The Cost of Leadership Part 1

Whether you seek to serve and lead, or just feel like you fell into leadership, it is a calling God has placed in your heart. Out of obedience, you must follow that call. Once you accept the assignment, often there is a season of challenges that occur. This is when you might want to give up!

There is a cost to leadership and at times it will shock us! The cost is small in comparison to how God will lead us to know Him better through each sacrifice He requires as we serve Him. Over the next few weeks we will take a look at some of these “costs” and our willingness to embrace them. We will also consider how our leading can express how great HE truly is.

I never really aspired to be a leader but found myself in a place of leadership “by accident” as I like to say, but, truly it was by divine assignment. As I began to grow in the Lord, I found out how faithful He really was, especially in hard situations in life. When I experienced His peace in the middle of pain, I wanted to share that with other women…thus, my heart for women’s ministry was born.

I found myself in a “part-time then full-time” staff position with my church which eventually led to a denominational role with women’s ministry. I often wondered how I got there, except I knew God had called me to that place so I had no other option but to obey.

At one time, I never considered how serving the Lord could be costly, except maybe my time and hard work. I mean, it’s His work so shouldn’t it be glorious? And won’t everyone love the way I lead? I found that surrender to full-time ministry opened the door to challenges and full out spiritual warfare at times.

In Deuteronomy, 1 & 2 Chronicles, and Joshua, we see the command to be “strong and courageous” multiple times. From Moses to Joshua when the leadership baton was being passed. From the Israelites to Joshua as he took the baton. From God to Joshua as he was about to cross the Jordan and enter the promised land. If leadership was easy, there would be no need to be strong and courageous!

In this series, I want to address a few of the costs of leadership. I have 5 main costs, so at least 5 blog posts in this series.

Cost 1: The cost of giving up MY ministry. When I think this is my ministry, I have to remember, it’s really not. It’s HIS ministry. When we become possessive of the ministry to which we are called, self gets in the way of humble service. We begin to compare “our” ministry with “her ministry” thinking ours is better or ours is not as good as another’s. We take credit for all the positive results of this ministry rather than giving God the glory. And heaven forbid we serve in ministry to make our name great rather than Jesus’.

If I become possessive of “my ministry” I’m afraid I’d begin to rely on me, not Him, for getting the job done. When I realize I am an unqualified person called to a God-sized task, I know I cannot do the ministry without God to provide all that is needed.

So I’ve learned to rephrase “my ministry” with “the ministry God has called me to” when I talk about the blessing of serving Christ.

Join me next week for Part 2 of The Cost of Leadership.

Banner photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash