Everyday Leadership | Why Are You Doing This?

Hi, this is Bernie Dake. Welcome to the Salvation Army's Words of Life. Hi, welcome to Words of Life.

I'm Cheryl Gillum. Bernie Dake's not with us today, but joining me in the studio is Stephen Nolan, who is the digital media developer for Soundcast. Welcome, Stephen. Thank you. Thank you for having me. We are so glad you're with us for these episodes. We hope you were encouraged and inspired by the three testimonies we shared during our last series. This week, we are launching a new series on leadership with Major John Murphy. And actually, this was a concept that was birthed from you, Stephen, right?

Yeah. So we were thinking about a new series, and one of the things that came to mind and came to heart was, you know, there's a lot of leadership books and video series that are kind of targeted for a corporate business audience, but not so much an audience for everyday leadership. What does that look like for a dad, a stay-at-home mom, someone who is not a boss, a supervisor, someone who's not a business owner? What does that look like to have leadership in your life? So we discussed that with Major John Murphy on what does it look to be an everyday leader?

Yeah, and Major Murphy even states that there are a lot of resources, but not many through a biblical lens. Well, joining John Murphy is a voice that you may know from a previous series, Bethany Farrell. She and John start off our series by asking an important question.

When it comes to leadership, why are you doing this? Hey, Major Murphy, how are you today? I'm doing well, Bethany. How are you? Good. I'm good.

I'm good. I'm really excited about this opportunity to sit with you. We go to the same church.

We do. And so I have the opportunity to see you with your wife and your beautiful son and all the different ways that you interact at the church. You're a leader in the youth programs. You're there all the time.

But I've never really gotten a chance to sit with you one on one and get to know you. So I'm excited to be a part of this process. This should be a lot of fun. It's a great topic. Everyday leadership. Yeah.

Yeah. There's a lot of information out there about leadership. A lot of good books, podcasts, folks talking about it all over the place. I think that what we can add here is that concept of everyday leadership.

Kind of at the end of each session drawing down what can I do? Regardless of where I am or who I am, what God has given me, the position or the place that he has put me, what can I do to kind of better influence the environment around me? And that's really where we're going to start. I think what we can offer here, what we have to offer in our discussion, is really centering leadership. I think where God wants it to be.

Really laying a strong foundation early on and then moving from there. And it's exciting. We'll see where we end up. Yeah. Well, let's jump in. You said, Bethany, that you know me a bit. And yeah, we've seen each other around. So you know our son, Michael. Michael. Yeah.

Yes. I don't know if you do know or not, but well before Michael, we felt a call to adopt. We went through the process of selecting adoption agency.

And the interesting thing, what drew us to this adoption agency, Christina First, was that it was very open. We produced a portfolio of our family. It was stories and pictures and history, right? Yeah. And that was given to the mothers that were interested in the adoption process and then through interviews and phone calls. Long, long processes. Yes.

Yeah. The mothers chose who they wanted to raise their child on their behalf. It was an incredible process. And we were selected at one point by this wonderful mother. And as you can imagine, since you have children, we started the process of preparing ourselves. Nesting.

And lots of classes, believe it or not. Yeah. And we were so very excited. Christina actually was in the room when the little boy was born. Aw. She got to be a part of that. That's great.

Yes. One of the first ones to hold the baby, this healthy little baby boy. But events didn't go as we had envisioned them. We did receive the call, which we thought was going to be, okay, now you can come to the hospital and take your child home. But the call was, we're sorry, can we meet?

We need to have a discussion. And you can imagine probably what happened. The mother decided that she wanted to raise a child, which I fully understand, right?

Yes. But it was heartbreaking. I would say that's probably one of the more difficult things that we have gone through together, Christina and I. And it was processing that loss through asking the questions, why something, you know, what really happened here. That God really spoke clearly to me.

What he spoke loudest to me was a question. And the question was, why are you doing this? What was your purpose to begin with?

Was it for your benefit, your family's benefit, or were you really seeking the benefit of that child and that mother? That question really shaped who we became and really took the emphasis off of what needs are we trying to meet in ourself, in the actions that we take. And how are we trying to align with what God desires for his creation, not just us, but everybody around us.

And I think that's a great place for us to start this first session, that question, who are you doing this for? So I think our discussion on leadership needs to begin not with what we must do or what we must believe, but what God has done, what God is doing, what are his purposes? Because that's the foundation, that's the centering point of our leadership as believers. You're establishing from the very beginning that God is the ultimate leader. Exactly.

