Leadership Archives - Foundational Missions

April 23, 2024April 23, 2024

Self-Life vs Life of Service

The greatest among you shall be your servant … What's He talking about? Is He saying that the servants, literally those who serve us, are the greatest from His point of view? This is counterintuitive, and the mind of man will almost not have it. It has to mean something other than that. He must have something else in mind if we are to defend our personal superiority.

I think it can be safely said that no one is trying to be the most servile, or at least not many. Love God and serve people. We get into trouble when we get this backwards. Yes, we do serve God, but by and through our service to people.

March 1, 2024February 29, 2024

Leaders Hurt Us

I remember reading, many years ago, that few who are called to leadership successfully navigate the obstacles on the way so as to realize the calling in full. I believe this is true. Much of the time these obstacles are put down by our leaders themselves–the very ones who are trying to help us reach our potential. Often, this happens through the leader's weakness, our personal weakness, or a collision of the two. Here are some things I'm learning about this, some of them the hard way, that I believe will help you avoid the stumbling blocks.

March 31, 2020April 2, 2020

Followership, Leadership and Discipleship

It’s not what a person does that makes his work holy, it’s why he does it. – Tozer

I’ve studied leadership for more than 25 years. There is a ton of leadership podcasts, books, resources and examples in business and history. What part of this can be valuable to us in our pursuit of becoming better leaders?

October 15, 2019April 2, 2020

Painful Realization

The hardest thing to learn is what you think you already know, right?

Pain is a faithful instructor…

I read some years ago that the product of a team and the product of individuals aren’t the same. I’ve come to believe / realize the truth in this. Here’s the story that drove it home like no other. It was 2005 and I’d just returned from an extreme missions training pilot course. My mind was being brought into the light of teamwork in ways I thought I already knew.