Kingdom Collaborators

Eight Signature Practices of Leaders Who Turn the World Upside Down

Reggie McNeal

• Publisher: IVP
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780830885367
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Christliche Kirche

"These who have turned the world upside down have come here too." (Acts 17: 6)When Paul and Silas came to Thessalonica, they changed the community. How? By collaborating with God to bring his kingdom on earth.Will you collaborate on God's kingdom work in your community? If you're ready to see God move in all areas—business, education, media, arts, healthcare, spiritual growth, andmore—this is the book for you. Leadership expert Reggie McNeal offers eight signature practices for leaders who want to partner with God and others for kingdom growth. Readers will gain practical advice to help people experience life as God intends.

PASSOVER WAS A TIME OF celebration for Israel. This feast gave participants an opportunity to pull away from the challenges of everyday life to spend time with family and to revel in gratitude, all laced with historical and spiritual overtones—kind of like our Thanksgiving on steroids.

Jesus made secret arrangements to secure a secluded room for the feast. He wanted to make sure this special time with his supporters wouldn’t be disturbed by an interruption, especially by a hostile intrusion.

Preparations had been made. Good food. Good wine. Good conversation. After all, they had been together for the better part of three years. They had seen everything from the calming of life-threatening storms at sea to the resurrection of the dead at a friend’s house. From the street riots and cleansing of the temple just days earlier, as well as from the intelligence they were gathering from the crowds, the disciples knew that the situation was growing more dangerous day by day. But that night, in a secluded and secret upper room, it was time to party.

By all accounts, the meal went off without a hitch—except for the embarrassing and hasty departure of Judas. Things didn’t get serious until after the bulk of the ritual meal had been navigated. Jesus surely would have enjoyed the laughter and good-natured back-and-forth among the assembled. Yet it’s not much of a stretch to think that he probably remained pensive during the revelry. Imagine the confluence of thoughts and emotions he was experiencing. He knew that forces were already in motion for his final and climactic hours on earth.

When Jesus began to speak, he seemed to have another banquet scene in mind—a scene from the future, yet one that was so certain and concrete in his mind that it seemed a mere moment away.

“I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” (Luke 22:15-18)

That vision of the kingdom seemed to have sustained Jesus in the moment. He could see through this world to the next. Not a shadow of doubt entered his mind or heart concerning the reality of the coming kingdom—and that his friends would join him there.

That grand vision inspired hope. But Jesus looked at it through a veil of tears. He knew of impending sorrow and separation even then bearing down on this celebration. The optimism of the king was pain tinged.

This episode in Jesus’ final hours reflects a reality that all kingdom leaders learn to live with. Their vision of the kingdom gifts them with optimism. They know that lives will be better off because of the impact of the kingdom. They see all the way through the present world to one that is much better off. But it’s a pain-tinged optimism. The vision, after all, is looking through this world, where things aren’t the way they should be. Where too much injustice occurs. Where too many suffer from too many ravages of the effects and the damage exacted by the dark kingdom of anti-life.

EFFECTIVE KINGDOM LEADERS LEARN HOW TO SPOT BURNOUT AND DEFEND AGAINST IT.

This reality, along with the stresses of serving and leading, takes its toll on kingdom leaders. It is a toll that can touch leaders’ spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health. In the end, kingdom leaders who learn how to navigate the rapids of the colliding dynamics of hope and despair are the ones who finish well. This is the topic for discussion in this chapter. Our investigation will first survey the forces of burnout and compassion fatigue, two dynamics that especially threaten kingdom leaders. Then we’ll see how kingdom leaders can build resiliency, the quality that allows them to maintain hope amid their pain.

BATTLING BURNOUT

As noted above, kingdom leaders can be subject to two major derailing forces: burnout and compassion fatigue. These two conditions differ but can be experienced at the same time. Some leaders experiencing one or the other or both can be confused as to which they suffer from. Whereas compassion fatigue is associated with trauma, burnout is not trauma-related. Burnout results from the exhaustion caused by intense or increased workloads and prolonged stress.

Kingdom leaders often wander into or live in these dangerous circumstances. Most problems they take on or issues they pursue clamor for all the attention and time they can give. Combined with the leader’s passion to make people’s lives better, these prolonged pressures can create an environment where factors conspire to consume all the leader’s energy. Effective kingdom leaders learn how to spot burnout and defend against it.

