Your Greatest Leadership Challenge in 2024

Your greatest leadership challenge in 2024 is not going to be leading a children's ministry.

It's not going to be leading volunteers.

It's not going to be leading parents.

It's not going to be leading staff members.

Your greatest leadership challenge in 2024 is going to be leading yourself well.

Let's make it plain and simple...the most challenging person you lead is the person that stares back at you in the mirror.

1 Timothy 4:16 tells us this.

"Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.  Persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers."

Notice that it says to keep a watch on yourself first. As you first lead yourself well, then you will be able to lead others well.

As you enter the year 2024 will you make spending time with Jesus a #1 goal?  The evil one knows if you consistently spend time with Jesus, you will be filled with joy, anointing, and spiritual power. He will try to hand you excuse after excuse after excuse to miss your daily time with Jesus.  

Don't get so busy working for God that you don't have time to spend with God.

Rick Warren, beloved former pastor of Saddleback Church, got this.  He said...

Years ago, I stopped working on building a church and instead focused on building me.  As I grew, the church grew.

You will face many things in 2024 that will try to get in your heart and make you go off course:

Bitterness. 

Anger. 

Lust. 

Covetousness.  

Frustration.

Discouragement.  

Sin.  

Doubt.  

Comparison.  

False Teaching. 

Disappointment.

Don't let this happen.  Guard your heart against these things.  

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.  Proverbs 4:23.

When something is valuable, we put a guard around it. We protect it. 

I read some heart-breaking news this past week.  A well known preacher of the Gospel has fallen and His ministry is basically over due to sexual sin. Somewhere along the way, he didn't guard his heart against lust and didn't lead himself well. 

I am thinking of another well known pastor who recently passed away.  A few years ago, he let false doctrine enter His heart.  He replaced the truth of God's Word with his own finite feelings. He departed from the faith and began teaching heresy. He didn't guard the truth in his heart.

My prayer is that you will go the distance.  That you will finish the course God has planned and placed before you. For that to happen, you must lead yourself well.

It is not always easy to lead yourself well.  It takes discipline, determination, intentionality, and commitment.

Most of all, it takes dying to yourself daily.  Surrender your will and your ways to His complete control.

Greatness in ministry is not measured in years...but in decades.

Tune your heart to God's. Walk with Him. Talk with Him. Seek Him.  

Put Him at the top of your priority list.

My prayer is that 2024 will be your best year ever in ministry.  That can happen when you lead yourself well. 

p.s. Have you read my book "Lead Well in Children's Ministry?"  It contains everything you need to lead well in 2024.  You can get your copy at this link.