Leadership Lessons
It was a joy to join a church staff team including current and future SOMA team leaders and members learning from some brilliant practitioners this week. Paul and Christine Perkin were key leaders for one of the most impactful London Church Plants coming out of HTB in 1984 to start St Mark’s Battersea Rise. Their material was brilliant and while we hope to get them delivering it on a SOMA mission soon, they are also available for UK church teams, so do be in touch if you want to be linked up with them.
Some of the Christ Church W4 team enjoying a training session with seasoned leaders Paul and Christine Perkin
They gave us eight tools for growing as leaders:
Develop a healthy self-knowledge
Watch your thought life
Understand your personality
Recognise your drivers
Set a sustainable pace
Deepen your character
Keep close to others
Keep growing (Do a spiritual check-up).
All of these were brilliant, but a few things stand out to share here:
The first was the Bible verses they began with: Acts 20:28; Jude 20-23 and 1 Timothy 4:16 all instruct us to watch over ourselves, our lives and our doctine for the sake of those we serve, and even to enable us to ‘snatch others from the fire’. Leadership lesson one is to be careful about what we believe and how we behave.
Then there was a key insight into ‘what do I need to purge so I don’t splurge’(!) Or what do I need to think about, talk about and get rid off from my mind so I don’t transfer it or take it out on the next person I talk to. They encouraged us to do a nightly check up: Ask: What am I mad about, feel bad about, sad about, glad about? Then turn It to prayer.
A big one for teams - SOMA teams, church teams etc was ‘as the team goes, so the mission goes!’ if the team goes well you have momentum. If the team is a mess the mission/church will be a mess too. A sobering thought for our national church, and a key warning for local church/teams too.
A final thought to share here: A doctor once said that he had to prescribe rest to a lot of busy people, but these rest periods off work were probably best described as their ‘sabbaths in arrears’. In other words: if we don’t take the rest when we should do, it will take us out of action anyway.
It was a joy to be away with the team. One staff member, Simon Downham remembered being on a SOMA mission with John Collins, and being waved off from Heathrow by Michael Harper. Paul remembered being on a mission in the early Don Brewin era. Both are up for being on/leading on new teams.
If you’re someone like Simon or Paul who has been on a SOMA team historically and would like to reconnect please email henry@somauk.org to find out about new mission possibilities, or email me on Richard.moy@somauk.org if you’d like me to visit/chat. And if you need some leadership wisdom in your area we’d love to connect you with Paul, Christine or other members of the SOMA family for a leadership 101 session in the UK or around the world.
