Friday, August 12, 2016

August 13, 2016

"Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:42-45

Nearly three years into leading His disciples Jesus makes one of His main expectations quite clear, "The evidence of following me should be your ability to lead like Me!"

Jesus leads us to develop us into leaders! Of that there can be no doubt! This truth is at the heart of the Gospel AND at the heart of the Great Commission!

From Jesus' perspective the ultimate test of leadership is when you are able to lead people to Christ.

There are three aspects of leadership that must be weighed and mastered in order to lead like that.

First, you must master the skill of leading yourself! I know this sounds like a contradiction but it isn't. Leading yourself is the first fruit of following Jesus. In order to follow Jesus faithfully and fruitfully you must say "no" to the things that lead you away from Jesus and "yes" to the things that draw you toward Him. That's called "discipline" and that is the essence of leadership! How can you lead others if you are not leading yourself?

Quite simple, you can't! If you try you are headed for an eventual meltdown.

You will know when you are leading yourself well when you are enjoying following Jesus and when you notice others following you!

Once you have mastered the discipline of leading yourself you will need to learn how to lead the others who have begun following you. That is where you take seriously this teaching of Jesus about servant leadership. Servant leadership is leveraging your authority and influence in ways that empower those under your authority. The key question of those who lead this way is, "What can I do to help you?"

The third aspect of leadership, which is entirely dependent upon the continuation of the first two, is the intentional decision to move from leading followers to leading leaders. This is the move from addition to multiplication. It is what Christ had in mind when He first called you to follow Him!

So following to lead develops like this:

1) Take leadership of yourself as you follow Christ
2) Lead others to follow Christ as you follow Him
3) Commit to leading other leaders as you follow Him

Follow?