When Steve Young was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame, a television commentator asked him about his first four years on the San Francisco 49’ers as backup to Joe Montana. “Steve was it tough for you to stay in San Francisco when you could have been a starter on any other team in the league?” Young replied that he thought about leaving plenty of times but one thing kept him anchored to this team – Coach Bill Walsh had a winning system that Young believed in.
When Walsh arrived in San Francisco in 1979, the 49’ers finished the previous year with a 2-14 record. But during his time as coach he led them to three Super Bowl victories. Walsh built the foundation that allowed the 49’ers to play 16 straight seasons with at least 10 wins per season. He brought the team a new method of training, a new way of practicing, a winning attitude, and revolutionized the game with his pass-powered “West Coast offense.”
What if the church could build a winning system for training leaders? What if our people wanted to grow as leaders and really believed in the system. What if we had a way to shape peoples leadership spirit and develop their leadership skills? What a difference that would make.
People will sacrifice their time and energy to be a part of a leadership development system that works. Most want to grow. They want to discover their strengths and realize their potential. They want to serve and lead in meaningful ways.
When I first started thinking about defining a leadership development strategy I knew I needed a model. I asked myself, what are the best practices of those who are really doing it? My thoughts went immediately to people like Jack Welch and John Maxwell. Then it hit me, the best person to learn leadership development from was Jesus himself. The leaders he developed literally changed the world. As I studied through the gospels I discovered seven components of Jesus leadership strategy. These seven components have become the foundation to our leadership development process at Seacoast. I will be sharing these over the next few posts.
What leadership development models have you found helpful? As you think about how Jesus developed leaders what elements of his strategy stand out to you?
