The Influence on Leadership

Transcript:

Pastor Priji: We would love to get you to know better. Briefly, could you share a little bit about yourself?

Cindrella: I am actually a PR professional. I have been in the business of communications for close to 15 years now. I am also a singer/songwriter. I have been writing gospel music for a while now. I go to New City Church Pastored by Anand Mahadevan. I have been married to Asher for about 5 years now. He is a musician as well. I am born to parents who are converts and of very vibrant faith. If I could describe my personal relationship with God in one sentence it could be “If grace is an ocean, I am sinking.” My relationship with God has been one that has grown from strength to strength through failures and accomplishments.

Pastor Priji: You have been somebody who has always influenced people around you. How has your relationship with God helped you to serve people in a better manner?

Cindrella: My relationship with God has impacted the way I love people tremendously. Pastor Anand always says that when we are in a thriving relationship with Jesus everything else that we do or say is an outflow of that, and I have really believed that to be true. Even when we are in a dry patch, God is still holding us together, and He is still transforming us. That is one reality of a thriving relationship with God.

Pastor Priji: How it is important for us to keep going back to God even we have growth and momentum in our leadership with people?

Cindrella: I think the older we grow, the more of us know how to fake it till we make it. It is very dangerous. Self-reliance is my idol/sin pattern in life. I rather do things on my own than really seek God and his leadership first. After having been a follower of Jesus for as many years as I have, this is still a daily struggle, and I still have to pray pretty much daily for God to help me to make Him my first resort rather than my last. Self-dependence or self-thriving is an idol. God dependence on the other hand is infinitely more joyful and stress-free. Just knowing our sin pattern in itself is the grace of God and leading to a moment of repentance is that of a Holy Spirit-filled moment.

Pastor Priji: How important for us to be accountable for our leadership?

Cindrella: Accountability is extremely important to allow our hearts and our souls to be surrounded by people who are truth-tellers in our life. They say that because they love us so much. Accountability can be a very scary word, but I believe that nothing can hold us to a higher standard of accountability when we surround ourselves with that love language because it is so easy to get carried away by being insensitive and unempathetic.

Pastor Priji: Who are the people that have influenced you the most and who have been some of the truth-tellers in your life?

Cindrella: My mom has influenced me a lot in my life. She passed away when I was 21, but she has had such a lasting impact on the woman that I am today or the woman that I aspire to be in a few years down the line. I have never met someone more content than my mom. She was on dialysis and had to go to the hospital 3 times a week by bus. Despite all of that, I don’t remember my mom ever complaining about it to God, and that was her heart posture.

I am deeply influenced by my father on his carefulness and his gratefulness. I don’t remember a day when I did not see my dad praying. Even today, he talks about him moving from Bangalore to Mumbai with nothing and how God blessed him. It is amazing to me how he is so filled with gratitude. It is like Apostle Paul keeps talking about the road to Damascus.

My Pastor Anand is like a father, brother, friend and I am so blessed to have found such an amazing shepherd. He never gives up on me. His ability to help people rehearse the gospel over and over again and his love and genuine care blow my mind. His wife is like a mother, sister and closest friend. She is so real and life-giving to my heart. She says so much with so few words.

My husband is someone who hid being in the limelight and loves being behind the scenes. He is extremely and instantly forgiving. His leadership style is what I love. The way he genuinely cares for people.

Pastor Priji: Would you have any word or advice especially to young leaders?

Cindrella: Don’t desire to be an influencer. Let influencing people be the outcome of our relationship with God and not the objective of our relationship with God. God does not fix the behaviour, but He is transforming the heart, and as a result of that, our outlook in life or our behaviour in life changes automatically.

Influencing even one person in my opinion is a huge deal, but first, we should deep dive into a relationship with God, and out of that, let our influence flow.

The incidents and tragedies that happened in my personal life have wrestled with my faith and God in His purity, power, and grace has only helped my faith get even more refined. I think virality should be a real relationship with God and that really needs to go viral more than any of our accomplishments or beautifully constructed pictures and videos although all of that is great to watch.

Pastor Priji: What is the best way for some of our listeners to keep in touch with you?

Cindrella: I am most active on Instagram @cindrellaprakash and that will be the best way to really keep in touch with me.