12 Ways to Lead With Your Life

Leading With Your Life

Ten men. Two hours. Twice a month.

I have the opportunity, make that the privilege, to meet regularly with three separate groups of men who are lights-out serious about becoming more formidable spiritual leaders. Each of these men—leaders in their own right and circles of influence—have chiseled out a chunk of time in their very full lives for the expressed purpose of deepening their capacity and commitment to leading with their lives. Though their everyday lives look different, each shares a common passion: to be Rock-Solid on the inside and dangerous for the Kingdom on the outside.

We study the Scriptures together. Share our journeys. Pray. Confess. Discuss. Probe. Ponder. Reflect. Question. Dig. Own failure. And celebrate progress. 

And in the middle of all of this, we labor to figure out, in tangible terms, what it means to lead with our lives—our most important asset. We long to maximize what matters most.

One way that we do this is by creating what we call “single sentence statements”. These statements have become our shared lexicon of what it means to lead with our lives, not in theory, but in the everyday realities of life and leadership.

As I have collected these statements over the past years, they have become a source of encouragement and inspiration. I pass them along with the hope they will be the same for you.

• I lead with my life when I allow God to move me from my agenda to His.
• I lead with my life when my intake is greater than my outpour.
• I lead with my life when my leadership flows from Sabbath and solitude. 
• I lead with my life when I set aside my preferences in order to meet the needs of another. 
• I lead with my life when my service for God is not based on the applause of men.
• I lead with my life when I recognize that the power of Christ works best in my weakness.
• I lead with my life when I first sit in God’s presence before I act on His behalf.
• I lead with my life when I care more about my character than my credentials.
• I lead with my life when I embrace my leadership role as a stewardship not as an entitlement.
• I lead with my life when l care less about position, and more about influence.
• I lead with my life when I refuse to let my work for Christ replace my communion with Christ.
• l lead with my life when I deal honestly with my past—its pain and its baggage—so that I might more fully give myself to the future.
• I lead with my life when God’s presence is the distinguishing mark of my leadership.