I have taken pretty much every assessment known to mankind - strengths, personalities, gifts, you name it. One of the fun parts of working with others and helping them understand their abilities is that I have to make sure to know my own. However, before I entered that intentional time in my journey, I learned early in Kevin’s ministry that I really enjoyed the way that he ran the youth group. In fact, it was because of his understanding of how to run a “program” that I fell in love with that part of the process.
I never really knew it while I was moving through Kevin’s high school ministry, but by the time I was on the leadership team in my later years in high school, and later as a paid staff member, I was learning to run a midweek or weekend program that was both fun and effective. Kevin was always about program. Start times, and times, everything in between, resources, people, and the like. He was so passionate about getting all of these pieces of the puzzle to fit perfectly that I began to value the same. And that’s what leaders do.
Because Kevin was such a program guy, he attracted people that had the same passion. Now, of course that is not the only quality that I was attracted to when it came to his leadership style, but it was definitely a big factor. I really appreciated that he paid attention to the details, without micromanaging. I never liked micromanagement, and Kevin knew that. I still think back and wonder how difficult it must of been to deal with all of my shortcomings and failures. I am just glad that he never kicked me to the curb.
Kevin made ministry fun. And, all of the people who were on staff, from college kids all the way up to adults, felt like they were part of the process, and that they had a stake in the game. We were all important in our specific capacities in making that program run. We were all different cogs of the same machine. Peter understood this facet of leadership…
“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.” ~ 1 Peter 1:5-9
Wow, talk about a guy who knew what kind of people he was looking for! So the question is: do you possess the qualities of the people that you hope to attract to walk the road with you? Remember, we attract who we are, not who we want to be. If you find yourself wanting people on your team or inner circle that have better, or even different, qualities then my encouragement is that you take an introspective look and figure out what you need to do to become the kind of person that you want to attract. Just like two great leaders did, Peter and Kevin, my encouragement is that you decide what kind of people you want to have on your team, and then do everything in your ability to master those qualities.
Praying for you,
MO
