We become more and more free to love God more and more when we listen to the things God says about us.

__

When thinking about identity and our unique ‘shape’, we must start with the bible. This undergirds the whole conversation.

In the bible we discover what God says about us once and for all. We are reminded of the truth with which we can unpick the lies that we tell ourselves. We become more and more free to love God more and more, and more available to join in with God’s purposes in the world.

At the same time, I have personally benefitted from resources and courses and coaching that have helped me understand my unique shape even more. Frameworks that have reinforced what I read in scripture.

Now of course, when talking about ‘shape’, I’m not talking about how athletic I am (or not). This isn’t about physical shape, but more the way I have been ‘wired’. The way God has designed and created me. My unique preferences, experiences, passions, personalities, the way I like to communicate, how I recharge and assimilate information. 

It has been an essential exercise of discovery because I have found that time spent understanding how God has wired me, has helped me be a better steward of the resources and relationships that God has given me.

So for example: knowing that I recharge around people as an extrovert, has been really important, especially when I know my wife is an introvert. It has enabled us to have conversations and work out how to navigate what our home looks like, especially because for most of our married life we have lived in a vicarage where people have been coming and going for many years.

Another example: knowing that I am a ‘connector’, someone who enjoys making new connections with people and connecting people with people for a Kingdom purpose, has been so helpful and has been a real encouragement in, for example, in the pulling together teams, and speakers and events online as we have done with Stronger Network over the last couple of years.

So convinced that it’s an important investment for any Christian seeking to make the most of what is in front of them, I encouraged any new member of the church I led to fill out a simple assessment tool to help them understand their shape and to start a conversation with God but also with the church - so that we could get behind them and encourage them in all that God was doing in them and through them. Every time we preached our aim was to remind people of what God says about them.

And that’s why I thought it would be important for us to make space for looking at ‘SHAPE’ at the recent Stronger 2022 conference that we hosted online. We invited Amy Summerfield to come and speak about the subject.

Amy is CEO of Kyria, a leadership network to champion empower and release women into their spheres of influence, and Head of Development at Skylark International, a network of churches, charities and organisations. From 2015-2020 Amy was senior pastor of Connect Church, Paisley, Scotland. Amy is the co-founder of Pulse Children’s and Youth Ministries. She is a regular conference speaker for women's and leadership conferences. 

I loved the way Amy approached this subject because she rooted us squarely in Scripture. We’ll share the recording with you in due course, but I wanted to comment on a few of the points she raised, which she called ‘leadership declarations’.

1.We are chosen to grow not to go

This was one of Amy’s first declarations and she unpacked a vision that she had from the Lord that focussed on the word ‘grow’. She said this:

‘….leaders that go they often prioritise projects over people. And the word ‘grow’ in this vision was quite simply saying, what does it look like to be a person that actually re-orders some of our thinking, so that our identity can be from that place of being a consistent leader that grows in God before we go…’

I loved this point that Amy made and it reminded me of the image of the vine in John 15. Jesus paints a familiar picture for his 1st century listeners. Disciples, followers of Jesus are to be in Christ, the vine, and as branches in the vine we will be pruned, we will bear fruit. The job of the disciple then is about ‘remaining’, ‘abiding’, ‘comuning’, making our home in the Lord. The fruit is a by-product of that relationship.

We’re chosen to ‘grow’, and the reality is that as we go, we grow too, and going is also a sign of us growing. 

There maybe people reading this who know that the priority for them right now is about growing in the Lord. 

2.We are chosen to collaborate not compete 

This was another of Amy’s brilliant leadership declarations. She said this:

‘…We are chosen to collaborate, not compete… I know that all of us in this online hybrid world have been a little bit tempted to look to the left and look to the right, ‘What's that church leader up to?’, ‘What's that leadership team up to?’ What's that charity doing..’ and it brings back to that comparative thing. But …. as leaders we are chosen to collaborate, not compete, we need to recognise that God's asking us to step up again, to be other centred…’

I think this is a profound point Amy made. So often we can compare ourselves and insecurity can set in and try and get a foothold. But remember what I said about being freed to love God more and more and becoming available to join in with God’s purposes in the world? As we dwell on what God says about us and really take it to heart, we’re free to celebrate the successes of others. Rather than a little piece of us dying when someone else does well, we’re able to stand with them and thank God because it’s all for him anyway.

Collaboration is a great way address some of the competition that can sometimes side-swipe us. However, collaboration still holds open the opportunity for me to benefit. What does it look like to go low today and champion others? To shine a light on what God is doing in others?

That is what we have tried to do with Stronger Network. We get excited to spotlight the great work that God is doing through others.

3.Cultivate no camouflage

This was another of Amy’s leadership declarations (she originally gave five in total). She said this:

‘… to purposely cultivate means coming out of the shadows which means refusing to be a camouflage leader. And even in all the uncertainties and fears that are around us; the identity crisis that is all around our world right now, we can't shy away from who God has called us to be. We can't hide in the shadows. God has called us to step out into the light, so that we can purposely cultivate, because he chose us, and he appointed us so that we might bear fruit…’

This is the John 15 passage again, but it’s also a creation mandate to steward, to be fruitful, to cultivate, under God. But as we know, Adam and Eve tried to hide in the bushes as they tried to camouflage their brokenness. Dis-ease came upon their relationship with God. 

Jesus invites us to come and meet him in the light. This is what John writes in his gospel in chapter 3.19-21

‘…Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God…’

Perhaps this is an encouragement to you as you read this, to step into the light of God’s love. Hand him your weaknesses and brokenness. Let him heal you as you seek to bring God’s healing to the world through your leadership, through your words, your action, your business, your ministry.