Leadership kindergarten - 1

I’m starting out fresh at a new ministry job, and I’m reviewing some basics. My job description says I’m responsible for many things, but underneath the message is clear – I was hired to lead. Now, I’m not a natural leader, but I have learned how to lead, and I continue to grow.

LEADERSHIP.

What do immediately think of when I say that word? How would you define it? Who comes to your mind as an example? Who is a leader? Do you think of a politician, corporate CEO, rock star, movie star, athlete, pastor, teacher, supervisor, dad, Bible character? And when you think of that example, did they have a positive or negative impact on people?

So what is leadership? There are 1000 different definitions, but lets pick one for the sake of our conversation:

Leadership is influencing people toward a goal.

Simple, and to the point. “Influencing” means there is an energy that must be exerted by the leader, “people” means there is a group to be led, “goal” means we are going somewhere specific.

Another question. Are YOU a leader? Or do you secretly dream about being a leader? Do you think of yourself as a leader? Or do you think there is no way you could ever lead anyone?

Our culture is filled with this topic. Books are written on the topic, seminars are presented; people’s careers fly or die based on their expertise in this topic. We cheer leaders on in the public eye and watch in fascination as they often times crumble and crash in scandal.

Leadership is important: in business, in education, in the social sectors, in the arts, in government – and in the church.

We need strong leadership in God’s church, to extend His kingdom. But it looks different in the church than in those other arenas. Some similarities, but the heart of leadership is different in God’s kingdom.

What we want to talk about is “spiritual leadership.” Spiritual leadership recognizes that true leadership comes from God and exists as apart of God’s kingdom.

God is a leader. The Father supervises the entire universe, Jesus is the king and ruler of His church, and the Spirit leads the life of every Christian.

So our goal is to learn spiritual leadership from God Himself – and then practice it in the church, in our families, in business, education, government, anywhere it is needed.

Let’s define spiritual leadership more specifically in 3 parts:

• God leads me.
• I lead me.
• I lead others.

[To be continued…]