Are you a Next-Up influencer?  Recently, I have begun blogging about the relationship between influence and purpose.  Your purpose can lead to greatness. There is also a pathway to take to become influential.  It is not enough to know your purpose. That is half the battle. The next important step is to become equipped to live it out with maximum impact.

The truth is, God has believers in every generation that He has anointed and empowered to make a transformational impact in the marketplace with the Gospel of the Kingdom. Your purpose is not only expressed in the church community but in every arena of life. 

Influencers of the past are to be celebrated; however, God wants you to become an influencer now in your generation. You are Next-Up. So, now what?

Next Up Influence Defined

A Next Up Influencer is one who is clear on their purpose, and intentional in expressing their passion, gifts, and abilities to transform the arena they are called to.

The Secret to Next-Up Influence

The secret to being a Next-Up Influencer is Personal Leadership. But why focus on personal leadership? I believe personal or self-leadership is not only foundational but critical for success in spiritual, personal, and public life. One can be a public success, but a private failure. As a Kingdom-oriented follower of Christ, I strongly believe that there can be no duplicity in how one lives. Hence, it is important to develop congruence i.e., be the same person in public as you are privately driven by moral and ethical values. 

Emerging influencers must get this concept of personal leadership before gracing the public platform. I have been doing ministry for over 18 years, but God was very strategic in not allowing me to be “discovered” before I was ready. In other words, I had to develop myself in the background and let God help me to see “blind spots” that could be detrimental to my success. I had to learn to embrace my time of obscurity. You can make the desert place an asset or a liability. Choosing it as an asset as you are being Next-Up, will prove to be invaluable. Don’t despise your desert; to the wise, it’s God’s crucible to help you become fully formed and fit for your assignment.

Staying Sharp with Your Gifts and Abilities

 You must continue to grow both spiritually, personally, and professionally. However, the drive to succeed comes from how one leads her/himself personally. personal leadership development is not only for the emerging leader but also for those who have been in the leadership trenches for several years. Staying sharp is not a luxury; it is a necessity!  I love this passage: “If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success” (Ecclesiastes 10:10, NIV). 

Pursue Opportunities for Impact

Personal leadership requires active engagement. You must never let your next opportunity catch you unawares. God will allow opportunities to come your way to either reveal that you need more development or to help you demonstrate that you are now ready to rise to the occasion. There is no neutrality in responding to an opportunity.

Personal Leadership Requires Effort

The temptation to do nothing and expect results can be very strong; but the most successful influencers are those that are intentional i.e., they put the work in to develop, grow, and impact. The life of an influencer should be dynamic, not static. This requires effort. In physics, there is a concept called inertia. This can be defined in the following ways:[1]

• lack of movement or activity especially when movement or activity is wanted or needed
• a feeling of not having the energy or desire that is needed to move, change, etc.
• a property of matter by which something that is not moving remains still and something that is moving goes at the same speed and in the same direction until another thing or force affects it

Getting clear on your purpose is great. Demonstrating Personal Leadership is how you walk it out as a Next-Up Influencer.  What’s holding you back when it comes to personal or self-leadership? 

[1] inertia. (n.d.). The Merriam-Webster.Com Dictionary. Retrieved April 3, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inertia