Leading for Change (Excerpt from Phil Strout)

by | Feb 26, 2018 | Reviews and Resources

A personal mission statement of mine, and of the new church I’ve recently had the joy of planting, is this verse from Jesus:

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)

I love the concept of Christians, and specifically the church, being a light to the world that “gives light to everyone.” The world desperately needs this light. The light of hope, the light of peace, the light of love, the light of healing. To this end, as youth leaders, we should be thinking about our teenagers and teenage leaders – and how we are preparing them to lead in the world. A recent article by Phil Strout, our national director, drove home the importance of leadership in the world as “change agents” and I wanted to share it here:

[Excerpted from www.vineyardusa.org]

Leadership Multiplication For Challenging Times
“We are in a season as a Movement where leadership multiplication is on everyones’ minds. When we talk about leadership multiplication in a Movement as committed as the Vineyard to bring healing to towns, cities, and communities across the national landscape, we’re not only talking about creating new leaders that serve our church gatherings on Sunday mornings.

We’re talking about multiplying Christlike leaders for a world in need.

We’re in a challenging time as a country. People have been impacted, either directly or indirectly, by many events in the past few months.

The horrific high school shootings last week in Parkland, Florida and in other communities since the turn of the year, the devastating hurricanes that powered through people’s homes and neighborhoods across the US, the continuing plight of the poor, and people in society divided from one another by political or social views – all of these difficulties highlight the need for godly leadership to come from all corners of the Body of Christ.

In other words, our churches and our communities need Kingdom leaders at times like these – leaders discipled and learning to think and act like Jesus, working both in the church and in the local community.

Discipling Change Agents For Anywhere & Everywhere
We need mature, discipled change agents, compelled by Christ’s love (2 Cor. 5:14-15), serving people in all walks of life in our time.

Leadership multiplication, for the Vineyard, means that we are discipling men, women, and children, from all backgrounds and of all ages, to be Christlike change agents anywhere God places them.

There are no quick fixes for developing leaders. Multiplying Kingdom leaders is a long, slow Kingdom process of discipling Christians to maturity. And though the Holy Spirit is always involved awakening followers of Jesus to new life, God rarely develops a leader automatically, overnight.

Know that we are praying for God to give you eyes to see those He is inviting you to support in their growth into Christlikeness – and into leadership.

For the sake of the world, the Lord began His Church. Let’s rise to training the Christians in our communities to love as Jesus loved, ministering from the overflow of their intimacy with Christ.”

[Excerpted from www.vineyardusa.org]

Christian Dunn
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