The Lausanne Global Conversation is on the World Wide Open Network
Author: The Lausanne Leadership Development Working Group
Date: 10.06.2010
Category: Forming Leaders
Editor’s Note: This Cape Town 2010 Advance Paper has been written by Jane Overstreet, on behalf of the Lausanne Leadership Development Working Group, as an overview of the topic to be discussed at the Multiplex session on “How To Build a New Generation of Christ-like Leaders.” Responses to this paper through the Lausanne Global Conversation will be fed back to the author and others to help shape their final presentations at the Congress.
Introduction
We have a leadership problem! And it is a problem that must be solved in order for World Evangelization to flourish! Too often evangelism is done successfully, a church is planted and begins to flourish, but then a leader is appointed who sadly destroys everything that was built, and the fruit is lost. While there are many variations on the story, its theme is much too familiar.
The Lausanne Leadership Development Working Group was created to respond to this need for Christ-like leaders. The working group is made up of a cross section of global senior leaders in the Body of Christ, many of whom are specifically involved in leadership development.
We started with a survey of Christian leaders. We asked them to tell us about their experiences with Christian leaders, what they thought Christ-like leadership should look like, and what they thought was most effective in building Christ-centered leaders.
We collected responses from 1,031 leaders from across seven continents. Those surveyed included a wide range of ages, types of leadership experience and quantities of leadership experience. Approximate one-third of those surveyed were women. We conducted the survey in five languages to try to get a wide range of opinions.
In the process of conducting the survey, one thing became frighteningly obvious—we have a leadership problem! First we will see how our respondents defined the problem, then how they defined Christ-like leadership and finally how they described the best methods of developing leaders as a partial solution to the problem.
(To view survey results to non-short answer questions, see separate document entitled: “Appendix: Leadership Development Survey”)
1. We have a Problem!
If we look around us at the cry for Christ-centered leadership, it becomes clear that something is terribly wrong in our world. Survey respondents easily identified the characteristics of a Christ-like leader, but pointed out that many leaders they had worked for fell painfully short.
When asked to describe their worst experiences working under leaders, and what characteristics those poor leaders had, 1,000 leaders answering the survey said:
Slightly lower on the list:
Keep in mind that these descriptors were not used to describe non-Christian leaders, but rather “Christian” leaders, or those who said they were “Christian.” Too often it seems, the motivation to aspire to leadership stems from ambition and pride. We believe we can do it better than “they” did. We set out to prove something to someone, or to ourselves. We want to be in control of the situation to hide our own insecurities and failures. The result of this brand of leadership is tragic.
Leaders in our survey were also asked a similar question in a different way but the results were strikingly similar. They were asked, “From the list below, choose up to five of the most pressing issues facing Christian leaders in your nation.”
The most frequent response to this question was “Personal Pride,” followed by “Lack of Integrity,” then two hundred votes further down the list were “Spiritual Warfare,” “Corruption” and “Lack of Infrastructure.”
The only exception to this ranking by language group was the French group who put the top pressing issues as “Poverty,” “Lack of Infrastructure,” “Corruption” and then “Personal Pride.”
This emphasis on the issue of “Personal Pride” could be surprising when compared with issues facing leaders like poverty and corruption. But on closer reflection, this points out the vast damage done by the disease of “big boss” leadership which is the very antithesis of the servant leadership style of Jesus.
Christ-like leadership is a challenge because it is inherently counter-cultural in every setting. It goes against the very essence of our selfish human nature. It is antithetical to our sinful nature.
And it seems too few of us have experienced Christ-centered leadership. We have rarely seen models of the type of leader we aspire to be. Perhaps this is why the hunger for mentoring today is so high.
2. Defining Christ-centered Leadership
The task of defining Christ-centered leadership is not simple. It is potentially fraught with theological controversy. Even the term leadership can be difficult to define. Yet in spite of these obvious challenges, let’s address this task as simply and as straightforwardly as possible, aiming to clarify the term for common usage.
In its simplest form, leadership has often been defined as “influence.” If this definition is acceptable, then we might say that Christ-centered leadership equals “Jesus style influence.” We could stop there, but the phrase “Jesus style influence” also begs more definition.
