Continuing our series on leading like Jesus, looking at Paul as an example, and in reading through chapter 2 of 2 Timothy, the word that comes to mind for me is 'focus'. Paul is trying to focus Timothy on the mission, and urging him to push other ideas and thoughts and distractions out of his mind. A great trait of a leader is the ability to hold onto the mission, to see it through the clouds and the chaos and the distractions, and to keep moving forward in spite of the fact that he/she may not have a clue what to do. Paul tells Timothy to focus on righteousness, faith, love and peace - when all else fails, when we don't know what to do, a great question that a great leader asks is "What does love require of me right now?".

It makes me think a little about right now, when we don't know necessarily what to do as a church. Well, if each of us would ask that question, and would follow Paul's request of Timothy, then we would be positioning ourselves well to have God work in and through us...sometimes the only thing we can see to do is to put one foot in front of the other, acting in love (and righteousness, faith, and peace) in this moment, as we await clarity about the bigger plan.

I guess, in summary, we could say that leaders typically strive to maintain a vision for the future...but when they can't see as far out, for whatever reason, they keep moving forward regardless. That's our calling as well.