Day 1 – Storms + Unhealthy Roots = Disaster

“Teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.” (2 Timothy 2:2, NLT)

“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” (Ephesians 3:16-17, NLT)

“They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.” (Psalm 1:3, NLT)

Leaders and trees both topple when the force of a storm meets an unhealthy root system. Whether leading in the home, in the marketplace, or in the nonprofit world, there are always storms in leadership.

There are storms of expectations. It is impossible to make everyone happy with your approach or your decisions.

There are the storms of life. Because of an imperfect and bent-out-of-shape world, cancer and car accidents will happen to leaders or people on their teams. We are always one call, one email away from news of a storm.

There are storms of challenges. Mike Tyson is famously credited with saying, “Everyone has a plan until he gets punched in the mouth.” If you lead long enough, you will lead through an economic downturn, a market disruption, unfulfilled promises, a natural disaster, a bad hire, a betrayal, undeserved criticism, and perhaps even a global pandemic.

There are storms of burden. A good leader is burdened with a sense of responsibility to steward their opportunity well and a genuine love for the people on the team and the people being served.

There is no such thing as leadership without storms, so we must concern ourselves with the health of the roots. Two trees in the same field can respond very differently to a storm. The one with healthy roots endures while the one with unhealthy roots doesn’t. While both trees looked similar before the storm, the storm revealed what was already true about the roots of the trees.

Storms in leadership reveal what has already been true. Every leader lives continually with this battle: Storm intensity vs. root heath. When the storm wins, leaders topple, careers end, families mourn, and organizations suffer.

Here are two common ways leaders topple:

If a leader’s competence is greater than their character, collapse is almost certain. “Fake it till you make it” may sometimes work with competence, but it never works with character. When Paul instructed Timothy to invest in other leaders, he told him to find the faithful who will be able, not to find the able who will maybe one day be trustworthy.

If a leader becomes more skilled but less sanctified, everyone loses. A struggle for leaders is we tend to get better at leading as we lead. The work develops our skills, so if we don’t simultaneously work on our character, a gap between our skills and our sanctification (our becoming more and more who God wants to us be) can develop over time.

So how do we work on the root system of our leadership? Tomorrow we’ll look at the unfair advantage followers of Christ have.