To describe what “Jesus style influence” looks like, one option is to turn to the example of Jesus and begin to list the traits that he exhibited while leading his disciples here on earth. When 1,000 Christian leaders across the globe were surveyed, the top three ranking characteristics that described Christ-centered leadership were:
Next on the list came:
So we can conclude simply that anyone with influence who has these qualities and uses them to further God’s Kingdom goals is, in fact, a Christ-centered leader.
While each of us is born with gifts and personality traits, if one asks the familiar question, “Are leaders born or made?” as evangelicals we believe that all people are born in need of the saving grace of God. Hence it is impossible to be “born” a Christ-centered leader no matter how “gifted” one might be.
The ultimate challenge is that leaders always lead out of who they are, out of what is inside them, or we might say out of a set of internalized core values. The only possible way to exhibit traits of Christ-centered leadership is, in fact, to be Christ-centered. Of course the first step to becoming Christ-centered is inviting Christ into your life. However as we have noted through our survey results, being a believer in Christ and being a Christ-centered leader are not synonymous. To become a Christ-centered leader is an undertaking for which a lifetime is too short.
One conclusion we must then draw is that Christ-centered leadership is not a goal to achieve, but rather a lifetime journey to undertake. And so the next question that springs to mind is where do we get the map for this journey and what is the best means of transportation?
3. Describing Best Practices in Leadership Development
If Christ-centered leadership is the goal, but does not come “naturally” to anyone, and if it is a lifetime undertaking, which we cannot do on our own, how does leadership development take place? How do Christian leaders develop into leaders who are truly “Christ-centered” in their leadership? This is one of the most challenging and confusing topics within the Global Church today.
What is Leadership Development?
One of the reasons this subject is so confusing is that almost anything that contributes to the growth, discipleship, skills or knowledge of an individual can arguably be called “leadership development.” Everything from Sunday school picnics to seminary education can qualify. Mentoring, accountability groups, special workshops, basic Bible training, executive management sessions, interactive adult education––the list seems endless.
According to the old adage of the blind man and the elephant, if you cannot see the entire beast, then wherever you touch the elephant, a different picture will emerge. When you touch the trunk you think an elephant must look like a snake. If you touch the side, you believe an elephant looks more like a hippopotamus. As a result, it is nearly impossible to obtain a clear picture of true leadership, particularly with so many initiatives claiming to focus on “leadership development.” Therefore the term has nearly lost its meaning.
This dilemma prompts another proverb––“How do you eat an elephant?” One bite at a time, of course! Breaking the elephant of “leadership development” into bite-size pieces is probably the best and most helpful approach and may help us even see the overall “beast” more clearly. This leads to two questions regarding leadership development: (1) What are you trying to accomplish and (2) With whom are you trying to accomplish it?
Using this approach, all leadership development efforts can be organized on a simple matrix with two axes: (1) Axis #1: the goal to be accomplished (i.e. the content to be learned or character qualities to be developed, and (2) Axis #2: the target audience. On the one hand, what characteristics of a Christ-centered leader is your program, school or course trying to develop? What is the content you are trying to teach? On the other hand, who is it you are trying to develop—teenagers, Bible scholars or seminary presidents? What would be the best method or means of development for this group in this context?
After obtaining this information, one can begin to develop the best plan for achieving this type of character development or knowledge impartation in this group of people. How you develop integrity in a teenager in Mongolia would look quite different than helping a pastor learn Greek in Kansas. Yet both are needed for the body of Christ, both are valid and yes––both are “leadership development.”
What Is the Most Important Subject Matter?
There are continual calls for more leadership and better leadership development, but there has been little agreement as to what this should look like. Rather than tackle the entire field, the working group narrowed the “target” to the development of “Christ-centered leaders.”
Survey results of Christian leaders helped us focus on the subject matter, character traits and knowledge required. Christian leaders prioritized the traits of a Christ-like leader as follows:
If we attempt to differentiate character qualities from knowledge the lists would grow quite long and the process be very confusing. Take, for example, just the first bullet listed. There we start with “integrity.” Integrity is of course a character quality so that means that something more than just objective knowledge is needed to develop integrity. Character is not primarily developed in the classroom but through life experience, mentors, models and accountability.
But thoroughly understanding and developing integrity also requires knowledge. For instance one would want to study about what the Bible has to say about integrity. Assuming a leader wants to have integrity in all aspects of his/her life this would lead to studying many further subjects, like marriage and family, management of money, and how to stop corruption. This is why the development of leaders is both a complex and life-long endeavor and why many methods are needed.
