Keeping Focus as a Christ-Centered Leader

As a Christ-centered leader, how do you keep your focus? We know that as a leader you must be self-aware, in tune with how you feel, understand how other people see you, manage your impulses, tune out distractions and comprehend what other people need from you.

Your focus reflects who you are and why you do what you do, especially in times of chaos and or stress. No matter how much you say who you are, your actions will reveal the reality of who you are.

Your focus helps keep you centered. As a Christ-centered leader, your focus is on Jesus. Let’s let Mark tell us a story regarding focus and then let’s commit to grow in maturity of faith and clarity of focus.

Read Mark 4:35-41

³⁵On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” ³⁶And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. ³⁷A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. ³⁸But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹And waking up, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be silent! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Reflect on Mark 4:35-41

This is a story about staying focused. Remember, the Good News from Mark’s perspective is that God sent Jesus to oppose the pain, suffering, and evil of the world. Mark is writing to a mostly Gentile church that is under persecution. It is important to remember that his church often met in caves to hide from soldiers and others looking for Christ’s followers.

With that context, Mark tells of Jesus using parables to teach about God’s love and power. He was reminding his church community that God was with them in the midst their pain and suffering as a persecuted people.

Jesus is with You

Then, Mark shifts his story. After Jesus uses ordinary things to tell of God’s love and power, he instructs his disciples, his followers to get in the boat and go to the other side of the lake. Up to this point, his ministry has been exclusively on the Jewish side of the lake. He instructs them to go into a predominantly Gentile area. He is sending them into an area they have not been before, an area they would not have gone on their own.

It is important for Mark to let his church know that Jesus was with them in the boat. The idea that Jesus was asleep is Mark’s way of saying, even though you are facing evil, pain, and suffering in the world, you are not alone. Even though it might seem you are alone in the battle, Jesus is with you.

In the Midst of the Storm…

Here is the first clue to keeping focus. When the storm arises, the disciples are afraid. Now, I’m not discounting a literal storm, but I do want to ask the question about the deeper meaning of the storm. Could Mark be using the story as a parable for his church to know that Jesus is with them during their persecution, pain, and suffering?

It is during the storm that the disciples lose their focus. They begin to cry out, “Teacher, do you not care we are dying here? Mark is putting the storm in the perspective of his church. I can hear his people crying out, “Where is God in the midst of this persecution? Does not God care about us? We are dying here. Where is God?

During the storm, in the midst of persecution, during their pain and suffering, they have lost their focus upon the God who loves them and upon the business God has called them to.

Calming the Storm

Jesus wakes up and addresses the storm. The word used for “rebuke” is the same word used for addressing demons or evil. The word used for “peace” is the same word used in the story found in chapter one of Jesus telling the demons to be quiet or “to be silent.” For Mark, calming the storm is the same as casting out evil.

After he calms the storm, Jesus turns to his disciples and asks, “Why are you afraid?” This is Mark’s challenge to his church. This story is not a “once-upon-a-time amazing event at sea” but is a revelation of the Good News from Mark’s perspective. Then Jesus asks, “Have you still no faith?” Mark is reminding his church that they can trust Jesus. He is with them in the midst of the storm. He is with them and always will be.

Keep Your Focus on Jesus

As a courageous and effective Christ-centered leader, when you are leading through the storm, you keep your focus on Jesus. There have been storms over the past several years and you have had to keep focus for yourself and for the people entrusted to your care. So, let me ask you, how did you keep your focus in the midst of the pandemic storms and the disaffiliation storms?

In recent years, how have you kept your focus during political storms? It is easy to lose focus when you are in the midst of the swirl. It is easy to feel alone and isolated when you cry out for help and get no response in return?

Mark would have you remember that you are not alone. With that in mind, how do you keep your focus?

Five Ways to Keep Focused

Here are five ways to keep your focus as a Christ-centered leader.

1. Prayer

Prayer is the most effective way to keep your focus on God and God’s call upon your life. Let me say it this way: no prayer, no focus. Little prayer, little focus. Much prayer, much focus. As a leader, when you are navigating the storms, prayer is an effective way to keep your focus on the power and love of God.

2. Searching the scripture

Bible study is another effective way to keep your focus on God’s business of loving as you have been loved. Reading, studying, and searching the written Word of God will always point you to Jesus, the living Word of God. As a leader, it is Jesus who keeps you focused as you navigate the church-related and political storms of the day.

3. Holy Communion

Participating in Holy Communion means you are “remembering” Jesus, who rebukes the storms and calms the waters. It is participating in “do this in remembrance of me” that keeps you and those you lead focused upon the power and love of God in and through Jesus.

4. Conversation with other followers of Jesus

Conversations with other leaders about what you are learning and how you are living out your faith are effective ways to keep your focus on who and what is important as a Christ-centered leader. Conversations with other Jesus followers let you know that you are not alone and that you have support and encouragement from others on the journey of faithful and courageous leadership.

5. Living out your faith in everyday and ordinary situations

You have multiple daily opportunities to practice being focused upon God’s love. Take advantage of every opportunity to grow into the leader God has created you to be by participating in a pattern of faith development that helps you grow deeper in your trust of God’s love and provides opportunities to love others as you have been loved.

Your focus will determine who you are as a Christ-centered leader. And who you are is how you lead.

Respond with Focus

Take advantage of opportunities to lead this week. Be aware of times you need to keep your focus upon God’s love. Practice keeping your focus through prayer and study. Pick one person with whom you will share your experiences of maturing in your trust in God and sharpening your focus upon God’s love and power.

Return

At the end of the day, return to this scripture and give God thanks for the people you encountered today. In whom did you see Jesus? In what ways did you have to focus or refocus your leadership? How did prayer and study keep you focused? With whom did you discuss your growing as a follower of Jesus and how you are keeping our focus as a Christ-centered leader? What did you learn about yourself? What will you do differently tomorrow? Give God thanks for the experiences that have helped you become who God created you to be.

Keep in mind, who you focus on is how you lead.