I thought I'd follow up the last post by focusing specifically on my journey in discovering my leadership profile. The Lord had provided glimpses of my gifts and abilities, but I had no guiding paradigm to understand myself in light of my ministry context.
Here's how I would diagram my leadership profile:
I'm orientated highly toward the future/internal, which in the Leadership Model is the Change Agent or Kingdom Learner role. I've noticed that every role or task I engage has the change agent mentality at the core. This diagram also explains why some roles I thrive in and others drain and produce average or even below average results.
In roles that demand a maintenance of the status quo or are highly present-orientated, I usually become quickly frustrated, and if I'm grading myself would usually receive a 'C.' I've also seen that even within roles that are highly present-orientated, I naturally gravitate to a specific part within the role that requires some sort of change or alteration.
This diagram helped me understand why I enjoyed attending Mosaic church in college, and listening to Erwin McManus. In the moment, I would have said I went to Mosaic and enjoyed Erwin because it was a great church with great and inspiring teaching.
Now I would say I went to Mosiac because it was the first church that I had attended that was orientated towards the future and that Erwin's giftings and passions resonated deeply with my giftings and passions and what I knew God was developing in my life. It's interesting to me that what I loved about Erwin had less to do about his pastoral abilities, and more to do with his leadership giftings. This change in perception would not have been challenging to discern without the Leadership Model's X and Y axis.
I'd love to hear where you fall along the Present/Future and Internal/External. Has this been reinforced or challenged during your staff career?
