Volume
8 Week 45 November 10, 2002
Congregational
Seembly and Elections: November 18!
What Are The Qualities Of A Godly Christian Leader? Here's 10 To Start!
Twice each year we gather to make important congregational decisions. Monday November 18 is our next meeting. On the agenda are important matters, but none more important than the election of half of our Board of Directors. Today I want to share with you some of the important qualities of Christian leaders. Please read through the whole Page today. I hope you’ll find a surprise ending!
Here are some of the important characteristics we look for in Christian leaders.
Faith!
Of course, this means more than anything else, a vital and life-shaping grace relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Christian leaders must be passionate about the gift of salvation God has offered in Jesus, and convinced that this relationship is God’s will for every person, and that our mission for our community is to share that saving love.
But faith also means that Christian leaders know by faith that God is alive, and active and moving in our midst. Christian leaders know that God has plans and believe with absolute certainty that God is leading our church forward in his mission. They look for God’s hand in everything we do and are anxiously awaiting his next miraculous work among us. Christian leaders see God at work.
Leadership
Leadership is the ability given by God to build in other people a willingness and ability to move forward into new activities for the sake of God’s kingdom purposes. Behind every ministry that God establishes is a person or a team that were able to rally others toward the cause.
Love
The heart of the biblical message is the love of God for his fallen children, the human race. Christian leaders share that love for people. they know and understand that when the Lord returns, the only things he’s coming to get are the people. “God so loved the world…” refers to the people. It’s all about people. The Church is people. the mission is people. Love drives us to do anything and everything for the sake of the people.
Character
Certainly in national politics we’ve learned that character is essential in our leaders. How much more so in the Church? Christian leaders are by no means perfect. They are sinners and saints, redeemed by the blood of Christ. However, suspect or damaged character can disqualify a person from a position of leadership. Christian leaders work from the foundation of their reputation for honesty, trustworthiness and integrity.
Humility
The first sign that a person may be qualified for Christian leadership is a feeling that he or she is unqualified for Christian leadership! Leaders in the family of God always have a sense of being in over their heads, a sense of unworthiness for their calling. Ironically, these people make the best leaders, because they become totally dependent on God and his strength, wisdom and guidance. Leaders who think they know it all always run into trouble.
Followership
In the Church, leadership is always teamwork. Part of Christian leadership is knowing how to submit to the authority of another person or the whole group for the sake of the mission. Christian leaders are team players and understand that God gives his wisdom to the whole group, more often than not. They know how to defer to the insights and leading of others for the sake of the mission and recognize that rarely does one person have all the answers.
Servanthood
Jesus taught that worldly leadership is self-seeking, looking to gain whatever personal advantage there is to be acquired through power and influence. Christian leadership is the willingness to sacrifice and to go without, to become the servant of others. This is one of those unique twists of the Gospel in the kingdom of God, that the higher up the ladder of leadership one goes, the greater the cost and sacrifice and the less freedom there is to be enjoyed.
Joy
An important sign that a person’s Christian service is blessed by God and pleasing to him is joy. While it’s true that Christian leaders may experience times of discouragement and frustration (see Jeremiah or any of the prophets!), all in all, Christian leadership is a joyful, rewarding experience. The great privilege of being an instrument of the Lord in pursuing the mission always brings deep seating and heart felt joy, even when there is great cost and sacrifice.
Maturity
Maturity is being both willing and able to do the right thing at the right time and in the right way. I know very few mature Christians. I do not consider myself mature, but I believe that I am maturing.
And I believe that God is looking for Christian leaders who are in the process of maturing and are mature enough to know what to do and to know how to do it a great majority of the time.
And while there are many more qualities of a Christian leader that could be mentioned, there is one more characteristic on my list for today, and it is certainly not the least important.
Vision
Christian leaders believe that our best days as the people of God in mission are still to come. They celebrate the past miraculous deeds of the Lord in our midst, but are certain that God who has done so much is limitless in his capacity to bless the efforts of his people. Vision is what moves Christian leaders forward in mission, fully expecting that God will work wonders. And vision is what gives a glimpse of what God has in store.
Christian leaders remember that God did not call Abraham or Moses or David or the Apostles to go back to where they had been, to work toward entrenchment in the ways of the past. God calls leaders to take new territory, to do things the world has not seen before, right in their own neighborhoods.
Surprise
I hope you noticed that with very few exceptions, this list of characteristics applies to all Christians. You are called to be a leader wherever you are, at home, at work, in school or in your community. God is at work transforming you into the kind of servant I’ve described above. He has plans for you.
Now not everyone is called to a life of Christian service through a ministry career (although I expect that more are called than realize it!), and not all are called to positions of congregational leadership. But all are called to influence their world for Jesus through the use of the traits I’ve listed today.
So, pray for the Lord of the Church to raise up for our congregation strong leaders.
And pray that he would build in you all the qualities you need to offer back to him in loving service that others might know of his wonderful saving love!
See you on the 18th!