Focus is essential for leaders. Keeping focused is a challenge for those involved in leadership. Where is your destination? How are you to get there? Where are you to concentrate your time? Every vision creates new unintended opportunities and if you’re not careful, you can be overwhelmed with these. These opportunities can actually become “rabbit trails” that derail focus and decrease momentum. So how do you relate to these “new” opportunities? Begin by staying true to the vision. Investigate these as potential endeavors. Is this of God? Is it a prospective supportive ministry? Will it add value to the organization? Don’t assume that this is something you have to personally undertake. This could be a role for someone else in the organization. Research the need and evaluate the personnel. Be willing to give away ministry opportunities to someone else in the organization or even to another organization.
I reminded of what Chuck Colson said regarding Francis Schaeffer. “Schaeffer was not only a great prophet and intellectual, but he was also a gracious and loving teacher. I first met him when I visited L’Abri in the late seventies, and then I spent many hours with him in the years that followed. I never failed to learn, never failed to be inspired. At one of the most stressful pointing my ministry, I sought Schaeffer’s counsel. His reply was, ‘Don’t try to do everything. Every need is not a call.’ That particular advice liberated me.”
Sometimes we try to take on too much for the sake of meeting the need. I’m confident that I can’t do it all and neither can you. There are other people in the organization and there are even other organizations. Stay true to the call and stay true to the vision. That’s where you’ll find fulfillment.
