that is the hand of God,
Know that this is how He wants you for Himself,
Know that you cannot escape the moments when He is harvesting glory from within your waves and fires... for Himself...
Know that God is for GOD.

You may never understand why He squeezes you so much,
And you may never understand why by doing so He claims to love you too much:
Much more than He loves Himself - by dying for you.
Even in so doing, He is still for Himself...
God is for Himself.
He wants you better,
He wants you bolder,
He wants you more confident,
He wants you purer,
He wants you devoted to Him,
And above all, He wants all these for you, and you for Himself,
He wants you for Himself,
So, yes, God is for GOD.

When you see Him weave things to make you happy,
You may think, "Aaaah, the LORD surely seeks to satisfy me with joy."
That is true, and good, and beautiful;
But you are wrong when you think that way.
Instead you should think of it this way: "He is making my joy full for the glory of His Name."
When you're joyful and satisfied, His glory is revealed.
When you have it all going well for you, His abundance is revealed.
He is trying to tell you, "It's for the revelation of my glory that I am doing all these things: it is for glory of My Name. It is all about Me."

God is for GOD, never doubt that.
That is why bad things happen to good people so that in the end, after He comes through, we may praise His Name;
He is for Himself.
That is why good things happen to bad people, so that after their eyes are opened and they see it is Him, they may glorify His Name;
He is for Himself.
That is why prayers are delayed and answers and modified,
That is why waiting for Him to do stuff for you is uncomfortable - it is very uncomfortable to wait on Him while thinking that He is doing things for you;
No, God is for Himself, and He won't do anything for you unless it is for Him, unless it is for His glory. Understand that.

That is why things don't always turn out the way you would want them to,
And we always seem to see a small distance past our eyes;
That is why we should all shut up when we don't understand what He is doing with our lives.
That is why our prayers should be more like this:

"Lord, we know Your thoughts are higher than our own,
Your plans for us we cannot fathom,
We know our pains and suffering keep lying to to us that You don't care,
But deep within we know that You do,
We know that in Your plan - Your perfect plan which we have no idea about -
You have beautiful things for us.
Please close our minds and hearts from thinking that life is all about us, what we want, what we would want and what we would want to want,
But that it is all about You and what You want,
Let Your will be done.
In Your Name, Amen"

And sometimes when we are pressed on every side, we should also pray this way:

"Lord, when we are poor, and sickly and needy
Isn't that a disgrace to Your Holy Name because we are Your people?
What will the people of the nations think of You when they see us,
Considering that we are called by Your Name?
They will say, "See!! Their God is weak and useless and uncaring
Their God is a liar and He left them."
Lord, when they say such things concerning Your Name and Your character, they are not true. You are not like that, or are You?
So prove them wrong Lord, prove them wrong.
Come with power, not to only save us wicked and evil people
But to protect the fame and the glory of Your Name
In Your Name, Amen."

When we pray that way,
When we say, "We are Your people... called by Your Name." 
And when we say "Let Your will be done,"
All we are saying this:
Ultimately, after all has been said and done,
And our lives were lived for the glory of our God,
And for the fame of His Holy Name,
We realise that it was all about Him.
Our desires, our aching, our prayers, our service, our devotion...
It was all for Him.
We did it all for God, He did it all for us, but it was all for Himself.
So let all praises and glory and honor be to His Holy Name.
We were waiting for Him, yes 
And He did it for us, yes 
But it was all about Him.
Ultimately, God was, is and will be for GOD.
Amen.


Bonface Morris.

Musings On Worship Part 2: Resilience

Musings On Worship Part 2: Resilience

Catch-up on my endless musings on worship by reading the first post in this series here.

A worship team is quite a dynamic space both as an opportunity for leadership and as a reality for family. It is a very diverse kind of a team.

Considering that each team has "high" moments when everything seems to be working and "low" moments when so many things seem not to be working, resilience is one of those things every team needs to keep moving forward.

Resilience is that ineffable quality that allows some people to be knocked down by life and come back stronger than ever. Rather than letting failure overcome them and drain their resolve, they find a way to rise from the ashes. (Psychology Today.)

Bouncing back from bad experiences or moments in worship or failures in team activities may be what will make the difference between a successful team and a failing one. It may also be what determines whether a team maintains momentum or loses it. This is because - someone has said somewhere - life is mostly not about how we fall but about how we recover.

Here are my few observations on how resilience affects a team:

1. Resilience and tolerance go hand in hand 
Teams need community for growth, because teams - in and of themselves - are community; and wherever there is a community, conflict will be present. A resilient team is able to culture an environment where resolving conflict between its members as a community or as part of a community is simple and fast. Learning tolerating each other as members of a team in our diverse capabilities means being able to easily bear with one another, judging each other less and praying for one another more. (...with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love - Ephesians 4:2.)

2. Resilience helps in balancing between celebration and mourning 
The apostle James writes, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise (James 5:13.) 
Practising resilience will help a team know how to celebrate its successes in moderation and pray over its mistakes more. This helps maintain a balance of emotions in the team.

3. Resilience helps keep team activities consistent
If people mourn too much after failure, they may end up forgetting doing what should be done for team growth. If the team keeps revisiting mistakes and failures without planning a way forward, ability to move forward and become better is limited. A resilient team understands that there is time for correcting mistakes and there should always be time to move on from the mistakes and keep track of its vision and goals. Goals can never be achieved if a team keeps revisiting its mistakes without meaningfully forging ahead.

4. A resilient team owns its mistakes 
One key advantage of resilience is self-evaluation and self-actualisation. A resilient team always says, "We know our mistakes, we can name them, but we are not giving up; we are moving on"
If a team is able to own its mistakes in its musicality, activities, social matters and spiritual aptness, it can remove from its eyes that cloud of gossip, false accusations and blaming one another and instead use that opportunity to move forward. It knows that one failure is not total failure but a chance to not repeat the same mistakes again. 

5. A resilient team depends more on the character and promises of God than on itself.
Psalms 121:1-2 says, "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."
The focus of a resilient team is looking unto God and what He says: looking to Him and looking ahead. Because vision and what a team focuses on are very critical to success, this team decides not to put its hope in strategy or experience or the skill of its members but on the Power of the Spirit of God. This helps it move further from the limited vision of man to seeing the big picture as God sees it.

*******
May the Lord help us build resilient teams for the glory of His Name.


Bonface Morris.