Vision: Passionate Conviction

Authentic leadership does not emerge out of a vacuum. The leadership that matters most is convictional – deeply convictional.

-Dr. Albert Mohler

For the last few months, we have considered several important qualities of leadership. For example, we first considered the fact that spiritual leadership requires spiritual renewal. Then we considered the importance of life reflection and the fact that a leader must know himself. We also considered the importance of assessment and creative thinking. These qualities are critical and necessary for the role of leadership. 

Today, let’s consider another important leadership quality and how it can impact others: passionate conviction. Simply stated, it is the belief that drives us to move ahead. Leadership in any entity demands a passionate conviction to move forward in a defined direction. 

I began seminary in 1987 and, due to my father’s illness, I needed to put my education on hold to come back and help at home. During that time, Gina and I were married and began our life together. Also during that time, my dad passed away. Mr. Lamey, a friend of Dad’s and a Bible Study teacher of mine, took the time to reach out and encourage me to continue my seminary education.  He and my dad had been praying about this and were concerned that I would not receive the needed education for ministry once I had paused seminary. 

What he did not know is that Gina and I had already been praying about returning to seminary to complete my Master of Divinity degree. We had already arrived at a passionate conviction that it was time to make this move.

And so a few weeks later, I resigned from the church I was serving, and we prepared to move to Texas. I had submitted my resume’ to the school office looking for a job in ministry, but nothing had surfaced. Many friends, although supportive, did not understand why I would leave a job without first securing another job. And truthfully, God doesn’t always work this way - against logic.  But sometimes, He does. We were convinced it was a step of faith for us to resign at this point. Within hours after resigning, I was contacted by a church near the seminary in Texas about serving as their pastor. And in a few short weeks, not only had I re-enrolled in seminary but I was serving as pastor of a church in the central Texas area. 

There was much I am sure people around us didn’t understand; however, we knew something others didn’t. We knew with a sense of passionate conviction what our next step needed to be. And so we moved one step at a time with the conviction and faith that God had placed in us. 

Passionate conviction is indispensable to leadership. As a parent, you will need conviction to lead your family. As a school teacher or administrator, you will need conviction to lead the students, teachers, and parents involved in your school. As a business person, an entrepreneur, a CEO, a pastor, or in any other role of leadership, you will need to lead with conviction and commitment. 

Why is conviction so important? 

Conviction will guide when other voices are loud. 

Let me be honest with you, those other voices will at times seem like they are screaming at you, pushing you in one direction or another. And this can be confusing because those loud voices may have competing agendas or contradictory advice. And although it is Biblical to seek and listen to wise counsel, a true leader will not be persuaded by these voices unless they are in tandem with the directional conviction from God.

Conviction will stabilize in the changing winds of culture. 

Strong leadership can maintain a heading when the winds of change attempt to blow the ship off-course because they are convinced that their direction is the right way.

Conviction allows a leader to remain true to himself, rather than clone the paths others take.

Over my years of ministry, I have watched one well-meaning pastor after another copy an idea or vision from another church or pastor and adopt it as his own. Of course, we can always glean value from others’ ideas and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, simply copying what one church or pastor does is not leadership. And that principle is true in just about every role of leadership. For example, Gina and I had some great mentors around us when we were raising our children. But we realized we needed our own conviction about parenting and not simply imitate what others did. We gleaned from their advice, experience, and wisdom, and applied that through our parenting style and situations. That was especially true in the teenage years. 

Regardless of your leadership role, I want to encourage you to lead with a sense of personal and passionate conviction. I want to encourage you to lead convictionally regardless of the way the winds of change are blowing and regardless of the voices in your ear. At the end of the day, those voices will be silenced and those winds will have calmed. And you, as a leader, will be left to live with your decisions. Lead in such a way that when you look back, you were true to yourself, true to what you passionately believe, and true to the path God called and directed you to go.

I am reminded of a story found in Joshua 14 about a man named Caleb. Caleb was one of twelve men that Moses originally sent to spy out the land of Canaan, the land God had promised. Ten of those spies gave a fearful report and only two, Joshua and Caleb, gave a report filled with faith. The result was forty years of wilderness wandering because of the disobedience of the ten spies. Think about it for a moment; Joshua and Caleb had to suffer forty years because of the disobedience of others. And then finally the time came for Israel to claim the land God had promised. All of that previous generation died out and only two were left, Joshua and Caleb. The book of Joshua tells the story of how God led Joshua and how Joshua, in turn, led Israel. By the time we get to Joshua 14 the army of Israel, under God’s command, had conquered most of the land that was given as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel. And Caleb received an inheritance of land. Yes, the same Caleb from forty years earlier stepped up to receive his inheritance and accepted the responsibility to continue defeating the enemies that were deep within the land. 

Now here is the amazing thing: Caleb was eighty-year-old and requested to inherit the land where the giants remained. Listen to his passionate conviction in Joshua 14:12, “Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I will drive them out as the Lord has spoken.” Now THAT is passionate conviction. He didn’t ask for the easy part, he didn’t want to coast, and he didn’t want to just “get by.” He led with passionate conviction knowing what God had spoken.

Today, I encourage you to hear from God, to get a clear word from God’s Word, and then to lead with passionate conviction knowing what God has spoken to you. And along with that passionate conviction, lead joyfully, confidently, and courageously. 

If this has been an encouragement to you would you consider passing this along to someone else? Next month we will be considering another quality of leadership:  enthusiastic vision.