What 37 Years of Leadership Have Taught Me About Finding Your Calling

Thirty years ago this September, I stood in a room before church with a handful of older young people and a simple idea.

The programme was called Dreambuilders.

My hope, along with the other leaders involved, was straightforward ~ to help those young people understand leadership, grow in character and begin to discover the influence God had given them.

At the time, I thought I was creating a leadership programme.

Looking back, I realise God was doing something much deeper.

He was revealing a calling.

Isn't that often how God works?

We expect calling to arrive through a dramatic moment or a clear revelation. Yet more often than not, it grows quietly through ordinary acts of faithfulness.

We take one small step of obedience, then another, and only years later do we recognise the thread that God has been weaving all along.

The prophet Zechariah reminds us,

"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin" (Zechariah 4:10, NLT).

We often underestimate the significance of small beginnings because we can't yet see where they will lead.

When I look back, Dreambuilders wasn't simply a programme I created. It became the beginning of a lifelong passion for developing leaders.

Coaching, speaking, writing, mentoring, creating resources and serving churches have all flowed from that one conviction ~ healthy leaders multiply healthy leaders.

Paul expressed the same principle when he encouraged Timothy:

"What you have heard from me... entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2).

Kingdom leadership has always been about multiplication, not accumulation. It's about investing in people who will invest in others.

John Maxwell famously said,

"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way."

I would add one more thought after 30+ years of leadership. A great leader also helps others discover their own way.

As I reflect on those early Dreambuilders mornings, I'm more convinced than ever that leadership isn't something we practice. It's something we pass on.

This is why I'm so excited about what I'm currently building through The Collective. Not another library of leadership resources, but a place where Christian leaders can think together, ask honest questions, encourage one another and continue becoming the leaders God has called them to be.

In many ways, it doesn't feel like a new project.

It feels like the next chapter of a story God began writing thirty years ago.

What small opportunity in your life might God be using to shape a much bigger calling than you can currently see?