It is said that in a moment of emergency crisis fifteen percent of people will freeze, unable to move or think coherently. Eighty percent will flee in panic, running away from the heat of the crisis. Five percent or less will charge immediately into the crisis to help. In recent years I have read and watched video accounts of such emergency crisis moments as mass shootings, earthquakes, fires, and other tragedies. I’ve read, watched, and studied for the purpose to verify or challenge these statistics. From what I’ve been able to tell in all accounts, those percentages are very real.
Many times, those in the fifteen percent that freeze do not fare very well. They leave themselves prone to fall to the crisis or to be trampled by the eighty percent fleeing in panic. If they survive, this fifteen percent also faces harder post-traumatic syndrome aftereffects. The eighty percent that flees may not admit that they acted out of panic, but rather for safety. Yet, in most cases their flight was with no regard to others, only to get out alive with any loved ones with them.
Whether you are a leader or follower, you fit into one of these three categories. When asked almost 50% would say they would be in the five percent who would run headfirst into the challenge. Yet, reality clearly demonstrates otherwise as is revealed in the statistics. Our society is rapidly changing, new, unexpected changes come our way almost daily, especially right now in 2020. Many people are having trouble coming to grips with the fact that what was once “normal” may never be realized again. What we live in is not the old normal or a new normal as we often hear. I agree with and borrow the phraseology of Dr. Rick Lance,[i] “This is our New Reality.” Our new reality is continually changing.
To not be overwhelmed by the sweeping changes in our society one needs to be foundationally grounded. Not only in your beliefs, but also to know where you are going, why you are going there, and to move forward with a resolution. Caution: resolution does not mean without bending. Because things are changing so rapidly, we must be flexible in our approach and methodology, even in our deployment. To move forward with the resolution is to carry out the vision and mission without being led astray or distracted from the work at hand. (Read the book of Nehemiah)
What is needed today are revolutionary leaders who are not afraid to run headfirst into the crisis at hand. Not as a Kamikaze pilot on a suicidal mission, but as one leading the charge of building the kingdom of God and growing disciples of Jesus Christ. There are to be no lone ranger leaders. Contact your peers or contact someone for assistance in strategically planning for an effective ministry organization. Who is that first person you can contact today to assist you? Will you?
