Written by Christie Love, Founder of LeadHer
Connect with Christie on Twitter
Since the very beginning of LeadHer I have had a strong belief that leadership is healthiest and most effective when done in teams. Lone leaders who try to carry the entire weight of a vision alone grow weary. Solo leaders who strive to execute all details by themselves become overwhelmed. Leaders need other leaders. We need to have like-minded and like-passionate people to come beside us, believe in our mission, and be willing to invest energy and effort to help make it a reality.
Team-based leadership is what we stress with our Local Coordinators who lead our chapters. From the beginning we strongly encourage them to seek out a co-leader to carry the burden of building and leading a chapter with them. We equip them to build leadership teams within their chapters to ensure strength and longevity for their ministry.
Team-based leadership is what has made our organization the thriving-growing international movement of women that it is. I do not lead this organization alone. I never have. From the very begining, the first prayer that I prayed after saying yes to God was “Bring people who believe in this vision and are willing to help it become a reality.” I have been blessed by many who have come alongside our organization for seasons in the past as volunteers. Currently, we have a small staff of three who come together to pray over and execute every detail of LeadHer day in and day out. I am beyond blessed by Holly Madden and Hannah Cameron who believe in the mission of LeadHer as much as I do and they are willing to sacrifice daily to help our guide our giant vision into reality.
The one area of our organization that has not had this same team-based leadership is our teaching team. For the last five years, the majority of our teaching has been done by myself- with the help of several guests who have contributed to numerous powerful conversations. Though you may not have seen a teaching team in place on our teaching videos… there has long been a desire for one in my heart. I knew from the very start of LeadHer that I did not want to be the only voice pouring into our local chapters and challenging women to grow in their faith and leadership. It has been a constant and critical desire of my heart to prayerfully seek out a core group of teachers that believed in our mission and had a desire to invest in activating women through our monthly teaching videos.
LeadHer has a unique vision and voice with women- we don’t sugar coat things- but rather challenge women to go dig deep in both knowledge and application of God’s truth. We want women to grasp God’s grace and love for them as well as his plan and his purpose for each of them. We desire strongly to see women break free of self-inflicted and cultural barriers that have contributed to their belief that they cannot or should not impact and influence others as a leader. I knew that it was important to pray that God would raise up a teaching team that shared our vision and our voice and that in his time he would cross our paths and link our purposes.
Last summer, I felt a stirring in my heart that it was time to begin to build our teaching team. I began to prayerfully network on and off line to seek out the women that God was calling to LeadHer. One of the first connections that resonated with my heart was Tara Beth Leach. I began to follow her personal blog as well as her writings for Missio Alliance and I was excited by what I read. I reached to Tara on Twitter and set up a phone call to get to know one another- our connection was instant.
She shares the heart, passion, and vision for LeadHer. We continued to talk and pray together for God’s wisdom and direction for several months. At the end of 2015 we again talked and this time invited Tara to be the second member of our developing teaching team- along with myself. I was thrilled when she agreed because I believe strongly that we share a strong burden for the local church and the role that women can and should have in leading there as well as outside it’s walls.
Tara Beth lives in Chicago with her husband Jeff and their two boys Caleb and Noah. She is a Nazarene pastor who is currently serving as the Women’s Ministry Director for Christ Church of Oak Brook. She is also finishing up her Master’s of Divinity at Northern Theological Seminary where she also serves as a teaching assistant for Scot McKnight.
We have been blessed to have Tara Beth here in Missouri to spend the last few days with our team. She has had a chance to get to know everyone, attend a local chapter meeting, as well as team up with me to film our March teaching video for our local chapters. This teaching on Bold Prayers will give you a glimpse into her heart and her passion for women and for our organization. I know that you will be challenged by her in March and in many future monthly teachings, blogs, and conversations that Tara will be a part of in the future.
Please join me in welcoming Tara to our LeadHer teaching team by taking a moment to follow her on Twitter or on Facebook and send her a short note that lets her know that you are excited to have her and looking forward to learning from her!