In Pursuit of Great AND Godly Leadership

In Pursuit of Great and Godly Leadership

Continuing with the theme of Commitment this week, I wanted to share what I’ve learned from Mike Bonem’s book entitled In Pursuit of Great AND Godly Leadership: Tapping the Wisdom of the World for the Kingdom of God. Mike Bonem was a senior manager with McKinsey & Company when he transitioned to the role of Executive Pastor for West University Baptist Church in Houston—a role he held for more than 10 years.

I read his book this last summer and called him to get some career advice. How did he make the transition from the corporate world to a church staff? What advice would he have to offer someone like me? On June 27th, he encouraged me to get involved with the Christian Leadership Alliance (CLA)—an organization of mission-focused Christians who lead in today’s high-impact Christian nonprofit ministries, churches, educational institutions, and businesses. CLA moves beyond good Christian management to empower Christian leadership that’s catalytic in its transformation of people, their organizations, and ultimately the world…which sounds like a great alignment with Out of This World Leadership!

Bonem writes that our leadership should be shaped by God’s Word—which provides us with a number of leadership principles. If we settle for good results based on those principles, we fall far short of the mission to which God has called us, and we will continue to slip toward mediocrity and irrelevance. Good is indeed the enemy of both great and godly. So is God calling us to greatness? Or is great the enemy of godly?

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Commitment: A 2-Way Street

Commitment

For Week 42 of 2014, the NIV Leadership Bible focuses on the importance of Commitment to a leader’s personal and professional development. In fact, the first devotion notes that effective leadership flows from commitment to the right things. As followers of Christ, the single most important commitment of our lives is to God. Any true success we experience as leaders will flow from that commitment.

The call to commitment is a call to constant vigilance in maintaining and understanding the standards of that commitment. No matter what distractions we may encounter, we need to maintain our focus on serving the Lord.

Click here to learn about God’s early commitment with Jeremiah; Habakkuk’s response; advice from the Apostle Paul; and practical implications for Out of This World Leaders…