Leadership Jesus Way: What You Need Kelly Durant 1-28-13
I Tim 3:1-7
Forest Gump! Who saw the movie? There is a part where he
starts running across the U.S. from state to state and everyone that sees him
running thinks he is a wise guru of some kind and that they need to follow and
run with him. So from place to place he picks up more and more people following
him expecting wisdom. But then after many months, and many people questioning…
What are we running for, where are we going?...he breaks down and his words of
wisdom are, I’m tired! He wasn’t going anywhere!
Believe it or not this stereotypies many people recognized
as leaders in the world, who run from one cause to the next to support any old
thing but in the end the followers discover that these leaders weren’t really
going anywhere nor, was their cause worth what the public was sold! Like what
happened to Lance Armstrong.
Leadership today is very important! I am very pleased with
most all of you as Local Leaders here in Hialeah! Leaders have followers, but
have you ever asked yourself, what are my attributes that makes me worthy of
having followers?
Let’s review some principles of leadership that can help
guide us on what can make us worthy.
Paul in the scripture of today tells Timothy what qualities
leaders must possess. These are the basics of holiness, and we need more
leaders in all areas, but we need leaders with good qualities and with the same
vision as Jesus.
In the scripture we see what qualities a leader, or a
bishop, or a Local Officer, (same position) needs with these words, and make
the personal with each characteristic looking at yourself:
To be blameless, Can anyone accuse you of a wrong doing?;
Faithful to his mate, Are you still there despite temptations?;
Vigilant, Do you worry about what could endanger others and the
church?;
Sober, Do you confront with seriousness matters of concern?;
Hospitable, Will you receive and attend to visitors when they are
here?;
Apt to teach, Are you training others for your job?
Not a drinker, Do you always remain without intoxication?;
Not violent, Do you have control over your anger?;
Not greedy, Do you want to be rich and that is your main focus?;
Patient, Can you endure the mistakes and problems of others with
kindness and patience?;
Not argumentative, Some people love conflict and always speak the
contrary, do you do that?;
Not covetous, Are you happy when someone prospers, or envious and hate
them?
Controls his children, Are you involved with your kids to make them be
courteous, respectful?;
Not a novice, Are you inexperienced in something but yet you want to be
in charge?;
And with a good report with all, How many people like being with you
and do they like you because you are an example of a servant?
These are some challenges from the scriptures. Do you
possess these qualities as a leader? Most of you do actually, but there are
always some areas in which we all must grow. I personally believe in giving
people a break, if most everything is good, say passing with a D or C grade,
then there is potential! So look over this list and let the Lord speak to you
where you could grow.
Regina and I have seen all kinds of leaders in our lives and
all kinds of styles & personalities. In the scripture we see that the good
is mentioned along with the negative not to have and I will give you the most
common 3 bad examples we have seen in our experiences and then 3 positive
points on how Jesus taught us to be.
1) There is
the leader who lacks respect to authority to the pastors, the Captains, the
leaders in general, or the church to which he or she says they belong to. These
are leaders who tell others behind your back they do not agree with things but
in front of you they are silent because they know inwardly they are wrong.
These are the argumentative and conflictive ones. Have you seen this kind?
We have heard that good followers make good leaders and that
is because they listen and learn, but those who never follow never really learn
anything to lead anyone with! Do you respect others?
2) The
prideful leader. This is the one who always thinks he or she knows more than
you. They are like the taxi driver that you tell him the shortest way home but
he insists he knows better than you and takes you on a long route, has that
ever happened to you? It did to me all the time in So. America! With no
humility this kind of leader will never be useful nor train others because they
always want others to see them as a great leader since they know everything, and
they are selfish with their skills, knowledge, and delegation.
3) The
novice leader who doesn’t know what he or she is doing but is greedy with the
power or position. Regina and I have been shocked sometimes when we have given
a person a little power of authority in the church and then this person starts
ordering everybody around to be serving them as if they were a slave driving
boss! How sad it is when a person can seem nice but then with a title they have
a personality change and tell everyone what to do. Have you seen that too?
So what were Jesus’ principle ways of managing things as a
leader?
-First point, Jesus called his 12 disciples from very
different backgrounds. He formed a diverse teamwork! I want to work with each
and every one of you as each person has a unique perspective, and all good leaders
include everyone for decisions on their team. You are my team, the only one I
have! Do you believe that each person here is valuable even though they may be
very different from you?
