The following is a slightly modified version of an article from the elementum process, what we walk our partner ministry leaders through as we help them reach and disciple young adults and college students effectively.
Leadership in the kingdom of God is about your whole self. Whether you’re simply leading yourself in following Jesus or leading a church of 3,000 you’re called to offer your whole being up to God. Paul calls this being “living sacrifices” in Romans. After all, God lays claim to the entirety of those who follow Jesus, not just a portion of each of us. This means we can’t separate spiritual from physical, something Jesus makes clear in the Great commandment when he states that our ultimate priority is to;
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
– Matthew 22:36-40 New International Version (NIV)
Note that Jesus calls out three distinct things that we are to love with; heart, soul, and mind. At its most basic this means that our whole being is to be engaged in love for God and for those around us.
As a leader, there are three similar spaces where you need to be intentionally growing in love for God and for the people he has placed around you. Jesus calls them heart, soul, and mind. For the sake of clarity and memorability the elementum team uses the terms Head, Heart, and Hands.
What does it look like to love God from the head, heart, and hands? Here are a few thoughts and practices.
Loving with the heart
God prioritizes the heart throughout scripture, as evidenced by the primacy of love in the great commandment. Humans (even the most logical of us!) are driven by our hearts. We always do what we want, and our wants and desires operate at the heart level. The heart is the engine that drives our mind and body. It’s incredible how skilled our mind is at finding reasons to go along with what we want.
Loving God and others from the heart means that your emotions must be involved. If you don’t have a passion for God you’re not going to be able to sustain over the long term. If you don’t have a solid foundation of receiving love from and overflowing with love for God from your true heart, as Jesus implies in the great commandment, you won’t be able to fulfill God’s command and call for your life.
How are you doing at loving God with all your heart? Are your emotions impacted in His presence? When you think about who Jesus is and what He’s done are your affections moved? It’s so easy to get caught up in the rush of day-to-day life and miss out on actually connecting with God on a heart level. We need to set up intentional practices to engage our hearts.
Three practices to engage your heart:
- Personal worship: Set aside two times a week to turn on some worship music, or sing your own worship, to God. Music has an incredible, God-given power to move our emotions. Use it as a tool to engage your heart.
- Give yourself space to feel: set aside technology and tasks for 20 minutes and simply be present with God. Go for a walk with Jesus or sit on the couch and sip some tea and attend to the state of your heart.
- Read and/or write a Psalm: The Psalmists are powerful examples of people who are authentically loving God with all their hearts. Read a Psalm and meditate on it, or write your own Psalm from God expressing what’s currently on your heart.
Of course, the heart isn’t the only aspect of who we are or how we lead. Jesus didn’t leave it at “love the Lord your God with all your heart.” Our emotions and feelings are roller coasters that rarely stay steady. That’s why the other two aspects – Head and Hands – are so essential.
Loving with your head
The head is about knowledge and learning. You can’t love or lead in something you don’t know about. We need to put our minds to work when making disciples, thinking deeply and learning widely if we are to effectively point people toward Jesus. Loving with the mind looks like thinking deeply, seeking to know more about the one we love, and working to understand, not just have the facts.
Generally, loving God with your mind is something that is well emphasized in much of evangelical culture, with countless books written on or for the sake of helping people know God more. However, while many may acknowledge the need to love with the mind, most don’t have tangible practices built into their schedule to actually live out love for God with their minds.
Three practices to engage your head:
- Study Scripture: Go beyond just reading Scripture and take time to study a section or book. Print out a few chapters, double spaced, and get out your highlighter and pen. Read it several times and start noting down observations and questions. This will engage your mind with God’s Word in a new way if it’s not something you’re already doing regularly.
- Read a book: Get a book that’s outside your normal scope of reading about God. Tread into the deep waters of theology and faith. Even if you don’t understand everything you’re reading, it will engage your mind.
- Take a thought captive: Paul advocates taking every thought captive and making it submit to Jesus. End your day by thinking back through the things that filled your mind throughout the day and identify one thing that wasn’t submitted to Jesus. Repent of it and invite God to show you how to think rightly.
Just like with the heart, if we only emphasize the Head and knowledge when we follow Jesus or lead others in following him, we’ll be missing out on key parts of who we are and who God is.
Loving with your hands
God created us as embodied beings. We have physical bodies that are meant to be put to work in love. So many of the biblical commands are impossible to keep without using your body, and leading people in disciple-making isn’t possible if your body isn’t in on the act as well. Loving God with your hands means putting your hands, legs, and whole physical self into action.
It’s not enough to talk the talk. As James wrote in his epistle, faith without action is dead. Put action to your faith and practice love for God with your hands.
Three practices to engage your hands:
- Do an act of service: Scripture makes it clear that God is honored when we serve those who are in need. Set aside time at least once a month to serve at a homeless shelter, food pantry, or somewhere similar. Alternatively, make a regular practice of blessing a neighbor or coworker with some act of service.
- Prayer walk your city: Put your body into action as you pray. Find a place in your city that you don’t normally go and prayer walk the area.
- Fast: Push yourself to fast from food for at least 24 hours, and let your hunger pains be a reminder and praise to God that your body is ultimately His.
The whole leader
When you fully love and lead from all three aspects – Head, Heart, and Hands – you will discover a wholeness that is incredibly freeing. You’ll discover that your relationship with God, your discipleship, your leadership flows with an ease that it lacked before.
God demands nothing less than our whole selves. Heart, soul, and mind. Head, heart, and hands. As you follow Jesus and lead others to do the same be intentional about cultivating, engaging, and loving with all three.
Take some time to identify which of the three you’re currently weakest in your relationship with Jesus select one practical thing you will do to grow stronger in that area. You won’t regret it.
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