Really, Leadership is Critical!

If there is anything in life and ministry I am utterly convinced of is the centrality of leadership in any enterprise, whether church or secular. This year half of my energy is trying to second guess what the leadership wants to do or choose not to do. As my main gift is leadership, it is traumatic just like after I relinquished my leadership of the College and everything practically went back to square one. I am still waiting to see whether our Leaders' Retreat will go on as planned as I am slotted to lead a whole day retreat. I would have called at least one church council meeting to prepare the leaders a couple of weeks before the Retreat so that they know what to expect and pray expectantly accordingly.

Leadership is critical. I wanted to quit a couple of weeks ago but my resignation was not accepted. I thought I would not insist on it since it was near Christmas, let the congregation enjoy one last Christmas with their pastor before January comes next year I will for sure determine whether I can continue under such circumstances. 

I can give thanks for many things this year inside and outside church ministry. But with good leadership fruits can easily double or triple and we would abound in the works of God. 

For instance, as I was the chairman in Ranau, the Leaders' Retreat attracted 20 more people that I had wished - at the end 44 people (all adults with a few youth leaders) turned up in our small meeting room packed to the brim just as two months earlier, we held a welcoming lunch for secondary students - we had hoped for 40, maximum 50 but 70 plus students crammed into the meeting room and we had such a wonderful gathering. The students were fired up and in the next few months they invited their friends to church. 

When I started it would be good to have 100 people in the first service and 70 people in the second service (average for the first two months Jan-Feb 2015). After the students' welcome party, we had average 200 in the first service, several times, all 290 chairs (stools) were taken up and the students sat around the pulpit and the staircase at the front door of the church. Those were the exciting times, and it was mainly due to leadership. 

When the members saw the first service was filled with students, some of them chose to attend the second service and every soon, we had on average 200 in the first service and 120 to 150 in the second service making us the largest congregation in the township of Ranau. 

Our first SIB Church in town nearby was exceeded by 100 people (they only had about 200 in 2015) and news got around not just in the Ranau district but back to our HQ and Kota Kinabalu. 

Last week I attended the prayer meeting called by the HQ with the refreshments provided for at least 80 people, but only a handful turned up with three or four people outside the HQ staff attending. As I was invited to my HQ event, so I went but I was surprised by the lack of response. 

When we had all night prayer meeting in Ranau (2015), I was leader of both my congregation and pastors' fellowship. Again leadership was critical. We planned four months in advance, had two prayer meetings especially for the event, another two meetings of pastors to prepare for 10 sessions of prayers (one hour each led by a pastor or church leader) from 8.30pm to 6.30am on Malaysia Day. At the end 334 adults turned up from 15 or 16 churches around District of Ranau. I could go on but perhaps in another post - leadership is indeed critical.