Leave Your Cape At The Door

You don’t have to be the hero, and you probably shouldn’t be anyways

Photo by: Young Yi

This newsletter is the second part of this week’s series, “Becoming A Healthy Leader”, sharing lessons from my own experiences and teachings from others.

If you enjoy this series and would like me to write on a certain topic, please let me know in the comment section of this post. Thanks for reading!

A few months ago, I had the privilege of flying out to San Diego to spend a weekend with other next-gen pastors and leaders. It was refreshing to be with likeminded people, when it came to what our ministry work and efforts were focused on.

After all of the introductions were done, Grant Skeldon, one of the guys hosting the retreat started our weekend by saying these words:

His preface to making that statement was naming the elephant in the room: everyone there was either a pastor, minister, or leader in the Church - the very people that many others go to for advice, help, and a shoulder to lean on - and there was no need to try and one-up each other over the weekend.

I felt a weight fall off my shoulders.

The words were disarming and equally inviting.

And it got me thinking about how hard it is for leaders to leave our ego and the facade of having our crap together, at the door, and to just be your not-so-put-together self.

These are the types of leaders we need in the next generation of the Church:

leaders who are willing to hang their capes at the door because they constantly acknowledge they were never the heroes of their story or anyone else’s story, but rather Christ was and still is.

As leaders, we often make the mistake of stretching the definition of “leader” into the realm of “hero” and it is a dangerous pitfall. We are simply arbiters of the Truth, pointing with all of our experiences, learnings, education, and faith to the One who is the actual hero of the cosmos, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The lesson here in becoming a healthy leader is pretty simple and is more of a reminder: you’re not the main character, Jesus is.

So, as you look at your own realm and sphere of leadership, go and be a leader:

• Lead with humility.

• Lead with agape love.

• Lead with curiosity.

• Lead with conviction.

• Lead with mercy.

• Lead with joy.

But remember, “leave your cape at the door”, because you are simply a leader, and not the hero.