Which Subjects Do We Begin with Today?
When 1,000 leaders were asked the question, “If you had the opportunity to take classes in leadership development right now, what subjects would be of most interest to you?” their top prioritized choices included:
One of the first steps in leadership development is to start with the “felt need,” or what leaders feel is missing and sense that they need. All adult learners are more motivated to learn what they know they need and can apply immediately. For leaders, this is possibly even truer because they are such busy people and their time is so limited. If the subject is not a desperate need or a deep interest, they will probably not invest the necessary time.
To approach this issue of critical subjects to be taught leaders from a another angle, we asked a different question: “What would you say is the most frequent cause of failure in Christian leaders to ‘finish well’ as a Christ-centered leader in the nation where you are currently living?” Respondents could pick three answers. Five of the ten possibilities received the vast majority of the votes. The top five included:
The sixth cause ranked was “sexual sin” with 292 votes.
Again, the complexity of how to best grow leaders is evident. If “burn-out” is one of the biggest causes of leaders failing, what is the antidote? Is it better time management, better delegation skills, a better theology about work, a better understanding of God, a better insight into one’s culture, a better self-concept, a better understanding of God’s love, or all of the above? A list of possible causes and possible responses becomes longer and longer and arguably, all are critical!
For any leader, a long list of critical subjects must be considered relevant in this journey toward Christ-like leadership. Bible knowledge and theology, leadership and management training, and spiritual formation and character development make up three heavily overlapping areas within which most of these subjects can arguably fall.
Determining which leadership development subject is most important to a leader at any given time is more of an art than a science. It is dependent upon that individual’s personality and gifts, his/her past experience and training, and the demands of his/her current context. What is easier to discern is that all leaders need to be growing in all of these areas throughout each one’s lifetime.
Which Forms or Methods of Leadership Development are Best?
According to language groups surveyed, one of the few places where results varied in the survey of 1,000 leaders was in response to the question: “What types or forms of leadership development opportunities do you wish you had access to?” Otherwise the results of the survey were rarely distinguishable from one language group to the next.
The options given in this question were mentoring, classes, workshops, books, feedback from staff, informal discussion with peers, internet resources, small accountability group, observing others, none at this time and other.
In English the top answers were:
In Spanish the top answers were:
In French the answers changed even more:
Perhaps this gives us an indicator of what is not available in each setting. It may also tell us more about what different cultures value in leader development or what they believe is critical.
What is perhaps most important to take away at this point is that no type or opportunity for leadership development should be given all the attention in any setting. Rather a well-rounded array of opportunities is invaluable for leaders to grow and keep growing in the various qualities that identify a Christ-like leader.
Formal versus Non-formal Education
Too much time in the past has been wasted on the debate about whether seminaries and Bible schools are more important or better than non-formal training in developing leaders. This has really been a debate about the wrong question. The reality is that all tools of leadership development are needed in every setting possible. Some just work better
in certain contexts than others or achieve different results than others.
A tremendous amount of educational research has been done throughout the secular world as well as some in the Christian world as to methodologies that produce the most results and learning that enables behavioral change. This brief paper is too short to comment on these topics extensively.
What is relatively clear from an overly simplistic glance at this topic is that lecture-based teaching in traditional classrooms can be very useful for transferring vast quantities of subject matter. In addition, sequential learning that results in degrees is extremely useful for motivating the learner to complete the course, for measuring what that individual knows and for record keeping and communicating this area of proficiency to others. Degree programs that are primarily delivered through lecture are certainly useful to achieve some of the critical outcomes related to the field of leadership development with certain audiences.
When growing in areas of character development, discipleship, worldview and modifying core values, however, experiential learning has a great deal to offer. But not all experiential or interactive adult education is created equal. Factors that make this type of learning most effective include a motivated learner
The leader/learner who has the opportunity to participate in this type of experiential learning has, by far, the greatest chance of actually changing his/her beliefs and behavior. Excellent leadership development must include, but go beyond just acquiring information and include this type of experiential learning.
The Setting or Learning Environment
The learning environment is also an important factor in leadership development. A residential setting can foster deeper learning or it can merely isolate the leader from his/her constituency so long that the leader becomes irrelevant.
Appropriate forms of interactive learning can take place in the seminary classroom just as easily as under a tree. Excellent lectures can transfer knowledge over the Internet, or across a dining room table. The setting can enhance or detract from learning, but in the end it is only one factor to be considered.
