(I first published this over five years ago, on June 24, 2010. Did any of you take my advice then? What if we started now?)

“What do you want to be true of you as a leader in five years?  What do you want your wife to say about you as a church leader? What do you want your kids to say about you as a church leader?”

That’s what I asked five guys the other night. They are studying church administration. I’m the eprof. I wanted a simple case study for talking about change. I picked them.

“What specific skills do you need to develop to make that happen? What attitudes? What habits? What barriers do you need to remove?”

They did well in brainstorming though spoke in vague terms.

I picked on a barrier that one person had identified.

“Give me a specific, concrete, practical set of actions that can help me decrease ___.”

That was a struggle.

We all love people with wonderful reputations. We think, “I want to be known like that.” But when it comes to practical steps that will take us closer to that reputation, we struggle. Can you learn to love, to surrender, to be humble, to be like Jesus? I mean, we talk about it, but what actual steps do we take?

Paul set as his goal

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…

He outlines some steps in the following paragraphs:

1. I haven’t arrived. (He was honest in evaluating his current status).

2. I’m pressing on. (He was committed to not staying at his current status)

3. I’m doing this one thing. (He was focused on his direction)

4. I’m forgetting what is already behind me. (He was not trapped by past successes and failures.)

That was Paul. What do you want to be true in five years?

You can read my followup post called Making Change.