Kingfisher Leadership
1st September 2019
Kingfisher Leadership news The importance of Self Leadership The most important person we need to lead is ourselves. Unless we have a positive understanding of this, we will not be able to effectively lead others.
Example: 1 Samuel 30...
Questions to ask ourselves as we seek to exercise self-leadership:
• Is my calling sure? "I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I may finish the race and complete David leads his men on a raid to attack the task The Lord Jesus has given the Amalekites.
me." (Acts 20:24). Ask: God, as re you still calling me to the ministry that you gave Returning home, he realises that the me?
Amalekites have outwitted him and • Is my vision clear? attacked their home town, Ziklag, How can I lead people into the burning it to the ground.The future if my picture of the the women, children and everyone future is unclear? Every leader else had been carried away.
needs a regular, internal visioncast. Is your vision still clear?
Before I can •Is my passion still hot? David was now facing mutiny from his men (1 Samuel 30:6)
lead others, Who's responsibility is it to keep the leader's passion fired up? I have to be Their own! This is a selfWhat does David do next? Who does he focus his energies on? able to lead leadership issue - it is not Getting back at the enemy? someone else's responsibility. myself Winning over his men? Forming What are you doing to ensure a plan to bounce back? None of that you are still passionate these.
about your ministry? What are you reading? What are you "But David found strength in The listening to? Who are you Lord his God." (1 Samuel 30:6).
spending time around?
He realises the importance of prioritising • Am I developing my gifts? self-leadership...strengthening himself in Do you know what your top gifts are? You The Lord before he focussed on the are responsible before God, not just for problems around him. Leadership expert knowing what they are, but for developing Dee Hock says: "It is management of self them to their maximum potential. Are you that should occupy 50% of our time and challenging yourself to develop your gifts the best of our ability. And when we do to the best of your ability? This is a selfthat, the ethical, moral, and spiritual leadership issue.
elements of management are • Is my character submitted to Christ? inescapable."
You cannot lead without moral authority. Moral authority means that your character 1
Kingfisher Leadership
is in line with your expectations of others. All of us have character issues that we struggle with, but self-leadership is about authentically engaging in that struggle with a desire and commitment to bring your character in line with the character of Christ and with your personal life matching your public, ministry life.
• Is my pride being dealt with? "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5). As leaders, we have a choice - we can choose opposition from God or we can choose grace and favour from God. It is very difficult to assess for yourself whether you have a pride issue or not...you need to ask people you trust. How hard is that? It depends - on how much pride is a real issue for you!
• Am I overcoming fear? Leadership is about change. Change costs people we are leading, by and large dislike change. After a while, leaders can come to want to avoid the confrontation and the pain of this. They fear the reactions of those they lead when they announce change. They end up leading in fear. They don’t take a public stand over issues because of the potential backlash. All change involves risk. In fact, everything to do with leadership involves risk. However, "The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." (1 John 4:4). Self leadership leads the leader to ask the question: Is God in this? If he is, then the leader needs to deal with the fear and move forward, so that our mission is not derailed.
• Is my pace sustainable? The only person who can ensure that we are living life at a sustainable pace is ourselves. If you are too busy, too over-committed, the person who needs to take responsibility for this is YOU. What is sustainable for you may not be for someone else - it is a personal thing. It is your responsibility to find your healthy level and maintain it.
• Is my love for God and people increasing? For many leaders, their hearts, sadly, get smaller and colder. So many demands, so many issues, so much conflict... it is not surprising that passion turns to duty and people become problems to manage, solve or avoid. How is your heart? If you make mo
1st September 2019
changes in your life or ministry, what is the likely outcome in terms of your heart?
Four mistakes we make in self-leadership: Mistake #1: We focus on our feelings rather than the facts. Emotional reasoning is dangerous. Emotional reasoning says, “If I feel it, it must be so.” If I feel like a failure, I am a failure. If I don’t feel close to God, I must not be close to God. If I feel like a failure as a pastor, I must be a failure as a pastor. The fact is, feelings are not always facts. Your feelings will tell you that you’re helpless and hopeless, but those feelings aren’t rooted in truth.
Mistake #2: We compare ourselves to others. When we are emotionally drained, we start comparing ourselves. The Bible warns against this over and over again. When you start comparing yourself to other people you are setting yourself up for depression. Everybody’s different. Everybody’s unique. Only you can be you. When you get to heaven, God is not going to say, “How come you weren’t more like Billy Graham?” or “How come you weren’t more like Moses?” or “How come you weren’t more like…?”
He’s really going to say, “How come you weren’t more like you?” We get emotionally burnt out because we start comparing ourselves. When we compare ourselves we compare our weaknesses with other people’s strengths. We ignore the fact that they have weaknesses that we may be strong in. We make comparisons that get us into all kinds of trouble.
Mistake #3: We blame ourselves for things that aren’t our fault. We tend to blame ourselves and when we’re feeling emotionally low we tend to blame all of the world’s problems on ourselves. If you get in a helping profession like counseling or pastoring or social work, you’re going to discover that the people don’t always respond the way you’d like them to respond. You can influence people but you cannot control them. Yet we tend to blame ourselves when others make choices we don’t approve of or don’t understand.
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Kingfisher Leadership
1st September 2019
Mistake #4: We exaggerate the negative.
Coming soon:
Have you noticed the fact that when you’re discouraged, everything seems to be wrong? When your life becomes filled with fear and resentment and low self-esteem and anger and loneliness and worry, you’re headed for burnout. Then, if you focus on your feelings, and you compare yourself to others, and you accept responsibility for everybody else, and you exaggerate the negative, you’re only going to make matters worse.
Kingfisher Family is expanding, reaching more countries than ever around the world. Welcome to our brothers and sisters in Kenya under the leadership of Pastor John Kengethe! To keep people better up to date with all that is happening around the Kingfisher world, we are launching soon a new website: www.kingfisherfamily.org and a new social media page. More news about this coming up soon!
Your prayers needed!
Self leadership has to precede the leading of others, because a lot more is caught than taught. To put this in perspective, take a look at the following poem, written by Rev. Claude Wisdom White:
A careful man I want to be — a little fellow follows me. I do not dare to go astray, for fear he’ll go the self-same way. I cannot once escape his eyes. Whatever he sees me do he tries. Like me he says he’s going to be — that little chap who follows me… He knows that I am big and fine — And believes in every word of mine. The base in me he must not see — that little chap who follows me… But after all it’s easier, that brighter road to climb, With little hands behind me — to push me all the time. And I reckon I’m a better man than what I used to be… Because I have this lad at home who thinks the world of me.
The Bible tells us that:
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:26, NIV).
The body of christ is really suffering in Zimbabwe, Africa and desperately needs our prayers. We have recently received this from Pastor Joseph Maravanyika:
Hi Pastor Calvary greetings from Zimbabwe, hope I find you well as you tirelessly labour in the kingdom of God. Will not cease praying for you as you carry the vision. Asking that you continue to pray for us also as church, due to national challenges, but most importantly is the Christian community. Faith is failing as believers spend most of their time fending for sustainability. Prices of goods are going up everyday, children are dropping out of school, as fees hike every term by margin of minimum 300% depending with type of school this is applicable to their income. High degree of intorelance to the citizens, misrule , corruption, false hope, intimidation is exhibited in our nation. Due to this scenario I therefore request that the church help us to pray for our nation for God to intervene . With love Joseph Maravanyika
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