While all of these are genuine concerns, they are not your greatest struggle. It is not an external force, but an internal one; one that lies within you and threatens all that you hope to accomplish. Jim Molloy reveals the worst enemy of leadership in “Every Leader’s Everest.”

What is this force that threatens to derail your effectiveness, your legacy, and maybe your entire life? It is insecurity. It is the result of fear, and just as fear has some home in every person’s life, so does insecurity. It cannot be destroyed for it will never be eliminated, but insecurity can be dominated, defeated.

“Everest” is not a generic book about leadership. It is a book about spiritual leadership, especially ministry-related leadership. However, anyone that struggles with insecurity, whether at home or work, alone or in groups of people, will benefit from Jim’s book.

One might think that the key to defeating insecurity is becoming more sure of ourselves. While we can identify insecurity in our lives and try to restructure our lives to avoid and combat it, only the supernatural power of God defeats insecurity in our lives. Insecurity is often a result of deficiencies in our understanding of and faith in God. “…insecurity is not defeated by becoming surer about our leadership but rather by beings absolutely sure about God” (12).

Jim identifies many ways that people are overtaken by insecurity. In many cases, we don’t even realize that we are insecure, but the carnage of insecurity lie all around us. Insecurity can be cause by pain, the gifts God gives to us for ministry, and unresolved personal issues. One particularly interesting chapter gives life to insecurity as Jim describes various personas overtaken by it.

The latter section of the book deals with re-scripting our hearts and minds. Too often we can receive what others think about us, our gifts and our ministry. Instead we must reprogram ourselves with what God says about these things. Later chapters visit these new Life Scripts in order to feed the truth into us.

Here are some of my favorite lines from “Every Leader’s Everest”:

• Insecurity is fear. Unhealthy fear is always the result of a lie.
• Security knows that being “free from fear” is an illusion.
• If one’s path into leadership is void of obstacles, chances are that the path didn’t lead anywhere significant. Without challenges, the reward of arriving at the destination isn’t as sweet.
• …leadership without hope is weakened because leaders live in the hope that things will change.
• You can still find God in the midst of unanswered questions. You just have to accept that you will never have all the answers.
• If you are arrogant, everyone knows it. Most are just too gracious to tell you.
• Do you need leadership or does leadership need you?
• If we refuse to explore and acknowledge our proneness to specific issues, we condemn ourselves to the mercy of pride and arrogance.
• Do things because they matter to God, not because they get you noticed.
• If you did all the things you could do, you would drive yourself crazy.
• If you only judge your worth by your measure of your economy, you will be insecure.
• …it is always better to be detested by your courage than esteemed for following the crowd.

Jim uses personal experiences, stories and humor to relate the important truth that we are susceptible to insecurity. It lurks within each one of us. But with God’s help we can overcome it, and we can climb “Every Leader’s Everest.”

You can find out more about Jim Molloy, Life Scripts, and more at his website, www.leaderscripts.com.

It still amazes me how often people are surprised when others take what might seem personal and make it a global catastrophe. “I didn’t mean that,” they say. “I’m entitled to my opinion.” “I’m just venting.” Social media is both inviting and dangerous, and we need to think about what we post or respond to.

We can get into a lot of trouble on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. It can affect our employment, our chances of renting an apartment, and it can cause trouble even in your church life.

You might think it strange, but I require our church members who are on Facebook or Twitter to add the church’s and my personal profiles to their friends/following lists. I do this for several reasons:

• To keep people informed. If you are on one of these sites, chances are that you check it often. You get alerts on your smartphone, and it’s the last thing you look at before you go to bed. One way to keep you up to date on what’s going at church is to keep you virtually connected.
• To speak into their lives. Facebook and Twitter are often the first place we talk about what is going on in our lives. As a pastor, I can check through posts and see how people are doing during the day. They might need a kind word, the posting of a verse, or just a Happy Birthday message.
• To keep an eye people. That’s right, Pastor is watching. Why? Because your social profiles are your point of contact with the world. What you say about God, church, your pastor, and live in general, all influence how people who do and don’t know Jesus see you and the God that you serve. If I have to confront someone about what they post (and I have), I prefer to do it privately and not as part of the discussion, unless I can do it quickly and without causing harm.

