Hey there,

I hope you're having a great week!

Recently my family and a friend of ours went hiking on a local butte that overlooks the entire area.

Our friend told us it was a "kid-friendly" hike but the reality was a tad different! haha

Because about 2/3's of the way up the trail my 8 year old daughter was loudly protesting going any farther!

If you have kids you know they can really get creative when it comes to doing something they don't want to do...

And my girl was putting on a pretty good performance!

"Oh! My legs hurt so bad! How much farther? I can't. I can't. I hate this!"

You get the gist of it...

But we were SO close to the top and our friend told us it was a spectacular view.

So I took my daughter by the hand and encouraged, challenged, provoked, and did what ever I could to motivate her to just keep going.

We had lots of stops and moments of wanting to quit...

But she did it!

We made it to the top of the mountain and we're greeted with a stunning 360 view of the entire Southern Willamette valley here in Oregon.

Gorgeous green hills, trees, and fields in every direction.

I asked my daughter, "Was it worth it?"

Her eyes lit up and she said, "Yes!"

Then she went scampering like a mountain goat up some rocks and got to the highest point on the mountain, suddenly a motivated mountaineer!

Funny how that works isn't it?

And it's exactly the same in church leadership.

Sometimes as the pastor/leader/mentor you've got to nearly drag people up the mountain!

But then when they see the vision...

They're ALL IN.

Leadership is about helping/motivating people to do what they don't believe they can do...

The hard stuff...

So that they can see what they never believed they could see.

And honestly, it's not fun!

As I was pushing, pulling, and dragging my daughter up the mountain I wanted to quit too!

I didn't want to keep going.

But I knew if we could just make it to the top everything would change.

And it did.

And whatever challenge you're facing or that you're leading someone else to face.

Just know that it's worth it.

When they catch sight of the view from the top they'll change.

After our adventure on the mountain we sat around the dinner table (sore and tired) and recapped the days events.

I told my daughter, "I'm so proud of you for getting to the top! Now that you've done that you'll always know what you're capable of. Doing hard things and pushing through, helps us understand what we're capable of."

It works the same with every "mountain" in life.

But our job as leaders is to scale the heights and lead others to do the same.

So they can get a view of what God has in store!

Keep climbing mountains,

Pastor Jake

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