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Think back over your life. Who were the people who made the greatest impact on you? Were they the people with the most notoriety, money, power, or position? I would guess the answer is likely no. When I think back, the people who made the greatest impact on me were the people who took the time to see me and my potential. People like my first grade teacher, Mrs. Reed; my piano teacher, Mrs. Chriss; and my high school music teacher, Mr. Hogan. Chances are, you can also point to people who left a lasting impression on life - a teacher, a coach, or a neighbor. It was not always what they said to you or even what they did for you. Often it was about what you saw in them. You saw something that you wanted to emulate. They may not have even known they were having such an effect on life.

Leadership is not as much about doing as it is about being. What we do and how we do what we do grows out of who we are. In "No Man Is An Island", Thomas Merton writes,

"When a man constantly looks at himself in the mirror of his own acts, his spiritual double vision splits him into two people. And if he strains his eyes hard enough, he forgets which one is real".

Erroneously, our society has led us to believe that more doing equates to more effectiveness. In actuality, often more doing can be used to divert attention from who we are. Eugene Peterson, in his book "Leap Over A Wall" writes:

"Work can reveal something about us - express our values, articulate our morals, act out our convictions of what it means to be a human being created in the image of God. Conversely, work can conceal our real identity, it can be used as a front to advertise something that we want people to see in us or believe about us but that in fact we've never bothered to become within ourselves."

The mark of a good leader is self-growth - intentional growth. It includes the people we choose to surround us, the books we read, your prayer and study life, and the kind of mentoring relationships we might have. No one should be allowed to lead or teach anyone else who is, himself, unwilling to follow and unwilling to be taught. One of the reasons many of us plateau or burn-out early in ministry is because we learn a set of skills, we use them effectively but we become comfortable and complacent. Things are changing all around us, yet we fail to adapt to those changes. We coast on skills learned years ago. Our growth (the growth of the leader) will determine the growth of our ministry. Our people will never grow beyond the level of our growth and our leadership.