Are You Too Distracted to Lead Your Church?

By Rod Anderson, CP Cartoonist Tuesday, August 25, 2015

As the primary season for the 2016 presidential election heats up, we hear all sorts of rhetoric surrounding the meaning of good leadership. Men and women from all over the country try to convince us that they are full of integrity, compassion, decisiveness and all sorts of other abstract qualities that seem impossible to measure or quantify. But what is God's plan for leadership, not just for our elected officials, but for everyday people?

Every Christian exercises leadership in some capacity. Whether we are at home, at church, at school, at work, in our peer groups or in our communities, we all influence others with our words and actions. God's plan for leadership in all these venues has not changed: we are to lead by serving and loving those around us. Yet the challenges we face as leaders today are different than in generations past.

In my own experience, one of the most daunting obstacles we face to exercising godly leadership is distraction. The ubiquitous presence of electronic devices and internet access presents unprecedented interruptions for everyone. To be effective leaders, we must learn to tune out these diversions and focus on what is most important.