As you read Danny Morris’s spiritual leadership biography, you can notice the five stages of leadership growth. By noting the key factors that help Danny reach this advanced stage of leadership development, you can look for, pray for and locate the same kind of resources that came his way.  For example, a friend he makes in seminary later becomes a key mentor for him as he moves to the center of his denomination’s ministry.  Key leaders in the congregations he pastors open his eyes to fresh and challenging opportunities for ministry.   Where some pastors feel threatened in such circumstances, Danny takes it to prayer and accepts the risk of moving forward in new ways.  Taking calculated risks keeps a leader growing.

Look to see how God divinely worked in Danny Morris’s life.  It is possible to see how the love of God is revealed through the lessons that are taught in real life experiences.  When Danny is faced with the early death of his father, he must wrestle with feelings of being betrayed by God.  Later, through what can be called a “divine appointment,” a family friend spontaneously says just the right thing to help Danny resolve this inner crisis. 

Note your own lessons that have come through persons and events in your life since you were born.  Patterns can be seen which reveal how you are most successful and where you are likely to get sidetracked.  Through humble recognition of these truths, you can make new and fresh choices in the future.

The first stage of Danny’s spiritual leadership development includes that portion of his life when he is growing up within the family.   We don’t often think about our early childhood and adolescence as preparation for spiritual leader-ship, but the foundation is being laid.   Parents and grandparents, teachers and peers all influence our identity and understanding of relationships.  Crisis events try our mental and emotional strength wounding or strengthening us depending on the support systems at work in our environment.  The time in history during which we are living and the geographical area in which we grow up all contribute to the kind of leader we will become.

This first period of leadership development instills basic skills and values that affect how large an area of influence a leader will have later in life.  In Danny’s case, he is born in the South during the depression, but grows up in the most prosperous period of United States history.  His grandfather had a sense of destiny for the child and instilled in Danny a growing awareness that he was going to be used in a special way to accomplish things for God. It is during this period that Danny develops the skill of using humor.  He also responds to God’s call to put his life in Christ’s hands.  The most significant event in this stage of leadership growth is the death of his father, an experience of brokenness.  History shows that all real leaders “walk with a limp,” and that brokenness moves a leader toward total dependence on God.  Another key event occurs when Danny discovers the truth of his father’s past.  With Danny’s inclination to focus on the positive, becoming aware of “the shadow” in his family and integrating it into his worldview brings an important balance for wholeness.  Without this balance, a leader can become self-righteous and independent of God.

The second stage begins with Danny leaving home for college and his early ministry years.   At this stage of development, most of what is happening does more to shape the leader than the followers.  This is the time in a leader’s life when his or her integrity is tested.  Will the leader live out of the values that s/he holds dear or let the end’s justify the means?  All kinds of ministry challenges stretch a leader as they attempt new tasks and learn new skills.  Educational experiences and the development of friends in seminary lay the foundation for future ministry success.  In this second stage of a leader’s growth, he or she is “learning the ropes,” discovering their gifts, strengths and weaknesses. 

As a part-time pastor in training while in seminary, Danny is affirmed in his loyalty, cooperativeness, use of gifts, initiative and promise of further usefulness.  A leader who is faithful in the small things is given larger tasks to accomplish.  During this ministry task, Danny is tested for his faithfulness and responsiveness to God and others since the pastoral assignment has closure, accountability and evaluation.  Danny learns the value of having support while in ministry as his mother stands by him, and helps him understand what kind of woman he needs by his side as he continues in ministry.

During the next stage, stage three, Danny’s ministry begins to mature and his influence broadens.  This stage of development moves a leader towards unrealized potential.  He goes through some hard times and comes out with his first important book that extends the range of his ministry from local pastor to emerging national leader.  This period refines and focuses his gifts, calling and strengths.   It is a time that expands a leader’s ministry as well as the leader him/herself.  Expansion occurs through stressful, intensive growth experiences.

