Real leaders nurture and support other leaders. If the type of leadership that our churches need in this chaotic time are people who are willing to step into uncharted waters and take uncomfortable risks, then we need to recognize that such leadership is not easy. Most of us recognize that courage to exercise such leadership comes at an uneven pace. There are days that we are willing to take risks, and other days that we wonder why we were ever so foolish. Actually I think that is a good thing. If we never had doubts about what we are doing that challenges the conventional wisdom, then we would be in danger of either sheer arrogance or living in an illusion. To be a leader doesn’t mean that you have all the answers. To be a leader means you are willing to ask questions, even questions that make you uncomfortable. To be insensitive about how such questions make others feel is to lose touch with the very community that you seek to lead.
Given the challenging nature of real leadership and the uneven levels of courage to lead at any given moment, we need to be intentional about supporting others in the exercise of such leadership. Look around you. Who is trying to lift up the questions that we should be asking? In what way have you expressed support for them? Since real leaders need to be open and not locked into a set of answers, can you provide such people the type of supportive yet probing questions that enable them to explore further?
Too often people’s response to anyone raising a challenge to the status quo is to demand a better alternative that is already fully thought out. Because someone doesn’t have a completely formed alternative to the way things are, doesn’t mean the question raised isn’t legitimate. If you are concerned about some area of church life, for example, but aren’t sure what the best solution is, how would you want someone to respond when you raise the concern?
