The Seriousness of Leadership

I sat on a wooden deck extended over the lake at Taman Jaya, leaning on the railing. With a pen in my hand, reflection material and a Bible on my lap, I looked around me. It was weird. Here I was in the middle of a park in the middle of a city. I was surrounded by water, trees and grass. Every now and then, a fish would swim to the surface, splashing and creating ripples to disturb the otherwise calm water surface, before disappearing back down into the murky depths of the lake. There were a few crows hopping from branch to branch. Yet, if I looked beyond the trees, I could see high-rise buildings. Endless streams of cars were zooming past the park on all sides going who-knows-where. Occasionally, an LRT train would screech by. The sirens of a police car would wail and then fade away as it went past the park on the highway. It felt as if time had stopped for me, and that I was stuck in a different dimension, while the world passed me by in all its hurriedness and busyness.

I’m thankful for this little time of reflection. As part of the leadership training retreat for the CF committee, we had been asked to reflect on a few things like: Why did you agree to serve as a leader? What qualities do you think a leader should have? What personal fears do you have? What are your dreams as a leader? What hinders you from serving? I think it was a good time for me to reevaluate myself as a leader, not just as the CF advisor, but in a broader context; to look back at what I had been doing and to see if I have been faithful to God’s calling; to look again at my strengths and weaknesses and to see how far God has brought me. Lian Chui, the FES staff who conducted the sessions, reminded us leaders about the seriousness of the task that had been given to us. Whatever we plan and decide on; whatever we do and say in public and in private, will affect one’s walk with God, whether it is our own or that of the people we lead. We are all responsible for the growth of the people around us. Using Acts 20:28, Lian Chui reminded us that the people we lead belong to God. God made us overseers of them, and thus we are only stewards. Have I been a good steward?

In the afternoon, we had some fun during the group dynamics session, driving around Jalan Gasing and walking around Amcorp mall trying to answer questions and perform tasks. After the night session, some of the CF committee members saw the book that I had been reading (The History of Christian Thought), and it actually sparked off a conversation about Christianity and some of the questions that I had been asking. It seems that some of them are also asking similar questions!