What is most important is to begin with the end in mind. Determine which content is most important to achieving the desired outcome with this target audience. Then review possible methods and choose the one(s) that will be most productive in helping the leader to grow toward this goal. Determine the best learning environment available and make good use of it.
Focus on your target audience and offer the most relevant content, using the best methods possible for the outcome desired, in an appropriate setting that encourages learning. When these factors are combined, the Holy Spirit will use them to ensure that Christian leaders will grow toward Christ-likeness—if they are willing.
4. Stewardship in Leadership Development
No one has unlimited resources. For example, even if someone has all of the financial resources in the world, his/her time is inherently limited. Therefore, while a well-rounded array of opportunities for growth is ideal, which of these opportunities should be given the most time, attention and resources? How can we be good stewards of the extremely limited resources we have available? Again, the answers are not simple.
In our survey we asked leaders, “Which of five answers comes the closest to explaining why there is such a shortage of Christ-centered leaders?” Their overwhelming response was:
A somewhat close second was the answer:
The remote third, fourth and fifth responses were:
So vast numbers of current leaders surveyed believe that we are doing a poor job of leadership development through our existing programs today! They do not think that low pay, age or complexity of the role are the main problems, though leaders who refuse to encourage younger leader are a contributing factor. Rather our current efforts at leadership development need to change and improve.
This is a serious indictment coming from a wide base of Christian leaders. It should give those of us working in this field of leadership development cause for deep concern. We must do better in the future. We must stop and realize that no one type or opportunity for leadership development should be given all the attention in any setting. Rather we must work to ensure that the widest range possible of the most needed opportunities is made available for leaders in every geographical setting so that they can keep growing toward becoming Christ-like leaders.
Having Christ-like leaders is not a luxury but a necessity. Providing opportunities for leaders to grow is absolutely critical to a healthy, vibrant, transformational and multiplying Church. We must be wiser stewards of the resources that are available, because in many places the very future of the Church is at stake.
Unless we find, make available, promote and multiply the very best in leadership development opportunities throughout the globe, the results will be tragic. The staggering weight of poor leadership will hold back the advance of the gospel. Let us work together toward ensuring that every leader has the opportunity he/she needs to keep growing toward Christ-like leadership.
© The Lausanne Movement 2010
Keywords: Leadership development, Christ-like, survey, problems, pride, integrity, servant, diverse training, outcomes, audience, influence, spiritual maturity, character, skills, humility, journey, stewardship, learning, poor leadership, education, strategy
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Canada
For a while now I`ve been alarmed at the `quantity`problem of Christian leadership; but now I`m distraught that we even have a `quality`challenge as well! In the Majority world there are many more people coming to Christ (up to 20,000 daily in Africa, for example) than there are enough leaders to disciple them (QUANTITY). That is a serious concern but to find that of even the few global Christian leaders the QUALITY (Christ-likeness) leaves much to be desired is most disheartening! I love the model of John Maxwell`s EQUIP, providing leadership training material and a semi-formal PROCESS over a period of at least three years. Each of the 18 leadership notebooks has 6 lessons: 2 in spiritual formation (character), 2 in strategy issues and 2 on essential skills. The emphasis must be PROCESS. In fact, for any group of people that would meet once a month to `think on these things`it would take them nine (9) years to exhaust the EQUIP material! The work of the Great Commission in the 21st Century will rise or fall on the quantity and quality of Christ-centred leadership.
09.09.2010
Equatorial Guinea
I agree with the original article insofar as the global church, we finally need to get past the ceaseless arguing about whether formal or informal educational settings are "best". Can’t we agree that most ’"informal educational settings" use at least some pedagogy that it borrows from more "formal settings" and that most (successful) formal educational settings use a wide-range of informal strategies to round-out their knowledge-based curriculum?
In my mind, a helpful addendum to the article would be a discussion addressing strategies and actual practices that are actually "working" in producing Christ-like leaders:
(1) What are the methods that help formal settings ’’round-out" their lecture-based curriculums in order to produce "Christ-like leaders"? What does that look like on the ground?
(2) Is there a way for formal and non-formalized educational settings to work together to such an end? Can seminaries and TEE-type of ministries be fruitful partners? What does that look like in practice?
