One of the biggest challenges leaders have to overcome is lethargy.
It’s hard to motivate people who don’t want to move forward.
Several years ago, I spent half a year working through the book of Joshua, one chapter a week. One of the things I did as I studied each chapter was to look for leadership lessons I could learn from Joshua’s example. Afterall, Joshua proved to be a “strong and courageous” leader of God’s people. I realized my own need to grow in strength and courage as a ministry leader and hoped to glean insights from his example.
For the opening twelve chapters, leadership lessons from Joshua’s life proved easy to find.
Then I hit the back half of the book: chapters 13-24.
What was I supposed to learn from these chapters where Israel seemed more intent on huddling together than possessing their new homeland? But the more I studied these chapters, the more I discovered subtle but significant leadership lessons from Joshua’s example. Surprisingly, these chapters detail some of his finest moments as a leader of God’s people. It’s one thing to direct those who are ready to move and willing to embrace the challenge of taking new ground. It’s another thing to try and lead those who have stalled and become lethargic, self-absorbed, complaining, and critical. Yet that’s the leadership challenge Joshua faces in chapter 13-24.
How he handles this stalled situation demonstrates leadership wisdom and courage every bit as much as what we see in the front half of the book. Some of Joshua’s most stellar moments as a leader emerge from the dicult days recorded in chapters 13-24. In my Leading the Lethargic eBook, I will lead you through the final twelve chapters in the book of Joshua. For each chapter, I’ll provide a very brief summary of the chapter and then highlight
several leadership lessons I learned from Joshua’s example.
If you find yourself seeking to lead those who seem lethargic, timid or resistant, here are leadership lessons that can help you to be strong and courageous as you lead God’s people.
You can access the Leading the Lethargic eBook here: For the Flipbook version click here. For a pdf copy of the eBook click here.
(BTW, I intially released the content of this eBook as a series of blog posts. Over the past few years, these have consistently been the most read posts of all the material we’ve posted. Leading the Lethargic combines all the posts into one eBook.)
Rick and Linda Reed 