Help all of our leaders succeed

Thirty-one years ago, I was taken for lunch by a senior leader in our church. I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was new to Kelowna, young and brimming with inexperience. This particular leader had a specific message to deliver.

With great deliberation he said, “Tim, you need to know that any group has the power to cause any leader to fail, no matter who the leader is or how good he or she might be.”

I swallowed hard wondering where this conversation was heading.

He continued: “All the group needs to do to ruin the leader is focus on that leader’s weakness.”

Then he played the trump card. He said, “You need to know that we will not do that. We will focus on your strengths and find ways to shore up and cover for your weaknesses.”

That meeting was one of the most significant gifts ever extended to me. Three decades later, the wisdom and evidence of his words resonate stronger than ever.

Every group has the power to derail any leader by choosing where they place their focus.

Like it or not, or realize it or not, that axiom applies to us.

As a community, the success or failure of our leaders has direct and profound impact on us. It is also profoundly impacted by us. We can help with their success or we can actively participate in their failure.

St. Paul made the point crystal clear when he wrote that God-fearing people were to pray for leaders in part because the success or failure of those leaders impacted the quality of life of the community.

As part of your new year agenda, I urge you to support, encourage and pray for Mayor Colin Basran. On any given day, he might be required to connect with a billiondollar business group seeking to do work in our city or with a homeless man or woman wondering where they fit in our future.

No one has the bandwidth to do well with demands spanning that broad a spectrum without help.

I encourage you to support, encourage and pray for newly appointed RCMP Supt. Brent Mundle. On any given day, he must provide leadership to men and women dealing with everything from lost children to violent crimes to the fentanyl overdose crisis. Budgets, personnel issues and appropriate responses to issues from violent offenders to drunk or texting motorists would tax anyone’s ability.

Support, encourage and pray for fire Chief Jeff Carlisle, School District 23 superintendent Kevin Kaardal, city administrator Ron Mattiussi and Interior Health CEO Chris Mazurkewich.

Pray for your child’s school teacher, for your boss, your priest or pastor and for your doctor.

And, you might not think of this one, pray for business leaders in our city. It’s easy to criticize and assume they’re just out to make money for themselves, but the reality is the success or demise of their businesses affects the whole community. We have been richly blessed with some very sharp business people.

As my old friend said, “Every group has the power to derail any leader by choosing where they place their focus.”

Let’s continue to make our city the best place in the world to live by doing everything in our power to help our leaders succeed.

Tim Schroeder is a pastor at Trinity Baptist Church.