Having won a silver medal in 2004 along with a silver and gold in 2008, Allyson Felix ranks among the most celebrated members of the USA’s 2012 Olympic team.
Disappointed. Confused. Hurt. That’s how we feel when a role model turns out to be unreliable. When someone we admire fails us, the painful emotions trigger questions. Should we stop looking up to the leaders around us? After all, they routinely seem to let us down. Also, should we run away from being role models ourselves? Should we warn others not to look up to us in case we mess up?
In 2007, American sprint star Marion Jones confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs while winning five medals in the 2000 Olympic games. Perhaps no one took the news harder than current Olympian Allyson Felix, whose own passion for track-and-field had been inspired by Jones’ feats. She was devastated by Jones’ admission of guilt.
Having won a silver medal in 2004 along with a silver and gold in 2008, Allyson Felix ranks among the most celebrated members of the USA’s 2012 Olympic team. Rather than shy away from the platform that comes with fame, Felix has stepped confidently onto it. She feels her position comes with the responsibility to be a positive example—a role she has embraced. As part of Project Believe, a program of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Felix submits to randomized blood and urine tests to prove that she is competing drug-free. Through her participation, Felix hopes to send a message to up-and-coming athletes that they don’t have to inject anything into their bodies to be able to perform at an elite level.
Felix also travels internationally as an Athlete Ambassador for Right to Play, a nonprofit organization seeking to empower disadvantaged children through the power of athletics. In that capacity, she has traveled to Lebanon and Palestine to inspire children to develop life skills and self-confidence by playing sports. Furthermore, Felix advises the government on opportunities to promote active, healthy lifestyles as a volunteer member of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition.
As much as she once looked up to Marion Jones, Allyson Felix’s mom and dad have always been her foremost role models.
“I admire them so much because they are real people yet they live such godly lives. They have countless responsibilities and hectic schedules, but they know what their life is all about, and they have a passion for sharing their faith and making a difference in our community.”
She credits the love and support of her parents as a major reason for her successes in life. She also caught an important lesson from them: leaders have awesome opportunities that come with tremendous responsibilities. In the words of her dad, speaking of his leadership role in the Felix family, “It is a great calling to be fathers our children can pattern themselves after.”
Leadership is inseparable from influence. We cannot live in this world without touching the lives around us—and being affected by them in return. We’re always going to influence and to be influenced. We always are role models, and we always have them. The biggest choices we will ever make, then, are how we will influence others through our roles in life and who will be the role models we allow to influence us.
John Maxwell grew up in the 1950s in the small Midwestern city of Circleville, Ohio. John's earliest childhood memory is of knowing that he would someday be a pastor. He professed faith in Christ at the age of three, and reaffirmed that commitment when he was 13. At age 17, John began preparing for the ministry. He attended Circleville Bible College, earning his bachelor's degree in 1969. In June of that same year, he married his sweetheart, Margaret, and moved to tiny Hillham, Indiana, where he began his first pastorate.
While serving in his second church, Maxwell began to study the correlation between leadership effectiveness and ministry effectiveness. On July 4, 1976, while preaching at a service commemorating America's bicentennial, John sensed that God was calling him into a ministry to pastors. Within days after that event, pastors began to contact him, asking for his assistance in nurturing their churches. Over the next four years, on an informal basis, John helped scores of fellow pastors. Then, in 1980, he was asked to become Executive Director of Evangelism for the Wesleyan denomination.
Though his time at Wesleyan headquarters was productive, John soon realized that his deeper desire was to help pastors from numerous denominations. He knew that desire would be unfulfilled if he were to stay at denominational headquarters. As a result, in 1981 John accepted the call to return to the pastorate, this time at Skyline Wesleyan Church in the San Diego, California area. But he did so with the church's blessing to pursue his vision. The Skyline congregation allowed him to continue mentoring and assisting pastors even as he led them to new levels.
In 1985, as he continued to equip and encourage other pastors, John took the next crucial step in leadership development. He founded a new company called INJOY and created the INJOY Life Club, featuring a monthly tape for leaders. The fledging operation, established in the corner of a garage, was soon bursting at the seams. The INJOY Life Club tapes were received with great enthusiasm, and the number of subscriptions quickly increased from hundreds to thousands. Simultaneously, the demand for other resources and seminars exploded. Pastors from coast to coast were responding, and their desire for help was even greater than John had anticipated.
As the years passed, INJOY began demanding more and more of John's time. In 1995, he resigned from his position as senior pastor at Skyline following a very fruitful 14-year tenure. The church had tripled in size and its lay ministry involvement had increased ten-fold. Dr. Maxwell is in great demand today as a speaker. Through his bestselling books, audio and video resources, and major conferences, he communicates directly with more than one million people every year. He is frequently asked to speak for organizations such as Promise Keepers and Focus on the Family, but his greatest joy and desire is to help pastors become better leaders.
Because the need for leadership development knows no borders, John established EQUIP, a non-profit organization which trains leaders in urban communities, academic institutions, and within international organizations. EQUIP is also spearheading a movement which has enlisted more than one million pastoral prayer partners who covenant to pray specifically for those who shepherd God's flock.
John continues to seek new opportunities to help churches and church leaders. He knows that one thing is constant: the only hope for the world is salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, who gives life abundantly.