Leadership isn't just about having a title or being in charge.
It's about becoming the person God created you to be and using who you are to help someone else become who God created them to be. That's really the heart behind Mustang Naz Leads. We want to create an environment where leaders can better understand themselves, grow alongside others, receive encouragement and coaching, and intentionally invest in the next generation of leaders.
Recently, I was talking with Robert D. Brown (he leads our Young Adult Group and is pictured above if you haven’t met him yet) about Mac Lake's Leading Yourself, and he asked a great question: “How do I discover my strengths?”
One helpful resource that I’ve used is CliftonStrengths, which is an assessment developed by Gallup that helps you identify your natural talents and better understand how they influence the way you lead, relate to people, solve problems, and get things done. I learned that my top 5 strengths are: Competition, Empathy, Achiever, Belief, and Significance.
This knowledge has helped me reframe the way I view myself in a lot of ways. Things I used to think may have been weak points were actually now celebrated. Things I thought I needed to be less of, I could now live into. To prove this point, here are a couple confessions of how I try to lay my skills down at the feet of Jesus.
- I sometimes worry about being overly competetive (just ask my family on board game night) but I’ve resolved to use my drive to be excellent as a springboard to becoming the best pastor that I know how to be. Not because I want to be competing against other pastors or churches, but because growing my skill in this area is one of the best offerings I can give to the Lord!
- Some days are hard and I wonder if things I do or say carry any significance in a world that is challenging. These days are hard, but it is comforting to know that my significance is not something I have been able to fabricate on my own. My significance is firmly rooted in the fact that Jesus loves me deeply and that God has called me to share His love with the world.
- My empathy tells me that I’m not the only one who needs to not just hear, but feel this good news.
Seeing leadership through the lens of our strengths has freed me to focus on being who God has created me to be instead of just trying to measure up to who I think I should be. This way of thinking has also helped me see others for who God designed them to be instead of how I might see them on the surface.
After being transformed in the way I think about things, (Romans 12), I’ve begun to consciously (and maybe even unconsciously) start seeing the things my friends were great at, and I began asking myself the question:
“How can I help create more of what (insert name) is great at in their lives, our church, our community, and the world?”
So let’s look deeper into what brings us joy today and analyze our strengths in this season of life. Discovering our strengths isn't about putting ourselves in boxes; it's about gaining a better understanding of how God has uniquely wired us.
May we all become more intentional in how we serve, lead, and invest in others!
-Pastor Nate



