First of course, is having Godly character. Being a Godly person doesn’t make you a leader, but it precludes you from being one. You can cover it up for awhile, but eventually your character will come out. If you don’t have the right character, the rest of it is pointless in Christian leadership circles. This is critical in the world we live because they’ve seen a lot of pride and arrogance, when what they need to see authenticity and humility. John the Baptist said: “He must increase; I must decrease" (John 3:30). They need to see more of Christ and less of me. That’s a character issue.
A great Christian leader has to know where he and his church are going. That's vision and process. Almost every great pastor has two churches in his mind ... the one he leads now and the one it can become. What do you want you church to be five years from now? Ten years? If the gap between those two is too narrow, you’re in trouble and you’re coasting and already on your way down. There has to be a gap. But if the gap is too big, then there’s frustration. It’s like the team that has never won a game, but this year their dream is to win the state championship. Maybe they should concentrate on winning six games this year rather than deal frustration to their team. Vision involves believing God wants to do something great through you ... that God can use us with all our flaws - complexities - limitations - and still do something good. It is dreaming about the future - it’s what wakes you up in the middle of the night.
A great Christian leader has followers - that's influence. If a person says, "I'm a leader!" but turns around and no one is following, as John Maxwell says, "He's simply taking a walk." It is wonderful when the people believe in the leader, but it is more wonderful if the leader believes in the people. Influence includes having relationships, motivating and empowering others, building a guiding coalition and mentoring.
A great Christian leader has to have all three qualities - not just two-of-three. You have a leader with good character -- people enjoy being with them -- but they don’t know where they’re going. Another leader has great character and they know where they’re going -- but their own mother doesn’t want to be around them. They have the human relation skills of a porcupine. But the most dangerous two-out-of-three leader is the leader who has relational abilities as well as vision, but lacks character.
May God help us get ahold of and keep all three.
And be blessed.
2 comments:
If those are the three characteristics of a great leader, then I think you are safely covered. You have great character, your relational abilities are good and you are key to the vision of KFA.
Personally, I think there is a little more to being a leader than those three, but I am sure you already know that. I assume that is a nutshell of it all. I just know the qualities that draw me to a leader, in any arena. You have most all of the qualities I look for....the very biggest being character and values. You have that in spades.
I agree there is more to being a leader than just those three things -- other things are certainly 'value added' elements to good leadership - but you CAN'T be a good leader without those three things.
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