Dare Great Things For Christ

Can power be a pathway to holiness?  It’s a provocative question, mostly because of the ways we view power today.  But what if I asked it differently?  What if I said, “Could leading others like a servant of Christ make you holy?”  Most of us would then say, “Absolutely.”  The way that we view leadership has a lot to do with how we exercise it.  In this second part of our series I try to unpack for us how leadership, in fact, is a practical truth.

In the myriads of articles and books written on leadership, it’s astonishing how few times truth is mentioned.  Certainly, there are many reasons for this but that fact that so many feel that truth can be omitted from a conversation on leadership only underscores its importance, especially or Christian leaders.  But for many of us the questions remain: “why is truth important?”, “does truth divide us rather than unite us?”, and if there is a truth how do we come to know it?  Welcome to the first of a series dedicated to these questions?

Reading the Gospels from the point of view of leadership offers us many wonderful insights into our own leadership.  Afterall, watching how Jesus leads is the best way to discovering what he expects from us as well.  Leadership can of course mean many different things, but when you look at how he was towards his disciples you can’t help but notice his intention to influence them as profoundly as possible.  He does this through words through teaching through example and most powerfully through his presence.

When Christians look to grow in leadership there’s no better teacher than Jesus.  Throughout the Gospel our Lord is confronted with many of the same situations we find ourselves confronted with both at work and in the family.  In many ways his world was not that different from our own.  And so watching him lead in his world can help us lead in ours.  In this fourth episode in our series, I look at how our Lord focuses in on the heart without allowing his disciples to get distracted with lesser things.

Anyone who reads the gospels can’t help but notice the way that Jesus Christ is confronted by and chooses to confront those who surround him.  His life was not easy and his public ministry was marked by confrontation.  The fact that he does not hide this from his apostles and that those confrontations play such an important role in the Gospel provides a leadership lesson for us as well.  Most of us will have to live through many confrontations and Jesus shows us how.

To lead we have to be able to bring talent forth – all great leaders have this in common.  And Jesus Christ shows us this in a very special way.  During the three years he was with his apostles he not only consoled and healed them but he also challenged them and trained them for a life of discipleship in the most challenging of circumstances.  He trained his future leaders to lead by leading them into their own greatness even when this was hard.

Those involved in leadership spend a lot of time talking about leadership in the abstract.  But Christian leadership can’t be spoken of without Christ.  Which begs the question, “How did Jesus lead?”.  While this subject is vast and can be approached from many angles perhaps the easiest way to understanding how Jesus leads is by watching how He actually led and His leadership begins with His choice of His twelve apostles.  Join us in this first of our next series, “Watching Jesus Lead – The Choice Of The Twelve”.

Any person of Christian faith who is in position of leadership will find it easy to speak about prayer.  Afterall, prayer is an essential part to the Christian life.  But it might be more challenging for us to understand its practical power.  Being men and women of action, we rely often on our own strength to make things happen.  Given that sense of responsibility what value does prayer have?  In this final talk in our seris on Joyful Leadership we explore the practical power of prayer in our lives.

It's a well-known fact that leaders in industry and society are men and women of action.  If we’re in charge, it’s to produce a result.  But living under this kind of pressure can sometimes weaken that is necessary for success.  Afterall, we didn’t get involved just to be a machine.  We got involved in order to lead and leadership is much more than just producing results.  In this seventh part of our series on Secrets To Joyful Leadership we explore the power of beauty and its capacity to motivate a joyful leader. 

Christians who are called to lead in this world have to do two things: they have to lead well and they have to lead in Christ.  Normally these two things are not exclusive but rather build on one another.  And one particular advantage to leading in Christ is the opportunity it affords us to lead in joy.  But what are the secrets to joyful leadership?  One of them is that Jesus sent us out two by two and learning how to journey with friends can be the key to our success.