If we were to compare
you to the disciples in this Corps I think we could see some here that are like
John, Peter, and or Matthew, and there are faithful women followers too like
Mary and Martha.
-Second, Jesus gave an example to his followers on how to
bring the message of God’s Kingdom and salvation to the masses and to the
individual people. He starts off in the synagogue reading from Isa 61, how He
is the Messiah, God’s chosen, and then He goes on to preach the sermon on the
mount to thousands. Later He travels and talks to only one woman at the well,
and then to one lone rabbi, etc.
What we see is Jesus shares the message to everyone, anywhere,
anyplace, and anytime! A leader is not just a leader in a group but also he is
one to individual people as well! He teaches his followers how to adapt and be
ready all the time as the scripture says,” Be instant in season out of season.”
Do you share what you know with others?
-Third, Jesus is the great Rabbi or teacher so he is
constantly teaching his disciples about the kingdom of God, preparing them for
their mission of preaching and teaching the gospel to every creature to repeat
what He did.
We conclude that if you follow God, He expects you to learn
to work together with others of the same mission in teamwork, even though they
have their faults; observe and learn teachings while serving; and finally you
get equipped to prepare others so they too will understand God’s plan in their
lives and obey it and do the same. 2 Timothy 2:2
2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many
witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach
others also.
Now, after Jesus has gone in the clouds, what did the
disciples do? The waited on the power of God in order to do the job! Later they all eventually went in different
directions to preach the gospel with their own leadership style! After the day
of Pentecost, after Acts 1:8 God gave Acts 8:1, to get the mission done in all
places so they hear the preaching of the gospel. And in the end each disciple
ended up as leaders for Jesus in many different faraway places!
You may not end up getting killed for the mission as they
did but what did they do that you can do too? You can each fulfill the mission
that God called you to! Don’t wait until the persecution either!
3 simple points:
Jesus formed a team, Jesus shared the message to everyone along his way, and
Jesus taught or prepared his team on what to do to repeat the mission after He
was gone.
Something great and wonderful is here in Hialeah and God is
raising many of you up as leaders here to take care of all the new people that
will be coming in as new members! Don’t forget, your job as leader is YOU must train
others!
You may ask then,
well we are to imitate Jesus, to be more like Him, so how are we doing that in
the Hialeah Corps? Well, first of all, all of us as a team must continue on
empowering each other as better leaders by sharing our talents and skills.
Also, always we need to get you signed up and get qualified on paper to be
recognized.
Think of how you will be spending time to be getting
preparing for your individual tasks. By now most of you have gotten the Local
Officer’s Job Descriptions and if not we will give you copy. Many of you have
many talents and we just need to get you prepared and get you more busy!
Each of you should be taking care of each other. We had a
list of who would be in touch with who, so after one year, did it help? Do we
need to revive it? You have already been learning Bible from each other and you
time will come for you to have your own band of 10 to 12 followers that you
will be training in the Word, in doctrine, and how to keep on doing your job
after you go.
Let’s imagine this Corps only 10 years from now. Where will
you be then? It will be the ones in their 20’s and teens that will be best
equipped to take over, don’t you think? If today you can go back 10 years and
remember what it was like here, some of you were here, but you can name only a
few that have been here even that long! So time always implies a changing of
the guard and a new set of leaders and members, and do you think we have people
who are prepared enough to handle the jobs then?
When I am not here on
a Sunday, there are several of you that are very capable of preaching and
running things, I hope that when any one of you is absent too, another person
here will be trained by you in your job position to replace you too. Have you prepared someone?
So let’s review, leadership is all about being worthy, holy,
qualified, and trained, prepared, and then passing all of that on to the one
behind you! In the Salvation Army, do you wear the uniform, be faithful to
inform another when you cannot attend to something, and do you volunteer to do
what you are capable of doing as much as possible?
Jesus was the model leader to his followers, showing love
for all and he took time for the masses and each person who had a need! Jesus
taught them, and Paul taught Timothy and the ones after them taught others.
Ask yourself, am I being faithful to train another? Am I
being a good example and good mentor? Young people, who do you want to be your
mentor to be amongst the more experience ones? We need to make ourselves more
likable, more patient, more willing, and more like Jesus, are you ready to
lead?
Let’s pray.
