{"id":899,"date":"2023-03-01T03:00:47","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T09:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/?p=899"},"modified":"2023-02-24T07:27:39","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T13:27:39","slug":"grace-and-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/grace-and-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace and Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\"><div class=\"fusion-aligncenter\"><a class=\"fusion-button button-flat fusion-button-default-size button-custom fusion-button-default button-1 fusion-button-default-span fusion-button-default-type fusion-has-button-gradient\" style=\"--button_accent_color:#000000;--button_accent_hover_color:rgba(255,255,255,0.8)5;--button_border_hover_color:rgba(255,255,255,0.8)5;--button_gradient_top_color:#dead36;--button_gradient_bottom_color:rgba(222,173,54,0.85);--button_gradient_top_color_hover:rgba(222,173,54,0.85);--button_gradient_bottom_color_hover:#dead36;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/02\/Mars-2023-Devotions_Grace-et-Leadership_French.pdf\"><span class=\"fusion-button-text\">\u2022\u2022T\u00e9l\u00e9chargez les documents en fran\u00e7ais\u2022\u2022<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"fusion-sep-clear\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:5px;width:100%;\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-sep-clear\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Paul led and taught the churches, one theme that came up time and again was <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">grace. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In order to grow as leaders, I believe it is very important that we grow in grace.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes our wrong ideas of grace get in the way of receiving and giving true grace. It is too easy to confuse grace with permissiveness. As a supervisor, I may feel that holding someone accountable to deadlines and responsibilities is opposed to grace; that because of grace I must always say, \u2018It\u2019s okay.\u2019 But is that how God deals with us? Is that what Paul teaches and models?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Biblical Grace<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biblical grace is freely given, but it is not free. It is costly. It cost Jesus His life. It is the opposite of saying \u2018It\u2019s okay\u2019 when something is wrong. Instead, God\u2019s grace confronts sin in order to overcome it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biblical grace is humbling. We understand that we cannot earn God\u2019s favour. We all rely on God\u2019s grace because none of us is perfect (Galatians 2:21, Romans 3:23-24).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biblical grace makes us grateful and holy. Realizing that God has freely given us what we can never earn\u2014love, salvation, adoption, and a calling in His kingdom\u2014leads us to live and work with gratitude. We strive to do what pleases God, not out of fear or punishment or trying to earn His favour, but because we are grateful for the grace we\u2019ve received (Romans 6:14-16).<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Giving Biblical Grace<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Giving biblical grace to those we lead means holding people accountable:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quickly.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Like getting an injured person to the clinic right away, grace cares about the person enough to deal with a concern as soon as it arises. Our goal is to help the person flourish and succeed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Humbly.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> When we confront, it is with the knowledge that we also fall short and need grace. Humility also leads us to listen well, rather than assuming we fully understand the situation and the person\u2019s intentions. For example, if someone has not met a commitment, a gracious leader does not assume they were lazy but asks questions and listens; perhaps they had a sick child or family emergency.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consistently.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Paul was patient with the churches, often writing the same things again and again, confronting sins and wrong beliefs, and reminding them of the sort of life God had called them to. Leading with grace means patiently addressing areas where growth is needed and being clear and consistent with our expectations.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Receiving Grace<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although Paul taught about grace in all of his letters, we know that it wasn\u2019t always easy for him to receive grace for himself. When he was confronted with his own weakness and limitations (probably due to eye problems), he begged God to take it away. I\u2019m guessing he may have thought something like this: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If only God would heal me, I could do more ministry, train so many more churches, write better letters, travel more\u2026! <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But God\u2019s response was, \u2018My grace is sufficient for you\u2019 (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). Like Paul, we all have limitations and weaknesses. As leaders, we will sometimes fall short. If we are willing to receive it, God\u2019s grace is sufficient for each of us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-aligncenter\"><a class=\"fusion-button button-flat fusion-button-default-size button-custom fusion-button-default button-2 fusion-button-default-span fusion-button-default-type fusion-has-button-gradient\" style=\"--button_accent_color:#000000;--button_accent_hover_color:rgba(255,255,255,0.8)5;--button_border_hover_color:rgba(255,255,255,0.8)5;--button_gradient_top_color:#dead36;--button_gradient_bottom_color:rgba(222,173,54,0.85);--button_gradient_top_color_hover:rgba(222,173,54,0.85);--button_gradient_bottom_color_hover:#dead36;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/02\/March-2023-Devotions_Grace-and-Leadership_English.pdf\"><span class=\"fusion-button-text\">\u2022\u2022Download the Devotions\u2022\u2022<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership-skills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":905,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions\/905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reconciledworld.org\/flourish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}