Maybe you have posted online and seen your single, personal thought turn into a battle of words that are often harsh and brutal. Let me share a few things to remember about social media posting that can help keep you out of those situations.

• Social media is not private. Another way I’ve said is, “Facebook is not a diary.” You can’t hide it under your bed with a little golden lock to keep everyone out of it. When someone gets noticed and pulled into a heated discussion, they like to say that they are entitled to their opinion or just venting. That is not what social media is for. If you want to have private, personal thoughts, buy a journal.
• Social media is about interaction. Why are people shocked when others comment on their posts? Did they think everyone would just scroll past it like billboards on the highway? Social media is designed as a mode of interaction. To post something live on the internet is an invitation for others to comment on what you have written.
• Social media is honest. Did you post pictures about the parties you went to between Christmas and New Year’s, and then try to post something spiritual on Monday morning? With a quick scan of your timelines and photos, people can see what is truly important to you and who you really are.
• Social media is instant. All too often we think that we can go back and delete or hide something once we have hit the post button. Sometimes it only takes the fifteen seconds between you realizing what you’ve said and trying to delete it to get around the world and hurt someone.

Be careful. Draw boundaries to keep yourself safe. Think before you type. Know that sometimes you might really want to post something (or respond to a post), but it is better to leave it alone.

Talk Back

How have you created boundaries for yourself on social media? How did you realize you had to it? (In other words, was it preventative, or did you have to learn the hard way?”)

Now that we have found Christ, what do you think we should be doing? What do you believe is the most important task we can spend our lives, our new lives?

Pastor Ronnie Floyd reminds us what that task is in “Our Last Great Hope.” And if it has been a while since you heard the message, his passionate plea to recommit yourself to fulfilling it is a must read.

What is the task? It is to fulfill the Great Commission. Jesus didn’t tell us to get better at quoting Scripture, sharing our personal thoughts on the internet, or even to pool our resources to meet the physical needs of society. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples.”

This book came at the perfect time as I focus my own studies on evangelism and looking for a way to communicate its importance and value in the lives of our congregation. Floyd’s book both challenged and inspired me, confirming what I already felt was God’s growing call to share the Gospel and inspire others to do the same. This book will do that for you.

Here are some of my personal highlights from the book:

• To know Christ is to love Him; to love Him is to share Him.
• The Christian who is apathetic about the Great Commission is the one who is not walking at Jesus’ speed, who has fallen far behind, or who is wandering somewhere in the woods.
• [In one section he thinks about the first responders and rescue workers at the World Trade Center on 9/11...] What if the news cameras had shown them rubbernecking as the buildings burned, as people leaped from ninety floors above? What if the rescue workers had been casual spectators rather than courageous heroes? And I thought, What does God see when He looks at me? at my church? at the Christians of this world? We’re just a vast number of Planet Earth rescue workers with our hands in our pockets, gawking as the earth goes up in flames.
• I must own the Great Commission personally, I must come to a place where it is unthinkable for me to leave the work to others, to hire it done.
• The Great Commission is mine. It was made for me, and me for it. I can imagine life without it no more than I can imagine life without my head. I am responsible. I am accountable.

The final chapters in this book were the only difficult portion for me to read. After all of the stimulating reading about the need for sharing the Gospel, Floyd spends some time to encourage Christians to finance evangelism. It is a helpful section, yet I found it to be a bit of a buzz killer. But the truth of his point rings clear: How much would you pay to see everyone you know in Heaven, along with those touched by missionaries, and to see every physical need on the planet met?

“Our Last Great Hope” was a great read and I highly recommend it to every Christian. In fact, it should be required reading.