Lead On Podcast

On this episode of The Lead On Podcast, Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, discusses why major change in ministry requires both God's direction and bold initiative from leaders who are willing to champion transformation. Drawing from biblical examples and his leadership journey, Dr. Iorg explores the qualities God looks for in leaders, practical steps for taking responsibility, and the obstacles that leaders must overcome to move their organizations forward.

Creators and Guests

Host
Jeff Iorg
President, SBC Executive Committee

What is Lead On Podcast?

Ready to hone your leadership skills and unlock your full potential? Tune in to the Lead On Podcast, where Jeff Iorg dives deep into Biblical leadership.

Hosted by SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg, this dynamic podcast provides insight for seasoned executives, aspiring leaders, or those in ministry who are simply passionate about personal growth. The Lead On Podcast offers actionable, practical tips to help you navigate the complexities of ministry leadership in today's ever-changing world.

From effective communication and team building to strategic decision-making and fostering innovation, each episode is packed with valuable lessons and inspiring stories to empower you on your leadership journey.

Put these principles into practice and Lead On!

Jeff Iorg:

Welcome to the Lead On podcast. This is Jeff Iorg, the president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, continuing our ongoing conversation about practical issues related to ministry leadership. I announced last week that I wanted to do a little three part mini series here on the podcast about the issue of Leading Major Change. Now, some of you know I wrote a book called Leading Major Change in Your Ministry. And when I'm asked to teach on that, usually given a couple of hours and I have to be careful about what I can teach in that time frame.

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And so I normally teach on the diagnostic model that I developed about how to discern when your organization is ready for a major change are secondarily the difference between change and transition and how how to help people to navigate through the transition that major change brings into their lives. What I don't normally have enough time to do is to develop the last part of my book, which is talking about some broad overarching principles that come out of scripture about how major change happens. Now, last week on the podcast, I talked about major change requires direction from God. And this week, I wanna give sort of the other side of the coin to that same idea, and that is major change also requires initiative from a leader. So direction from God and initiative from a leader go hand in hand, two sides of the same coin, about how major change happens.

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Leading major change requires initiative

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from a leader who will champion the change. Someone has

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to take responsibility to envision, strategize, implement, and complete a major change or frankly, it will not happen.

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Now, some aspects can be managed by employees or even volunteers, but a dream is usually birthed in the mind of an individual who then becomes its passionate advocate. Even as I talked about last week, when ideas emerge in community from a group, some leader has to personally own and commit to fulfilling it before any real progress is gonna be made. Now, I understand that these kind of strong leaders are sometimes devalued and criticized, but it shouldn't be that way.

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We have to have strong leaders who will step forward if big changes are actually going to be implemented. I know this is hard because some Christian leaders are reluctant to exert themselves. They don't wanna be seen as self promoting or arrogant. Man, I

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certainly affirm that. But someone has to step forward. In fact, I think this is a biblical pattern that we can't ignore. When God is ready to do something new throughout the Bible,

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he started by choosing a leader. Abraham inaugurated a nation. Moses led the Israelites out of slavery. Nehemiah rebuilt a wall. Peter led the disciples, and Paul led the gospel's expansion among the Gentiles.

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God assigns leaders and then reveals his purposes to and through them. And so today, when an organization needs major change, God usually begins the process by putting the right person at the helm. God has an uncanny way of placing leaders with the right gift mix, life background, professional experiences, and even leadership training to do what needs to be done in that moment. An organization's leader has a profound impact on the kind of change,

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especially major change that it makes. An organization's leader impacts the pace of change and the way the changes will be done. All of these things are are are dependent upon who's in the leadership role in the moment. This means if you are a leader,

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your assignment is significant. God has placed you with your unique skill set in a ministry that needs what you have to offer right now. Man, this is so vital for us to understand. And it's also so helpful for us to realize that we are not necessarily the permanent leader for all time in every organization, but we are there because in this particular season of this organization's life or this church's life, you've been assigned by God to be the leader, therefore you must have something unique that you can contribute that no one else in the world could contribute, but God has placed you there for a reason. You know, I'm framing this part of my book around the story

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of Joshua and his life. You know, there was

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a moment when God installed Joshua as the leader who replaced Moses. In Joshua chapter one, the Bible says, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now you and all the people prepare to cross over Jordan. I will be with you just as I was with Moses. Moses had been a

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deliverer. Joshua was a warrior. One skill set was needed to deliver the Hebrews from Egypt. Another

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was needed to lead them to conquer their new

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homeland. Different challenges require different kinds of leaders. And you can go through this example and others throughout the Bible to underscore the differences between leaders and the important principles of why and how God places certain people at certain times

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in order to accomplish his purposes.

