Happy New Year!
This is week number five in my telling you about how Jesus modeled humble intelligence for His followers and for our pastors today. I’ve given you a taste of the first four of the seven attributes of humble intelligence: compassion, sacrificial service, openness, and brokenness. This week, let’s look at number five, self-awareness. Here is just a little excerpt from the book on this topic.
Self-Awareness
The fifth sign of the humility factor is the attribute of self-awareness, which is a foundational trait in many of the positive leadership styles which will be discussed in the next chapter. Pastor Graham Standish states it plainly, “Humble leaders are self-aware leaders,” and McArthur-Blair states it as “knowing what we stand for when we become unhinged.”
Self-awareness is critical because, without an honest and intentional exploration of what really makes one tick, both an individual and their church can remain stuck in an unintentional state of bias and self-delusion. Pastors may sincerely believe that they care for the people in their congregation and in their community; however, when their actions are incongruent with their words, it becomes obvious that they are only kidding themselves. They must look within themselves and face the reality of their actual deeds to discover their true assumptions, beliefs, values, and biases.
At its essence, self-awareness means that a pastor knows who they are in the sight of God, in the sight of man, and in the sight of self. In the book I highlight pastors who are caught in the act of being humble, and you will see a pattern of attitudes and behavior that demonstrate this principle. Those pastors know who they are and do not try to be someone they are not.
Self-aware pastors have a great understanding of what they lack, but also in what they excel, and by keeping their sight of self under the umbrella of their sight of God, it will be a powerfully positive tool for being an effective leader who possesses humble intelligence. By knowing who they truly are, they are free to do what they were created to do and free to not do that for which they weren’t created. Self-aware leaders, as Bonem and Patterson state, know that “leadership is not about position, title, or the role we want to play. For those who claim to love and follow Jesus, leading in His Kingdom involves service, subordination, and even slavery.”
PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR
The Humility Factor will be available for purchase on Monday, January 15, 2018. I would sure appreciate you making your purchase on that day so that we make a splash on amazon.com for others to see and catch the wave of The Humility Factor.
Thanks for taking the time to read this message. Please take a moment to view this week’s video as well. You can find it at http://youtu.be/gXH1GOBuOVQ
DJP (That’s Dr. John Plastow)
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