With my travel schedule on hold for the holidays, I was actually home on a Sunday evening. I turned on the TV to catch up on the Ravens-Colts game. During halftime, there was a story on the first high school football coach in America to win 500 games. I forget the name of the coach, but I will never forget how he inspired his team during a locker room speech.

With years of experience behind his words, the coach challenged his team. “There are three kinds of football players: those who make it happen, those who wait for it to happen and those who say, ‘what just happened?’”

That sound bite got me thinking.

Healthy missional leaders are action oriented. They don’t sit around waiting for things to happen. They know that God is already at work in the world – their job is to get into the game and be a difference maker.

When I was learning to be a church planter, Gary Walter would say, “You can’t plant a church sitting behind a desk.”

That was good advice. It also served me well as a revitalization pastor in an established church.

Healthy missional leaders are prone to action. Whether those actions are catalyzing or stabilizing, the healthy missional leader is a person of action. Of course, these actions also include prayer and waiting on the leading of the Spirit.

Incarnation is action. Jesus did not sit up there in Heaven, hanging out with all the angels. Jesus came, called our attention to the Kingdom and conquered death. Sent on a mission from the Father, Jesus made it happen through the Spirit’s power. Action, motivated by love!

James says that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Paul writes, “To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me (Col 1:29)” These are action oriented leaders talking here. With God’s help, they made it happen.

Healthy missional leaders, whether clergy or laity, are action oriented…just like Jesus, James and Paul. They trust that God is already at work and this gives them great confidence to move forward.

Reflections on the Journey:

1. Are you a leader who makes it happen, waits for it to happen or says, what just happened?
2. How do you see God working in your church and in your community?
3. What are the dangers of spiritual escapism?
4. How can coaching for a pastor help make it happen?