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Let's look at two or three of these. The first thing to remember in this important need that God has for placing leaders to get his work done is that leaders come before strategy. You know, God's method is always leader first, strategy second. Now

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that does not devalue strategy. It just says leader first, then strategy. Turning that around is getting the cart before the horse, as they sometimes say. Ministries and churches need to identify the character qualities, the skill sets, the life experiences, the professional experiences, the training needed for a person to be successful in their context,

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and then put that person into place and see how God will work through them to develop the strategies needed to move into the future. The right leader comes first, then the right strategy can be and has to be developed. Now you may be thinking, yeah, but there's just not any perfect leaders out there, and I'm certainly not one of them. Why can I be so confident that God would ever place me and use me anywhere? Well, for two reasons.

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First, God chooses flawed people as leaders. Aren't you glad for that? You know, one of the interesting things about the Bible and its recounting the stories of leaders, is that the Bible includes the good, the bad, and

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the ugly. The weaknesses and even the sins of biblical leaders are painfully evident.

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Yet, God chose people and used them in spite of their shortcomings. And my friends, this is good news for all of us. God still does this.

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He chooses people who are flawed, often feel inadequate,

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and uses them to accomplish his purposes. This is also important to remember if you're looking for

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a leader. There are no perfect leaders. There's just the right leader for the right time in a particular time in every ministry setting.

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You know, I recently lived through this at Gateway Seminary. I was the president for twenty years. And when I got to the end of that twenty year time frame, I decided to step aside. There were several men that were in the next generation of leaders that are coming, all men in their forties, that I knew could lead the seminary forward in the next twenty years make such an incredible difference. I also knew that I wasn't that guy.

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Now, when I first announced that I was stepping aside as president, you know, some people said, but everything is going so well. Well, my reason was because I knew that I could hold on for a few more years and the seminary would

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be fine. But I knew that the seminary was going to

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need to face some things that are gonna take five to ten to fifteen to twenty years to really change, and I knew I wasn't the guy to do that. So I knew that God wanted to place another leader in that role who could take the seminary forward in significant ways, and he's done that. You know, it's so important for us to recognize that God chooses flawed people and uses us. There are no perfect leaders, just the right leader, and we all get to a point in time when we have

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to say, I'm no longer the one who needs to be here. And God can use me somewhere else,

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and God can use somebody else here, but I'm no longer the one

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that needs to be here. A second thing that we need

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to learn from this is that God values character over skills. Throughout the Bible, the stories of leadership selection

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always illustrate this important principle, character over skills. Now when a leader selected, the the future challenges cannot always be predicted, but character can be observed and counted on. Strength of character then must be prioritized over skill assessment in selecting leaders. Now don't misunderstand me. I'm not

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saying one matters and the

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other one doesn't. I'm saying one comes first and the other comes second. Having the adequate skills to do a job is very important, but having the character to do the job is even more important. I can illustrate this about coming here to the executive committee. When I interviewed for the task, they at one point in the interview said, what else do you need to know before you can make a decision about this position?

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And I said, nothing really.

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They were a little bit shocked. They said, well, other candidates have asked lots of questions. I said, well, I appreciate that, but here's my perspective. I know there are many challenges to this job, and I'm willing to take those on. I also know that there's no way you can enumerate every challenge that might be coming over the next few years.

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And when one of those comes up, I don't wanna come back to you and say, well, you never told me about this, and say that in some ways I shouldn't have taken the job. I said, what you have to discern and what I have to decide is do I have the character and then the skills necessary

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to deal with whatever's coming down the pipe toward us? That's what I'm talking about today. God chooses leaders and depends on them to initiate major change. And leader must come before strategy. Doesn't mean strategy is not important.

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It means you got

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to get the right leader,

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then you develop the right strategy. Then character has to come over skills. Doesn't mean skills aren't important. You better have some skills, but character matters more. And then third, when God is placing leaders in responsible positions, experience often shapes usefulness.

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God is amazing in how he uses life experiences to shape our future usefulness. When God chooses a leader, it's always in the context of that person's past life and their professional experiences. You know, Peter had operated a large commercial fishing business with multiple boats and business partners before he came to faith in Jesus and was placed in charge of another operation, the early establishment of God's kingdom. And then Paul had been a religious leader, trained in the finest educational program of his era. He was well suited for a teaching and writing ministry.

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He had the skills, and then he came to faith in Jesus. His character developed and then the skills became useful because his experience shaped his usefulness. You know, many leadership experiences, when you discern and learn principles and patterns from your past experiences, they're transferable from one vocational field to another or from one ministry setting to another. And these experiences become a resource for creating future strategies and solving complicated problems. You know, when I went to the seminary in 02/2004, the seminary knew that it had a had a bit of a ticking time bomb related to its facilities.

