Leaders Must Stay Inspired
It is of utmost importance for a leader to stay inspired. No leader who is uninspired can inspire others to brilliant effort. Rick Warren says if you want to guage the morale of the local church to put the thermometer in the Pastor’s mouth. That is so true.
Lyle Schaller tells us that morale seems to be the number one problem in the local church. In other words, keeping everyone positive, focused on a common goal, having real harmony, and a “can do” attitude. The leader, the Pastor, the people who speaks in front of the congregation each week must model that good morale. When they slump, so do the people around them. This works in a family, too. If the leader of the family is down, the family will be down even more.
So how do leaders stay inspired? Well there are so many sources of inspiration and no one knows your sources of inspiration better than you do. Some of those sources of inspiration are spiritual, and some are not, but they are all important. Everyone needs a Daily Quiet Time, but sometimes we need more.
The Bible, the Word of God is a wonderful source of inspiration. The Psalms, the stories, David and Goliath, the life of Paul, the death of Jesus, the love of God, are all rich sources of inspiration. I love Philippians 2:5-11. My pastor in college, Jerry Falwell, loved to preach on 2 Corinthians chapter 1, the God of all Comfort. It seemed to be his signature sermon and I also noticed that he preached on this topic at times when he seemed to need inspiration.
Christian music is a rich source of inspiration. If you are down, pull out your favorite CD, or now you can download it to your iPod. Play it in your office. Listen to inspirational music, not music that will depress you. It is called “mood music” for a reason and it will put you in a mood, good or bad.
Current events provide many inspiring examples. Someone said that every dark cloud has a silver lining. We often find the most inspiring stories in the most difficult tragedies. When Flight 1549 left LaGuardia Airport in New York and had to make a crash landing in the chilly waters of the Hudson River, the cool-headed heroic actions of Pilot Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger, enabled all 155 passengers and crew to emerge alive. How inspiring is that picture of those passengers standing on the wings of that US Airways plane. The stories of passengers and crew who prayed and helped one another get out, of mothers who needed the help of fellow passengers to get their small children out of the plane. As I write I am hearing about the disaster in Haiti. I am also hearing reports from Christians and Christian organizations who are there doing their best to help people. Keep a notebook with inspiring stories or clips you can keep on your wall.
Speeches and poems can also provide a rich source of inspiration. I know we are not a nation who loves speeches, at least we don’t think we do. However, we really do love what we hear contained in speeches. Where would our nation be today with the Gettysburg Address, A Day that will Live in Infamy, or I Have a Dream. By the way, all three speeches came from inspirational leaders who found it necessary to stay inspired and inspire others in the midst of very difficult circumstances.
I can remember a time in my own ministry when everyone around me was so negative and bringing me down to the point that I could not inspire anyone. It got my attention one day when I was calling a list of prospects and I asked one of them how she was doing. She responded by asking me how I was doing because I sounded so down and discouraged on the phone. Well, that is not a very good way to attract new people to your church. I decided I had to take action and do something about it. I had to actually get away from the negative people and surround myself with some motivational books and tapes until I could emerge.
One of my favorite inspiritational poems or speeches comes from President Theodore Roosevelt. It is often quoted as a poem or short saying, but it comes from a much longer speech that he delivered to the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23, 1910. It was a speech about citizenship in a republic and the important of everyone to be involved and to invest in the citizenship. It is usually called “In the Arena.”
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
I love this brief paragraph. It inspires me because it reminds me and others of the importance and dangers of being personally involved. But Roosevelt, familiar with how leaders and doers are so severely criticized when they stumble, or fail, by people who themselves, are not willing to step in the arena. The arena is where the battles are fought and unfortunately, many are afraid to get into the arena. Many are afraid of the unsympathetic criticism of the uninvolved crowd and so they stay clear of the arena. Since I know what it is like to be in the arena day after day, and to hear the crowd, I can relate to his words, and I’ll bet that if you are a leader, you can, too.
Regardless of the methods you may use, as a leader, it is your daily responsiblity to stay inspired. Read the words of Teddy again and see if you can relate. Print them out and read them from time to time.
Feel free to leave a comment below and let us know some of the things you do to stay inspired.
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