Stewardship Challenge – Week Thirteen – Leadership Part 3

Stewardship Challenge-2016
 Leadership-Part 3
 “I can do nothing on my own initiative.  As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.”

John 5:30

J.W. McLean and William Weitzel in their book, Leadership: Magic, Myth or Method, define leadership as:

• person
• Involved in a process
• Of influencing and developing a group of people
• In order to accomplish a purpose
• By means of supernatural power.
• 
  

“What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever though could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love Him” 1 Co 2:9 GNB

As we demonstrate Christian leadership we should be ready to grab hold of our future!  Christian leadership is more than a mere position or appointment. You might ask, what is the difference between Christian leadership and Christian management?   I will use the analogy of sheep and shepherds. The bible analogies of shepherds depict the shepherd walking in front of the sheep following. This is Christian Leadership. In the western world the shepherd would keep the sheep together and drive them toward their destination.  This is Management.  Christian leadership is about activating vision!!!  Christian leadership comes into play when you are the first to see a need, have a vision for addressing the need, make a decision to do something about it and finally, act upon it. What the Christian community needs is Christian leaders that can receive a vision from God and bring it to fulfillment.

There is no leadership without a group of people to influence and develop; the size of the group is immaterial.  Unless the leader takes the time to invest in the people, there will be no true leadership. Leadership is a gift that is earned over time given out of the love by the people they serve. Christian leadership is not about recognition, it is about action!
I would like to close with this prayer….

 The following prayer was first prayed by General Douglas McArthur for his son.
The words are adapted so that you can pray it for yourself.

“Build me, Oh Lord, to be strong enough to know when I am weak, and brave enough to face myself when I am afraid; let me be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

“Build me to be a person whose wishes will not take the places of deeds; let me know Thee . . . and help me realize that to know myself is the foundation stone of knowledge.”

“Build me to be a person whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high, a person who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.”

“And after all these things are mine, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that I may always be serious, yet never take myself too seriously.”

“Give me humility so that I may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom and the meekness of true strength. Then I, will dare to whisper, I have not lived in vain.”

Amen
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Leadership is about managing God’s blessings God’s way for God’s glory !!