Leadership and Yogurt

Today was a Friday - we were excited to learn and excited that it was almost the weekend! Here's another glimpse into the classroom - you can see me working away in the front. Well really, drawing away. 

After class today the ladies headed out to Frozen Yogurt with many flavors and toppings - I picked Chocolate Silk (non-fat) and Red Velvet Cake (low-fat). I added some rad toppings and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

There were about 20 of us - we filled up the yogurt shop for sure. We chatted and laughed.

Here I am with my new, already dear, friend Alex (from Texas).

And another great new friend, Tiffany (also from Texas).

I tried to get an outfit photo but Tiffany decided to join me - I think it adds to the picture. 

Then I came home and made Paul and I a stirfry - which was pretty awesome!

Oh and last night we had fish tacos. It was my first attempt and they were so tasty.

Today we spent a large portion of the day again learning church history, and I must add....that it was amazing. 

However, I've been thinking a lot about leadership lately. As I mentioned the other day, my strengths are Woo, Positivity, Empathy, Arranger and Includer. So my whole mind make up is full of people - loving people, arranging people - helping people be all they can be. It fills my mind. 

When I look at what matters to me in a leader these three thoughts kept coming up:

1. I want a leader (or a friend) to speak truth. I don't want to be sugar coated, I want honesty.

2. I love to be heard without judgement, and with love and helpfulness.

3. I am so helped by encouragement - especially when it follows the first two. 

These are also the things I long to be as a leader or friend.

During one of the sessions we looked at what "Next Generation Leader" by Andy Stanley suggested were the 4 components that must be in place for Followers (meaning anyone who follows a leader in any situation) to feel comfortable. Listed below are the categories with a few key words listed in the book.

1. Trust (Authenticity and Honesty)

2. Compassion (Caring, friendship, happiness and love)

3. Stability (Security, Strength, Support and peace)

4. Hope (Direction, faith and guidance)

Now I don't know that if I hit all of these as a friend or leader, but as I read them I realized that long before I read these definitions or principles, these were the words I strived to be in friendship and leadership. I feel like these define every goal I have as a friend and christian. These words are like the passion and yearning of my heart for relationship. 

Of course, the truth I see in the world regarding Christianity and Jesus are a huge part of this - I do long to see the people in my life know Jesus and experience His Freedom and security. This is such a big part of how I long to see the above categories fulfilled. I am only able to be honest and authentic because I have complete security in Him. I can be compassionate because of how well He loves me. I can offer strength, stability and peace because of His power and I can offer guidance or direction because of His great plan for our lives. 

I don't think it's any secret that Paul and I would some day love to plant a church at UBC. We are wanting to practice growing lifegroups to learn the skills necessary to lead a church, and to build a team of people that want to share this dream with us. We love that we aren't to be sent out alone, but that we get to be a part of a people that care about students. This is an exciting dream. 

As exciting as the dream is, it's intimidating to think of leading people - especially an entire church! Something in my rises with joy at the thought - but there is also the very human fear of failure and disappointing people. What a tension, to believe that God has called us to things, but also know that there will be great and hard moments involved!

Alright, enough of these topics - my mind is filled to bursting today - I am only able to write this out because of thoughts I jot down throughout the day - usually by this time my mind is pretty fried!

We're now going to have some of our class over for games and a hang out - looking forward to laughter together after the deep thinking of the week.