I love to make a salad from all the great vegetables in the fridge. But the salad for today is the leadership salad. I would recommend this salad for those who desire to improve their leadership effectiveness. The salad consists of five different kinds of lettuce blended together in a powerful mixture that will change your diet forever.
The salad is actually found in the Bible – in the New Testament: Hebrews 10:22-25. “Let us (lettuce #1) draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. Let us (lettuce #2) hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us (lettuce #3) consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us (lettuce #4) not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us (lettuce #5) encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Each exhortation (or let us) is rich with leadership significance and life changing principles. The analogy to a salad is just a play on words, but the exhortations in Hebrews are very serious concepts and they have the potential of changing our leadership perspectives if we eat the salad on a regular basis. This posting will explore the third of these five different types of lettuce.
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” This exhortation nourishes the leader with three powerful insights into the mindset for effective ministry.
First is the act of considering – let us consider....let us contemplate, let us plan, let us be intentional. This lettuce calls the leader to stop in the business of life and think about motivating others. Think time is not always a priority and often the urgent demands of leadership push out important opportunities of reflection. However time for consideration produces strategy and organization. There have been many times (one of them right now) when my To Do List is so long that I cannot see the bottom of it. For every one I scratch off, I add three to take its place. If I want order and a sense of direction for that To Do List, I must take some time, consider each action item and give some sort of priority to the list. That is the thought behind this exhortation – take some time to think, plan, and prioritize.
Second is the concept of spurring one another on. The consideration time is not profit margins or enrollment figures or budgetary cash-flow. This reflection, which will often result in practical plans, focuses on spurring. The Greek word translated to spur is an interesting term that has a diverse set of meanings. It can mean to sharpen. When I saw this definition, Proverbs 27:12 immediately came to mind: “As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another.” Sharing ideas, teaching skills, debating issues, and challenging error can help us stay sharp as well as sharpen others.
Another definition of the term to spur on is the idea, to stir up. My wife makes me the best vegetable soup in the world. In addition to a variety of vegetables (carrots, potatoes, green beans) she also includes several kinds of beans and occasionally rice. While it is cooking on the stove I will go over and stir the pot. The broth on top appears to be the totality of the soup, but the ladle quickly surfaces all the great vegetables and beans that have settled to the bottom of the pot. The stirring of the pot brings all the goodies to the top – so it is with man – as we stir the pot of life all the ingredients of the soup interact with one another. Instead of allowing the beans and vegetables to sink to the bottom, stirring the soup keeps them close to the surface. The concept in this exhortation is to keep love and good deeds close to the surface of our lives together.
A final definition of the term to spur is to irritate or to provoke. Sometimes there are those situations where we must provoke people toward good deeds… to nag people toward love. Mediocre is not acceptable in an organization of excellence. Treading water and remaining status quo cannot be tolerated. Earning a “C” when we are capable of “A”s is unacceptable. Complacency and laziness when it comes to loving one another is to be pitied indeed. If we truly love one another, then we will consider how we can get them off square one and moving down the right path. The image that came to my mind was that of a cattle prod. The prod is not designed to hurt the animal but rather to provide a little discomfort in order to direct the cow in the right direction. How can we tactfully, lovingly, and yet effectively challenge the spiritual couch potato to get more involved in spreading the love of Christ? How can we move our organization from the quicksand of the status quo into the flow of service and effectiveness?
Third is the focus on the results of the efforts of the leader in the lives of others – spur toward love and good deeds. These two results are foundation stones to the Christian faith. Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). And in James we read, “Faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do” (2:17-18).
Let us consider (contemplate, plan, be intentional) how to spur (sharpen, stir up, provoke) one another toward love and good deeds. This kind of lettuce, although not always the easiest to eat, can produce incredible results in our lives as leaders, in the lives of those that follow, and in the organization as a whole. I think I will stop blogging now and spend some time considering how to spur others on toward love and good deeds. More salad to come…..
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