Spiritual Leadership - Chapter 9 - More Essential Qualities of Leadership

I'm sorry for the late posting of this chapter. Some of you are aware that I am a professional wrestler. I suffered a mild concussion inside the ring this past Friday night. I will survive.

Humor

Our sense of humor is a gift from God in which we need to have the ability to control it in a clean manner. As anyone who enjoys a good joke, humor can lighten the mood in a tough situation. Many use humor as a coping behavior when dealing with loss or struggle. It brings a sense of being normal. I was thinking about my previous statement and joked that at least the guy that gave me the concussion was not the size of a truck. I was always taught to make light of the situation no matter how bad the situation. It always seems to help.

Anger

This is the most common quality that we are born with. The trick is to control it. Even Jesus got angry when he found merchants selling in the temple (Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-18, Luke 19:45-46 and John 2:13-17). The only difference between what we perceive as anger and what Jesus demonstrated was out of love. His anger most definitely got their attention. Anger should never be used to dishonor God.

Patience

I have always heard that patience is a virtue. Most people that I know have little to no patience. Jesus's patience was epic when dealing with Doubting Thomas, Peter and Judas Iscariot. In today's world patience is mostly mute. With the technology available and fast food, everybody wants things now and gets very angry when they have to wait. Everything happens in God's time and we all need to have the faith to wait.

Friendship

The first statement of this section was striking, but true. "You can measure leader's by the number and quality of their friends." There are so many examples of leaders and friends. Paul was described as, "No man in the New Testimate made fiercer enemies than Paul, but few men in the world had better friends." Everywhere Paul went he was able to talk to and make friends with everyone he met no matter what level of society they were.

Tact and Diplomacy

Tact is the ability to deal with sensitivity without coming off as offensive. This is a hard pill to swallow with many people. It requires you to think before speaking and knowing your audience. Diplomacy is the ability to manage delicate situations. A leader needs the wisdom to be able to diffuse a situation in a way that comes out with a pleasant outcome.

Inspirational Power

This is by far the most needed quality that a spiritual leader needs to inspire others for service and sacrifice for God's works. Nehemiah was despised when he came to Jerusalem to help rebuild the wall, but the people had a mind to work (Nehemiah 4:6).

Executive Ability

A leader cannot carry out their vision without having executive ability. This is to be done in accordance with the word of God. Any misuse of this power can only mean he fall of the church is n the future. Godly ambition plays a huge role here. In the 1980's there were televangelist who seemed Godly in their ambition but their churches fell due to greed. This is not the profession if you want to get rich, unless you can accept rich with the Holy Spirit.

The Therapy of Listening

In order to get to the root of any problem, the leader needs to be a good listener. Think about how many problems could be solved if we would just take the time to listen instead of wanting to quickly skip over it so you can move on to something else.

The Art of Letter Writing

Given the time we are in now with technology playing such a pivotal role in our lives. Letter writing is starting to become a thing of the past and is being replaced with email, text messaging, video calls and whatever the latest craze is. Still there is the appreciation for a real snail mail handwritten letter. It shows the recipient a sense of caring because someone took the time to write them. We must remember that not everyone knows how to turn on a computer.

Reflection

Before reading this chapter, what roles did you think humor and anger would be associated with leadership? How do all characteristics attribute to a spiritual leader?

Humor and anger plays a huge roll in keeping your followers off balance. All the leadership characteristics when done right the spiritual leader is very effective.

Chapter 10 - Above All Else - Pre-Reading Questions

1. What leadership characteristics described in the previous weeks are in most short supply with Christians?

2. When faced with the decision to do something or go somewhere, how can the leader tell the difference between promptings from the Holy Spirit and self indulgence?