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There is a Leadership Crisis!

There is a Leadership Crisis
By Rev. Dr. Marcos Rivera, Sr. Pastor of Primitive Christian Church, New York City

There is a leadership crisis! But not where one would usually think.

A brief visit to any bookstore will confront even the casual readers with shelves upon shelves of manuals, books, study book guides on leadership. The academic research and cognitive thinking on the matter of identifying leaders, developing coaching teams and models of effective leadership is overwhelming. But, there is a leadership crisis.

You surf the Internet and plug into any search engine and the flood of information on leadership would make the Noah deluge seems like a trickle of tap water. There is leadership from the inside out; team leadership; servant leadership; contextual leadership; dynamic leadership; organic leadership; systemic leadership…and on and on and on. But, there is a leadership crisis.

There are conferences, symposium, summits and convocations on any given month of the year in any part of the country, each espousing the latest techniques on how to become a super leader. Famous names and church celebrities arrive at these gathering with their briefcases filled with ‘proven strategies’ that will propel your ministry to the next level of effectiveness. But, there is a leadership crisis!

You might ask ‘but where exactly is this leadership crisis?’. I submit that the leadership crisis exists and thrives inside of emerging leaders. Too often we are so engaged in becoming a super leader that will conquer the world that we forget that there are incremental steps that must be taken before one can get to such effectiveness.

I am the direct result of a 25-year mentoring partnership that still exists today. Although I pastor a large and complex urban ministry that has made significant achievements in the 12 years I have served as Senior Pastor, I still meet with my mentor several times a month. Our discussions usually revolve not on how many attended last Sunday, or on the current budget of the ministry, or on adding more staff, but rather we take about what is going on inside of my mind, heart and spirit. He constantly reminds me to check my motives before moving forward. We frequently talk about the need to continue growing, maturing and stretching. Not the ministry, but me…inside.

There is a leadership crisis! The crisis is inside. Inside, each emerging leader must click a switch and realize that eventual greatness requires personal sacrifices, years of dedicated work at developing the best of you for the best of Him. You can read everything on leadership, get the latest information, attended the most exciting gatherings, but not until one realizes inside that growing requires work, sacrifices and patience, can lethargic leadership be changed. If we continue as we do, it will prevail and the cause of Christ will remain irrelevant in our world.