by Steve Highfill
Being a leader has challenges in every context. Being a leader of leaders is an exponential notch upward in difficulty.
My three-year-old granddaughter is a rising leader. Even with two older siblings, she likes to run the show. The other morning she ran into the kitchen and announced to her six-year-old sister, “Your Zoom is ready!” In a single statement, she brought
home the reality that things have changed.
Like thousands of others, my daughter is doing her level best to navigate and guide her kiddos through the unfamiliar, yet mandated world of online school classrooms. She has no option but to adjust and adapt. Her children are adapting, too (far more easily than adults, I think). While her two older siblings spend several hours a day online, the three-year-old has not only learned how to keep them on task and help them get connected to their Zoom rooms, but she happily sits at a desk nearby and mimics them with an iPad, headphones, and various educational apps.
Adapting to the times is the challenge of every leader in every context. Through the years, I have read the latest and
greatest books by various authors in an effort to become a better leader. The first work I remember having an impact on
me is The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker, who still stands as one of the most influential sages in organizational
leadership of our time. The list goes on from there, and I’m actually embarrassed by how much time and money I’ve spent
through the years attempting to glean leadership wisdom from others.
Yet God’s wisdom never disappoints. When I turn to 1 Chronicles 12:32, I read the sons of Issachar are described as those
who “understood the times and knew what to do.” We often recognize the true nature of pivotal moments through the lens
of the rearview mirror. Chapters in history like the Battle of Tours, the invention of the Guttenberg press, the Industrial
Revolution, the airplane and air travel, and obviously, the creation of the internet all take on fresh significance when
viewed in hindsight. Recognizing and navigating real-life challenges in the moment can feel like riding out the white
water rapids of a raging river. Why do I somehow assume it was easier for the sons of Issachar than it is for me?
While libraries (digital and paper) are already filled with treatments on the pandemic and its effects, moment by moment,
we are navigating a global shift that is so large and widespread that no one person has yet been able to capture and
summarize the implications in a way that is helpful for the rest of us. We simply know it is happening, and it is
challenging us all on numerous levels. In my many years of working with churches and leaders, I do not recall any season
so fraught with division over how to lead God’s people as the one we are in. Like the sons of Issachar, we must seek God-
given wisdom if we are to lead ourselves and God’s people. In James 1 we read, “If you want to know what God wants
you to do, ask him, and he will gladly tell you, for he is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask
him; he will not resent it. But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to tell you, for a doubtful mind will be
as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”
It doesn’t get much clearer than that. While I still eagerly await a publication from one of our cultural sages to make sense
of all this craziness, it seems prudent to take God at His Word, to ask Him for wisdom, then to lead with boldness and
humility in alignment with His guidance. His people deserve nothing less from their leaders.