20.08.2010
Kenya
@ Jason_Carter:
I find your questions very challenging. One important difference between ’formal’ and ’informal’ is language. The formal ’ought’ to be in the ’informal language’. Seminaries ’ought’ to have local church leaders involved in their curriculum etc., but this often clashes with the needs of accreditation etc.
You say you want to ’get away from’ the arguments, by throwing us into the discussion pot! A important ’pot’ to be in, however ... !
20.08.2010
Madagascar
@ Jason_Carter:
I am challenged by the article and findings of the surveys done.
I support your suggestions and would also be very interested to look at some case studies with methods being used in different cultural settings, in order to find one most suitable in our context.
31.08.2010
Kenya
@ Christa_Buse:
Have a look here to see if any of this inspires you: www.vulnerablemission.com
31.08.2010
United States
The survey findings do indeed serve as wake-up call. There is a great need for leadership development. There is a great need for good leadership. Bad leadership within the church does so much harm and damages the name of Christ.
25.08.2010
Austria
One problem I have often observed is that people are elected to leadership not because of their qualifications but because there seems to be no-one else who is available or willing to serve.
24.08.2010
Australia
What a terrific and valuable piece of research. There is much to reflect upon from the findings, especially regarding the leadership crisis as the emphasis on leadership has moved away from a servant leadership model, from seeing the people as subjects that need to be empowered and equipped for service to seeing them as objects to achieve the goals of particular leadership, from relying on the Holy Spirit to a stronger emphasis on structure and program and from being people oriented to being task oriented. What have been the consequences for the Christian church?
How do we respond? It is pleasing to see some ideas being expressed in the paper about what is needed in leadership development, the need to consider stewardship in leadership development and that there is recognition of the value of both formal and informal education. If we are to be Christ centred leaders, then we need to study his approach to leadership and service. Jesus makes some powerful and often counter-cultural statements in these area.
Several key areas that need to be encouraged in leadership development include teachability in learning from others in one’s own faith community having a cultural paradigm, kingdom mentality to the people God has placed in your care, going out of one’s comfort zone, how to be reflective practitioners and generosity in sharing information and providing options for the people to grow rather than being closed gatekeepers.
Leadership development requires teaching and instruction but also experiences and practical opportunities. In my own teaching I place a strong emphasis on praxis as they work through how the values and beliefs that stem from bring under the Lordship of Christ impact on the outward behaviour.
I look forward to participating in this multiplex in Cape Town.
12.08.2010
Nigeria
The challenge we face is that our view of how to lead is often influenced by our culture or environment. When one is taught that this is how Jesus led and that individual seeks to lead with the pattern as modelled, that person gets into a dilemma when other leaders use other models that undermine his original goal in leading his own people and they are getting results. A lot of people have a good heart and would truly want to lead their people the right way but they grew up with the model they are using and the experience they had while they were being led has stuck. They seem to sense that they are doing it wrongly but they can’t seem to be able to get out that pattern. In view of this we need to have leadership development as part of the learning process that every believer encounters in all aspects of life as we prepare for the future. The practical and theoretical teaching has to go hand in hand. This can either happen consciously or unconsciously.
28.06.2010
Kenya
@ Samuel_Akinpe:
Thanks Samuel. Compliments to your response. Thanks for being so helpful. That is very challenging.
28.06.2010
Kenya
I am a bit surprised by this comment: "Too much time in the past has been wasted on the debate about whether seminaries and Bible schools are more important or better than non-formal training in developing leaders." I think the form in which training is presented, surely, is important? Informal means of training often result in better feedback than formal. They can be more reproducable. They are more open to contextualisation, etc.
All in all, the results of the survey are interesting and striking, and also unfortunately a bit discouraging. Indeed this is a key area to research.
23.06.2010
Singapore
In section 4 (Stewardship in Leadership Development), to a question on the shortage of Christ-centred leaders, the overwhelming response was: So-called “leadership training programs” do not really prepare people to lead in the real world. People have credentials but they can’t lead.
Perhaps, we must explore how God had prepared Christ-centred leaders in different part of the world, long before these “leadership training programs” were introduced.
13.06.2010
Argentina
A time of risks and dangers... but there is hope, Acts 14:8-18 says, “Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying…‘The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!’ And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes…”
In Lystra a miracle takes place that leaves the crowd shocked: there was a paralytic, who was born lame, and who had never walked. Paul orders him, in a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet!” The result of this miracle was that they treated the servants of God as gods. Paul and Barnabas tell them that they are only men, and that the people must return to God. With these arguments, they are able to dissuade the crowd.
