How do you lead?

What is leadership?
What is good leadership?
How is my leadership?

LEADERS MUST UNDERSTAND WHAT LEADERSHIP IS.
Colossians 3:12  
‘Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

 Nicky Gumble says  “Leadership is taking people where they want to go. Good Leadership takes people to a place where they do not know where they should be but taking them there.”

Leadership is the act of influencing/serving others out of Christ's interest in their lives so they accomplish God's purposes in for and through them.

Never judge someone without knowing the whole story, you may think you understand but you may not.

As a teenager I was rebellious, I came from a line of rebellious men whose hearts were not towards God but very much distant from Him. I had a negative style of leadership, I could lead people but towards the negative rather than a positive goal.

My heart was not right. I had influemce over my peers but I led people towards war not peace.

The KJV Bible mentions the heart 833 times. What is going on within us is far more important that what is going on externally.  You might present very well to those around you but who are you kidding?

In Matthew 23 Jesus is speaking to the religious whose hearts have been overtaken with the power of their position. Rather than correcting their hearts before God they present well to the world but it a sham.

v23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practised the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. 25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”

Colossians 3:12 ‘Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.’

Influence comes from serving by Instructing, Encouraging, Evaluating, Confronting, Training, Releasing,
Influence does not come by
Overbearing, Criticising,   Manipulating,   Threatening, Competing, Controlling.

Jesus said “If you love me you will obey my Commandments”—a radical commitment to Christ in every Christians life that propels them to act in love with truth no matter what it costs that leader

 Matthew 20:26–27  “Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—“
John 13:16 -16 “Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him”. ; Phil. 2:5-11  “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;  rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”

Love has to be your primary motivation to lead, everything else must be secondary, your God given gifts abilities will amount to nothing if your heart is not right.
As leaders our focus is first on God and His purposes for our lives and for those following us.
God’s purpose in using you is to equip and mature those you are leading them into Christ-likeness, and the leaders prime instrument in guiding the followers to become more and more like Christ in their own relationship with God. If you are not living right yourself how can you lead others into anything other than your own hang ups and sins, if there are unresolved issues within us, we will pass them on to others around us.
God’s purpose through the followers is to participate with Him in accomplishing the Great Commission in accordance with their gifts and opportunities.
The leader focuses on both the functional and the foundational in the followers’ lives.
It refers to the followers’ competencies.
The foundational refers to the followers’ character, the core essence of their being on which all they do rests.

The foundational determines how well the leader and the followers function.

Influence comes from serving by Instructing, Encouraging, Evaluating, Confronting, Training, Releasing.Influence does not come by Overbearing, Criticising, Manipulating, Threatening, Competing, Controlling

Blessings. Ray

How do you steer: by the stars or the wake?

How do you steer: by the stars or the wake? A ship`s captain does not lean over the stern of his ship and set his course by looking at the wake; he stands on the bridge and sets his route by the stars; to do anything else would court disaster. God has a plan and purpose for our lives, which are not discerned by looking to our past, however bad or good. Our job is to look up and to trust and obey him. Does anyone love us more than our heavenly father? Is anyone wiser, or more knowledgeable, or more powerful than the creator of the heavens and the earth? It is, therefore, plain daft to rely on our understanding and to do anything other than to trust and obey him.
Ron.

Blessings,

-More people trust Google than God!

 

-More people trust Google than God!  So found one recent survey. “I saw that. I was very grumpy about it. Google always gives me the wrong answer. They`re out to make money out of us” said Archbishop Justin Welby when this finding was put to him in an interview. But surely the finding is unsurprising. People have always tried to make a god in their own image. At one time people made idols. More recently it was a “Pik `n` Mix” god, now it`s cut and paste: only technology has changed not the human heart. When God made his masterpiece-us before we turned against him and went our own way- he made us in his image. God`s intention was that we should be like him. A likeness that includes being morally aware, able to communicate and free to choose. But we chose to ruin it. However God did not leave us to stew in our own juice, instead he sent his only son Jesus who is “the exact representation of his being” and ”the image of the invisible God”. Jesus said he was the way, the truth and the life; a claim God validated when he raised Jesus bodily from the dead. Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our wrong doing. If we admit to God that we are in the wrong, thank Jesus for dying for us and become his disciples, then he puts his Spirit within us and begins to remake us in his image and we discover how trustworthy God is. 

Blessings,

Ron.