Does God’s guidance show us how to lead? I believe we can learn a lot about leadership and pastoring by considering God’s guidance in the biblical record. In Jesus we see that God prioritizes intimacy over efficiency. He prizes humility over “success.” He prefers relationship over advancement. He loves trusting over rushing. And perhaps most difficult: he’s into mystery over simplicity.
God’s guidance often feels like going nowhere fast–which rubs against the grain of our value of going somewhere fast. It often feels like a wandering path, or even going in circles, which confounds our efficiency of straight lines. Consider the wandering path of Joseph in Genesis. I’m sure Joseph couldn’t see the ultimate outcome! Of course, the lesson of Joseph for us as pastors is: be faithful day-to-day. Even when God gives you dreams of the future the path forward is humble obedience in your current situation.
God’s guidance often feels like being on a boat in the middle of the ocean, with nothing but horizon—the sheer scale of our context makes it impossible to have any sense of motion (other than the nauseating bobbing up and down, up and down…). Which frustrates our desire to be in control.
