There is a common saying that some are born leaders and some become leaders; however I believe that everyone becomes a leader, everyone has an anointing or gifting in a specific area. It is less about who has the “title/skill” and more about submitting to your talent/gift, and inviting others to partake in where you are directed with that gift. Even those with the birthright, must grow, mature and understand leadership. Mostly, I think we misunderstand what effective leadership is: to lead is to go before or show the way, to conduct by holding and guiding, to influence or induce. We find natural occurrences with this type of leading within our friends and our family - in essence, our community. We see that Jesus came as a suffering servant, to seek and save the lost and to love all of mankind. Humbly he walked upon the earth, offering himself up for those who follow him and for those who don’t. This type of leadership has always been strong on my heart, and continued to grow as I began to step into obedience of using my passions, gifts and talents, as I found the Lord directing.
When first I encountered the “Church Plant Idea” in Texas in 2009 (set at the Vineyard USA’s National Leadership Conference) I saw tangible servant leading from many pastors within the Vineyard. I had been to many of these conferences, but this was the first time that I had seen the Vineyard leaders come together in such an immense way, serving over 3,000 people that had been affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Every time I looked up, I was filled with joy; joy to see our leaders serving in such an exhausting and jubilant manner (and believe me, it wasn’t glamorous in the least). Though I was “behind the scenes”, there was no feeling of being expendable, but rather my small act of service was useful and needed for this big outreach to work. Seeing this large scale-perspective of servanthood put my “heartbeat” into words...I just wanted to spend my life serving without seeking fame or fortune, to serve with Love as the only motivation, to serve humbly and willingly. 
I remember that as I was having this realization, a pastor who was serving along side us came up to my friend and I in tears and said “You know, this is you. This is you. This is your path. You may not know where your life is headed, but this is it. You can do whatever you want, as long as this is it. Loving, serving, shepherding. That is your call.” I was slightly taken aback, as recently I had been asking God where I fit in, in all of this.Through prayer and conversation with Paul (our pastor friend), God instilled his heart into mine and spoke the big picture yet again, of being a student of the Rabbi (Jesus). We are to nurture the broken of this world, and walk through life with them, through pain and happiness. We are to walk along, dance along the way, laughing, crying-- deeply encountering God, no strings attached, and leads us all into mutual transformation when pursuing Jesus. He also mentioned a few words of pastoring and church planting, which I laughed off, but they actually stuck in my heart.
That evening after the main session I went up for prayer. AGAIN, the same words were spoken over me, and much of my fears and insecurities were brought to light only to be replaced with truth; the truth of who God says He is, what He says He can do, and who He calls us to be. So as I fasted and began to look toward the Father’s heart in this endeavor, I began to settle in with the idea of “ministry”, gaining a security in the Lords words, and a comfort with where my life was headed. I gave it to Abba, but I had one little condition....
[to be continued...]
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