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The seminary had a twenty five year master plan that was expiring in 02/2009, five years after I was scheduled to become president. And the seminary knew that they would have to resolve those issues of how to develop the campus going forward and how to renew or how to relate to those expiring development permissions.

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And so in talking to me as president, as a presidential candidate, it became very interesting to all of

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us that I had experience in relocating a church, in revisioning a convention, and in building a new church campus for our church in Oregon. They said, it's interesting that you've bought land, moved ministries, created new organizations, established new identities. You may have to do some of those things in the future at the seminary, and I wound up having to do all of those things. You know, looking back in hindsight, it's easy to see why God brought me to the seminary at the time that he did bring me. Listen, it wasn't that I'm the world's greatest theologian.

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I'm not. It wasn't that I'm the the the world's greatest fundraiser. I'm definitely not. It wasn't that I had those skills because those weren't the skills that were needed in that era. But what was needed was someone who understood something about leading people through major change, about leading people to new locations, about dealing with land development and building purchase and sale issues, about all of those kinds of things.

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God had been shaping me for years, getting me ready to do the very thing he always intended me to do when I went to the seminary. There's no way when I was 25 that I had any idea that God was going to put me through all the ministry experiences that I had over the next ten to fifteen years to get me ready in my forties to lead what I had to lead.

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God is amazing though. God uses our experiences to shape our future usefulness. You know, God has a remarkable capacity to use leaders in their current setting

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while simultaneously training them for future challenges that he knows are coming. Many times during the seminary's relocation, my leadership decisions were intuitive because of past experiences. I just knew what to do, not because I'd studied it in a book or not because I had someone counseling me on how to go forward. Man, I had lived it. I had lived through it in other contexts and in other settings and I knew what to do because God had allowed me

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to go through similar situations in other contexts, in some cases, in smaller versions, but to get me ready for what he was using me to do. Well, when God is ready to lead major change, he first installs a leader. That leader then demonstrates character, has skills, and lives out their formative experiences that have prepared them for the task. If you're one of those leaders that God has placed in a specific place today, reflect on what I'm saying. You have been placed.

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You're the leader. Now it's your responsibility to develop a strategy. You have been given the responsibility of developing your character and your skills, but make sure your character is up to the task. Skills you can still develop. Character is simply gonna be tested.

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And then finally, reflect

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on your experiences. How has God used you in the past? And not only how has he used you to get things done, but how has he used those circumstances to shape you, to get you ready to do your work today. Well, another big emphasis that comes out of this part of the story is that leaders, when it comes to major change,

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must lead. When it came time for Joshua to conquer Jericho,

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he received specific instructions. He then assembled the people and said, take up the ark of the covenant and have seven priests carry seven trumpets in front of the ark of the Lord. And then he went he said to the people, move forward around the city and have the armed troops go ahead of

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the ark of the Lord. Then Joshua laid out the rest of

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the plan. It's much more complicated. You know that. Including the marching orders, the trumpets, the final plan for the seventh day,

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all of that. Now the details are important, but not for today. What's important for today is that Joshua took the lead. He said, this is where we're going. This is how we're going to get there.

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Let's get moving. Notice it says that Joshua personally supervised the attack. The Bible says on the first day in Joshua six twelve, he got up early to make sure his instructions were followed.

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He stayed engaged daily. And then prior to the final attack, he said to the people, shout for the Lord has given you the city. He then gave additional instructions about destroying the the city entirely except for sparing Rahab and her family. And he warned the people of impending destruction on anyone who violated the ban and took anything for their personal use. So Joshua took the lead and then he personally supervised the task.

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And then continuing on from there, he took responsibility. He stood up, if you will,

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and did what was needed in the moment. You know, in the book

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of Acts in both chapter one and chapter 15, the Bible says that the leader Peter stood up, stood up. Now that's an interesting inclusion of detail in the Bible.

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The words stood up mean more than just his physical act of standing. They mean the spiritual or symbolic act of stepping forward and saying, I'll take the lead. You know, a few years ago, I was good friends and a colleague with a former military officer. He said to me once, Do you know the first rule of command? I said, No.

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This Annapolis graduate looked me in the eye and

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said, The first rule of command is command. When you're the leader, lead. When you are made responsible, be responsible. When it's your job to get something done, get it done. Man, that stuck with me.

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The first rule of command, command. Now remember, this does not mean that you're to be heavy handed or autocratic or authoritarian. No. Taking charge is about taking responsibility,

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not throwing your weight around. Taking charge is not about raising your voice or having your way or getting rid

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of your opponents. No. Taking charge means stepping forward to make sure that difficult issues are addressed, that crucial issues get decided, and that action plans are implemented to accomplish your mission. Leaders lead. They take the initiative.

