Bring, Grow, Serve: A "North-Star Strategy"

What's your "North-Star Strategy"? That's author Susan Nilson Kibbey's question in her book Ultimately Responsible: When You're in Charge of Igniting a Ministry. Kibbey writes that effective leaders in the church must begin with a strategy that keeps them and the people they lead on course for spiritual well-being. A deep relationship with God is the starting point for leadership in the church.

On a recent vacation I took time to be "Grandma Sherry".
Part of the North-Star Strategy?

Kibbey suggests that a "North-Star Strategy" can have three components: Bring, Grow, Serve. First, leaders must bring all of themselves to God. This means physically, honoring the body as a creation of God, giving time for exercise, rest and renewal. The strategy includes "bringing" mentally, focusing on the renewing of our mind with God's guidance. Bringing means finding guidance for how we handle our emotions and our relationships with others in God through Jesus Christ. And the practice of bringing means being good stewards with possessions.

Kibbey points out that bringing ourselves to God is a matter of balancing our lives for health and wholeness as God intended.

The second component of the North-Star Strategy involves intentional practices that will help leaders to grow. This includes daily prayer and Bible study. Kibbey writes that it is essential that leaders find an accountability group or partners to help support spiritual growth. Spiritual practices will vary with each person. The important point is that in order to grow, a leader must be intentional and consistent.

The third component, serve, is the challenge to live like Jesus as a "servant-leader". Effective leaders not only cast a vision and empower, they serve with all God's people.

I appreciate Kibbey's emphasis on the importance of spiritual readiness. I've been reflecting on how the implementation of the Vital Church Initiative persciptions
, including all the reading and coaching I've been through, has affected me personally. I am certainly looking at church leadership differently. In addition, I find myself much more intentional about my faith practices and how I balance the demands of ministry, my health and my family. I am forming my own "North-Star Strategy".