5 Price to Pay if you are in a Leadership position

Leadership that doesn’t produce pain is either in a short season of unusual blessing or it isn’t really making a difference. When leaders in any field take the risk of moving individuals and organizations from one stage to another from stagnation to effectiveness or from success to significance, they inevitably encounter confusion, passivity, and outright resistance from those they’re trying to lead. Those are the pain and price a leader would pay. Leadership comes with a cost, whether this costs are worth it or not is debatable, but first lets see the price or cost you must be willing to pay as a leader:

1 – There is a Financial Cost – Books cost money.  Conferences cost money.  Putting yourself in a position to be stretched and grown cost money.  AND one of the qualities that I’ve always noticed in leaders who were “getting it done” is that they were personally willing to pay a financial price.  

2 – There Is An Emotional Cost – According to Perry Noble, Leading in the church is one of the most emotionally draining things you will EVER do.  You will discover that you can go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows with one email or phone call.  Your heart and motives will be called into question.  Critics who don’t know you (nor do they want to know you) will malign, misrepresent and attack you.  On most days you will feel overwhelmed and unworthy of your calling…and all of this requires that we be willing to pay the price emotionally.

3 – There is a Physical Cost – Laziness and leadership do NOT go hand in hand.  It takes blood, sweat and tears in order to be developed to your fullest leadership potential…which means you get out of bed early and go to work and sometimes retire late to bed!  And yes, REST is essential to stay healthy

4 – There is a Spiritual Cost – The more influential you become as a leader the greater the intensity of spiritual attack on your life.

In Acts 19, the bible records a demon literally having a conversation with seven guys…he tells them he knows Jesus and has heard about Paul, probably because he was causing such a disturbance, but then tells the guys he hadn’t even heard about them!!!  Like it or not…the enemy doesn’t pursue everyone with the same intensity.

You will experience spiritual warfare.  You will encounter temptation on a level that is greater than anything you could imagine.  You have to be willing to fight the fight and pay the price if you want to be a Succesful leader.

5 – There is a Personal Cost – All of the things listed above comes around to this…there Is a personal cost when it comes to leadership.  You will need to develop yourself and build your capacity beyond that of your followers, this could be tasking, but will eventually pay off.

FINAL WORD: No Pain, No Gain.......Shalom!