Leaders Old & New--Are We "Seizing the Moment" or Just the Mic?

As a calling, vocation & equity coach (this means I help us figure out what we think they’re trying to do, and how to do it well in relationship with one another), I have some reflections on all of the sudden pushes I’m seeing personally, communally, and organizationally around “what comes next” from our current climate.

Particularly, for all of the folks who are suddenly wanting to “seize this moment,” and lead folks you’ve never led or talked about leading, somewhere you’ve had no previous inclination to go:

Whatever your race, ethnicity, sex, gender, class background, however long you have or have not been leading in some capacity,

The straight up reality is that if you have not been preparing towards this moment, and certainly if you just realized this moment is even needed, what you are most likely preparing to do is make a bigger mess.

I implore you to go have a prayerful seat with the Holy Spirit, which is likely what you’re supposed to be doing.

Yes, the Lord equips the called. And IF They called you just now, it’s mostly likely for you to learn from this moment to begin to become equipped. Much less likely for you to decide that you must be The Answer, and to start “leading the people” to a place many of us didn’t even know needed to exist until last week.

How do we know if we’re positioning ourselves or see others positioning themselves as leaders?

If we’re telling other people what to do according to us, that’s a default on telling folks to follow. So somewhere in us, we’ve got the idea that we’re a leader. And as Holy Spirit always say to me: If folks are gonna follow us, we better lead em some place good.

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Here are some short reflections on discerning 4 key types of leaders we are being and seeing in this “new” moment, and how we may best be healthy and helpful in those roles:

1. Seizing the Mic | The (Un?)Intentional Self-Centerer

If this time is as monumental as so many of us want to believe it is, then this is an Into the Desert Moment.

If you are not prepared to march people around for a time and help them sort through their things on the new issue you want to lead while y’all get y’all’s ish together,

If you’re trying to do a feel-good one off,

If you already know you’re gonna fade out when the heat of this moment does,

If you’re going to “70 Elders” and attempt to disallow the folks on your margins to speak because you think your voice is The One That Matters

if you’re going to run away and leave the people stranded when you’re tired of the heat, and the circles and manna every morning ain’t gone cut it for you no more,

you are very likely outside of the holy—you’re Pharaohing and probably thinking of yourself a Moses.

You are not necessarily even intending to take over or be out of place. And yet here we are.

What you have done is erroneously decided that this is your moment and space, when what you are actually hearing is the call to be someplace more meaningful than where you currently are.

This ain’t that place. And one another’s lives are not a playground for your calling discernment.

Keep seeking, keep questioning yourself, and keep remaining open. If you truly desire it, will find you.

For now: Please put the mic down and step aside, because you are causing harm in what are actually self-centered attempts to “help.” If you end up getting Sandman’d off the stage, that is an inevitable necessity that you created. And it’s had to happen to plenty of us. You’re nowhere near alone. Dust yourself off, and continue to pursue your elsewhere, in the name of Jesus.

I will for real write a future post on how you can use this moment to begin to discern what you may actually be called to. But if you recognize that the mic you’re holding isn’t intended for you, please hush up, put it down, and step back. And thank you. Jesus thanks you.

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2. Being Seized By the Moment | The Newbie Who’s Got Their Own Ground to Cover

If you recognizing that you are called to whatever you’re insistent on leading others in at this moment, but have never really worked through it for yourself, it’s highly unlikely that you’re supposed to be leading it right now. Rather, you are likely receiving your call to prepare now to lead in the future.

Moses didn’t tarry around asking Pharaoh to let his people go for kicks and giggles. Because he was actually brand new to the Israelites (remember—he used to be for a long long long time one of the folks literally lording over them?), he had to demonstrate to the people that he was really with them and for them, as well as learn what it meant to lead them. Because he eventually had to take them out into the desert—they not only had to be willing to follow him, but to also genuinely trust that we he was truly trying to help they get to where they were trying to go.

In the name of Jesus, please focus first on doing your work, and know that God is preparing you for when you’re to come back around and support one another in theirs. If it’s where you’re supposed to be right now, it’s not only okay but crucial that you run to Jethro to focus on getting your self together.

God will bring you home when it’s really your time. And you probably won’t even want it at first when it is…

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3. Seizing the Moment | The Atypical, And Still Possible “Novice”

If you still feel called to lead…Right Now: I bless you. I praise you. I pray for you. Receive the reality that this is a longer journey, not a sip and paint, or a summer vacation. You’ve likely been called to this for a while, and preparing in ways you didn’t realize were towards this.

What you may not have been doing is responding affirmatively, and/or you just figured out how.

And you haven’t been responding because you probably sense the enormity of it, and are wondering what you can possibly do to make a difference.

First of all, you can do what you are called to, because you are literally created to do it.

And it still means learning. It still means continually becoming equipped. It means that sometimes other folks are going to have to help you hold your arms up to part the seas, because leading is actually not a one-person work.

It means a whole lot of humility, and ensuring that we learn with and appropriately look to and lean on the folks who were already here. Some of them actually live here, so definitely definitely make certain you listen with them. Because none of this is new—it’s just new to you.

Second, expect that folks will challenge your new arrival, and should. Because what we’re called to is a matter of life. And if we are truly called, we have to keep on keeping on regardless. Because what we’re called to is a matter of life.

It means the humility that we are walking with folks in some of the most heartrending and joy-filled moments of their lives. We’re not saving anyone. This is actually something to dance about, because the picture sharpens and comes into greater focus and doability, when we remember:

We are not saving anyone.

For For Real New-New leaders: Drink your water. Get your rest. Being a leader does not make us invincible. And it also doesn’t make us inherently correct.

It’s simply makes us the ones who are most responsible for what follows.

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4. Seizing the Moment | The Steady & Committed “We Been Out Here, Folks Just Ain’t Been Looking”

To those who know that this moment isn’t New-New, because you’ve actually been working steadily, diligently, and committedly in the background for years, adding into years of life and work before your own, to bring this point to visibility. And that there is much yet to be accomplished:

Thank you. We bless you. More of us have arrived to help bear the load. Please take a few moments to rest your weary feet, hearts, and souls. Take a breath. Maybe chill and have at least a glass of champagne.

Exhale remembering: Most of the people who showed up are not staying—the tidal wave crashed in, and it will recede. Which you are actually relieved about, because we know everyone who came through the door isn’t meant for this particular space. You will find your people. Your people will find you.

Remember your water, and remember your rest. Because idealism keeps you looking young, but it doesn’t keep you healthy, boo. And this work is already taking it out of you. Make certain to love and hold with your people who pour back in.

And you will continue on, many invisible still, but powered by seeing the work of justness become and breathe greater life and living into the world.

Learning together, and passing the torches of wisdom that you received from those who were before you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. May many more of us become with you.

For All of Us | A Benediction

To lead at such a time as this means to help us discern how we reasonably go forward together from the point where we currently are, to where we envision. Not to bring the kindom tomorrow. Or next week. Or next year. Or, actually, ever, because we participate towards the coming of the kindom—we don’t bring it. That job is already assigned to Someone.

It ultimately means knowing that we’ve got this—living our faithful lives of justness with one another moment to moment, and day to day—because God’s got us.

More deeply learn and do justness today.

And then do it tomorrow.

And the day the after that.

And after that…

I will be here. Other folks were here looooong before me, and they ain’t going nowhere. Other folks are yet coming. You are not alone.

For those of us who believe in justness, it definitively means—for better and in struggle—that we are all in this together.

Signed,

A Calling & Vocation Coach

#BlessingsBeUponYou