Leaders are navigating complex challenges while also exploring new opportunities and scenarios, all of which has been accelerated throughout 2020.

During a leadership conference this month hosted by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, 400 executive leaders representing over 300 faith-based organizations engaged remotely in plenary and breakout sessions to be encouraged and inspired. 

Here are five messages on leadership that I thought were particularly valuable.

1. Leadership is part of God’s plan. Sometimes, as leaders, you just need to do the next thing you know to be right and expect God to bail you out. (James Bryan Smith, Friends University.)
2. Leaders reflect God’s glory and as Christians are models of the new creation here on earth. Jesus stayed local, he got in close proximity with those in his community that he served. (N.T. Wright, Senior research fellow at Wycliffe Hall at the University of Oxford.)
3. Leaders need to consider how much time they invest in building their “resume virtues” versus building their eulogy or “character virtues.” (David Brooks, New York Times columnist)
4. Leaders are called to invest in the seeds around them. Leaders must be involved tending to those seeds around them as discipleship is caught, not taught. (Lecrae, artist, author, and leader.)
5. Leaders should consider what it would look like if God were in charge of their organization. What might be different? (N.T. Wright, Senior research fellow at Wycliffe Hall at the University of Oxford)

Which thought or thoughts strike you? Which would be most valuable for you to reflect on today?