Quitting Influence

There was keen interest in my post yesterday on Christian leadership. In my MTh thesis, I further proposed that quitting the notion of "influence" in Christian leadership could have major implications for the allocation of a leader’s time. I noted that, since strategic issues place “enormous pressure” on leaders (Blackaby and Blackaby 2001:65), and since “most leaders [may] spend the majority of their time and energy dealing with conflict” which is connected with “people influenc[ing] people” (Clinton 1988:162,106), the renunciation of a leader’s influence on followers may have a liberating effect upon the leader’s time and energy. OBSERVATION: In my own experience this is true. Rather than spending "the majority" of my time on conflict in the Church, I have estimated it as less than 5% over the duration.