Second half influence

For those who care about influence for the gospel, life is divided into two parts. Our own influence through our life and work and in the second half of life, our intentional mentoring of the next generation of influencers who will carry the baton to the next generation. It is Paul and Timothy and 2 Timothy 2:2. 


A wonderful example is John R W Stott whose world wide influence in my parents generation is tough to beat. Yet for many years prior to his death his primary focus was that of raising up the next generation of Christian leaders. He intentionally multiplied himself by giving himself away and focused less on his personal impact on society and more on the impact that the next generation would make. In doing so his legacy and influence live on in a powerful way. 


This requires a Kingdom heart that is focused not on one's own accolades but on empowering others who will will multiply one's Kingdom influence. It is about the Kingdom, not us. It is about leaving a living legacy in the lives we have influenced who will carry on our work when we are gone. I suspect that there will be many behind the scenes who will receive greater rewards in heaven than many big names whose focus was on their own ministry and legacy rather than on leaving a living legacy through others. 


This applies to wives who mentor the next generation of wives, husbands who mentor and raise up the next generation of Godly husbands, Christian leaders who invest themselves in the next generation of leaders ... anyone who is investing their lives in passing the baton to others who may actually have far more influence than we ever did. 


For Christian leaders, I am convinced that their success is best measured not by what happened while they were in leadership but by what happens when they are gone! Was there stewardship of the ministry about them or the ministry? If the latter they invested significant time and effort into the lives of the next generation of leaders. If the former, they often did not. 


If you are post fifty, who are you investing in? Who are you raising up to take your place behind you? That investment may well be your greatest influence and legacy as you multiply yourself in the lives of others. It is a quiet, behind the scenes work that will seldom be seen but its impact can be profound. It is in giving ourselves away that we have our greatest impact.

Deep Influence and Deep Pain are Intimately Connected

For those who desire a life of influence, pain, while never invited is a gift nonetheless. Suffering develops perspective, character, forces us to focus on the important and shed the unimportant and brings us closer to a sovereign father if we respond by pressing into him. Unfortunately, there is no substitute for pain and suffering when it comes to our inner life, our relationship with Jesus and the renovation of our hearts.

Those who ask Him to help them become like Him, to give them a heart like His and to help them love as He loves are inviting suffering into their lives because that suffering is the very thing if responded to well that brings the desired result. In the New Testament, Peter, Paul and the writer of Hebrews all talk about the way that pain purifies and brings His transformation to our lives.

Think about this. When we are treated unfairly we learn what it means to trust our situation to God. When we are slandered we learn that it is God who holds our reputations in His hand. When we face serious illness we learn what it means to prioritize the elements of our lives and to shed the unimportant. When we cannot get through a day without His help and grace we learn what it means to live in His presence even hourly. When the unexpected slams into our lives and we are left reeling we learn that there is nothing more precious than our relationship with Him - when all is said and done, He is what we need.

I don't relish pain. Those who know me know that Mary Ann and I have had our share. The funny thing is that in retrospect while I never want to go through certain situations again, I can today thank God for the hard and painful gifts he brought through suffering. I can say with certainty that the contours of my heart have been irrevocably shaped in suffering and that nothing else would have sufficed. When C.S. Lewis said that pain is God's megaphone to us he was right. Thus I call it an unlikely gift but a gift nonetheless because it was God speaking to me through the pain - it was Jesus who wanted to get in touch with me in my suffering.  Pain is God's certified mail to our very souls if we will but listen.

One of my sons told me once that he thought God would really use him in a significant way. In the aftermath of that conversation I thought about the price he would pay if that were to be the case. Spiritual influence comes at a price which is why those who have suffered deeply often influence us the deepest. They have been forced to go deep with God and the quality of their hearts and lives show it well. In contrast, those who simply want a life of ease and safety may get their wish but it will be at the expense of spiritual influence they might have had. 

