A Bondservant's Musings

My wife and I set out for a hike this morning on the Big Island of Hawaii. We read up on where we were going -- from Highway 19 down to the ocean along the Kohala coast to the Golden Pools of Ke-awa-Iki -- and how to get there (using our standard Hawaii guide book, this time Hawaii the Big Island Revealed ). We took the description of the hike and a map with us. And still we managed to make the hike longer and harder than it should have been. Instead of following what the book laid out, I got us off track after rushing down to the black sand beach and starting to explore. Then we didn't stop and look back at the instructions or the map when we had a question about where to go next. (I won't be quitting my day job to become a guide anytime soon.) Never fear, we didn't really get lost. And no one was in any danger. We got to see everything we set out to see, including those golden pools. And all it cost us was a little more time and a little more exercise as we backtracked t...

"Get out of the way" is not something you normally associate with strong leaders. But stick with me here. There are certain things a leader has to give up as he or she moves up in leadership. I want to concentrate on one of those areas for flock leaders. The typical path to the flock leader role is to promote a current small group leader or couple. That means there is a decision to be made about the future leadership of that small group. Let me make this easy for you. When promoted to flock leader, the soon-to-be former -- that should give away what is coming next -- small group leader(s) needs to give up leadership and ownership of that small group. I say this for a couple reasons. First, as a flock leader, you are now a leader of leaders. Your responsibilities have changed. You are now expected to identify, shepherd, train, equip and release new leaders. That should start with what until yesterday was your small group. (By the way, it was never your small group. Rather the ...