For this months "Fresh Manna" I will be using
an article sent to me by Brian Kinsey, "Five
Marks of a Great Leader".
My new year's resolution
is to everyday:
Touch God
Touch a Project that will outlive me
Touch People
FIVE MARKS OF A GREAT LEADER
Because we are in the ministry, it is necessary to cultivate
our leadership skills. As it has been said before, you
can only minister to the number of people you are able
to lead. This involves establishing a relationship
with people -- people that will look to you for direction,
instruction and advice to help them in life.
This goes beyond the dubious privilege that ministers
have of counseling people. You can give all the counsel
in the world but if you can't influence the person to
make right choices and take right actions, you can not
change their situation one iota. So with this particular
Barnabas Letter I would like to share with you the five
marks of a great leader.
Jesus showed his wounds from Calvary as proof that he
was indeed the Messiah. The proof wasn't in his
ability to appear and diappear or in the performance
of miracles -- it was his wounds. The fact that
they existed showed he was experienced. He knew the
depths of despair, and because he was still around,
it showed. He knew the heights of victory. It's like
a man I met on an airplane the other day. The weather
was very bad and it looked like we might not even take
off. The gentleman commented when we boarded the plane
that in weather like this, you take a few moments to
notice the pilot. He said, "I don't want to get
on any plane in this kind of weather unless I can see
some lines in the pilot's forehead and some gray hairs.
I want to know that he's done this before and that this
is not his first time to fly in bad weather."
One great lesson I have learned in the ministry that
I hope you will learn as well; you don't have to be
free of trouble and problems to have revival. You can
have revival in the most difficult circumstances. If
you can learn to bear your wounds with the right spirit
and use them as experience to help others climb to higher
dimensions, then you can realize your wounds have been
inflicted for a higher purpose. And that makes
them much easier to bear.
In Eugene Peterson's translation of the Bible entitled,
"The Message", he renders Matthew 5:1 this
way, "When Jesus saw His ministry drawing huge
crowds He climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed
to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at
a quiet place - He sat down and taught his climbing
companions." That's true leadership. A story is
told of two professional guides on Mt. Everest. Because
of a freak accident one of the guides was tragically
killed. A newspaper reporter interviewed the other guide
and was asked the question, "If your friend had
not been burdened with others and had been climbing
with professionals, would this accident have occurred?"
The guide answered, "No it wouldn't have. He died
trying to take others to a higher level." What
an epitaph! That's what Jesus' leadership did. He died
to take others to a higher level. So must you!
1. Decision Making
One mark of a great leader is the ability to make decisions.
Not just any decisions but right ones. If you seek to
enhance any ability, this is the one to work on. How
many of our ministers can't seem to make decisions?
They let things go. Sometimes its wisdom not to make
hasty decisions. As a matter of fact, you should
never make a major decision when you're tired, when
you're angry, or when you're depressed. Always
pay attention to what kind of emotional state you are
in before taking major steps in life.
But as you know, some difficult decisions just can't
wait. They need to be handled. When people see that
you are not afraid to make the tough decisions, your
leadership will be enhanced and your opportunity to
lead them to the destiny you have envisioned will become
a possibility. The unfortunate thing about
decision making is that not everyone is going to like
your decision and you must be prepared to be unpopular
for a season. The good news is, you don't have
to be popular all the time to be an effective leader.
To be sure, if you become a slave to the need
for people's approval the effectiveness of your leadership
will be imprisoned. To free your potential you must
also liberate your emotional person of the need to always
be popular.
2. Problem Solving
No matter how spiritual you become you will always have
problems. Even if you are in the perfect will of God
everything will not always go as expected or anticipated.
Therefore, our only solution is to learn how to solve
problems.
People bring their own baggage, or unique set of problems,
with them to church. Some of your teaching time in the
pulpit needs to address these problems by giving bibilical
answers. A good example of that kind of preaching can
be what I call "How to" preaching.
I know as well as you do that you can get bogged down
in what some have dubbed "recipe religion."
