As president of a national renewal organization, I visit and interact with hundreds of leaders each year, the vast majority of whom are faithful and skilled servants of God. Yet many of these leaders open up to me about their personal and private challenges. The pain is deep. The struggles are real.  They are called to leadership, and want to remain faithful, but many are losing their way and hanging on for dear life. One of my great desires is helping leaders who are “losing altitude."

Leaders Taking Flight

I am a self-professing “leadership-aholic.” I love leading. I love reading about leadership and studying other leaders.

When Paul wrote his final letter to his “son in the faith” Timothy, he used three analogies to help his disciple understand the task of leadership.  He spoke of a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer (2 Timothy 2:3-7).  In similar fashion, in my most recent book, I liken the leadership assignment to a flight assignment; leaders and coleaders as pilots and copilots.  The similarities are fascinating.

The metaphor fits for most pastors and business leaders: Most of our lives are composed of numerous leadership flights.  Some business executives may stay with the same company for decades; others have numerous shorter leadership assignments in various locations and settings.  An experienced educator, civic leader, government official, or business manager may piece together an array of leadership flights that have made up a career.

For pastors, the average tenure in Protestant churches has declined to just four years, according to George Barna.  So most pastors will have numerous leadership flights in their ministry career.  Some have fewer, longer flights.  I followed one pastor in Sacramento, California whose leadership flight in one church lasted forty years.

Flight and Leadership

In brief, I see numerous parallels between flying and leading:

Training and Qualification – Just as pilots must be trained, be equipped, and earn a license and certification, so leaders must be equipped and qualified to lead effectively. Formal education can be a part of this preparation, though not always.  Mentoring, proven service, and faithful character are essential for the growing leader.  We find these biblical specifics in 1 Timothy 3:1–8 and Titus 1, given for those who take on the primary leadership roles in the church.  These traits are good qualifiers for Christian leaders in any realm of service.

Passion and Perseverance – Most pilots learn to fly because of a passion for the skies.  Experienced pilots have persevered, logging hours and increasing their certification in order to excel in the skills of flying larger and more sophisticated aircraft.  Leaders also have a God-given desire for influencing other people and making a significant difference in the world.  Great leaders remain faithful, develop their understanding of leadership principles, and maintain noble character and winning habits.

Risk and Reward – At times flying can be risky.  Although commercial flights are statistically the safest way to travel, we all know that the consequences of a mechanical failure or pilot error can be disastrous.  Quite literally, lives hang in the balance.  Yet the effectiveness and exhilaration of flight makes it worth it.  For commercial pilots, helping people travel efficiently, whether to conduct vital business, share holidays with family, or enjoy a much-needed vacation, has to be fulfilling.

Leadership is also risky.  Decisions affect many people.  And like pilots, pastors can affect the lives of those in their care.  Setbacks, even failure, are possible.  Yet, the thrill of leading people to the achievement of a great cause, especially one of eternal significance, is a joy beyond human expression.

Responsibility and Accountability – Of course, experienced pilots carry a serious responsibility for human lives.  The bigger the plane, the greater the volume of precious human cargo.  As a result, pilots are accountable to strict standards of flight protocol, personal discipline, and compliance with regulations.  Pastors are accountable also.  Spiritual leaders influence people and, according to James 3:1, have a greater accountability for how they lead and what they teach.  There are no solo flights in leadership.

Objectivity and Trust – The best pilots learn to trust their instruments, the information from ground control, and the proven technology necessary for safe and trouble-free flight.  Good leaders must also learn to trust objective indicators, including God’s authoritative, holy Word, for their leadership flight.  When self-trust and emotional justifications outweigh the proven realities for effective leadership, destructive behavior and disaster happen.  Leaders lose altitude.  People are at risk.

Staying in Flight: Keeping Perspective

Too often, a crash occurs and the human casualties are devastating.  Using the flight analogy, I’ve written my book to help pastors and other leaders maintain their leadership altitude in a world that wants to bring us down.  I believe the biggest challenges to an effective and enduring leadership flight are our own flawed perceptions, subjective emotions, and misjudgments that can put us in real danger.

Paul’s final words of advice to Timothy reflected this same concern.  He wrote in 2 Timothy 4:5, “But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”  The Amplified version says it this way: “As for you, be calm and cool and steady, accept and suffer unflinchingly every hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fully perform all the duties of your ministry."

God wants us to soar through the storms of life and has provided an indispensable instrument panel of biblical truth for our success and endurance as leaders.  It’s time, with God’s help and our commitment, to defy gravity.

Pray for the pastoral leaders in your life today, asking God to give them the grace to keep perspective and soar in their leadership assignments, for the glory of Christ.  Much is at stake.

Copyright © 2010 Daniel Henderson. All rights reserved.

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