1st April 2022
Kingfisher Leadership news Why do leaders fall? • I have stopped confessing my sins. ver the past few years there has Confession stops when sin starts, and so, when been a growing number of leaders we fall away from a regular practice of who have had to step down or who confession, we leave the way clear for moral have been revealed to have been morally compromise to seep in. compromised after their death, all as the result of a lack of genuine •I don’t think of the accountability. That have consequences. I am thinking of managed to live double lives, the action and the pleasure that is Where often for many years until attached, but not the consequences. nally their secret life is accountability is But sin always has consequences. exposed, often with results that People always get hurt. Often more lacking, real are very damaging for the people get hurt, people get hurt in more awful ways ministry or church they are than we would care to contemplate. involved with and for the wider the Body of Keeping the consequences in mind is body of Christ. a very healthy thing.
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Christ is damaged and the Gospel of the Kingdom is brought into disrepute.
But before we judge others for moral failures, we need to do a reality check and admit that we are all vulnerable to making mistakes that damage leadership credibility and that end up damaging both ourselves and other people. There are various warning signs that you or I might be heading in the dangerous direction of moral compromise: • I choose isolation over community. Sin usually happens in secret, and so one early warning sign of potential moral failure is to prefer to separate ourselves from meaningful community.
•I don’t believe the rules apply to me. In general we deplore moral failure in leaders, but when it comes to you and me, there are always extenuating circumstances. The rules don’t apply to me, and so I skirt round them or rewrite them. I manage this by avoiding relationships where I am going to be held accountable.
• I can no longer cope and this is my way out. The burden of leadership can be overwhelming and over time there can be a desperation that grows to bail out, to selfsabotage so that the decision is taken out of my hands.
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