One of the things you will see if you spend any time looking at prominent pastors on the internet is that pretty much everyone of them considers themselves a leadership guru. Almost all of the biggest name pastors has a leadership blog or podcast or book or some combination of those three. They speak at leadership conferences and they tweet out leadership advice on the regular. ​I have worked in three different church settings as well as a large Christian camp. I have been led by many different kinds of leaders. I have felt a desire for some time to offer my own insight into leadership. However, I want to take a different approach. I am not here as the leadership guru/expert, I am here as the guy who has been led. I am here as the guy who has had several different types of personalities and styles of leadership that I have worked under. I am here as somewhat of a follower. I will add the disclaimer that I am not always a good follower. I don't always agree with the leadership. One of the interesting things is that the leaders I have worked with that are alright with me not agreeing are the leaders who have been the most successful, but I am getting ahead of myself. 

I want to focus on four particular thoughts and observations I have made as I've been led.

1. "In order to lead, people have to want to follow you."
I wish this didn't need to be said. But I have had experience with leaders who have not grasped this concept. They have operated completely from the idea that "you will follow me because I am the leader!" Let me tell you, these guys are the worst! There is no leadership that comes from this approach. It is about power, it is about position. True leadership comes from a desire to see the over all picture become beautiful. If no one wants to follow, then you aren't leading anyone. There may be people who stay part of the team, they stick around out of their need for an income, but you are not leading them. This is where we see companies or organizations moving backwards. Its where we see failure. If your efforts are centered around self-preservation or self-promotion your efforts are self-centered. There is no progress in self-centered leadership.

As a pastor, you have plenty of opportunity to have conversations with people who are in really difficult situations. conversations with people who are hurting, a lot. People dealing with sickness, family brokenness, consequences of poor choices and on and on and on. I have had days where I have had a conversation about late stage cancer, another conversation about overwhelming financial burdens, another about a family that is being destroyed by chemical abuse, all within a three hour span. Its difficult. It weighs on you. At times it can seem like there is just to much hurt for any of this, anything to be worthwhile. 

I had a professor in college who i really enjoyed, he was a really interesting guy who was a psychiatrist and served as a pastor at a church as well as taught at the college level.  I had him for a couple classes over my time in school, the one that stood out was a class called "Counseling for Pastors". The class was primarily people who were going to be entering into full time ministry. He said something in class one time, and I will never forget this, it was one of the most amazing lines I have ever heard, and I went out of my way to use it in any essay response I ever needed to give on an exam. He said "Counseling is an unending chain of human misery parading through your office."