Influence Vs. Impact

Today's guest blogger is my good friend Doug Franklin.  Doug and I met 20 years ago and had an instant connection because of our mutual passion for leadership.  Doug is the Founder and President of Leadertreks.  Everytime I spend time with Doug I walk away challenged and changed.  You can learn more about Doug by visiting his blog www.dougfranklinonline.com, follow him on Twitter @dougfranklin and make sure you check out www.leadertreks.com for some great Student Ministry resources. 

Infuence Vs. Impact

I have started to notice a change in leadership. For people my age (46) and older we think about leadership in terms of time spent. Our influence comes from how long we have been in ministry or how long we have been in a leadership position. It’s not important what we have done but how long have we been doing it. For 20 somethings it’s very different. They are concerned with impact and they don’t care how old you are if you are making a difference in culture and church. So we can’t teach leadership the same way, in fact many younger people reject leadership because it seems to be based on a meaningless statistic.So how do we teach leadership to a generation that mistakenly thinks it doesn’t need it?1. We connect service with leadershipWe need a new picture of leadership. I like saying, “leaders live in an upside down pyramid.” We lead from the bottom up. We serve those who follow us.2. We connect personal development to leadershipEveryone is going to be in a leadership position at some point in their lives. If we are in a car with two kids in the back we are leaders. So learning leadership will benefit everyone. We must help people see that leadership is a personal need for everyone.3. We connect change to leadersChanges happens through movements. Movements happen because someone takes a stand. Leaders take a stand because they have a vision of a better tomorrow. We are those leaders because we have a vision of a better tomorrow in Christ