Today I got TWO letters of resignation from two of our best leaders.
Matty and Nick aren’t leaving because they don’t want to be at Ivy (they’re not even leaving Ivy, they’ll still be part of the church). The letters were expected, because we’ve talked at length about where they’re at and what God’s calling them out of – and into. Both have a different path ahead of them, but what’s common is that it will always all be about Jesus.
Someone asked me recently, ‘What’s Ivy’s biggest challenge?’
I said, ‘When you tell people they can go and change the world for Jesus, they start to believe you – and go and do it.’ Ivy’s that kind of a place and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
This is why we need to keep raising up more leaders. Leaders we invest in, and hope will stay, but only as long as they should. Leaders with backbone enough to let go of certainty and not retreat into what’s safe – because they are NOT leaders.
You can’t play it safe and be a leader- you have to get out front. The angel of the Lord encamps around them that fear him, not those who fear everything!
On your marks, get set – GO!
Jesus said, ‘Go into all the world and reach all kinds of people,’ Not just people like you, in your neighbourhood. All the world! Not just where you have been.
Please understand your responsibility here if you’re a leader. We have to step up. And step out, then God steps in.
Great leaders take the risk of going and getting out front. Sounds great? But that’s where you get shot at! Why? Because you’re a ‘forward thinker.’
Leadership is not about planning to stay where you are now but having foresight– to see where you’re going next. Leaders have to be forward thinking people who God keeps stretching. It happens first in private before its results are ever seen in public.
So where are we going at Ivy?
Where going we’re told. To do what we’re told.
“GO into all the world and PREACH the gospel to EVERY living creature.”
Where’s God calling you now? ‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you are.’
There are some fish, the bigger the tank you put them, the bigger they grow. Don’t stay in a fish tank if you’re called to an ocean. God wants to put you in the ocean!
Maybe God wants to take YOU somewhere to stretch you?
If you’re always the smartest person in the room – get out of that room. Go to some new places. Go out of your element; because that’s where God’s going to stretch you.
Go where you don’t just teach, but where you learn. If you want to be a better speaker, you have to learn to listen more because every speaker has to be a great listener. If you cannot hear God (in the natural and in the Spirit), you won’t have anything worth anyone listening to.
Is it time for you to GO? If it is, the place will soon follow.
Go scared if you have to, but GO. Go to grow.
Go out on a limb, that’s where the fruit is.