Exactly. I don't know if you've read it, there's a great book by Arthur Glasser, it's called Announcing the Kingdom. And he states that there are six major axioms in the Old Testament that are essential to our understanding God and his mission, and ultimately our participation in that. So let's run through those if we can. Yeah, let's do it. Just three of them.

Okay. So first, God is absolute in his kingship. Do you remember that doctrine? You probably remembered it, or you probably memorized it.

I know the first two words. We believe. How about that God is a creator, preserver, and governor of all things. Right. And in addition, his rule over individuals and nations is always just, right? Always just, always righteous, because whatever he does reflects his character, which is righteous and just. And God's power, his goodness, his holiness, his justice, patience, and mercy are always prompted by a loving concern for us, his creation. Isn't that amazing?

It is. It's just this humbling thought that the ruler, the creator of not just the world, but the heavens, like everything that there is, that he cares so deeply for us, these little peons, what are we? Exactly. He cares for us, and he works for us and for our benefit. Bethany, the second axiom is this. God's rule demands personal commitment. That wouldn't be unfamiliar to believers, certainly not us, right, in the Salvation Army. Those of us who acknowledge God to be our God must personally commit themselves to him and his righteousness.

In fact, if you read through Scripture and also the Christian tradition, right, the teachings of the church, there is no acceptable alternative to that, right? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. Yes, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Yes. That commitment is just that. Those that bear his image are those people, right? And the last one we're going to talk about is those of us who commit ourselves to God, his subjects, together we must constitute a servant community. We are called to serve.

That's who we are. Because God is not concerned solely with us as individuals, but with us as families, as people groups, as entire nations. And in that, because of his justice and his holiness and his righteousness, he reveals himself as opposed to racism and nationalism, sexism, enforced poverty, and the abuse of power.

That's who he is and who he calls us to be as well. So that service aspect of who we are individually and in community is to be one of the distinguishing marks that we bear as we live out our understanding of faith in God. Earlier we talked about how God is the ultimate leader, right? That as leaders, that's the first thing we recognize, that he's the leader and we follow his example. And everything that you've just talked about is so beautifully demonstrated in the New Testament when we see Jesus moving on earth, right? He was a servant leader more than anything and he always spoke to the Father before he made a move and it was just such a beautiful representation of servant leadership. And I think where we get lost as believers is we recognize the example of Jesus in that, but we don't necessarily see our role, right? We don't necessarily see that as the foundation for our leadership. Especially when we're given a task, whether it be related to my occupation, here, go finish this, or go start this, or maybe it's related to my family.

I have to care for my son who's 10 years old. I have to take him to baseball this evening and I have to talk to the coach and I have to do those things. For some reason, we can segment those two things and while we are influencing and we're leading, we're not keeping in the back of our mind, is this for God's purposes or not? It kind of goes back to my original story, right? I can, not speaking for everybody, I can go through life and unconsciously segment, I know that this is advancing God's kingdom. I know what his purposes are and I know he's for the redemption of the world, but when I'm doing this, that doesn't necessarily connect to that. And I think that's a disservice. It's doing a disservice to us, right?

As kingdom agents, if we want to put it that way. But it is not honoring God in being his creation and understanding why he is giving me the opportunity to raise a 10-year-old boy, right? Giving me the opportunity to perform this task, giving me the opportunity to speak to my son's coach. All of those in his mind relate to the redemption of the world and I need to consistently remember that in my own life. Man, Major, I love that because it's just unique from all those other leadership resources and books and things that you can get where the goals are just so different. But when it's the view of Christian leadership, it's very clear, are we advancing the kingdom?

There is a definite, there is a foundation and there is a definite direction and everything revolves around that. I truly believe that. And it applies to every person. It doesn't matter if I'm a boss of anybody or not or if I just sit in a cubicle and go home at the end of the day.

Everybody's got a part in this leadership, which is beautiful. And we'll definitely hit that a little later. I'm looking forward to that. So what can we go home with from this? How about this? Choose one, right? Just one. One task, one obligation, one responsibility. A lot of those. Right? One conversation, one relationship, just one.

One of those things that you have presented to you, we could say one of those things that's on your table, right? Just choose one of those and ask yourself sincerely, why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? Am I working to advance the kingdom? How am I serving God's purposes in this specific instance? And you'd be surprised.

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