It might be an overstatement to say leadership is harder than ever today.  Moses, David and Paul to name a few might beg to differ. But it is not an overstatement to say leadership today is extremely challenging with unprecedented complex issues.

I recently learned a new word – perseveration, which means to get stuck on a certain topic or idea. It seems like we are suffering a serious case of perseveration around – what is the next thing? We are stuck in an endless loop of uncertainty, anxiety and a general feeling of being overwhelmed. Things are happening so quickly that concepts like ideation, adaptation and pivoting are not keeping up. In talking with business leaders and church leaders I have heard the struggles and frustrations of having to deal with the sheer mass of new and complex social and structural issues. Uncertainty has become a defining word for our time and has settled like a dense fog over our decision making, community building, and spiritual health.

Most of the leadership challenges and complexities of today could fall into one of three categories: Authority-Crisis , Anthropology-Confusion and Accountability-Chaos.

We are in an Authority-Crisis of struggling to honor positions of authority and at the same time struggling with how to honor the authority that comes with certain positions. Our culture has deconstructed structures and flattened organizations so far that we have replaced hierarchy with anarchy. All of this adversely impacts healthy decision making, community building and the ability to create a humble atmosphere of reverence and fear of God.

We are confused more than ever about who we are as humans and therefore confused on how we are to relate to one another creating Anthropology-Confusion. When the Imago Dei is allowed to be more conformed to secular society than to the Word of God we experience the deconstruction of healthy and essential forms of communicating and building relationships. When everything in life moves more toward automation and knowledge is primarily transferred via search engines we lose the beauty of learning personally and intimately from parents, teachers and old sages. There is a reason Jesus came into history when He did to model the necessity of face to face intimate discipleship.

We have forfeited personal responsibility by elevating feelings and emotions over truth seeking which has created Accountability-Chaos. Our therapeutic culture  has hijacked the Gospel of the Kingdom so that it is presented as just “moralistic-therapeutic-deism” where sin becomes dysfunction and redemption becomes just recovery. It is this climate that has no room for anything punitive especially the wrath of God. Everyone has become their own judge. Bonhoeffer’s “cheap grace” has been cheapened further to the point of irrelevance where no one appears to truly need a Savior but only empathy and a good therapist.

Back to the perseveration around the question, “What is the next thing?” Recently, one morning while I was stuck in this seemingly endless loop and asking the Lord for direction, the question, “How can I maximize my day for the Kingdom of God?” came to my mind. I got excited about the question and asked the Lord to show me. Monday was a normal day, no big breakthroughs, no divine encounters. Strangely though, from Monday through Wednesday all of my meetings canceled for one reason or another. I had all this unplanned time, but was frustrated not knowing how to be productive. Again on Tuesday I asked the Lord, “How can I maximize my day for the Kingdom of God?” And again, no big breakthroughs, no divine encounters. Wednesday rolls around and I ask the Lord again, “How can I maximize my day for the Kingdom of God?” But this time I started to complain to the Lord about the lack of any response to my prayer. Then like a powerful whisper I sensed His voice, “I cleared your schedule for most of the week. What have you done with it for My Kingdom?” I was reminded of Jesus’ rebuke of Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matt. 26:40-41, ESV)

It struck me, is prayer truly my priority for productivity? Do I really believe prayer is the main foundation for kingdom work? Do I know what it is to “watch” by the Holy Spirit so I do not fall into temptation? Because Peter and the gang did not “watch and pray” at a most critical time they fell to temptation. Peter’s initial response was to fight, missing Malchus’ head but taking off his ear, then he fled and finally he denied knowing the Lord. Fight nor flight or force nor fear never accomplish the kingdom work of God.

With all the complexities of Authority-Crisis, Anthropology-Confusion and Accountability-Chaos that leaders have to deal with are we taking the time to learn to “watch and pray?” There is a lot of sifting and shifting going on today. Seems like every few weeks there is another church implosion. Are we really doing what we are doing because we love Jesus and want to see His kingdom come?” We must take extreme action to get out of the loop of false production and progress. There is no progress in the loop. We can get stuck in a state of perseveration and miss the kingdom of God and the will of God. There was a radical shift from how Peter and the gang responded to Jesus’ call to “watch and pray” in the Garden of Gethsemane versus how they responded in the Upper Room. We are in desperate need of this supernatural shift today as well as a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. May we learn to watch and pray!