Danny experiences further brokenness through an experience of burnout.  It is through reflection and renewal that his prayer life and ministry life deepen dramatically.  He finds within himself a growing sense of the need to meet God in prayer, a desperate sense of need for God to work, and he sees God’s affirmation in the good results that follow—his increased sense of spiritual vitality and welcome renewal in the congregation.  In this third stage of Danny’s leadership development, a “paradigm shift” occurs.   God uses a member of Danny’s congregation to inspire a program of renewal.  This impresses on Danny a major new perspective as he senses God’s presence working in him.  Significant acts, people and providential circumstances with the right timing confirm and focus Danny’s call to ministry—renewal in the church through putting God first.  Another significant occurrence in this stage is Danny’s experience of networking.  God connects him to key mentors and significant people who open doors for him to accomplish his goals.  Danny, already very relational, learns just how important relationships with other leaders are and how God touches his life through networks of people.  The third most important event in this stage for Danny is his discovery of a gift to influence others through writing.  This increases his scope of influence beyond the local church and gives momentum to his ministry.  Leaders who avoid the risk and work of new challenges often plateau in their ministry life.  We see Danny doing just the opposite and new doors continue to open. 

A major transition occurs between leadership stages, and a very noticeable one occurs before Danny enters stage four—mature ministry.  He is invited to consider leaving the pastorate and moving to a denominational position at Methodist headquarters.   Because he lives his life around the central value of putting God first, he and his wife, Rosalie, take a lengthy period of time to discern God’s will.  Because of a good 20 years of ministry experience and personal relationship to God, patterns have begun to emerge which can help Danny determine what direction to go.  Because God has used networking and key people to move him along in ministry throughout earlier stages, he can see the same occurring at this time.  Understanding patterns of how God works in our lives through transitions can give form and substance to the usual confusion one normally experiences in transition.

The fourth stage of spiritual leadership development brings three important factors together: a ministry role which uses the leader’s developed spiritual gifts; a ministry role which allows an ideal scope and depth of influence over a large geographic area, sometimes worldwide; and a ministry role which utilizes appropriate power to accomplish the ministry.   It becomes obvious that, in order for a leader to reach full potential, the right role is essential.  Many times the leader has to create or negotiate this role because a “tailor-made” role for each leader is rare.  Danny instinctively knew he needed to create his role from the time he arrives in Nashville—Methodist headquarters.  This instinct can be seen as God-inspired plus good common sense.   He is fortunate enough to be allowed a good deal of freedom to define his new role.

In this stage, often called convergence, a geographical move is called for which often signals the beginning of a new stage in ministry.  Danny faces heart problems and has to deal with the reality of life and death.  Crises like these put a leader under intense pressure in human affairs, and one searches out the meaning and purpose of life, experiencing God in new ways as the source, sustainer, and focus of life.  This drives one to deeper dependence on God, and helps a leader see that relationship is more important than any of life’s attainments.  Danny experiences a “dark night of the spirit.”  He has to let go of everything except his deep faith in God’s existence.  He experiences a miraculous answer to prayer for healing.   He faces another deep brokenness event when, through a major car accident and resulting physical limitations, he must shift his work role and ministry.  For a time, he must live with isolation, a condition that causes his faith and experience of God to deepen tremendously.  These experiences of isolation in leadership can be the very thing for a spiritual deepening, as busyness in ministry does not generally allow for large periods of time to reflect, pray and simply “be.”

The final stage of a leader’s life is called “afterglow,” and follows retirement from formal ministry.  This stage is reached by very few.  Danny Morris has just reached this stage.   If he follows the pattern of leaders in general who have finished well, he will continue to exert influence through the relationships he has formed over a lifetime.  Others will seek him out because of his knowledge, wisdom and experience, both in ministry and in knowing God.  His spiritual life will deepen even further.  This is a time Danny can allow a lifetime of ministry to reflect the glory of God and honor God’s faithfulness.