Moving Fast and Losing Ground
The resistance doesn’t need to stop you — just disconnect you
You’ve been getting things done. A lot of things. So why does it feel like you’re falling behind?
Don’t Skip This
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” — 1 Corinthians 3:6-7
“From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” — Ephesians 4:16
Here’s the Thing
There’s a version of productivity that looks like leadership but isn’t. You’re moving. You’re executing. The calendar is full and the to-do list is getting done. But somewhere underneath all that motion, something is quietly draining out.
The connection. To God. To your people.
To the thing that actually makes growth possible.
Paul knew this. He’d planted churches, logged miles, taken beatings, written letters. Nobody outworked Paul. But he never confused his output with God’s work. He planted. Apollos watered. And then — only then — God gave the growth. The increase was never Paul’s to manufacture. It was God’s to give.
Growing alone is not the same as growing together.
Fast is not the same as fruitful.
You can move at full speed and still be losing ground — if what you’re losing is the connectedness that God designed to carry the growth.
Ephesians 4 is precise about this. The body grows when it is joined and held together — every supporting ligament doing its part. The Greek word is synarmologeo. Fitted. Framed. Locked in at the joints.
Growth happens at the connection points. Not at the top. Not through one gifted leader running hard and alone. At the joints. Where the team is truly knit together.
The Hidden Cost
Speed has a cost nobody puts on the budget. When you move too fast, the first thing that erodes isn’t performance — it’s relationship. The check-ins get shorter. The real conversations get pushed. The team starts running in parallel instead of together.
And the resistance knows this. Busyness isn’t just exhausting — it’s strategic. Keep the leader moving fast enough and alone long enough, and the joints start to loosen. The ligaments strain. Growth stalls — not because the mission changed, but because the connectedness that carries it quietly gave way.
This is the hidden cost of running fast. Not burnout — though that comes too. It’s disconnection. From God, who is the source. From your team, who are the joints. From the rich, living connectedness that Paul says is where the growth actually lives.
Your job isn’t to produce the growth. Your job is to preserve and safeguard the connection that makes growth possible. Stay tethered to God. Stay knit to your people. Protect the joints. Everything else — the fruit, the increase, the breakthrough — that belongs to him.
This Week’s Practice
Before you open your task list today, ask one question:
What connection have I been too busy to tend?
God. A team member. A relationship that holds something important together. Name it. Then protect it like it matters — because according to Paul, it’s exactly where the growth happens.
You are not the source of growth. You are a ligament. Stay connected. God will do the rest.
Three Questions to Sit With
1. Where has your pace been working against your connectedness — to God, to your team, or to both? What has speed quietly cost you in the last 30 days?
2. Which ligament in your team feels strained right now? Which relationship has been running on fumes because there hasn’t been time to tend it?
3. If God — not you — is the one who gives the growth, what would it look like to lead from connection this week instead of from output?
Dave Sena is an ordained minister and the founder of Bold Leading. After 25+ years leading and consulting with nonprofit organizations, his mission is simple: help Gospel-centered leaders build the teams and systems they need to serve with excellence — without burning out.
Learn more at BoldLeading.com — or reach out directly at dave@boldleading.com.