Ben — certainly is tricky, ain’t it? There is definitely some mysterious balance between seeing and cultivating potential and navigating the “big picture” for the direction of the community at large. And yes, more wisdom sounds good to me!

and so yes, there is a boundless potential in everyone of us for both light (good) and darkness (evil). i think that the responsibility of leadership falls into the guidance category. we obviously can’t force growth to occur in a person, but we can help guide people. this guidance can come in many forms, but eventually it all boils down to relationships. effectively, we can build programs, enivronments, circumstances, and whatever other category of catalyst there may be in this discussion, but eventually the guidance of leadership can only come as the result of a relationship.

so, in my mind, the responsibility of a leader is to build genuine, open relationships with people, and in so doing, the leader will actually grow to love (to whatever degree) the person they are leading. and if you can love someone, then you can find in them the infinite ability for good. i think that’s why God bothered with us in the first place: “the love of God is shown in this: that Christ died while we were yet sinners…”

and this comes back to what you were saying about the depth of our ability to influence people: you’re right, we hold a stronger ability for this than we may think, and i am certain that this level of influence grows in connection to the depth of our relationships.

anyhow, i have actually been very seriously considering a PHD pathway lately (yes, i have gone insane). oh, and that picture is the result of a very slow afternoon at work… i guess that’s where i was wanting to be at the moment =]

-m

Also, I’m going to highly recommend that you get a Ph.D. now, so you will actually be Dr. D.

I think that perhaps I must not have explained what I mean well enough. I love what you have to say about God often working more slowly than we think God should (my goodness, ain’t that the truth), but I couldn’t disagree more that looking for the best in people is pointless. If we’re looking for “perfection,” then yes, I would agree, but that’s not what I’m talking about at all (which is likely where my communication failure came in). I am talking about a focus on potential light instead of potential darkness. Looking for hope instead of expecting failure from people.

My question is that if, as leaders, we are somehow mysteriously able to create a reality for the folks that “follow” us by how we treat them or what we expect from them. This is not to discount or even question the work of God in that person, but an exploration of how God might use us.

I personally suspect that we have a lot more power to impact the lives of others than we often think.

Amy — welcome to the blog! I’m so excited you decided to join the dialogue. I would love for you to expound on what you’re saying… sounds like you’re definitely processing something, but I can’t exactly tell what you mean!

P.S. I wanted you all to enjoy the art of Dr. D.; he took me up on my LITE-BRITE challenge… I present to you “Deer By Lake”:

as one who has been re-made by Jesus you must always hold hope that anyone is able to change, this is fundamental to the message of the cross. but this is not quite the same as “looking for the best in people.”

also, as a recreation of Jesus you know that the world, and namely the people in it, are broken. not just emotionally broken, but broken like a window gets broken when a baseball flies through it.

the complete perspective is something like looking for the honest, genuine, someone that you are working with. what is Jesus forming them into? what does Jesus want to form in you through your relationship to this person? what does Jesus want to use in you to form something in this person?

in any case, the scentral point is, as always: what is Jesus doing?

the window has to get fixed: the broken glass gets swept up, and new glass is put in its place. our task as leaders is not the installing of the glass, but rather to come through with the windex and clean the window on occasion. more than this though, you get the opportunity to look THROUGH the window…

working with people and hoping for the miracles and results that only God can give can be frustrating work, IF we try to pick up broken glass. God works mysteriously and more often than not, more slowly than we think He should. but He is wise, and His timing is ideal.

should you hold out hope that someone will be the perfect fit for the task at hand? you could. or you could stand back, and look through the window that God is making and realize that the window is not the end, just the means.

but enough metaphors and lofty speech for one day. happy hunting and remember: it is Christ’s unurelenting desire to see everyone of us perfected that keeps Him at work. perhaps it is this same desire that He is forming in you.

-m