The danger and risk that they ran in those days is the same that we have today. What happens is that people try to transfer their admiration and adoration that only belongs to God to the people that God has sent as messengers. The problem can be even greater if we stimulate these feelings. There are times in the life of the church when little empires are built. They attract followers of people or institutions, but not of Jesus Christ. The church has confronted various dangers like:
Many times churches live a miserable fight for power, loving power instead of the power of love. Other times functionality has distanced them from Biblical principles. They search for results where people are valued for what they produce in their jobs in the least amount of time. This type of theology of productivity is affecting and creating a prejudice in the formation of pastors and missionaries. It tries to train them in the least amount of time possible. Ministerial success shows results and not a life of humility. The act of allowing Christ to grow, where we are invisible, doesn’t enter in this type of life. This type of living causes competition that demands production. Competition distances churches, and creates jealousy within itself. The unity of the body of Christ is affected by this structure. The consequences are seen: pressure and tension lived in the churches, pastors and missionaries. This can grow to create a secular and mundane environment.
We are not called to form business stereotypes based on utilitarianism, mercantilism and of numbers. Multiplication, numbers and percentages are not synonymous with transformation. We must not sacrifice the demands of the gospel on the altar of numbers. We are living in times that seem like some churches have clients, and like businesses, they are always right. It is the clients that are always content and are the center of everything. We want to encourage people to break these productivity schemes and think in kingdom terms. We want to encourage them to preach the Word of God and give a message that leaves us uncomfortable, causing us to examine our walk with Christ. The concept of success for Jesus was: “Father, I’ve done everything you told me to do.” The results are random. Jesus healed some and others not. He fed many, and others were not sustained. Denying ourselves, knowing Jesus Christ and being like Him in His death is transforming power (Philippians 3:10).
· Lack of teaching the Word of God
We have also observed that sometimes there is a lack of teaching the whole Word of God. In some cases, the practice of discipleship has been little and Bible studies make reference to isolated texts, fragments. Many times, too, we observe syncretism (the combination of differing doctrines), spiritual malnutrition, heresies, superstition, division, etc.
According to the comments of Bertil Ekström, the MC executive director of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), we see that yes, we have grown statistically. But to grow in size is one thing, to grow in maturity is another. Mere numeric growth has changed the objective as such, and for many, the objective justifies the methods. When whatever method that helps grow the membership of the church is valid and the search is for the most effective strategies, the gospel has been minimized and puts Biblical principles at risk.
· Authoritarian leadership and form of government
Leadership sometimes follows the tendencies of global charismatic leaders (with a strong personality and the power to convince), principally centered on founding one’s own church. Diverse research has demonstrated that churches with autocratic and charismatic leaders are the ones that grow the most. At the same time, a new generation of leaders exists that are looking to work in teams, and are much more concerned about quality and a participative local church. Individuals these days don’t accept, in the same way, the dogmatism of an autocratic leadership. The church needs to reflect on its form of government and the ways its leadership functions. The exercise of leadership in the life of local churches must be marked by the model of the suffering servant and evidences it in contrast to an authoritarian leader and other dangers caused by power abuse.
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10.06.2010
United States
The questions posed about leadership were comprehensive but the basic answer of "being Christ-like" was not specifically explained. Since our Lord’s leadership style was being a servant, the definition and practice of His servant example would seem to be a profitable learning exercise. For example, not many "leaders" in the church world are the first in line to "wash feet" and, perhaps, the two characteristics by which Jesus identified Himself (meek and lowly, or gentle and humble in Matt. 11:29) should be examined in that regard? Also, recognized "leaders" may not be biblically qualified leaders (at a minimum, leaders should meet all characteristics of elders) . . . in other words, the "office" of leader and the "characteristics" of a leader can be mutually exclusive. The challenge for potential leaders is to learn how to "judge themselves" according to God’s Word in order to determine IF they are scripturally qualified to be in leadership (in addition to elder characteristics, the fruit of the spirit - Gal. 5:22-23 and biblical love - 1 Cor. 13:4-8a - are basic evaluation points to determine if someone is truly a Christ-like leader BEFORE assuming a visible position of leadership). Thanks for your diligent work in researching this vital subject.
10.06.2010
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