The wonderful truth is that when we suffer and press into God we "share in His sufferings," in the words of Paul to the Philippians. We join our savior in the suffering that He endured for the sake of His father and for ours. We never suffer alone but have a high priest who has gone before us and understands the pain we feel and the issues we face. That is the gift of the incarnation. God, who had not known the frailties of those He created, became one of the created so that He could not only redeem us but identify with us forever. Thus in all pain and suffering we live with the reality that He not only went before us but goes with us in full understanding, compassion, grace, comfort and presence.

If you are living with the reality of pain today, my prayer is that God will comfort you and that you will go deep with Him and that out of it all will come deep and abiding relationship with the Father and deep influence with those around you. And to a friend out east who is in the confluence of pain, I pray that you will be encouraged, that God will do His work and that you will emerge stronger than ever.

Influence and self unimportance

I meet two kinds of people in Christian work. There are those who have a need for self importance. They need an impressive title, want significant authority, and need a fair amount of personal recognition. Often, in order to confirm their importance and expertise they will make declarative statements on issues and everyone knows from their demeanor that they are "important."

What is interesting about this is that Jesus Himself, never tried to act or look important and He is our model and the One we serve. How He was seen by others was not even on His radar. How he was seen by His Father was His overriding concern. Our desire to be important is antithetical to the One we serve. In fact, Jesus was content to be seen as unimportant by most. Those He ministered too, knew His worth!

Ironically, those who seek recognition often have the least influence because they are not servants of others and while people may give them deference because they know they want it, they do not necessarily respect them. In fact the way to the greatest influence in God's kingdom is cultivating self unimportance in the sense that our objective is to serve others rather than see others as serving us. The way to the greatest influence is that of humble service, regardless of our job title, recognition or scope of authority.

This second kind of Christian worker wants to have the greatest influence for God and His kingdom as possible but they are not driven by recognition or position.

What are the marks of self unimportance that lead to great influence? The first is that we take the posture of a servant to others. I lead an organization but my greatest influence does not come from my title but from the way I serve those who work in the organization. My goal is to make ReachGlobal a great place for people to work, use their gifting and be released to accomplish our mission. To the extent that I serve those in RG well, I have influence both inside our organization and in the world at large. In fact, I believe the job of leaders is to serve well by creating an environment where people and ministry can flourish.

Second, people who cultivate self unimportance listen and dialogue with others rather than making declarative statements or unilateral decisions. Watch leaders who listen, ask questions, dialogue and invite discussion and feedback and you see people who are less interested in their own importance and more interested in engaging a team for ministry results. 

Third, people who cultivate self unimportance minister to the needs of others. They are outward centered, care about the lives and situations of those around them and there is no service too humble for them to perform for others. They believe that people are important, matter to God, have infinite worth and treat them with love and respect. Again, it is an attitude of service to others rather than one of having the expectation of being served. 

Fourth, people who cultivate self unimportance do not seek the applause of others. Life is not about them. It is about Christ and His Kingdom. There is a deep satisfaction found in serving Jesus and His divine amen on their lives is far more important than the recognition of those around them. They are Jesus driven, not recognition driven.

This is an important distinction. Those who need the recognition of others or status are really trying to find their value and significance from other people. Their need comes out of their own lack of inner peace, confidence and self worth that comes from a deep relationship with Jesus. If our self worth is found in Christ, there is no situation that will rob us from that self worth. If it is found in status or position or the applause of others, it will be gone the instant those accoutrements of our lives are gone and they are indeed temporary and transitory.


Those who are confident in their relationship and standing with Jesus simply don't need the recognition of others and status to prop up their self worth. And because they don't need it they don't seek it. Ironically, they are the very ones others value, trust and are drawn to because of their servant and kingdom mindset. Because they are interested in kingdom influence rather than personal recognition (both take time and energy and focus) they end up having greater impact than those focused on themselves.


Influence comes from not needing to be important with others and that becomes possible when we know that our identity is found in Christ above all. Secure in Him we can focus on His kingdom and not our importance.

