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PLI is devoted to empowering leaders for wider influence for the sake of the gospel in their communities and effective leadership in their ministries. Learn more about our vision and process here.

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It’s Fun to be a Leader…Again

It’s fun to be a leader again!

Have you been there? After a season of congregational leadership not being fun, you step out of the forest and into the bright sunshine of leadership and find that it’s fun? It’s a great thing!

I loved hearing one of the leaders in the PLI family simply declare:

[bctt tweet=”It’s just fun…again…to be a leader.” username=”pliexperience”]

We’ve all taken our turn in the “not fun being a leader” box. So we can all appreciate when “it’s ‘fun’…‘again.’”

Leadership and fun! It’s not a particularly sophisticated assessment, right? But we all get it.

The joy that results when…

  • Pursuing a common vision
  • Congregational unity
  • A collective, humble willingness to listen for the leading of God
  • Leading from your own “sweet spot”
  • People being baptized. Lives being changed.
  • “It’s all worth it.”
  • Simply… making progress

It makes me think of some of my most “unfun” seasons:

  • Relocating our church
  • Budgets and financial strains
  • Unresolved conflict
  • Demonstrated lack of character by friend-leaders
  • Suffocating lack of future vision/direction
  • Feelings of being ill equipped and unprepared for the new role/new challenges

Unfun seasons can…

  • Strengthen emotional resilience.
  • Solidify faith and character.
  • Expose sinful motives.

And, “unfun” seasons can also prompt leaders…

  • To isolate… Bypass relationship and community where vision can be rediscovered and simple worth restored.
  • To escape… Indulge in food, work, addictive substances or something on the internet. Or, to simply wish yourself to a whimsical “better place” and drift away from responsibility and the leadership task at hand.
  • To surrender… Abandon the vision God has stirred because it’s tough right now, and then window shop for a new direction, new vision, new location.

If it’s fun right now, you should…

  • Celebrate! Celebrate with your whole board or team, or with the congregation.
  • Marvel at what God is doing in you and through you.
  • Allow yourself to dream about what comes next.

So, for most church leaders… Leadership is hard. It’s mostly uphill. It’s not our goal to pursue “fun” leadership.

So, why don’t you…

  • Talk about your best “fun” and “unfun” leadership season. (You’ve got both.)
  • If you identified with the “escape to the addictive,” seek a trusted (confidential) friend or a counselor. Don’t wait for worse.
  • Reach out to a leader in or around your church in their own “unfun” season and give them a bit of your time. Remind them who they are.

Rev. Dr. Jock Ficken

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