When you need leadership or advice, how do you determine who to ask? You probably look for people with knowledge, skill, expertise, and experience. We seek the input of people who are or have already been in the thick of it. We look for people on the inside.
My wife, Gloria, and I have been foster parents since 2012. Even before we jumped into that deep pool, I championed the call of God in Scripture for his people to be concerned and involved in the care of those Christ calls “the least of these,” including orphans.
I’m sure some were moved by the truth of God’s Word and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. After all, my church soon partnered with a Mexican orphanage. But it wasn’t until Gloria and I actually fostered children that people began to ask us about what it was like. It wasn’t until we were caring for some of these most needy and desperate children, “the least of these,” that our advice had the power to persuade, the ability to encourage, and the credibility to lead.
It wasn’t until the truth of God’s Word – to care for the defenseless and helpless – was clothed in our action that we had a real voice to speak into the lives of both believers and the lost. We must lead from within.
That kind of leadership demands that we get sweaty and soiled, exasperated and frustrated. But it is also when we lead from within that God gives us reputation, honor, and experience, so that through our lives he gets his hands on other people’s lives.
More importantly, when we lead from the inside, God is getting his hands on our own lives. Textbook answers become a thing of the past. Thin platitudes are supplanted by the weight of experience and wisdom. God sharpens the dullness of our talk with the incisiveness of action. We go from being hearers of the word to doers of the word, and that’s the difference between being a fan and a follower.
Doesn’t it mean everything that the Son of God clothed himself with the stinking and broken flesh of humanity and dwelt among us? You see, even Jesus led from within. Where are those places in life and ministry, in our homes, in the workplace, in the church, where God is calling you to lead from within?
He invites us to join him there.
John Yi is IBSA’s second-gen church planting catalyst in Northeast Illinois.