Leadership Reflections 006
Over the last few years we have all heard and processed news of leaders who have fallen short of the high standards that are laid out in the Bible. For many of us these instances have been upsetting, painful and heartbreaking. We share those feelings of pain at the abuse, ill treatment and hurt that has been experienced around the Church.
It’s caused Debby and me to reflect again, with some of our team, on the leadership lessons we can learn in this moment; lessons for our own churches and those across the wider Vineyard family here in the UK and Ireland.
This series of Leadership Reflections contains some teaching and lessons which we have shared with Vineyard Senior Pastors over the last few years. As we continue to listen and learn from this season, we wanted to open these resources up to anyone who would find them helpful by publishing them publicly.
Our prayer is that you might find these helpful and by the grace of God, together we can create churches that are safe, Kingdom-centred communities for us all to call home.
John & Debby Wright
National Directors
Vineyard Churches UK & Ireland
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All of us have ways of being which are adversely affected by past experiences, and becoming self aware about them can be a key to being healed up, and becoming a more healthy leader as a result. I love Pete Scazzero’s book ‘Emotionally healthy spirituality’, which is worth reading or re-reading.
The reality is that we all minister out of some degree of brokenness, but we do well to be aware of our broken places and seek help in growing. There are numerous ways to do this. Some of you may have done things like Faithwalking, or received ministry through small ministry teams or SOZO.
Debby and I, and a number of the Vineyard Leadership Team, have spent 5 full days going through a ministry called Restoring the Foundations (RTF). I found it hugely helpful in first of all realising that I was a lot more messed up than I thought I was! It really helped in identifying some of my broken areas, and addressing them, praying through them, and moving through into a more healthy place.
For the last 9 years, as well as a Spiritual Director, who Debby and I share openly with and who we give permission to point out where we could grow, we also have a psychotherapist who we have a Zoom meeting with every few months. With his help, we are able to process all sorts of struggles with him unedited, and he has profoundly helped us grow in our marriage and our ministry.
In a few seasons of challenge we have also had access to a Coach, who has helped us work to our strengths, and make good decisions which could otherwise have been clouded by our blind spots. I encourage any senior leader to make the most of these resources – we have trained Coaches and Spiritual Directors available in the Vineyard.
