Lead
Habit 9 of the Discipleship Guidebook is the first of the four last habits in the Guidebook, part of a new section, called “Give Life.” After we have Received Life and Grown with and through one another, we exercise Jesus’ Commission as we lead, give thanks, encourage, and multiply. Habit 9 is Lead: we lead as we Work and Rest the way God calls us to. ( Catch our peek into Habit 8 here )
Our diverse family of uniquely gifted image-bearers of God forms the fruitful branches of Garden City. In a city of taking, we’re here to give. We’re leaders who initiate and innovate to give our talents, time, and treasure to make our church and city better. Jesus leads us on a countercultural path where giving away our lives is how we come to truly find and enjoy our lives.
We define leadership as “taking initiative for the benefit of others.” God created us to lead. Central to our discipleship is getting clarity about the talents God’s entrusted to us, thinking through how to wisely steward and be fruitful with what God has given us. The primary way we express this is through our work and our rest.
We follow a God who designed us to work and rest well. One of the first steps in fruitful work is getting clear on what our gifts and ‘minas’ are! Study Luke 19:11-27 and Genesis 1:16-2:25.
Work:
Explore the core gifting and opportunity God has given you and what you think he’s uniquely put you on this earth to do. Draw from the discoveries you’ve made about yourself throughout this guidebook. Encourage and affirm the gifting of God and the good stewardship of that gifting that you see in those around you. Humbly reflect on if you see a squandering, burying, or abusing of the “capital” our King has given. See if you could summarize in a sentence or two the capital and the calling God has given you.
Perhaps this guide will help. Getting greater clarity about calling typically involves 3 aspects:
1) Affinity: Do you desire to do this?
2) Ability: Are you skilled to do this?
3) Opportunity: Do you have an opportunity to do this?
I want to live in such a way that, if it is only twenty-nine more days or twenty-nine more weeks, or if it is twentynine more years or more, I want to faithful with each one of those—that I could go and meet the Lord without regrets, without unfinished business.
- Nancy Leigh DeMoss
We see “disciple” as nearly synonymous with “leader.” Our leader, Jesus, “takes initiative for the benefit of others” and we do the same. We don’t sit around as passive spectators of life, we’re leaders who can initiate and innovate to make things better. Where in your work life or civic life is God showing you a new opportunity to step forward and lead?
Rest:
Our texts above, Genesis 2 and Luke 19, articulate the Master/Servant Relationship, where God is the Master and we are the servant. God’s job is to be God, our job is to simply be human. At Garden CIty, we have human-sized expectations of humans (oursleves included!) and God-sized expectations of God. Don’t get this backwards!
God commands us to rest. If we’re not resting well, we’re disobeying God and missing out on one of his greatest gifts to us. On the first pages of our Bible we encounter God himself living a rhythm of work and rest, and then soon calling us to live this same rhythm. One of the most compelling ways we can demonstrate the gospel to our overworked/work-worshipping city and one of the most tangible ways we can prove to ourselves that we actually believe the gospel is through rest. Rest daily, weekly, and annually.
For more guidence on calling, work, and rest, dive into Habit 9 in the Guidebook!
Take a look at this sermon by Justin from last year on Habit 9:
Here is the full Habit 9 in the Guidebook to flip through, too:
We also want you to have access to the whole Guidebook if you don’t already, so below is a link to download it. We have a physical Guidebook for you too, so you can scribble down your thoughts and prayers and dive into the resource in a Lifegroup! Just email Alayne and we will get you a copy!