Why Great Leaders Never Trade Community for Opportunity
The Hidden Cost of Saying Yes When It Pulls You Out of What's Most Important
You don’t have to look far to find a leader caught in the trap of trading community for opportunity.
Scroll through your feed and it won’t take long before you land on someone chasing a brand new opportunity and showing all the outward signs of success driven by a new venture.
Bigger crowds, more opportunity, more recognition. But behind the scenes, too many of these “fast risers” are quietly unraveling. Families are strained. Purpose becomes blurred. Service to church is sacrificed. Peace almost instantaneously evaporates.
And it usually started with the WRONG yes.
Not a morally wrong yes. Not even a reckless or rebellious yes. Just a “good” yes that looked like growth but slowly pulled them away from the very community that formed them.
It’s a leadership tension we all face especially when our gifting is strong and recognized. The temptation to chase opportunity at the expense of community doesn’t knock once. It keeps knocking louder and louder, over and over. But the greatest threat to your leadership usually isn’t disobedience. It’s distraction.
If the enemy can’t take you out with sin, he’ll try to wear you down with options.
The Tension Between Remaining Rooted and Expanding Reach
We live in a culture that equates visibility with value. If it gets views, clients or engagements…it must be working. If people are following and things are growing, it must be right. But not every open door is an assignment from God. Some are just distractions that dress like opportunity.
This is the moment where Christians must pause and move beyond the question of “Is this opportunity good?” and start asking “Is this opportunity mine?”
This isn’t a new tension. Jesus faced it constantly. But what He modeled in the face of fame and pressure teaches us a lot about how to lead with clarity and conviction.
Let’s study the book of Luke in this essay.
“At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, ‘I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.’”
— Luke 4:42-43 (NIV)
Before we move further, we need to sit with this passage. Jesus had momentum. He had an audience that didn’t want Him to leave. People were begging Him to stay. But He knew His assignment and, more importantly, His identity.
Jesus Didn’t Confuse Opportunity for Assignment
Here’s what’s wild to me: Jesus could have done more miracles right there. He could have built a larger following, attracted more attention, and said yes to what everyone else wanted.
But it would have pulled him out of what mattered most. So…he didn’t.
Because Jesus didn’t confuse the urgency of people with the clarity of His purpose. He chose obedience over opportunity and never allowed what was new and excited to pull him out of what was most important.
That’s a leadership lesson for every high-capacity Christian reading this: just because people are pulling on you doesn’t mean God is calling you to it.
We can never allow the demand of the crowd to determine the direction of your calling.
And in case it needs to be said…Jesus didn’t say yes to more ministry. He said yes to His assignment.
That distinction matters.
The Risk of Disconnecting from your Community
When leaders stretch for opportunity without being anchored in community, three things always happen:
Accountability decreases – There’s no one close enough to say, “Hey… you don’t seem well.”
Perspective distorts – Without community, you start believing your own highlight reel.
Mission drifts – You do more, but accomplish less of what actually matters.
We see Jesus protect against these things in Luke 4. Jesus models something radical for every modern leader: the willingness to walk away from an opportunity when it’s not aligned with your assignment.
He didn’t chase the opportunities that wanted Him. He stayed rooted to where he was called to be because He was clear on why He was sent.
If Jesus made decisions through that lens, what makes us think we can afford to operate any differently?
Deep roots in a community are what allow you to weather storms and sustain health. Without them, all growth is superficial and temporary.
And when opportunity comes knocking, roots are what remind you of your non-negotiables. They’re what give you the courage to say no when the world wants a yes.
A leader disconnected from community might gain opportunities, but they’ll lose formation. And without formation, every platform becomes fragile.
Let me make it plain: opportunity can never replace the covering, counsel, and correction that come from being planted.
Luke 4 doesn’t just show Jesus walking away. It shows us a pattern. Before the pressure came, He withdrew. Before the decision was made, He got alone. That was wisdom.
Protect Your Roots as You Grow
If you’re stepping into more influence or opportunity, don’t lose the habits that got you there. Many of the greatest opportunities we receive are born out of obedience to where God calls us first.
Protect your pace. Guard your rhythms. Prioritize the people who know you without the titles.
Here are four things we should do as leaders to help stay grounded while growing:
1. Set Community Anchors
Decide now what roles, rhythms, service and relationships are non-negotiable. Don’t let momentum or opportunity move your boundaries.
2. Build in Honest Counsel
Surround yourself with people who care more about your soul than your stats. Their feedback is worth more than public affirmation. Get yourself around people who will champion your goals, but ensure you remain rooted in health and service.
3. Filter Decisions Through Calling
When new opportunities come, ask: does this align with my calling or with my own desires? Does this keep me rooted or pull me away? This question alone can eliminate a lot of the distractions that the enemy will use to get you out of what God’s trying to do in your life.
4. Practice Returning
No matter how wide your influence grows and not matter how far your opportunities take you, find a way to come back to your community. To serve. To receive. To be poured into.
When Jesus returned to His place of solitude, He wasn’t escaping the people as much as He was anchoring Himself in the Father. That’s how He stayed grounded in the swirl of opportunity.
When your leadership is rooted, your reach becomes healthy. And when your decisions are filtered through clarity, your impact multiplies.
But if you don’t protect your community roots, your platform will eventually expose what your private world can’t sustain.
Luke 4 is a masterclass in restraint. Jesus had nothing to prove and no platform to chase. He had clarity. That’s what great leaders still need today.
And if we’re going to lead with sustainability in mind, this is a truth that we need to allow to settle deep into our heart:
Your calling was never meant to take you away from your community. It was designed to grow from it.
So before you say yes to that next big opportunity, ask yourself: What does this yes pull me away from.
And if the answer is your community or service to God’s house, make sure you think long and hard before stepping away what God calls all of us to be a part of.
Because great leaders don’t just grow. They grow from the right soil.
— Jared