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Lesson OneCharacter and Leadership4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TwoKnowing God's Will4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson ThreeHow To Build Trust as a Leader4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FourDefining Yourself as a Leader4 Activities1 Assessment
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Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity1 Assessment
Participants 141
Discussion Questions
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The lecture discusses evaluating your leadership in terms of five capacities: the “gap,” the “fit,” feedback from others, parallel context, and your “gut.” Write a brief evaluation of your leadership in terms of these five capacities.
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My leadership was developed by being a part of a leadership cohort at St. Louis University. Within this group we were coached by professional leaders in their fields. Also, my school district placed me in the Missouri Leadership Academy to gain further training to help lead a school staff. I gained continued support by my fellow school groups to adjust and strengthen my ability to lead.
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The Gap – I currently serve in the position of Assistant Pastor in the church I attend. I have served in this role for several years and have the liberty of ministering as God leads. There is a gap between where I am in this position and where the Holy Spirit is leading me. There is also a gap between where I am in ministry and where God is calling me to go. Knowing this compels me and motivates to do all that is within my power in pursuit of fulfilling my calling and destiny.
The Fit – For now, being Assistant Pastor is a good fit. God is calling me in this season to be a support for the aging Senior Pastor of the congregation. Again, I am allowed the freedom to minister as the Holy Spirit lead. My style of preaching differs some from the Senior Pastor. But he taught me to be who God made me to be, not a copycat of others. I feel embraced by the staff and the congregation for the person called me to be My style of ministry
The Feedback Loop – I have several minister friends I’ve bonded with over the years. We have love and respect for each other. These anointed ministers of the gospel and the Senior Pastor of the church have been a great source of feedback (positive and negative) pertaining to the issues and concerns associated with my ministry. I value their input and the love in which their feedback is given.
The Parallel Context – This is an area of opportunity. The covid pandemic halted fellowship between church in our areas for over two years. Secondly, there are not a lot of churches that our church fellowship with that have Assistant Pastors.
The Gut – I believe in follow your gut, the inner leading of the voice of the Holy Spirit. I have questioned my gut feeling from time to time, especially when it leads me to say no or go a different way that others think I should. But I follow my gut anyway and God gives me His peace that I am doing the right thing.
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I am two years into the leadership position at the church. While I feel called to that position, I struggle because I tend to receive all of the positive feedback from the board and am not sure where I truly need to focus for growth. I know there is a long way for me to go and grow professionally. I see a good fit with the congregation and community but am not seeing the results I would like, and believe we should be experiencing. Perhaps it’s time to look at other, similar size churches, and look at what they are experiencing.
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I believe my Gap is in a healthy place. I have ambition for my role and want to see it grow and develop. I know God put me in the current role that I am in and I have the internal confirmation of that fit. I get good feedback from all levels of my coworkers, including student feedback. As far as my parallel context, i need to reach out more to my peers and see/listen to how they are processing their role. Even though they are in completely different departments, I can still use that info to reflect on my process. For me my Gut is the Holy Spirit. I can’t lean on my own understanding or my own gut. But I know the HS gives me nudges or points me down a particular path. I can’t go wrong listening to the HS, but it is not always easy either.
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1. The gap: I am in the level of discomfort about where I am now, not because my vision is still too far, but because I am stuck in a system where people in power make this vision unreachable even though it’s actually in an arm reach.
2. The Fit: I feel that I am in my best role and position (for now) because I have a sufficient amount of power to bring changes in my organization although I am not in any leadership position, but since this role is relatively strategic, I see it as an opportunity. Besides, I also think I fit well to this role with my strengths and weaknesses.
3. Feedback: I am grateful to have a handful of leaders above me that I could talk to and discuss with at casual times to share thoughts and gain feedbacks. However, I haven’t found many people below me that I can really trust if they are on my side and can speak truth into me. Because what I found was that a lot of them are already negative about the organization.
4. Parallel Context: I think I need to do more research on this because I think this is also connected to number 5. Gut, that I feel like what I am doing is still so little compared to others, and I feel like I am still lack of certain competence to do my role better.