How to Capture Hope and Courage when Both are in Short Supply

If you want the people you lead to experience new hope and new courage, it starts with you. It always starts with the leader. 

Simple Truth: If you want to see a transformed ministry, it starts with a transformed leader. 

Ask any of the hundred or so that lead or teach or coach in PLI.

Ask almost any of the thousands in the U.S. and around the world that are in or have been in PLI’s leadership training.

They will tell you that New Hope leads to New Courage. They know it. They’ve experienced it. 

Simple enough!

It’s been a difficult season.

And, hope and courage have been tested in all of us.

• There’s no doubt! Your church needs to adopt a pioneering spirit. 
• There’s no doubt! “Normal” 12 months ago won’t be the “normal” 12 months from now. 
• There’s no doubt! What used to be and what used to work is now likely not to work…or not to work so well. 

My goodness. For most of us as leaders? It’s almost crushing. 

So, no church—no leader—gets very far without hope.

• No hope? No try. 
• No hope? No persistence through difficulties. 
• No hope? No courage.

Make no mistake, hope is going to happen in you before it happens anywhere else among the people that you lead. 

6 Simple Ways You Can Garner Hope—that Fosters Courage—in Difficult Times

1. Allow the Word to work! And allow the promise of the Spirit of God to penetrate everything that you think and do!
   –Acts 8 – Those that were scattered preached the word…there was great joy in the city!
   –Ezekiel 37 – So I prophesied…and breath entered them; they came to life…
   –Ephesians 4 – For this reason I kneel before the Father…that He may strengthen you! 
2. Immerse yourself in like-minded community, both among and beyond those that you lead. They can embrace you for who you are and not just what you produce. Let them remind you that any risky journey forward will be marked with failures and deep, deep disappointments. Let them confirm that it’s a price worth paying.
3. Find transparent mentors for the “I’ve never been here before” leadership seasons that come for all of us. Visit them in their own setting if you can. Mine from them all that you can, all that they will give you. 
4. Embrace coaches or peers who can offer more questions than answers, ones who can give you permission to stop doing what you were never designed to do. 
5. Learn quickly! Invest in yourself. You know less today about leading today in your church than you did before the disruptive changes that we’re experiencing in the pandemic. 
6. Retreat, renew and refresh! In my most hope-challenged seasons I no longer laughed! I found myself looking in on a tragedy with me as the main character.

So, pick one that needs your attention today. Give yourself a step of action. Today!

And, why not make a quick phone call to another leader? Say, “Thanks! What you’re doing in the Kingdom is worth it! Don’t give up hope!”

by Rev. Dr. Jock Ficken
First published in February 2021