Strive for AAA

No, I don’t mean joining the American Automobile Association or the minor baseball leagues. I am speaking of leaders who understand the huge importance of Awareness, Alignment and Assessment as part of their ongoing personal growth and development. I don’t think there is a leadership tome written for secular or religious leaders in the last 20 years that hasn’t stressed self awareness as a foundational need for leaders. So why is self awareness so important to missionary leaders? It is the starting place. To be able to say, ‘this is the way I am’ gets us in touch with the Great I AM. Understanding how God uniquely created each of us with gifts, skills, passion, and what I like to call ‘default behaviors’, gives us the opportunity to align ourselves with others who complement, help make our efforts whole in order to bring about God’s vision for His people. Leaders were not created to be lone rangers. Although leading may be a lonely activity at times, the very nature of leadership is to influence and impact the behavior of others. With the privilege and responsibility of leading comes the need for the inward look.


If we do not understand ourselves, if we do not see our personal blindspots that are glaring to others, if we are just working harder at the same old thing, making the same mistakes, how do we grow? The presumption here is a desire for personal development. Loving and serving God usually define the heart of missionary leaders. Loving and serving are humble acts. It is at our deepest moments of humility and vulnerability that God can break through, revealing things about the Spirit and ourselves that can help us grow. This growth helps us on our personal paths toward transformation and a greater understanding of God.

Herrington, Creech and Taylor speak to the ‘Threefold Process of Personal Transformation’ in their book, The Leaders’ Journey. This process involves three parts, all interconnected, that help lead one to personal transformation. They include personal commitment to obey Christ, leading in the context of a loving, graceful and truth telling faith community, and working to be reflective of one’s life, faith and behaviors.
Personally, I have found my faith community, the church, to be a great testing ground for heightening my self awareness, recognizing the impact I have on others, and my ongoing journey of faith. I find there is a high degree of expectation on the part of parishioners that congregational leaders will admit vulnerability and act out of humility. At the same time there is an expectation and need for strong leaders. I do not find these expectations to be mutually exclusive. I think it is in how one defines “strength”. It takes guts to admit that you don’t do something well, or have erred or need help. It has been my experience that healthy groups respond, complement and support their leaders at these times, bonding and strengthening the relationships and the Body of Christ. And the stronger and healthier the Body, the better it can witness to the world. So much can be said about working on self awareness. Let’s just start working at it, praying for revelation, asking others, and believing that it is part of the necessary journey for personal transformation in order to better serve Christ as missionary leaders.