The Spirit-Led Leader by Timothy C. Geoffrion

After prayerfully reading this book, “Leadership beyond human striving” would be a great summary to this profound call to be Spirit-Led Leaders! Timothy opens us to his own personal journey to become a Spirit-led leader. He graciously shares his struggles along this journey and openly confesses that he is still on the journey to be a better Spirit-led leader day after day.

In a world where all processes and methods are being systematized, where leadership has been made to become an art and science that anyone can learn without the help of spirituality, the author recaptures the importance of integrating spirituality in our every-day leadership, which he argues should stem from our personal and yielded walk with God and surrender to his Spirit.

The author essentially shows that our relationship with God should inform and empower all we are given to do. As Spirit-led leaders, every aspect of our leadership should be influenced by our sense of connection to God. This is leading while being led by another!

He strongly believes that serving as an effective spiritual leader requires a solid foundation of grace and a vital, growing spiritual life; which he has summarized in principles and practices of spirituality and leadership.

Leadership would be much harder and less satisfying, until we begin to make some fundamental changes in how we think about leadership and how we lead. Result-oriented leaders are often blinded by their tendency to focus on the vision, mission, strategies, and desired out-comes and often miss the opportunity to bring success in the right kind of way.

Timothy shows that what is needed is a balanced model of leadership that holds together achieving the right king of results and doing so in the right way. Leadership that is concerned both with producing high-quality results and with promoting a healthy, graceful, and stimulating work environment. Spiritual leadership is something we offer to others when we consciously draw on God as the source of our life and leadership. This is about bringing to leadership more than knowledge, competence and skills. It about character, hunger for God, care for people and their growth and setting an example through living and practicing spiritual disciplines. It is also about listening as an attitude and as a skill.

For the author, practicing the presence of God in our every-day activities, makes us better contributors and good listener which allow us to draw from the wisdom of people around us. By constantly practicing the presence of God, we remain open to whatever wisdom or leading that may emerge in the course of our work and interaction with others. This will lead us to embrace change as a friend and as an opportunity to hear from God and find direction from him. While our tendency is to ask others to change, Spirit-led leaders understand that change starts from them.

Being a Sprit-led leader or striving to be one, does not shield you from experiencing and going through some of the most painful events and circumstances in life. It does not shield our faith from doubt about the goodness of God. When God seems silent and distant, we are faced with a decision to make: Are we going to continue trusting God and believing in him even when we don’t understand what is happening around our lives or are we going to let discouragement and heartbreaks to overwhelm us and cause us to abandon God all together? A Spirit-led leader would pray for grace to continue trusting and continue serving God’s people.

This means asking God for the grace to have faith. Faith that does not dictate to God what the results of our work must be but that trusts that God is producing valuable outcomes in one way or another. Faith trusts that God is at work in our life and leadership whether or not we can we discern his activity. Our trust has to go deeper than quoting Bible verses or trying to put a good face on a bad situation.

Mature spiritual leaders will not base their belief in the presence or absence of God on whether they get the results they wanted. They will trust not only that God always shows up, but also that God never leaves. God is always present, whether we perceive his presence or not.

The heart of spiritual leadership is opening ourselves fully to the love and grace of God. The grace of God creates the only sure foundation for personal transformation and dynamic spiritual leadership. This is believing that we are truly precious in God’s eyes, dearly loved as his creation, and that we have a wonderful opportunity to grow and to serve through faith in Christ and working of God in us and through us. Experiencing the love and grace of God in a personal way.

Our best help to experiencing the grace of God ourselves and to becoming gracious spiritual leaders comes from God in the context of our relationship to God. In our own power, we cannot create an experience with God, because it can come only as a gift, in God’s timing, regardless of our own sense of readiness or lack of. We must also remember that we experience God’s greatest power and help when we are weakest, not strongest.

Let us welcome the grace of God and be used by God to be Spirit-led leaders.

Muhindo Malunga Lusukiro

Reflections on life, humanity, development and leadership

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