Me? A Leader?

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.

1 Peter 4:10

Many years ago I thought that being a leader was only for those who had gone to years of seminary or Bible school or had lived long, saintly lives. When I was 24 I was asked to be an Assistant Sunday School Superintendent. I thought the man who asked me must be mistaken or thought he was talking to someone else. I had little training, no degrees, and at 24 hadn’t lived a very long or saintly life. Joel, who turned out to be one of my life mentors, told me two things. The first thing he told me was that leadership was a gift from God and the second thing was that if I would make myself available to God, my Heavenly Father would do the rest.
Wikipedia defines "leadership" organizationally and narrowly as "the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members.” Leadership is the ability of an individual to set rules for others and lead from the front. It is an attitude that influences the environment around us. Those who are leaders in a church community are not bound by this narrow way of looking at leadership. We have the benefit of Scripture and the example of Jesus to help us on our quest of being effective leaders in the body of Christ.

In the book, “Lead Like Jesus” Ken Blanchard notes that before we can be effective leaders for Christ, we need to ask ourselves two questions, “Whose are we?” and “Who are we?” The idea behind the question “Whose are we?” is to discover, who is our primary authority, who is our primary audience? If we define our success by power, position, performance and the opinions of others we miss the point. Scripture teaches that effective leadership has its roots in pleasing God. If our goal is to please God then our attitudes and how we serve those we lead will be encouraging and effective. The second question, “Who am I?” also includes the question, “Why am I here?” Jesus knew what His Father wanted Him to do and walked out that ministry. True success is the fulfillment of the life mission God has planned for all of us. Success in life depends on the relationship we have with Christ and what level of control we will let Him have in our lives.

We have an opportunity to discover how to be effective leaders at Washington Cathedral next Saturday, September 29th at the “Leading Like Jesus”- Leadership Conference. Bill and Elaine Brammer, as the Directors of our Small Groups Ministry, have done an incredible job of putting together a great event. Pastor Tim will share his vision for this next year. I strongly encourage you, if you are already a leader or think that you are being called to leadership, to participate in this day of encouragement and learning.

By Kathi King