The Leadership Void

I'm noticing a disturbing trend, not only in our nation, but in our local church.  There is a leadership void and as with any void, it will be filled by those who are either not equipped to lead or who have a personal agenda to promote.  The old saying of there being "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians" which refers to everyone wanting to lead and no one willing to do the work is no longer true.  More and more people want to serve, but don't want to lead.  It reminds me a bit of Moses.  He did want to deliver the Jews from bondage, but when his first attempt ended badly, he withdrew for 40 years and then had to be drafted by God to be the leader of the Exodus.  The problem with a lack of leadership is that anarchy prevails.  That means that everyone does his own thing.  When that happens there is no synergy, and the organization is limited to the ability of the individual rather than the combined ability of the group.  Recently I have dealt with several groups where no one was willing to lead.  Everyone had their own ideas of how the group should function, but no one was willing to lead the group, or even call a meeting.

I mentioned synergy earlier in this post.  The simple definition of synergy is: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."  An example of synergy is that while one horse may be able to pull 8,000 pounds, two horses yoked together can pull not just double, but triple that amount, 24,000 pounds.  However, someone has to decide that something needs to be moved, and take the initiative to hitch the horses to the the object to be moved and then spur the horses to pull.  That someone is the "leader".

The leadership void will be filled, but we may not be happy with the result.  The importance of knowing one's spiritual gift(s) is that those with leadership gifts will then be put in a position to chair committees or lead groups to accomplish more than any one person can do on their own.

Think about this.