Signs. Psychologist Herbert Freudenberger generally gets credited1 for the development of the term burnout. He identified a number of signs that can signal that a person is experiencing burnout. We all experience some of these signs from time to time. However, should multiple signs begin to become evident in a leader’s life, a closer assessment may be called for to determine whether the leader is in burnout mode. The signs to watch for include the following:

• ▼ Exhaustion. Lack of energy associated with feelings of tiredness and trouble keeping up with usual activities.
• ▼ Detachment. People headed for burnout begin putting distance between themselves and others.
• ▼ Boredom and cynicism. The burnout victim begins to question the value of friendships and activities, sometimes even life itself.
• ▼ Increased impatience and irritability. The ability to do things quickly diminishes, and the person begins to blame family and co-workers for things that are his or her fault.
• ▼ A sense of omnipotence. Some victims begin thinking that no one else can do their jobs as well.
• ▼ Feelings of not being appreciated. Burnout victims want to be appreciated for their added efforts, which really aren’t producing more, but less. These feelings result in the victim becoming bitter, angry, and resentful.
• ▼ Change of work style. Reduced results and conflicts with others eventually cause burnout victims to withdraw from decisive leadership and work habits.
• ▼ Paranoia. Long-term burnout can lead victims to believe that someone is out to get them.
• ▼ Disorientation. Long-term burnout causes the victim’s thoughts to wander, speech patterns to falter and concentration spans to become limited.
• ▼ Psychosomatic complaints. Physical ailments such as headaches, lingering colds, backaches, and similar complaints flourish in burnout victims.
• ▼ Depression. The depression is usually temporary, specific, and localized to one area of life.
• ▼ Suicidal thoughts. Some people may make suicide threats or gestures that are manipulative.

Self-inflicted wounds. Leaders can find themselves in toxic environments that place them at a high risk for burnout. Almost every workplace and work situation at one time or another can involve periods of high stress. The key word here is toxic. In these unhealthy cases, the prudent move is to protect and defend yourself and to look for an emotionally and psychologically healthier environment if the current surroundings can’t be changed. The leader has to make the call to bail and when to bail.

Much burnout results from forces and choices inside the leader that set him up for burnout. Leaders are often complicit in their exhaustion. Some of the leading causes include the following:

• ▼ Approval addiction. Many leaders have such high needs for approval they fail to maintain appropriate boundaries, allowing others to crowd their personal time and family time. They’re reluctant to say no, fearing that others won’t like them.
• ▼ Achievement/performance standard. Many leaders feel the need to achieve to win approval—from others as well as from themselves. They may also feel a need to work for God, earning his love by their superhero efforts. Super-achievers also sometimes suffer from the “what’s next?” syndrome, having to top their last performance. Highly successful people, if they’re trying to fill a hole in their sense of self, are sometimes lulled into believing that the next project or next success will make everything quiet down in their spirit and calm the beast that pushes them from within. When perfect performance is expected in order to win approval of others or in order to meet one’s own internal expectations, the leader is operating with perfectionism. Burnout is not far behind when perfectionism keeps them on the ropes of performance anxiety all the time.
• ▼ Working outside our strengths. Much ministry burnout affects leaders dealing with prolonged trivia. What they consider trivia is related to their sense of mission and their talent set. If a leader pays too much rent—that is, does things that are of little interest to him or things that sap his energy—he is a candidate for burnout, especially if this happens over a prolonged period.
• ▼ No margins. Modern life has reached such a complicated level that many leaders operate with no margins in their lives, whether financial, time, energy, physical, or spiritual. The leader who consistently violates the need for some rest—for physical or spiritual replenishment—wil...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Introduction: Thy Kingdom Come
• One: Pray with Eyes Wide Open
• Two: Foment Dissatisfaction with the Status Quo
• Three: Combine Social and Spiritual Entrepreneurship
• Four: Marry Vision and Action
• Five: Shape a People-Development Culture
• Six: Curry Leadership Curiosity
• Seven: Call the Party
• Eight: Maintain (a Pain-Tinged) Optimism
• Nine: Accelerate Your Impact
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• For Further Reflection
• Notes
• IVP Praxis
• Praise for Kingdom Collaborators
• About the Author
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press
• Copyright