Year 3 In Review

A little less than three years ago, I had embarked on a new (and scary) journey. For the needs of my family, I had stepped away from over 30 years of ministry in Christian education, with 24 of those years as a principal or superintendent/head of school. I wasn’t retiring, but my personal family circumstances necessitated making a change so that I could be at home every day. So, I stepped down from my position at the place where I had served for 8 years as the Head of School to start a new journey using my experience and abilities to serve God and develop people. And that led first to this venture at www.LeadershipEzra.com. I did not know what would come of this, but I was looking for a way to give my experience and wisdom to the Lord to be used for His purpose in reaching and developing other others.

At the same time, God was gracious in providing work to teach an online graduate course on leadership and an undergraduate online course on education, and to mentor doctoral students in their dissertation and research project work. What made all of this scary was that I was starting something completely new in my life, while still needing to provide for my family, with no idea of what the outcome would be. Along the way and in the process, I accumulated what I began to call “Joshua Stones,” those unique and specific events that were clear evidence of God at work, events that would stack up to become my personal memorial marker that served to remind me of God’s divine presence and leading in my steps. Ultimately, where God primarily directed and placed me was in working for two different universities, one (Gracelyn University) with a focus on education, and the other (Columbia International University) with a focus on organizational leadership.

My desire with the website, though, was that God would use Leadership Ezra in a much greater way to grow others in their leadership. The initial idea for this had come about out of a lot of prayer, and in that process, what the Lord had made clear to me was that I needed to connect faith, wisdom, and leadership in a way that would help other followers of Jesus grow in their leadership and make an impact. That original dream of an idea turned into three things: the self-publication of a book on Amazon (Leadership Ezra), the creation of the Leadership Ezra website, and the initiation of a corresponding podcast, streaming on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The overarching theme became “Faith. Wisdom. Leadership.: Connecting biblical truth with wisdom for leadership.” As an added bonus, I included a weekly feature on the website called “Quote Your Dad,” where I simply shared wisdom-filled quotes that I would often hear from my dad.

In the first year of both the website and the podcast, I shared leadership principles and ideas that I have learned, but primarily in standalone articles and podcast episodes. They were important ideas, but initially each was its own idea, not necessarily connected to others. As the year progressed, I started grouping ideas together to form series. By year two, I had shifted to communicating with series, and I shared three different series over the course of the year. The first was called “Who’s in Charge Here?” and it was a review of the ideas I covered in my book, Leadership Ezra. The second was called “The Five Be-Attitudes of Better Leadership,” and it was about five groups of attributes that are essential to good leadership. The third was called “The Character of Leadership,” and it was focused on identifying a character trait representative of a biblical character, and learning valuable lessons about leadership from it.

By the time year three got underway, I had moved into a year-long series called “Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life,” where I would share a typical, everyday experience or life event, and connect it to a leadership lesson. They were usually personal, every day experiences, but they would serve as analogies or illustrations of leadership lessons. As the year progressed, this settled into a rhythm that worked well, so, moving forward, I am going to continue with the same idea. I don’t know if I will return to any of the other original series or ideas, or initiate something new, but for now, I am enjoying sharing everyday stories that teach us something valuable.

As always, what’s in store for the next year is in God’s hands. Beyond that, what I would hope for is that God would bless this work and put it in front of more people who would benefit from what He has given me to share. So, if you have read the book, followed the website, or listened to the podcast, and have found any of those to be good for your leadership, would you tell at least three other people? With your help, I believe that God can use these resources to better equip leaders who will make an impact for His Kingdom.

Thank you for following and listening! On to the next year!

God Bless,

Jeff McMaster