If you’ve been paying attention to leadership culture lately — from corporate seminars to church conferences — there’s a whole lot of talk about strategy, scalability, and productivity hacks. You’ll hear phrases like maximize your impact, optimize your workflow, and lead with vision. And hey, those things matter. Nobody wants to follow a leader who’s winging it.
But if you’re not careful, you’ll buy into a dangerous myth: That your value as a leader comes from what you produce instead of who you’re present with.
And honestly? That’s not just incomplete leadership; it may be completely unbiblical.
The Quiet Verse with a Loud Lesson
There’s this little line tucked into Mark 3:14 that wrecks me every time:
“He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.”
Did you catch the order?
With before send.
Presence before performance.
Jesus didn’t scout resumes, run personality profiles, or host a leadership retreat with PowerPoint slides. He called twelve ordinary, flawed people and said, “Come be with me.” They laughed around fires, argued on roads, watched miracles, and listened to stories. Before they preached a word or cast out a demon, they just… hung out with Jesus.
That order wasn’t random. It was formation before function.
Presence before purpose.
Why This Still Matters
Fast-forward to your life and mine, and not much has changed. The people you lead don’t need your best strategy first — they need your face. Your time. Your attention.
They need a leader who shows up in both the mundane moments and the messy seasons.
Here’s why it matters:
