Principles of Leadership, Day 21 You cannot be a servant leader if you do know know the master. Read John 13:16. The idea and principles of servant leadership are a mainstream through all leadership material. You see studies done on the importance of servant leadership and many talks and lectures and training material have been launched detailing the importance of being a servant leader. However, I would argue that it is impossible to be a servant leader if you do not truly know the Master. You cannot emulate or copy the Master if you are not familiar with the Master. Many people have tried to live live out the principles…

Principles of Leadership, Day 20 Focus on others. Read Philippians 2:3-4. We have already discussed the importance of humility for a leader, but today we’re going to look at this from the perspective of how others around us feel. Leaders who are following Godly principles put other people first. They are focused on how what they do impacts others around them. Are we lifting people up and helping them to be what God wants them to be? Are we pointing others to the one who can truly impact their lives? When we are leading others, we have a unique opportunity to impact their life in a way that no one…

Principles of Leadership, Day 19 Leading through your gifts. Read Romans 12:3-8. Today is my birthday, so it’s natural to think about gifts on today. Interestingly, God has given all of us a gift when we surrendered our lives to him. Those gifts are to be used to bring glory and honor to him. As we read through the list here of various gifts, we realize that the ability to lead is actually a gift from God. Are we using that gift to honor and glorify God? Are we diligent in leading others to Christ? God has given us gifts, how are we using them to bring glory to Him?

Principles of Leadership, Day 18 Protection and Defense. Read Acts 20:28. One aspect of leadership that we haven’t discussed yet is the responsibility of a leader to defend those that they lead. We are all going to make mistakes at some point. And we are all going to facr difficulties and opposition. As leaders, we have a responsibility to help lead people into making right choices, but also to help defend them from attack. Are we willing to stand up and shoulder the brunt of the attack on one of our team? Do we understand how to balance allowing people under us to grow and flourish while still giving them…

Principles of Leadership, Day 17 Accountability. Read Luke 11:48. Reading through this verse, and the verses around it, it becomes easy to see that people in positions of leadership and authority have an increased accountability. When God allows us to have responsibility over many things, we are more accountable then others who do not have as much responsibility. When we think about leadership, anyone in a leadership position has an additional accountability to God for how they are utilizing that position. Are we taking the opportunity do as much with and for and through that leadership opportunity as what we should? Are we truly allowing God to move and work…

Principles of Leadership, Day 16 Purpose. Read Proverbs 11:14. This proverb is in with multiple others that deal with wisdom. How can we be wise? What does being wise look like? What is the purpose for being wise. As we see here, we need wise advisers in order to be successful as a group. Trying to do things on our own, without having wise advisers, is not the best way to success. Christ has allowed some of us to be able to provide wise counsel to others. If we have that, then we are to do that for that is how we see success. We must listen to the wise…

Principles of Leadership, Day 15 How do we lead? Read Psalm 78:72. This is a single verse at the end of a pslam about the life of David. When we look back at the life of David we know that he made many mistakes and he struggled with multiple areas throughout his life, but still, the psalmist tells us that he led through two main areas: integrity and skill. When we look to lead, we must have integrity. We have to be the person whose yes is yes and no is no. Our walk needs to match our talk. And when it doesn’t, we have to be open and humble…

Principles of Leadership, Day 14 Encouragement. Read Titus 1:7-14 Here is another list that we need to be aware of when we think about qualifications of leadership. However, what’s interesting about this list is that it also includes the importance of encouragement. We need to understand how to encourage one another and as leaders, we set the stage for what encouragement should look like. Encouragement can only come from Christ. As we are encouraging others, we are speaking the truth into their life just like Christ. Christ encourages us, and because of that we are able to encourage others. When we look at our leadership today, how much of our…

Principles of Leadership, Day 13 Growth is required. Read Ephesians 4:11-16. When we think of leadership, often we think of something that we have attained. Instead, leadership is actually something that we are in the process of attaining. It is a journey, not a destination. Leadership requires growth. We cannot be truly leading if we are not growing ourselves. We must be constantly seeking ways to improve ourselves and grow ourselves. Stagnation breeds complacency. Leaders understand this and seek to grow themselves as well as those that they lead. How are we leading others to Christ? Are we taking the time to grow ourselves and to learn more about ourselves…

Principles of Leadership, Day 12 Keep the right perspective. Read John 13:13-17. My mom used to call it getting the “big head.” You know, that puffed up, arrogant way of thinking about ourselves. We think we are so good, or so smart, or so perfect that we can do anything. It’s not a good way to be. Instead God calls us to be humble. We are to be like servants. No matter what form of leadership we’re taking, we are ultimately to be serving those people that we lead and showing them what it means to serve God. Our leadership is done through our humility. We have to focus on…