If you mix certain ingredients, out comes success. But
I prefer to create a "covenant relationship."
To know Jesus is to know the answer to all problems.
The ultimate goal of every ministry is to introduce
people to Jesus Christ and see them bear the necessary
fruit to please Him from that connection.
Each level of growth your local assembly aspires to
and achieves demands a new wineskin of administration
to manage the higher level. This means adjustments have
to be made. In other words, revival is spelled in my
dictionary as "T R O U B L E." But it's worth
it because problem-solving enhances your leadership
in the eyes of the people.
3. Vision Casting
If you don't know where you are going, nobody else does
either. If you turn around and look behind you and nobody's
following, you are just taking a walk in the park.
It is the job of the leader to determine the direction
and set the goals for an organization. Then you have
the privilege of convincing the members of your church
or organization that your desire for them is the best
plan of action. Create a plan of action that will work
and convey your vision with the positive intention of
improving your people. If people believe that what you
present will better them, they will fight to make it
happen.
Vision is a picture held in your mind's eye
of the way things could or should be in the days ahead.
This veiw of the future uniquely belongs to us. Vision
for ministry is a reflection of what God wants to accomplish
through us to build His kingdom. It is a realistic perspective.
It is not dreaming the impossible dream, but dreaming
the most possible dream. It is not pie-in-the-sky daydreaming.
Vision entails a great depth of understanding, a detailed
knowledge of facts and potential. Vision is deeply rooted
in reality, and it stretches our abilities. Men who
seek to fulfill God's vision for their ministry are
a treasure to the church. They have captured an image
of the future, and have charted a course of action to
reach that goal. Because they know where they and the
church are headed, they are able to convert the vision
into a tangible strategy for implementation. Gone is
the drudgery of following old models, tradition, and
meaningless routine. Gone is the pressure of having
to constantly search for new means to progress, and
new gimmicks to motivate people to action. Gone are
the anxieties about having to please people. The future
belongs to the visionary because He will define the
future (Don Hanscom).
4. Victory Celebration
One thing I have seen lacking among certain
ministers in our fellowship is the ability to celebrate
their victories. How many times have I seen
men get up in the pulpit after a good service, a good
revival and berate the people because it wasn't better?
I have literally heard men get up after a good report
of 50 people receiving the Holy Ghost and chew the people
out because it wasn't 100. Admittedly, I would rather
see 100 people get the Holy Ghost than just 50. But
to demotivate the people and decimate their self-image
after a breakthrough revival doesn't make any sense
to me.
The bottom-line is - learn how to cast your vision but
remember to celebrate your victories. Make your people
feel like they have accomplished something even if it's
not all you want because the destination is never the
real object. It is the process of relationship
and people working together that generates morale and
creates momemtum. The more you celebrate the
smaller victories the more motivated your people will
be to continue the battle until you complete your goal.
5. Integrity & Credibility
Max DePree, a Chrisitian businessman, maintains that
"Integrity in all things precedes all else. The
open demonstration of integrity is essential."
Make no mistake, integrity is tough stuff. Integrity
does not take the easy way, make the easy choices, or
choose the "pleasures for a season" path.
Above all, integrity is what you are when there
isn't anyone around to check up on you; it's best demonstrated
when nobody's watching (Chuck Swindoll).
Jesus described it best when he said a man with singleness
of eye will be full of light. By narrowing your focus
on a single objective in life you shut out many of the
tempting distractions that our glitzy society will throw
at you. Nothing can take the place of having a set agenda
in your spirit and never wavering either to the left
or right, but to do what Jesus did in pursuit of the
will of the Father. He set his face like a flint. So
must you.
There is nothing more important than your relationship
with God, than your relationship with your family, and
finally, your relationship with others. Don't ever forget
to take the time to make sure these relationships are
healthy because it is only by these bonds, created in
stedfast love, that you will be able to resist the wiles
of the enemy and reach your potential as a great leader.
Sincerely,
Brian Kinsey
