Match of the Day on Leadership

I love sport, watching it, playing it. I injured my knee playing football around four years ago and missed being able to participate in it. Interestingly, you learn a lot about who and how people really are by watching them compete. It would make an interesting sociological experiment to try and understand what makes the normally placid guy, who speaks softly and approaches life gently, turn into a mini-Vesuvius the minute he crosses the white line of a sports field. Often what is latent is laid bare when our competitive instincts are challenged.

There are other things we can learn from team sports too, particularly things to do with leadership.This will probably become an occasional series on the blog, so here are two points to start us off.

1. Cheer the tackle, not just the goal. In the church our tendency can be to get all congratulatory and celebratory when we score the equivalent of a goal. We enjoy some level of ministry success, we meet some stated goal in a way that exceeded or obliterates our expectations and, rightly, we get pretty fired up about that. But here's the thing- we need to cheer the tackles too. Any kind of fruitful ministry is fruitful not just because of the glory moments but also the gritty moments. The tackle shows an attitude that will not compromise, will not quit, will not give an inch. The tackle creates the atmosphere for the win, the goal determines by how much: grit is the foundation of glory. The tackle is the behind-the-scenes stuff that no-one tends to notice. the attention to detail, the desire to make things excellent for Jesus. It is the heavy-lifting of ministry and in many ways should be celebrated more because without it nothing good that we want to happen will happen. If the leader isn't celebrating this, then there is high capacity for everyone to want to go for glory, leaving the church vulnerable to the opposition's counter attacks.

2. Indecision is final. So says Alan Hansen the television football pundit. Indecision creates a gap, an opportunity for falling or failure, decisiveness is key to defending and progressing work. Leadership failure is not just found in making bad decisions, but in making no decisions. Acts 6 gives us a great picture of the importance of and an approach to making good and timely decisions (you could listen to our recent message on this passage here). Much of what ails the church today is a failure to grasp the nettle at key times and make a decision. In hoping that something will pass or disappear so that it will not have to be dealt with leaders risk storing up poison and disillusionment in the church. William Ward says that there are four steps for the Christian leader to take in leading well in the pursuit of Biblical goals

1. Plan purposefully

2. Prepare prayerfully

3. Proceed positively

4. Pursue persistently

There is a need for urgency in decisiveness in each of these steps. Larger successes are built on small victories. Be faithful in the little things first, because without them the bigger things will never come, or never last.