A recent post by Mike Sessler on his blog, Church Tech Arts, pays homage to his first pastor, Ron Boehm, and the leadership lessons learned from him. It also draws attention to a fund that has been quietly growing to help underwrite expenses incurred by the Boehm’s during Ron’s recent medical emergency. A portion of Mike’s blog appears below. Click here to read the complete post. To learn more about the GiveForward effort on behalf of Ron Boehm, click here.
Leadership Lessons From My Mentor
Last time, I told you the story of how I ended up in technical ministry. It’s really all due to my first Pastor, Ron Boehm. He recently suffered a medical emergency that nearly cost him his life. And it cost a lot to keep him here. I asked you to consider donating to his medical expense fund, and if you haven’t, go back and read that post, then help out. This blog exists in large part due to his influence in my life, so if you’ve ever learned anything from me, you can pay it forward by helping my friend Ron.
And, after reading this post, you can’t say you never learned anything because I’m going to share with you some things I learned about leadership from him.
Serve Alongside
When I began attending Western Reserve Grace Brethren Church—which we all called WRGBC or Grace for obvious reasons—they met in a middle school. Everything had to be brought in and out every week. Guess who was leading the charge? Pastor Ron and his family. I started attending in the summer, and I will never forget the first big snowstorm of the winter. I had a long drive, so I left plenty of time and got there early. It was blowing and snowing and freezing outside, and there was Ron, bundled up in a parka with his snowblower clearing the sidewalks so we could get into the building without tracking through snowdrifts.
A few years later, when we built our first building, the congregation was a bit larger, but the budget was still tight. He negotiated with the builder that we could do some of the labor. Again, Ron was right in the middle of it. He spent many days alongside other men in the church pulling cable through conduit, framing, painting and whatever else needed to be done. He didn’t just walk in, tell everyone they were doing a great job then leave, he worked with—and in many cases harder and longer—than the rest of us.
I’ve never forgotten that lesson. In my years as a TD, I always strived to be the fisrt one there and the last one out. I’m pretty sure no one on my team would tell you I worked less than they did. Whether it was a weekend service or a big event, I was there with them, getting dirty and sweaty, making sure we were getting things done.
This kind of leadership creates a team that will do almost anything. I know my guys and gals would have done anything for me, because they did. And I’m pretty sure it was because they knew from experience that I would do anything for them.
Click here to read the complete post. To learn more about the GiveForward effort on behalf of Ron Boehm, click here.
