Societal:
Leads

Let's Talk About Leading

When you hear the word "leader," what comes to mind? Maybe a title on a business card. A platform. A microphone. Someone with authority handed to them by someone else. If that's the picture, it's easy for a lot of women to quietly rule themselves out — "I'm not in charge of anything, so I guess I'm not a leader."

But that's not what leadership actually is, and it's definitely not what Scripture means by it. Leadership was never primarily about position. It's about initiative. It's what happens when a woman sees something that needs to be done — a need that needs meeting, a conversation that needs starting, a truth that needs speaking, a person who needs encouraging — and she steps toward it instead of waiting for permission or a title.

You don't need a promotion to lead. You need a willingness to go first. You lead when you're the one who speaks up in the room everyone else stayed quiet in. You lead when you invite the new woman to sit with you. You lead when you tell the truth gently instead of staying comfortably silent. You lead your children, your friendships, your workplace, your church — every single day, whether or not anyone ever calls you "the leader."

This lesson is about reclaiming that word. Because God has never been in the business of waiting for the most qualified, most credentialed, most obviously "in charge" person. He's always used the willing.

What Is Taking the Lead

Before we go further, let's get clear on what taking the lead actually means — because it's easy to picture it as something reserved for the confident, the outspoken, or the officially appointed. In its simplest form, taking the lead means being the one who moves first: the one who notices what's needed and steps toward it before waiting to be asked, appointed, or given permission.

Taking the lead isn't about being in charge of people. It's about taking ownership of a moment. It can look as small as being the one who breaks an awkward silence with kindness, or as significant as starting a ministry no one else was willing to begin. The size of the action isn't what makes it leadership — the willingness to initiate is.

It also helps to know what taking the lead is not. It isn't about control, dominance, or needing to be the one with the final say. It isn't about having all the answers before you speak, or waiting until you feel fully confident before you act. And it isn't reserved for a select few with natural charisma or an official role — it's available to any woman willing to notice a need and respond to it.

At its heart, taking the lead is simply this: seeing what could be done, and choosing to be the one who does it.

Why This Matters More Than We Think

Organizational research on leadership consistently finds that the people most trusted and most followed within teams and communities are rarely the ones with the highest formal rank — they're the people colleagues describe as reliably taking initiative on unassigned problems. Studies on workplace "extra-role behavior" (doing things beyond your job description) find it's one of the strongest predictors of who eventually gets entrusted with more responsibility — initiative tends to precede promotion, not follow it. In other words: you don't usually get the title and then start leading. You start leading, without the title, and the title tends to catch up later — or it simply becomes irrelevant, because the community already knows who actually holds things together.

There's a cost to this kind of leadership, and it's worth naming honestly: it often goes unnoticed. Nobody applauds the person who quietly handled the thing before it became a crisis. That's part of what makes it a spiritual discipline rather than a performance — you're doing it because it needs doing and because you're capable, not because you'll be seen.

What Scripture Says

Scripture is full of women — and men — who led not because they held a title, but because they were willing to step into the moment in front of them. Look at Esther. She had no army, no political office, no formal power. What she had was a decision to make:

"And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14, ESV)

Esther led an entire nation toward rescue not because she was appointed to, but because she chose to act when the moment called for it. That's the heart of biblical leadership — recognizing the moment you're in, and choosing to move.

Deborah is another example. Scripture doesn't spend paragraphs explaining how she earned her role. It simply tells us what she did:

"Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time... She used to sit under the palm of Deborah... and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment." (Judges 4:4–5, ESV)

People came to her because she was trustworthy, wise, and present — not because she campaigned for the position.

Scripture also redefines what greatness in leadership actually looks like. Jesus flips the entire cultural script:

"But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant." (Mark 10:43, ESV)

And He models it Himself:

"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve." (Mark 10:45, ESV)

This is the leadership women are called to — not leadership that demands to be noticed, but leadership that serves first and lets influence follow. Paul describes leading as one of the spiritual gifts given to ordinary believers, meant to be used with energy and care:

"The one who leads, with zeal." (Romans 12:8, ESV)

And Titus is clear that mature women are meant to actively pour into and lead the women coming after them:

"Older women likewise are to be... teaching what is good, and so train the young women." (Titus 2:3–4, ESV)

Leadership, in Scripture, was never reserved for the platform. It was handed to the willing.

What Taking the Lead Looks Like

So what does this actually look like in an ordinary week? Taking the lead isn't about becoming louder or more in charge of everyone around you. It's about becoming a woman who moves toward what needs doing instead of waiting for someone else to. Here's what it looks like when it's working well:

She speaks up instead of staying safely silent. When something needs to be said — an encouragement, a hard truth, a question no one else is asking — she's willing to be the one who says it, even if her voice shakes a little.

She serves first and lets influence follow. She's not chasing recognition. She's the one who shows up early, stays late, notices what needs doing, and does it — and people naturally begin to trust her because of it.

She initiates instead of waiting to be picked. She doesn't sit back hoping to be noticed or promoted. She starts the conversation, starts the project, starts the ministry, because she sees the need and decides she's able to help meet it.

She invests in the women coming behind her. She doesn't hoard what she's learned. She looks for a younger or newer woman to walk alongside, teach, and encourage — living out Titus 2 in ordinary, unglamorous ways.

She makes decisions instead of staying stuck in indecision. She gathers wisdom, prays, and then actually chooses — trusting that God can direct a woman who's moving, even more readily than one who's frozen waiting for certainty.

She leads her own life first. Before she ever leads a room, a team, or a ministry, she leads herself — her time, her habits, her walk with God — with the same intentionality she'd want to see in someone she follows.

This is what it looks like to be entrusted with influence the way Esther and Deborah were — not because a title was handed to them, but because they were present, willing, and ready to move when the moment called for it.

Closing Thought

You don't need a title to lead — you need a moment and the willingness to step into it. Somewhere in your life this week, there's a conversation waiting to be started, a need waiting to be noticed, a woman waiting to be encouraged, a truth waiting to be spoken. That's your invitation. God has never required a résumé before He uses someone; He's only ever asked for willingness. So don't wait to be picked, promoted, or given permission. Look at what's in front of you, take a breath, and step toward it. That's what leading actually looks like — and you were built for it.