When I started in college/campus/young adult ministry back in 2002, I thought the best thing I could do for everyone was be the self-sufficient and all-knowing leader. Quickly I realized that I could not live up to this image.
Pretty soon, I started hearing messages at conferences about removing the hierarchy in ministry and giving more ministry away. I was told that my goal was to work myself out of a job. Sounds good in theory, but after a few weeks of living into this, I became lazy and folks wanted to know what I was doing with my time.
Both images lacked something important. The goal is not self sufficiency or deliberate irrelevance, but as Seth Godin points out in his post, is a little closer to interdependence. What I am learning as a leader is that I need to bring my best self to the places I am strong and be the greatest student in the places I am weak. Self-sufficiency is traded in for confidence. Abdication is replaced with humility. And the hierarchy becomes community.
My responsibility is to bring to the table all that I know I know. I am required to be honest about what I know I don't know. And the best part, I am joined with a team of people who are all doing the same.
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