If you've read my personal ministry blog, Naked Theology, for any length of time, you've probably realized that I usually attempt to coincide my blogs with current events or cultural trends and how they intersect with faith and the Church in general. In starting this Life Group Leader blog, I found that it was not quite as easy, but every once and a while the opportunity comes along to connect what we do as leaders with some everyday life topic. The last thing I want to do is inundate you week after week with boring methodical advice that more than likely you've heard 100 times before. So, as we just finished celebrating Mother's Day, it gave me some insight on how one simple and basic principle transcends to leading Life Groups. Allow me to explain.
As I went through day, from beginning to end, I realized that the entire day revolved around serving my wife and my Mom. Basically, that's what Mother's Day is all about, when you get right down to it; taking the focus off of yourself for one day, and directing all attention to the Moms in your life. For one day out of the year, your needs are completely put on hold, and you give your full focus on making sure that they know how much they mean to you and your family. When you think about it, it's not so much about the gifts, but about the honoring of Moms throughout the entire day. Although, I would not advise skipping the gift!
As with Mother's Day, leading a Life Group is not about you. It's a about intentionally redirecting the focus from ourselves and placing it where it deserves to be; on the members of our group, right? Wrong! You thought I was going to say "people", right? Don't worry! I thought the same thing as I was processing this, but it's not about the members of our groups. It's not about any of us, for that matter. It's about God and nothing more. The more you magnify God in your life group as the center of all you do, the more success you will have as a leader and the more you will grow. Hey, if it was good enough for John the Baptist, it's good enough for us, right? "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30 NASB)
For some of us this might come natural while for others, ego might creep in from time to time. Either way, we all struggle at some point. Ego is a funny thing when you think about it. It's an attitude that can creep in whether we are successful or struggling because the ego focuses on others and what they think of us before anything else. When you care more about other peoples opinions, critiques or criticism, that's usually a red flag that the focus has been taken off God. But not to worry. Don't beat yourself up, like I tend to do, rather redirect your focus on what God's Word says is true. Remember what it says in Galatians 1:10: "Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ."
As leaders, we need to let go of things like reputation, caring about what others think, mistakes we make and even successes that we celebrate. Our job is to simply work with God and draw others to Him and into a deeper relationship with Him through His Holy Spirit. Your Life Group is God's Life Group, that He's given you stewardship over. And in this sometimes chaotic drama that we live in, it's better to remain a stage hand, rather than lead role.
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