Outside the Walls: Love to Lead

“How can we help you?” It was the first time the middle school principal of my town had ever been asked that question by a church leader. For years he had been asked other questions: “Would it be OK if we had a student Bible study on campus?” “Can our student minister come to lunch and hang out with the students?” “Can we use your auditorium for a church service of ours on Sunday?”

At first he didn’t know what to say. As I pressed him for an answer, he came up with a small project. I told him we had 150 volunteers and about $5,000 and wanted to know if there was anything else we could do. He sat up in his chair and said, “I think we can come up with a few more things.”

During our DNOW (Discipleship Now) Weekend, instead of having fun and games on Saturday, the students served their school that day. An extreme makeover was done to the teachers’ lounge, and we transformed it to have the feel of a coffee shop. The front lobby entrance was painted with vibrant colors, plants were planted, lockers were built for the football team, gift baskets were made with hand-written cards for each of the teachers, and the curbs were painted. When the teachers returned to school, they were amazed at the transformation.

Our schools are a vital part of our community. In order for our community to prosper, the schools need to prosper. We, as a covenant people, are to be a people of blessing. It made sense for us to be a blessing to our schools, which were filled with some of God’s most precious possessions.

“Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7).

So how many people from the school started coming to church? We did not have an ulterior motive in serving them. We were not serving them so that they would come to our church. Service with an agenda is manipulation. Service as the agenda is missional.

Eric Swanson writes, “The gospel is not our ulterior motive in service; it is our ultimate motive.” We serve because we love others, but if we truly love someone we are not going to stay quiet about the source of true love and life.

John Maxwell coined the phrase, “Leadership is influence.” If you want to increase your leadership within your community, you must increase your influence. If you want to increase your influence, increase your love. When you love, you earn the right to be heard. The more consistently you love, the more you earn the right to be followed.

When the principal of the school later that year needed a middle school basketball coach, I was the first person he called. In less than a week, my student ministry associate became the coach and the lead missionary to the public school basketball team.

Stoop to love, and you’ll have the opportunity to step up to lead.