My take aways from Crawford Lorritt’s book, “Leadership as an Identity”:

I looked forward to reading Crawford’s book when I saw it on the reading list. I am struggling at times with the Church multiplying their marketing and attractional leadership without giving as much attention to the power of being deeply spiritual. It is this precise goal that Loritts seeks to remind church leaders to not forget. I applaud him. At times I feel like I am out of touch because I would rather start meetings with extended prayer times, stop in the middle of meetings and pray, sing worship songs and garner an all around passionate leadership culture. I want to stay as positive as I can and books like Leadership as an Identity have fueled my passion to stick to it.

We have, as leaders, been given assignments from God and for God. It is not cliché to say, “God’s ways are not our ways” as it relates to leadership. Materialism, man centered ideas, attractional gimics and competence can never take the place of character, passion for God and prayer being the foundation. We lead and live to the audience of ONE! The rest of the book plays off of God-Centered leadership. How is it possible? Simply stated and these chapters would make a great Sermon Series: Brokenness, Uncommon Communion, Servanthood as an Identity and Radical Immediate Obedience. Truly not the typical leadership, but that is why I liked it so much. It followed in the lineage of J. Oswald Sanders and Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Brokenness stands in the face of the leader who thinks they have the “right stuff” and are a gift to their Church from God. I need to be broken. I need brokenness as much as I need air. A great test, and I like, how Loritts brings relevant Scriptures into play, of brokenness is whether a leader who is going strong actually stays sensitive to God and stays dependent. Uzziah stopped seeking God when things were going great. Danger zone! Instead the counter culture, Godly response is one of weakness. Paradoxically we are strong when we are most weak. God, as the creator and creative God, uses specific seasons of brokenness to prepare us for deeper and more fruitful seasons of ministry. Like the ingredients of a cake mixed together makes something taste wonderful, but if left separate would be a miserable dish, so brokenness although painful makes a wonderful dish for God’s use in the world.

The best leaders are not always the most eloquent or best dressed. The best leaders are not those who can get a lot done. The best leaders are given impossible tasks and are asked to seek God for the resources to achieve what only God can do. We are, after all, God’s workmanship. The best part of leadership in this vein is to trust God and stay very close to Him. When an entire team is promoting smooth marketing, sleek programming and strategic budgeting devoid of Uncommon Communion, there may be activity, but spiritual sustainability will be lacking. This is God’s work. It is His church. “If leadership is all about God, then let’s make it all about God,” is what Bill Bright said and I echo my desire to lead like this. This may mean that we pray before EVERY meeting. We give God our A.T.T.E.N.T.I.O.N (Anticipate God moving, Think about God, Thank God, Enjoy God, Need God, Talk to God, Imagine God being right with you, Open your mouth and sing to God, Notice God in every day ways). Flurry of activity will never replace the touch of God. God’s touch is one of rest. Resting is trusting. Our habits, on our day off and on our days of work, really prove what we are trusting in and what we think is important. How many times has a leader redefined the activity as the end and not their relationship with God. We need to work on the depth and God works on the breadth.

Servanthood as an Identity leadership can either be a cliché or a real life reality (notice Servanthood is our identity and not just a strategy to make things happen). It appears that Loritts takes this very seriously by seemingly referring to servanthood as an identity. Servanthood and humility go hand and hand. A wonderful definition towards humility is that God is everything we need. We can’t do anything spiritual without him and others are more important than yourself. The opposite of humility is pride. God uses humility towards our brokenness to squeeze the pride right out of us. Humility comes in the form of dealing with very draining people, with thinking of those who are on your team, remembering the names of their kids, thinking of them and their feelings when calendaring goals and events.

Radical immediate obedience keeps your leadership young in my opinion. All of us remember when our love for God was fresh and inspiring. Years under our belt has weakened our fervor. It doesn’t have to be that way. I am always looking for good sermon fodder and Crawford did not disappoint with this section. When referring to God’s leadership communication to Joshua, God told him, “To proclaim it (the word) to the people, to possess it and to practice it.” All of this coming from Joshua 1:8. Radical obedience in action…I am inspired to be this kind of leader.

How can someone find fault with a book like this? I loved it and will return to it for Sermon series from time to time I am sure.