Purpose and Ministry

SOURCE: "Know Your Purpose" by Margaret J. Marcuson. Leading Ideas, July 22, 2009.
http://www.churchleadership.com/leadingideas/leaddocs/2009/090722_article.html
KEYWORDS: purpose, identity, knowledge

"When Rabbi Noah, Rabbi Mordecai’s son, assumed the succession after his father’s death, his disciples noticed that there were a number of ways in which he conducted himself differently than his father, and asked him about this. “I do just as my father did,” Rabbi Noah replied. “He did not imitate, and I do not imitate.” (Kurtz and Ketcham, The Spirituality of Imperfection, Bantam, 1993) Fundamentally, leadership is having a clear sense of who we are and where we are going, and relating to our followers out of ourselves. The best leaders are themselves in their role, rather than imitating other leaders or looking to their followers for their primary cues. They know who they are and what their purpose is. "