Influence

Who has influenced your life?   Helped you become who you are today?   Achieve the goals you have reached?   It might be a parent, a father or mother who were good role models in your formative years.  Or a teacher at school.   Her love for poetry and English composition inspired a passion in your life for reading and writing.   As I think back over the six decades of my life I have a long list of people who have influenced me ... for the better.   My mother who had a deep faith and trust in God.   A pastor who modeled a life of grace and hope.   Teachers who loved the Scriptures and had a deep desire to see the gospel reach the lost and the marginalized.   A wife who has a simple and yet profound generosity of spirit and life, filled with integrity and boundless love.   Having been influenced I want to be an influencer myself, to influence others ... for the better.

What is the best way to be an influencer?   Years ago I read J. Robert Clinton's seminal book on leadership where he defines leadership as influence.   If you influence people you are leading them.   Some for better and some for worse.   Everyone has influence, and sometimes that influence moves people in wrong directions and painful outcomes.   Our world is full of dictators, domineers, and drug dealers who drive people to despair or dire ends.   But I am interested in influencing people for the better.   That people will discover God's purpose for their lives, lives of faith, hope, and love rooted in a relationship with Jesus.   For churches and church leaders to reach the lost, disciple the found, build loving relationships among God's people, and multiply gospel workers for the harvest.

How to be an influencer ... for the better?  Well here is a bit of wisdom.   Not from me, but from James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.   He writes:   "My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this:  everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry."  (James 1:19)  We might think that to influence people we need to do a lot of talking.  Just teach people.  Preach to them.  Force people to change directions or do what you tell them.   Drive them.   Push them.  And if need be, get angry.   Get really angry.   Raise your voice, and maybe even your fists.  That will really make them move!  Or will it?   Is there not a better way to move people?   What if we are slow to speak, and slow to be angry.  And simply listen.  Being quick to listen.   Hear what people are saying.  Ask them questions.   Reflect on what they are saying.  Be interested in their thoughts, their opinions, their perspectives.  Perhaps this is why God has given us two ears and one mouth.   We need to do a whole lot more listening than speaking.  When through listening you help a person discover something for themselves, they will own it.  They will be changed.  And some forever!   For the better!   This works for parents, and teachers, and friends, and pastors, and church leaders.

So here is the challenge, if you want to be an influencer ... for the better!   Influence your children.   A fellow church goer.   A team member.   Your unsaved neighbour.   A workmate.   The people in your church.   Just listen more, talk less.   I tell you it works!  Into the future people will not remember a lot of what you might have said, but somehow their life is better because you were in it.  You helped them see Jesus.  You helped them find purpose.   You helped them realize faith, hope, and love.   By listening you helped.   That's leadership.   And leadership is influence.