How To Get The Goats Movin

I remember the days before I became a church leader I had a small farm in Georgia. On this farm I had about eighty goats. These stinkin things have a mind of their own… I remember if you wanted to move the goats from one place to another, you had to lead them... not drive them. WOW! What a lesson to learn for us leaders. Sheep are a lot like goats… I’m using the term sheep to describe the people in your care. You cannot drive people to where you want them to go… you have to lead them. It is a whole different mindset. So many people think that leading is just about getting information to people. They believe if you can just pour enough knowledge into someone’s head then they will follow.

I gave those flippin goats a lot of information but that did not make them move anywhere… Do you hear what I’m saying?

This causes many things to pop into my thought life:

1) All leaders are teachers---but not all teachers are leaders… let that sink in real deep!!! Just because you teach something does not mean that people will follow. Leadership is much more than teaching a concept. Leading in teaching the concept where people want to move from where they are to where they need to be. Leading 101….

2) People are rebellious. If you are going to lead a person somewhere you need to give them a vision. People will go somewhere if there is hope in where they are going.

3) Leading is hard work. If the flock ain’t moving... then the leader has to figure out why not! I heard Andy Stanley say once… “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” That means if people are not following then the leader needs to think of and try different methods to getting them to the feed trough.

These are just a few things as I reflect on leadership. More on this later…