Courageous Leadership

Courageous Leadership

by Bill Hybels

 

– The local church is the hope in this world and it primarily lies upon the leadership of its leaders.

 

– One of the most powerful weapons a leader has is his vision

• Pray God gives you a vision – it may come from reading Scripture, it may come from seeing something or hear something, etc.

• Have you fasted, prayed and asked to hear from God? Have you traveled and seen the need? Have you visited other ministries to be open and able to think? Have you closed out the noise of every day sounds and busyness so that you can better receive what God wants to give you? You must internally prepare your heart for God to speak to you and you must externally prepare yourself by visiting and seeing the need and what is going on.

• We must embody the vision and live it out passionately so others know we believe it.

• We must learn how to communicate the vision. Talk about it collectively and individually.

• Vision creates ownership. • Vision provides focus

 

– Build a dream team

• A team of people that has Character (someone who lives right), Confidence (someone who knows how to do it) and Chemistry (someone that can get along with me and others).

• Don’t overlook the people that are currently with you. Some of the greatest leaders that can for part of your team are already working amongst you as volunteers and church members.

• Make sure the right people are in the right position.

• Raise the level of communication within your team.

• Award team members for a job well done. Paul mentioned names at the end of his books of the people that had worked and helped in ministry.

• As spiritual leaders, you have the greatest blessing to get to work in ministry, but we can do it with a team of people and enjoy every step of the way.

 

– Teach on giving in the church.

• God can supply much more than anyone else and he places people in our churches to help and give… but we have to teach them and make them aware.

• Most spiritual leaders believe that everyone understands what giving is and the needs of a church are, but most people do not understand how to give, why to give and what the giving is for.

• A spiritual leader should give a yearly series on financial administration of a Christian’s money.

• Where does the money go? People want to know, need to know and have a right to know. Who makes the decisions? What are the needs? Finances should be explained and there should be an open book policy about the finances.

 

– Leadership at its core is influence, so keep your eyes open for people who can influence others.

• Pray for those leaders you’re going to have on your team and then intrust them with responsibilities.

• If you find someone who is an influencer, then check to see if they have strong character.

• Next see if that person has people skills, can they listen and get along with people. Does that person have a concern and compassion for others? Can they relate to other people?

• Next, see if they have drive. You want people who have drive on your team. People who have enough energy to energize others.

• Finally, look for people who have intelligence. We’re not talking about someone with a good SAT score, we are talking about street-smart, someone who understands things.

 

– While we can differ on how to teach someone, we can definitely agree that it takes a leader to train another leader.

– What will energize you to keep going as a leader is to see other leaders that you have help along the way now succeeding.

– Morale is super important. When a leader sees that morale is sagging, it is his job to raise it up. There are too many people that can attest that they have never received a note of encouragement or boost of morale from their leader. Your staff, paid or unpaid, should receive encouragement from you as the leader.

– Effective leaders have to lead in each direction – north, south, east and west. Those above them, below them and around them.

– One of the hardest people to lead is yourself.

– We as leaders must grow ourselves.

• May God give us a heart of optimism like David.

• May God give us a heart of love like Jonathan. Love is better than vision.

• May God give us a heart of integrity like Joseph. Power tends to corrupt, but Joseph did not let power corrupt him. Joseph saw his leadership as an administration for and from God.

• May God give us a heart of decisiveness like Joshua. Joshua stood up and said, “choose you this day whom you will serve but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord” (24:15). Joshua made a decision and stood by it. We must be leaders who can make decisions and help other people make decisions, we cannot cowered away from this. • May God give us courage like that of Esther. She was willing to do what’s right no matter if it cost her position, status or even her own life. We must lead our ministries with courage.

• May God give us wisdom like that of Solomon. We need wisdom to discern what to do how to do things. • May God give us confidence in him like that of Jeremiah. Yet moments of discouragement, crying and disappointments, but he still trusted and confided in the Lord.

• May God give us victory to celebrate like that up Nehemiah. At times of building, stopped to celebrate and share the victory with others.

• May God make us like Peter, willing to step out and take action. Peter messed up multiple times, but he was still not afraid to step out and take action. Although he sank in the water, he was the only want to get out of the boat. Although he said sometimes more than he could do, he was the only one who would make commitments many times.

– Leaders need different activities to help not let stress build up.

– Leaders need safe people in whom they can share and be accountable to in many areas.

– Leaders need the right perspective to get through problems and every day life. We need an internal perspective, remembering that these things are temporal and remember why we are doing what we are doing.

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