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This was one of those sessions that was a combination of stories/teaching, but heavier on the teaching side. In some instances it was hard to follow along because the flow of information was so great, but the thoughts and concepts provided were helpful in my quest to become a better servant leader.

Floyd Flake is a spiritual and political leader in his community (Jamaica, Queens, NYC). What was so inspiring was the commitment he expressed to plug in and stay for the long haul in what God had called him to do. To me, one of the most beautiful expressions of christian leadership is when a person dedicates their lives to the cause God has entrusted them with and spends a lifetime pursuing it and seeing it come to fruition.

Overview: Floyd presented 5 different leadership perspectives that every leader will experience throughout their lifetime. They may happen in different seasons or they might overlap.

1) Transitional leadership: recognizing that you might not be there for all points in the journey. John the Baptizer prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry and then stepped aside.

2) Transactional leadership: getting people to “buy in” to what God is doing. This includes delegating responsibilities, and involving people.

3) Transparency in leadership: I sensed that this was one of the perspectives that should overlap ALL of the others, regardless of what season in life we find ourselves in. Integrity should be the cornerstone of our character. Others should know that our lives are in order (not perfect, but submitted to God). We should choose competent and qualified partners to share the journey with.

4) Transformational leadership: This happens when people are motivated to take the initiative and ask “What can WE do next?” True leaders inspiring others to be leaders and them stepping up.

5) Transcendent leadership: Raising up the next generations, passion the torch. Jesus trained and equipped His disciples to go out and make more disciples. We should always be moving towards a place where we WANT our “next generations” to do greater works than we did.

Overall, this was a tough session to sit through. Not because Floyd was a bad communicator. He is an outstanding orator, and a very passionate one at that. It was just a lot of information in one sitting.

Personally, I would have loved to hear more stories about the community and how God was working in and through Floyd and his partners.