Jeff Iorg:

They step forward. When placed in command, they command. But saying all this, at least for some of you hearing it, is hard. Particularly for some of you younger leaders who may be reluctant to step forward and become real leaders. Now why is that?

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Why is it that some leaders, even

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those who've stepped forward and answered God's call and taken on responsibility, why is it that sometimes

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they are reluctant to lead? Well, here's some suggestions. Three factors that sometimes hold us back. Number one, fear of failure. You may be reluctant to attempt major change because you're afraid of failing.

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You know, this is a serious problem for all

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of us. No one wants to fail and definitely not fail in public. Leading major change means facing the facts about your situation and the possibilities, including the possibility that you might fail. I can't really describe fully

Jeff Iorg:

how lonely those last two nights were before I announced the seminary's relocation some years ago. I was so afraid. I was fearful that I might be making the wrong decision, that I might be taking unnecessary risk, that I might have put us in a position where we might lose the seminary. I wondered what will happen if hundreds of students transfer out or if our employees all quit or the faculty leaves or some alumni files suit.

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What if the buyer backs out? What if the community finds some legal way to block the sale? What if

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the board fires me for making such a horrible decision? Man, all of that went through my mind those last

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two days. In fact, if I had a fear meter plugged into me, that fear meter would have been redlined. And yet in that context, I still had to lead. Fear of failure is real.

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But you get down on your knees, you talk to God about it. You depend on the processes that have gotten you to the point where you've made the decision to initiate the major change. You trust in the brothers and sisters who are gonna stand with you and see you through.

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You face up to your fears and you move through them. And you stand strong not because you are superman or superwoman.

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You stand strong because the mission demands it. You stand strong because you know what you're doing has eternal consequences. You stand strong because you know in that moment, God has placed you, will sustain you, and is your rock in the moment. Sometimes you're reluctant to step forward and take the lead and take the initiative that's needed to accomplish a major change because we're afraid of failing. Another reason is because we dread conflict.

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You know, most of us in ministry are pastors at heart. Many of you are pastors.

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I know that. But the rest

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of us are pastors at heart. We love people. We don't wanna hurt anyone. And when major change is proposed, we know it's gonna be painful and the temptation is to avoid it because we just don't wanna bring trouble into the flock. But I remind you, there's a fine line between protecting people and pleasing people.

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We are not here to protect art, please. We're here to lead.

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And sometimes, we're not going to be able to do that without some conflict. You know, when you propose major change, it creates tension and conflict and difficulty. It can strain relationships and cause people to reject the change and the change initiators, that would be you. Rejection like that hurts, hurts, particularly when it happens because of a principal decision or something like that. We know that some people are going to reject the decision.

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Some may leave the organization. Some may refuse to go along with what's being proposed and not participate and not be helpful in any way. Some people even become opponents, aggressively attacking us and trying to undermine what we're trying to get done. All of these responses lead to conflict. They may need lead to inner conflict for us as we struggle within ourselves or even public conflict as we have to struggle with others and what they're doing to us.

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And brothers and sisters, sometimes it's hard to lead major change because we dread conflict. But in those moments, we have

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to recognize the mission demands that we move forward and deal with the conflict as it comes, but not be stymied by our fear of it. And then third, some people don't wanna lead major change because of the personal cost involved. You know that leading change will take your time. It will suck up two to three to five to ten years of your life. It'll take it out of you.

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You know that leading change will drain your vitality. It'll take a toll on your health, on your emotional and and and physical well-being. And leading change may even have financial implications. It it it may cost you money as you give and as your organization sacrifices. You may have less resource for yourself and for the kind of personal financial support that you may want.

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Some people are reluctant to take the lead because of the personal cost. Well, brothers and sisters, today on the podcast, we've talked about the second half of this two sided coin. Yes. God takes God's direction is essential, but so is leadership initiative. God directs, then leaders initiate.

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We've talked about what that looks like and how it happens. We've also talked about some reasons that we're reluctant to step forward. But I want to challenge you today. God has placed you in leadership, and part of that responsibility is for you to step forward and take the initiative to lead major change, to say this has to be done. And whether I fear failure or dread conflict or recognize the personal cost, I'm gonna get through all those three things and I'm going to trust God, do what must be done, and believe that he will sustain me through whatever comes.

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Why? Because his mission matters more than anything else in the world, and I'm gonna sacrifice myself to make sure that it's fulfilled. Leading major change. It starts with God's direction. It continues under your initiative.

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Next week, we'll talk about one other part of this threefold relational approach that I have to understanding how how change happens. We'll talk about that next week, but in the meantime, lead on.