Leadership causes insecurities to rise to the surface. And if we’re not careful we’ll make decisions based on what’s best for our ego vs what’s best for the glory of God and the good of His kingdom. Here’s the first way we can overcome insecurity…
BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT SURROUNDING YOURSELF WITH BRIGHT CAPABLE PEOPLE.
An insecure leader feels threatened by talent. Take King Saul for example. He felt threatened by young David. Instead of harnessing David’s abilities and using them for the good of the kingdom, Saul tried to eliminate David. How different was King Pharaoh’s approach. When he discovered Joseph, even though Joseph wasn’t Egyptian, he harnessed his talents and put them to work for the good of his kingdom.
When we look at the life of Jesus we see that he worked hard to put together a great team. The Bible says that Jesus stayed up all night long praying about and thinking through who he would invite onto his team. And let me tell you – these guys were no slouches. How do we know? Well, when Jesus ascended back to heaven after his crucifixion they started what has become a world wide movement that’s lasted over 2,000 years. I that speaks to their credentials. I mean – one of these guys led 3,000 people to faith on his first sermon – and then saw every one of them water baptized! These guys were no slouches. If you study history you’ll always discover that the vanguard – the leaders at the forefront of a movement – are always bright and capable people. Think of the people who led the American Revolution (George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, etc). The vanguard are always bright, capable people and this is how it was with Jesus’ disciples. And this is how we want it with our team. We want people who are full of the Holy Spirit and are bright and capable. Just because you’re full of the Holy Spirit doesn’t automatically make you the sharpest tool in the shed (so to speak). If the guys in Acts 6 were only full of the Holy Spirit and weren’t bright, the Grecian widows would have continued to be overlooked in the daily distribution of bread!
Because I’m insecure I’m tempted to hire down, not up. But I’ve learned to overcome this insecurity by making it a rule to surround myself with bright and capable people as much as possible. In the early days of New Day I surrounded myself with bright, capable volunteers. As the church grew I hired bright, capable staff. This hasn’t come naturally to me so I’ve had to be very intentional about it. I just brought on a PT person for help with financial data entry and social media. She’s got a masters degree in psychophysiology and biofeedback, with a Ph.D. in social and personality psychology. Now I’m barely smart enough to pronounce most of those words that she’s earned a degree in! But I want people like her on my team. She loves Jesus and she’s really bright! I want to surround myself with people like her!
What’s best for my ego is to hire down because then I’ll always be the smartest, most capable person in the room. What’s best for my ego is to hire down because then I’ll always feel good about how smart and capable I am compared to the people I surround myself with. What’s best for my ego is to hire down so that I never feel threatened. But that’s not what’s best for the glory of God and the good of His kingdom and we always need to make decisions in light of what’s best for God’s kingdom and not what’s best for our ego.
For your church to reach maturity you must overcome insecurity by being intentional about surrounding yourself with bright, capable people.