How did we do our work before the internet? I threw this question to some friends this week. I couldn’t remember it clearly. No email and no instant info. It must have been more phone calls, more asking questions of people who knew stuff, more thinking for myself, more planning ahead.
The digital world has changed everything. And like many previous advances that have offered the promise of an easier life, life is at least just as hard, busy, and fast-paced - and for many, even more so.
As Christian leaders we are continually comparing ourselves and being compared to others through the flow of internet content. As we feel the pressure to keep up, our work of leadership can become consumed by priorities of technique, efficiency, or influence. But as followers of Jesus, our starting point must be different. Christian leadership, at its core, is not about scale, platform, charisma, or competence. It is about becoming the kind of person through whom God can do his work.
Lets’ remember that as Christian Leaders we are called but not perfect. And some of us are a long way from perfect. Eugene Peterson bluntly reminds us in Under the Unpredictable Plant:
“Every congregation is a congregation of sinners. As if that weren’t bad enough, they all have sinners for pastors.”
And yet God’s invitation remains: to grow up, to mature, to become more like Christ.
God is not looking for celebrity leaders. But leaders who value humility, who serve, who choose sacrificial love. Containing our ambition in the confines of being led by the Spirit. Yielding our drivenness to the Shepherd who makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside quiet waters.
Yes, some of us will “achieve” more than others. We are uniquely gifted, with unique experiences, in a unique context. But ministry is not a contest. It is a divine and noble calling. We can’t allow our soul to be sacrificed on the altar of fame or adulation, like so many sports stars, pop stars and movie stars.
Eugene Peterson reminds us that real leadership feels slow. It looks like prayer before strategy, presence before productivity, and integrity before outcomes. It is the refusal to trade our identity as shepherds for the role of religious entrepreneurs or celebrity leaders.
Simon P. Walker in his The Undefended Leader trilogy, describes the ways leaders often rely on performance, persona, or emotional armour to protect themselves from vulnerability. I have seen this in many leaders - including myself. And I have also seen what Walker postulates - that defended leaders inevitably distort community—they lead from insecurity rather than trust.
Walker proposes another way. An undefended leader is someone who can lead without using power to dominate, or needing to control outcomes or manage perceptions. And this is not being passive—it is pressing forward into fruitfulness but wth a courageous openness to God, to the strengths and input of others, and to one’s own limitations. Undefended leaders are authentic, open, honest, vulnerable, and lead from an inner freedom. They don’t need to maintain a perfect image. They are comfortable having others look at how they spend their ministry hours, the church finances, how the staff are doing, and how their personal life is going.
As a seasoned Christian, this is the leader I will enthusiastically follow.
How does this sit with you?
To me this feels like maturity. This feels non-anxious. This feels like the Jesus way of leading.
With courage and humility let’s keep growing, and may our lives become the clearest signpost to the Shepherd who leads us all.
