Last Thursday night was an interesting night in the political scene. Much to my surprise, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee were winners in the Iowa Presidential caucuses. I expected, based on the organizational power and the so called “ground game” for Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton to win.

The power of a candidate’s organization and turn out the vote machinery are what usually drives winning primaries, but seemingly not so this year.  (at least not yet)

There are a number of themes and ideas as to why this happened, but here is one idea I did not hear a whole bunch on the news last week was this…passion.

Simply put, the voters for Oboma and Huckabee were passionate about their guy and that passion carried them to victories.

Why so I mention this on SmartPastor.com? Because I think that passion is an underrated factor in the effectiveness of our leadership. We talk a great deal about the systems and structures in our churches. We talk a great deal about having right strategy and methods. I think those are important issues and need to be considered quite carefully, but passion is also important to the growth and effectiveness of our ministries.

So how do we create passion in the ministries we lead? A few ideas…

BE PASSIONATE – When we have energy that energy will rub off onto others.  While Huckabee always seemed to have energy and Obama has seemed to his his stride this winder on the campaign trail.  Passion is contagious.

BE CLEAR – It was easy to get excited about both Obama and Huckabee because you knew what they stood for.  Huckabee was Christian Leadership and Obama was the change candidate.  When clarity exists, it is easy to follow with energy.

BE FUN – Huckabee is funny on the stump and in interviews.  Obama seems like he loves what he does.  It is easy to get excited about voting for people like that.  As pastors, we need to smile, be quick with a funny story, and have a playful attitude.

What will happen tomorrow night in New Hampshire? It is hard to say, but at least on one night in Iowa it seems that passion was a part of what created a night to remember for Huckabee in Obama.

Passion is important and we can help create it.