I was praying earlier this week and something obvious but powerful arrested my attention: The God of the immense is also the God of the intimate. The God who maintains His place of immense wisdom, power, authority, and influence, is also the God who maintains an intimate relationship with me. My place in the 'grand scheme' is no different or greater than anyone else's, it's relatively small and certainly interdependent with the other members of Christ's body, yet the Author of the 'grand scheme' insists on maintaining a personal, intimate relationship with me.
From a purely spiritual perspective, it is yet another reason to stand in awe of our God and His love for us. But there's more revelation here than that.
From a leadership perspective, this approach is genius, and it leaves those in leadership with a tremendous challenge...to balance the immense and the intimate.
As leaders, we are stewards of both the purposes and the people of our organizations. First of all, we are responsible to be attentive to, and advance the immense purposes of the church, our classroom, our business or our organization. In the church we are making disciples of all nations, preaching the gospel to every creature, bringing the Kingdom of God into our communities, being the prophetic voice of God to the world. This is big stuff, and it is our calling. As leaders, however, this is not our only calling.
Leaders also steward the people of their organizations. Living, breathing, human people are the ones who carry out the immense purpose of an organization, and they require instruction, inspiration, care, and compassion. So while the 'immense' is important to our leadership, the 'intimate' is equally, if not more, important to our leadership.
This is where the challenge comes in. Leaders find it difficult to strike a balance between managing the immense, and managing the intimate. One the one hand there's the pastor or leader who is highly aware of the 'big picture'. His driving passion, and consequently his priorities, revolve around seeing the goals of his church or organization met, it's purposes fulfilled, and it's global impact felt. He is highly visionary and believes that his organization is going to make a difference in the world. This is all important, even necessary for those who wish to be effective leaders. I pray every pastor would develop this kind of sensitivity to the immense. This personality has a liability, though. It can be easy for those with a natural bent toward the 'immense' to neglect the 'intimate'. He can be so preoccupied with the great purposes of the organization that he misses the people of the organization.
On the other hand, there is the pastor or leader who is seemingly unaware of the immense, but myopically focused on the intimate. He is so involved, so aware, so entangled in every detail of his people's lives...their ups and downs, their mental and emotional state, their every dilemma and decision, that he has no perception of the great purpose his church or his organization is charged with. These leaders are lovers of people. They are compassionate. They are willing to be involved with individuals to enable and encourage their growth. These, too, are admirable qualities in a leader, necessary and desirable. This type of leader can very easily see all of his time, his emotional and mental energy, and his passion spent on a few individuals, leaving minimal resources to be dedicated to the advancement of the church or the organization.
So what's the answer? Balance. It's what Jesus modeled.
Jesus had this amazing ability to simultaneously be messiah to the Jews, and savior to the Gentiles, while also being friend and shepherd to the 12 He called disciples. How did He steward the immense responsibility of being the focal point of man's redemption, and at the same time having intimate relationships with people? Balance.
In one moment, He's welcoming the hungry crowd, and in the next, He's sending them away so that He can be alone with the 12. One evening, He's healing and delivering the masses, and the next morning He's alone with the Father, praying. In Mark 1 He moves toward the cities, taking the populous His message, and in Mark 6 He directs His disciples toward the desert so that they can be alone and rest.
He declared on more than one occasion, that He was aware that He was fulfilling prophecy...that's an immense responsibility. He also dedicated time to individuals like the woman at the well and the woman taken in adultery....that's intimate relationship.
In the end, Jesus was aware of His assignments both immense and intimate, and invested time into both. We must maintain an eye toward our purpose and an eye toward our people, and then make intentional investments into both. This means, at times, we will have to say no to the demands of the immense, and at other times, we will have to say no to the demands of the intimate. If we do, both our organization and our people will remain healthy, and we as leaders will keep a proper perspective on our assignment.
Take a moment and reflect...which way do you lean? Immense focus, or Intimate focus? Make choices to bring your leadership into balance.
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