Leadership: Hobby or First-class calling?
If I'm honest, when I first started MOPS leadership, it felt more like a "mom hobby," something I did to pass the time and make friends. I put my leadership abilities in the same mental box I kept my other hobbies, like painting or doing crossword puzzles. A few times a month, I’d pull my leadership skills out of the box, dust them off, lead my MOPS team or run a meeting, and then throw them back into storage until next time. I knew I liked leadership and that leading resonated something inside me that made me feel excited and fulfilled. But I hesitated to claim leadership as part of how God wired me or as a major element in my purpose in life. After all, it wasn’t a full-time, paid job. In fact, leadership often cost me money as I squeezed it in between changing diapers and making dinner. I wasn’t serving the homeless or caring for orphans, I was drinking coffee with other moms and planning playdates. I wasn’t traveling to dark and distant lands, I was sitting at a table or a park bench down the street from my own house. How could this be anything but secondary to the “real” work I watched professional leaders and missionaries do?
Over the years God has shown me how narrow and primitive my view of leadership and living a life of divine purpose was. Leadership is not something I should attempt to turn off and on like a lightbulb. It’s part of my holy hard-wiring that informs my perspective on how I view the world and my role in it. I lead wherever I am because I am called to be part of God’s redemptive plan for his people, whether it be across the globe or across town. I shouldn’t be afraid to own my given leadership abilities as a vital part of my purpose in life and the sacred responsibility that comes with it. Leadership capability is not bestowed on solely one gender, race, language, education level, or socio-economic, marital or health status. God flips our cultural norms and preconceived notions of who can lead and under what circumstances. He loudly proclaims He wants me, unapologetically as a woman and a mother, just as I am right now, to boldly lead in his work.
Hear me when I tell you that your calling to lead in MOPS is just as important, just as life changing, just as kingdom furthering, as any other divine mission. Across the street or across the world, your endeavors are equally valuable and essential. It's a first-class calling of the highest order and God has placed you here, in a place of influence, for such a time as this.
