Weekly Impact is written for leaders by our Executive Director, Garth Jestley, who has decades of experience in senior leadership roles in the financial services sector. Each week he will share insights on life, leadership and faith.
This is the fourth in a series of blog posts unpacking the mission of LeaderImpact – “helping marketplace leaders explore the relevance of faith in God in their professional and personal lives.” In this post, I will unpack some aspects of “relevance.”
I am sure many readers besides me have had the following experience:
- You call a company for help with a product or service;
- You are placed on hold for 30+ minutes;
- Someone finally answers the call and listens to your (lengthy) explanation of the issue;
- They then inform you that they are the wrong department but they will immediately transfer your call to the right one;
- While you are contemplating how much time has been wasted, they transfer the call; and
- Repeat foregoing scenario!!
If you are a typical marketplace leader, you deeply dislike engaging in irrelevant activity. Life is busy enough without wasting valuable time on unproductive projects including waiting in the wrong line.
By contrast, the large, growing number of LeaderImpact groups across Canada implies that they are highly relevant to participants. For those of us who have become followers of Jesus, faith in God and loving Him is, by definition, relevant to all areas of our lives. In the Bible, it is recorded that Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” (John 14:15) In fact, He has something to say about how we conduct ourselves in the preceding scenario!
The challenge for Christian leaders is hearing Him accurately. LeaderImpact groups are one way God speaks to us. He does this through other marketplace leaders as together we discuss various subjects facilitated by a leader around some reading material. I am inevitably encouraged in life and helped in my desire to know God better when I meet with other marketplace leaders who are followers of Jesus.
Encounter relevance intellectually, experientially and spiritually when you explore faith with other marketplace leaders.
For those who are not yet followers of Jesus but have chosen to explore relevance with us, their question, particularly in the technologically advanced 21st century, is usually along the lines of, “How and why is faith in God even relevant to me?” Typically, they have chosen to join our groups because they respect the marketplace leaders who invited them and are intrigued by the fact that those who invited them found faith relevant, particularly in the marketplace. In addition, there is often a felt need in their life that they hope might be met in a group.
For these leaders, relevance usually derives from the fact that they are meeting with peers. While faith in God might have been irrelevant to them prior to joining a group, they find relevance through the sharing of marketplace leaders just like them to whom faith in God is highly relevant. In other words, they encounter relevance through others both intellectually and experientially. Ultimately, should they decide to trust in Jesus, they will experience relevance spiritually.
If you don’t attend a professional peer group, I encourage you to risk a little time exploring the relevance of faith in God for your life.
Next week, I will address what we mean by faith in God.
Garth Jestley is a husband, father, grandfather, leader and business executive. Most importantly, he is a follower of Jesus Christ.