Leadership’s Most Difficult Word

Kenneth Gangel wrote his book So You Want to Be A Leader! 35 years ago, but his title of chapter 12 will always remain relevant: “How to Change Things (and live to tell about it).”

He says “it is without a doubt the responsibility of the leader to initiate improvement, and that necessitates innovation.” Of course the challenge, the difficulty, the repercussions, the casualties – they all come because of
• Poor vision communication
• Unwillingness to pay the cost of change
• Choosing the comfort of the familiar instead of the challenge of uncertainty

Here are some things to focus on when we are asked to participate in change:
• Faith – God will not abandon us; God leads us;
• Jesus challenged for change in the spheres of religious practice, views on social relationships, entrenched theology
• Most of us have successfully embraced electricity, automobiles, air travel, large flat screen TV’s, cell phones, computers, internet and texting … so why does the church continue to live in a different century and yet expect to influence people living in this century?
• The Bible places a lot of emphasis on “new”