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Do you feel like church leadership is one crisis after another? I recently watched again the old movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Here are some qualities Harrison Ford’s character, Indiana Jones, displayed which can help us in the challenges of church life:

1.    Indiana Jones kept his goal clearly in mind. He was pursuing the Ark of the Covenant. He faced many distractions and deterrents, including a beautiful woman, an evil French competitor, and vicious Nazis. But he knew what he wanted, and he went after it.

Knowing where we are going is a key element of leadership, perhaps the most important. If we don’t know our destination, how will we know if we get there? This is deeply a spiritual question. Where is God calling you to go?

2.    He didn’t take things personally. Many people were after him, but he didn’t let personal aspects distract him. He knew they just wanted to stop him from getting the Ark because they wanted it, too. He knew the struggle was not about him.

 When we move forward, people will resist us. It is an automatic human response to change. If we can become more objective about that reality, we will be better leaders. We can practice looking for resistance and noticing it, rather than personalizing it.

3.     He kept his sense of humor. Even under the most trying of times, he was able to laugh, or at least smile. After being shot, dragged behind a truck and fighting off Nazis, his friend Marian says, “You don’t look the same as you did ten years ago.” Indiana replies, “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage!”’

We will be better leaders if we can keep our sense of humor. Seeing the funny side of things helps keep our thinking in the upper, creative part of our brain. We’ll be better able to stay on course, too.

4.     He didn’t protect the girl. Unlike most action movie heroes, he left Marian to fend for herself. She had been captured, tied and gagged. Indiana decided not to free her so as not to give away his own position. And Marian proved very resourceful – she freed herself.

The least functional members of our organizations can manipulate leaders into taking care of them. We often feel that “ministry” or “being a good Christian” means giving needy people whatever they ask for. But people are surprisingly resilient when we expect something of them.

5.    He faced his greatest fear. Early in the movie we learn that he was afraid of snakes. Not surprisingly, he ended up in a pit of snakes. He had to cope with his phobia in order to survive.

The areas in life where we are the most reactive are our biggest pitfall in our ministry. When something happens at church, and we can’t see or think straight, we have a clue there are deeper layers at work within us. Usually if not always these patterns come from the family we grew up in. It can be a lifetime of work to face those fears and anxieties. But as with Indiana Jones, the payoff can be well worth the trouble.

Some days we may wish we were racing around the desert like Indiana Jones. His adventures might seem preferable to whatever problem is facing us at the moment. But can we live like him in spirit as we face our own challenges? Our chances of becoming all God wants for us will be much greater. And we may even have more fun on the way.

Rev. Margaret Marcuson works with churches that want to create a ministry that lasts and clergy who want more impact on the people they serve best. She is the author of Leaders Who Last: Sustaining Yourself and Your Ministry (Seabury, 2009). She served as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Gardner, Massachusetts for thirteen years. Get the free mini-course, "Five Ways to Avoid Burnout in Ministry" at http://margaretmarcuson.com/.