Making big, hard and difficult decisions is a fundamental
part to leadership and is essential if organisations are to realise their
visions. It is the same situation in the hope and vision of a church. Decisions
have to be made that will impact the values and culture of God’s people to move
them on from A to B. As a leader the buck can’t be passed or not taken up. It
must be tackled if there is to be a new future. I can express my own experience
in making such decision has been both liberating and painful and deeply
significant in the life of the churches I have been a part of. You (personally
and corporately) will only change, see growth and flourish if those big
decisions are made and made well.
While I was chatting to a friend about his situation and the
decisions he had had to make in his first year as the leader it occurred to me
that you never/rarely see the impact of the big decisions until much later. I would guess that
the bigger the decisions the longer you have to wait t full grasp what a
difference it has made to you as a person and to the people you are leading. It
is easy to get frustrated, even demoralised in the time after a big call but I
have learnt that God has a way of just reminding you at the right time that you
did the right thing. This is not to say that you should not reflect back on as
to how you did it and want to learn from it but as a leader our role is to make
the calls everyone else wants you to make (whether they will like the outcome or
not).
As leaders we have to make decisions that affect people. My
prayer is that we have enough faith to make the right ones and patience to see
them come to fruition.
Matt
