A little less than a year ago, I embarked on a new (scary) journey. For the needs of my family, I had stepped away from 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 most recent position at the place where I had served for 9 years as the Head of School to start a new journey of using my experience and abilities to serve God and develop people. And that led to this venture at www.LeadershipEzra.com. What made it 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. God was gracious in providing some additional work along the way 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. My real desire, though, is that He will use Leadership Ezra in a much greater way to grow others in their leadership.
The initial idea came about out of a lot of prayer, and in that process, what the Lord 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. 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.
The book was something that had been on my mind and heart for a long time, and it came first in the timing of everything. Immediately after it was published on Amazon, I launched the website (with a lot of help from a friend who is a website wizard). Then, I did a little online research into how to produce a podcast, and a few months after the website was up and running, I started releasing a short weekly podcast episode that would match the website article that had been published at the beginning of the week. By the end of 2023, everything was beginning to settle into a rhythm.
For the first few months, the website articles – and the podcast episodes, once they had started – had been stand-alone articles that highlighted an important leadership principle or lesson that I had learned over the years. But by the beginning of 2024, I was starting to feel a little more comfortable with the routine of what I was doing, and began developing series of related articles and ideas. The first series, “Without Compromise,” was a look at lessons learned from the life of Daniel, and specifically at how he managed his training and equipping to become a leader in the king’s government, but without compromising his faith or his character in any way. The second series, “Complementary Contradictions,” was a look at seemingly contradictory leadership ideas that, in fact, can and should work together to help you become a better leader.
So now, I am heading into year two. What’s in store for the next year is in God’s hands, but my current plan is the continuation of different series, and prayers for opportunities to reach more people. The next series will be connected to the original idea of the book and the website and will walk through the important lessons that are talked about in more detail in Leadership Ezra. That will be followed by a series called “Be a Better Leader,” which will focus on attributes of effective leadership. 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