Shane Ash

A few months ago I wrote this short article for a newsletter distributed to Nazarene pastors. I am told it was published today…so I thought I would share it here too.

Becoming great…

I want to be a leader. Actually, if I were completely honest; I want to be a great leader.

Not long ago, I was a staff pastor struggling to find my leader identity. Those around me had a hard time understanding the struggle.  From the outside it was a great ministry job, but inside my mind and heart the holy discontent was overwhelming. I was unfulfilled and unsatisfied with filling out the timecard, making a few hospital visits, checking off the expectations, and making sure the next tee time didn’t interfere with my family responsibilities.

In the midst of my wilderness wandering I lamented, “I am tired of being more excited about the golf putter I am going to buy next week than I am about the broken people around me…I want to learn how to truly love people.”

In hindsight, it was the moment when I knew what I had to do…I had to quit. I had to quit the professional pastor pose and begin to live out the calling and commands of Christ.

Unintentionally, I had traded in my calling for the profit of pride. I was more enamored with crafting an eloquent vision statement and aligning systems for assimilating people into membership than I was interested in seeing the hurting and lost people around me. I had forgotten the simple instructions from Jesus…to love people.

“My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up my meetings, conferences, study groups and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress.

But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own and to let them know with words, handshakes and hugs that you do not simply like them – but truly love them.” – Henri Nouwen

Great leadership is often defined by the attention we give to the vision, values, and systems within the organization. And indeed, they are important details, but perhaps the greatest of all leadership responsibilities is leading people to love others. Note: I am learning to measure great leadership through the outcome of increased love for others in the people within my influence.

What distinguishes great pastoral leadership from other forms of leadership is its purpose…to lead communities of people into deeper love for one another. This is how the world will know that you are my disciples…not through your profound messages, your beautiful buildings, your perfectly aligned programming, your pseudo posturing of pastoral perfection…but through the love you demonstrate for one another.

If we want to become great…we must become Jesusesque in our leadership. As for me, I am still learning how to drop the pose and start leading others to love.