This blog is dedicated to those who have heard the call of God to leadership.

Whether through an audible voice, an inner impression or a outer compulsion most of those who begin to read this blog will have heard the call to leadership. You’ve wondered whether it was God. Sometimes you’ve hoped one way and other times another, but deep down you’ve believed that what you heard was God, and you’ve responded ‘Here, I am. Send me.’

Now, you wonder it you were wrong. Perhaps you’ve been struggling in areas you think you should find easy. Perhaps people you respect have questioned your call. Or perhaps you’ve been rejected by the very people you feel called to serve. In any case, you wonder, if you were wrong. You contemplate giving up, walking away, going a different way.

Perhaps you should. My pastor, a man I respected a great deal growing up and still do, said, ‘Don’t presume to lead unless you can do nothing else.’ On the other hand, he said, ‘If God calls you to preach the gospel, don’t step down to be a king.’

The call to leadership is like the call to faith. Sometimes you’re hanging on by a thread. And sometimes you’re not hanging on at all, something, someone, is hanging on to you. Sometimes to walk away would be to walk away from the one you’re called to serve. Sometimes letting go of the leadership, is all you can do to preserve the faith that under girds it.

John Maxwell says leadership is all about influence. Christian leadership is about influencing others in the direction of Christ: His will, pursued in His way. Before it can be about others it must be about Him, about us, coming under the influence of God, daily, basking in His presence, soaking in His strength, learning to live in the confidence and the humility that come from Him. Influencing others to do the same.

Today, like most days, I face challenges in leadership. I face challenges in life. Do I press ahead or walk away? Before either, I must ‘press in’, to Him.

Over the next days and weeks together we’ll talk about many aspects of Christian leadership. Today let’s concentrate on the basics.

How did you ‘get into’ leadership?

Looking back, where do you see God in ‘the call’ or in ‘the fall’?

Looking forward, what do you have to do, to ‘live’, daily, under the influence of Christ?