Thinking spiritual influence rather than personal recognition

Our world is driven by success, personal recognition and financial accumulation. For Christ followers there is a far more important goal, no matter what our job or role: it is that of maximizing our spiritual influence - the most important result our lives could have.

This recognizes that life is not about me but about God. Rather than personal recognition or fame, our goal ought to be to lift up the reputation of God and make His Son look great! When we meet Jesus face to face as we all will sooner than later our own personal status will mean nothing but what we did to lift up the reputation of Jesus and make His name well known will mean everything. This focus on God rather than self is counter culture and radical but it is the mark of a true Christ follower. 

Focusing on maximizing our spiritual influence means that we are always asking looking for ways to invest our time in ways that will have eternal value. When I spend time with my neighbors who don't know Jesus, it is all about spiritual influence. When I mentor other leaders to help them become better leaders, it is all about spiritual influence. When my wife Mary Ann uses her mercy gifts with those in deep need it is all about spiritual influence. When I write blogs, it is about spiritual influence. My point is that every one of us has ways that we can uniquely have spiritual influence with others in our neighborhood, workplace, among our friends, through our mentoring or giving or hospitality. In giving ourselves away rather than selfishly living for ourselves we expand our eternal influence for Jesus. 


We all have bank accounts. Our financial bank accounts will not mean anything on the day we meet Jesus. Our spiritual influence bank account will last for all eternity and is an investment in the Kingdom of God and the eternal destinies of others. I want to be rich when I die in my spiritual influence account. Not much else will matter. And all of us can be wealthy in spiritual influence. 

Those of us in full time ministry need to ask ourselves regularly whether what we do is about us or Him. It is easy to fool ourselves that we are about spiritual influence rather than personal recognition simply because we are in full time ministry. Not so: we face the same temptation as others to make it about us rather than about him. In fact, it may be easier for us to fool ourselves because of our ministry vocation. Each day is a choice. Am I investing for spiritual influence or for something else?

Organizational and Influence Leaders

Leadership wiring is always unique which is why we can learn from the leadership of others but we can never become them. There are two categories of leaders, however, that are helpful to articulate. Many leaders fall into one of these two categories and some leaders negotiate both depending on the circumstances.

The first is organizational leaders. These are leaders who are wired to lead others through organizational structures and team.  In my primary leadership role as the senior leader of ReachGlobal I serve as an organizational leader. In that role my responsibility is to build a senior team, define organizational clarity, empower other leaders and ensure that the structures of the organization serve our staff and mission. 

There is another group of leaders that I would classify as influence leaders. They are often not wired for organizational leadership but they have enormous influence and use that influence to impact the direction of the organization in healthy ways. This is a powerful leadership role because it is not based on organizational position but on the ability to influence others in healthy directions. These leaders are not dependent on position but on their ability to help others move in a certain direction through relationship and influence.

Never underestimate the power of influence leadership. Anyone at any level of an organization can directly impact their team, circle of colleagues and even the entire organization if they lead from healthy influence. Within ReachGlobal we have a number of leaders who have enormous influence throughout the organization but who are not in an organizational leadership role. They are often relatively quiet servant leaders who through their service to others and clarity of thinking end up shaping the thinking of the organization as a whole. If you are a church leader you have these influence leaders in your congregation and you know the power they have to influence either for good or for ill.

In choosing people for leadership roles, one of the questions we need to ask is whether they are wired for organizational leadership or influence leadership. Influence leaders are especially powerful where one needs to influence the entire organization, across departmental lines through relationship rather than through line authority. The very fact that they do not have line authority is often an advantage because in leading from influence rather than authority, people do not feel they must respond but are influenced to respond.

Obviously, the best organizational leaders lead more from influence than from position. But don't underestimate the power of influence leadership which does not depend on position but on a desire to influence others and the organization through intentional, healthy servant leadership.