Wii Leadership

The Wii can teach you and I a lot about leadership.  In fact, I believe it points us to the most effective style of leadership.

Have you ever thought about the coolness of the Wii controller’s design?  You are in total control.  The characters are in sync with you.  As you swing to hit the tennis ball or golf club, your character does the same. As you run and jump, so does your character.  The character doesn’t make up his or her mind about what to do next.  He is completely dependent and surrendered to your every move.

Isn’t that a great picture of how we are to lead?  You are most effective when fully and wholeheartedly surrendered to God. You are at your best when connected to Him and listening to His voice.  When you choose to step out of the way and let God take control, your life has the greatest impact.

Leadership is a tough job.  In the middle of planning a huge event, you get a phone call about a parent who just found out their child has cancer.  You already have a shortage of volunteers and just found out that another one quit.  Leadership is full of a lot of twists and turns.  You never know what is around the corner.  We need help and find lots of it out there in the resource world.

Books, conferences, podcasts, blogs and training workshops are everywhere, but they aren’t enough.  They are all good and have their place.  I soak up as much training opportunities as possible.  I go to a lot of conferences, listen to leadership podcasts all the time and love reading blogs and books about leadership.  But you and I depend on these resources far too much.  You listen to an Andy Stanley podcast on leadership or go to a Willow Creek conference, which then dictate your leadership decisions for the next couple of months. Been there, done that.

I remember going to my first Willow Creek conference.  I was floored at the sheer size of the church and the size of their children’s ministry.  Then, when I witnessed first hand how awesome their Sunday morning programming was, I could barely sleep at night!  I imagined how awesome it would be to bring that type of programming to kids at my church.  And I did for about two years.  But it never felt quite in sync with how God made me.  Yes, I know, recruit others around you are gifted at things you aren’t.  Did that, but something still wasn’t right.

I finally decided to be who God made me.  Instead of following another way to do ministry that was successful for someone else, I begun to give more of my attention to what God was doing in and through me.  You and I like clear cut steps and principles to follow.  But the reality is that God is much more mysterious than that.  He often shows you things one step at a time.  But that requires you to focus your attention on Him, being aware of what He is doing around you.  You’re at your best when listening to how God wants you to use your creativity to reach the kids at your church.

For years, I didn’t realize that the “resource world” was more influential than God’s voice.  My guess is that you’ve fallen into the same trap at some point in your leadership. It happens slowing and quietly.  You see a successful leader with a successful ministry.  He shares with you all the secrets to his success.  It all sounds so good.  But if those things are driving your leadership decisions, then you’ll never realize your greatest impact.  Only when God is in control will you be most effective.

Training is essential to your growth as a leader.  Read blogs, go to conferences (Willow Creek conferences are good & so are the rest of them), read books and listen to podcasts.  But chew the meat and spit out the bones.  Listen with a filter.  Don’t simply copy what someone else is doing.  Keep your life with God fresh and alive so that God is leading you.  Sometimes you need to turn off your iPod and be quiet before your creator.  What he has to say is much more important than Andy Stanley.  Although Andy is a pretty cool guy.  I guess he is – never really met him before.  Seems like a great guy though.

The next time your kids are playing the Wii, remember that you can learn a lot from it.  Choose to be like Mario or Luigi (characters in Super Mario Brothers for those of you who are non-gamers) and be in sync with the master controller – God the Father.  Move where he moves.  Lead how he wants you to lead.