Tension

“Most leaders spend their time avoiding tension. Good leaders endure it. Great leaders engage it. How do you handle tension in a team/life?”

I first posted this thought on Twitter and then thought I better explain myself. Sometimes a quote is totally self explanatory, sometimes it leaves you totally baffled, and then there are the quotes that demand you spell out some fundamentals or expose a truth for growing. So here is what I think:

Many years ago at Grand Canyon University I was able to “corner” Erwin McManus after a conference session. As always he did a fine job. However, I had a problem. My problem wasn’t so much with anything he said but with my current set of circumstances. I was about to start my first lead/head/senior (whatever you feel comfortable with) role and was excited but petrified. I approached him…thank him for his time…told him I only had one question…

“If you could go back and tell your younger self any one thing right before you started your first pastorate what would you say?”

He didn’t hesitate…not one second. He looked me straight in the eye (even with a hundred people trying to do the very same thing I was doing) and said… “I would tell myself to run head first into every challenge. You can’t afford to run away. Every challenge ignored comes back bigger than when you ran away from it.” (that is now a bit of paraphrase but the very heart of his comment)

Truth:

Every leader will face tension. Tension is that delicate balance we must all walk in order to arrive at great decisions, the most excellent and creative expressions, or any vision worth pursuing. The problem I see with current leadership trends today (especially in the church) is that we only give this thought “lip service.” The result is an idealogy, vision, passion, or creative voice that represents one person, and usually not the ONE that matters most. It is crafted out of fear and an over inflated sense of self that does not tolerate a different thought or opinion. The result is the glaring chink in the armor of a leader who has been called to stand as one commissioned strong, brave, and respected. The sad result is that people will only follow this leadership for so long, and the younger generations will flee from it with speed unlike you have ever seen.

Question:

How does one embrace and engage tension for the sake of vision? First let me say that I am a work in progress in this arena…BUT I am fighting this fight. I am hoping to engage some friends with this post who are doing the same and the goal will be to have them “Guest Post” in this blog. I will offer my thoughts and the thoughts of those who come alongside in an effort to “practice what I preach.” This is as much an exercise for me as it is anything, so be patient. Pray for me and those who will post as I am sure it will result in some great thought and personal challenge!

If you read this and would like to “guest post” send me an email (look on contact page). OR feel free to just leave a comment below if you don’t want to go to all that trouble of working out what “guest post” means.