Broken Hearted Leaders Effect Change

The term “broken hearted” has multiple meanings in my memory.

This summer, during a trip to Israel, we were shopping in Old Jerusalem. The culture in one part of the Old City required dickering over prices. When we were attempting to purchase a scarf, one merchant started out with an asking price of $24. After some negotiation, he came down to his final offer of $8, accompanied by the phrase, “You’re breaking my heart.”

Broken heartedness has also been used in rock and roll music of the past. Think of Broken Hearted Melody (1958) by Sarah Vaughn and the Bee Gees singing How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (1971). Click on each title to see YouTube videos.

This week, one of my Facebook friends had a link to Andy Stanley’s message on broken heartedness. It was from his opening talk at the recent Catalyst Conference. The presentation must have been extraordinary, because the “blogosphere” is loaded with quotes from Stanley’s speech. Following are excerpts and links to two selected blogs.

From Justin Lathrop’s Blog:
Andy framed leadership, and our motivation behind it, in a way I haven’t heard before. He said, “Broken hearted leaders effect change.”

As leaders, we have been invited into the story of God. The story started long before we were here, and it will last long after we’re gone. But we have a part to play, and it’s a unique part.

Many of us feel stuck because we are not sure what part is ours to play, but Andy suggested that we look at what breaks our heart.

The things that break your heart might not necessarily break someone else’s heart. You may hurt for homelessness more than anyone you know, and that’s no coincidence. Where we hurt and what our hearts break for is uniquely wired into us and usually points directly to the problem we’ve been put on this Earth to solve…

Wired into leaders is a frustration with the status quo, a desire to fix things, to make them better.

When leaders lead, things change.

And as leaders, we are called to bring change into the world. We’re not called to change the whole world but to bring change into the area of influence we’ve been given.

To read more, click here.

From Chris Lautsbaugh’s blog:
We, as leaders, hate to see broken things be broken. Broken hearted leaders effect change.

The thing which breaks your heart is perhaps the very thing God wishes to do through you to move God’s mission forward.

God broke Nehemiah’s heart over the condition of the wall and the gates in Jerusalem. Because he was a leader, he decided that must change.

Is it possible your broken heart is by divine design? You have been called to change the things surrounding you which break your heart. You have not been called to change the world. You have been called to change something.

You have no idea what hangs in the balance. We have no idea what God might want to do through you. Who are you? What breaks your heart? Lead into the thing which breaks your heart.

To read more, click here.

Church Leadership Center is privileged to train the kind of leaders whose hearts have been broken. We understand and share in their brokenness because of the absence of leadership that we see in so many congregations. CLC serves churches and other ministry groups to prepare congregational leaders for advanced levels of ministry responsibility. We do this by means of assessment interviews and reports; personalized training plans, classes, and certification so that participants are able to increase their effectiveness in all areas of church life. Click here for more information from our web site and to read previous blogs. To view videos about Commissioned Pastors and those who support them, click here.