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Leadership
January 21, 2025
Restoring America
I am reading a book by Bill O’Reilly, “Confronting the Presidents.” It is about each of our presidents. Writing about them and about what they did in the office. These men were to be the leaders of our nation. It does not seem to me many of them were leaders. It does not seem that we have many leaders today. If we are going to restore America, we need leaders. I don’t think that many of us really know what a leader is. This brings me to a question, what is a leader? In the next few newsletters, we are going to look at what it means to be a leader.
Leadership is the act of guiding and managing a group of people, projects, or organizations to achieve shared goals. It's a set of behaviors and mindsets that help people work together and adjust to change.
Leadership is often defined by position—the person in charge is the leader. Leadership, however, is not a position. Rather it is the qualities of a person to motivate and inspire others, to have a clear vision and path to realize it, and the ability to support and encourage others to grow in their own capacities. If that sounds complicated, it is because leadership and being in a leadership position are two entirely different things. The former leads while the latter simply makes decisions.
A person’s leadership capacity is built on three key metrics. First, their clarity of thought and communication. Next, their judgment and capacity related to people. Finally, their personal integrity. These areas combine to form an opinion as to the leader’s overall trustworthiness. If you have the trust of others and know where you are going, you may have the ability to lead others along that path as well.
Back to the basics. Have you ever gotten back to something? Back to the basics. Back to reality. Back to normal. Back to health. Back to school. Back down to earth. In leadership we might go out on a limb, try something new, give an idea a season. But when the result isn’t what we wanted or hoped for, our minds turn to the idea that we “need to get back”. Back, that is, to what worked in the past. Back to the familiar. Back to something more comfortable and reliable that restores our confidence and momentum. When you are returning to an aspect that is foundational, of primary importance, then “going back” is actually “going forward”—there are many instances where getting back to something is the best way to advance a vision or agenda.
Think about, then, what it might mean to return to godly leadership. That is; to abandon any trial priorities we may have adopted for family, company, country or community, and rebuild a foundation of God, first in all aspects of life and work. Christians often talk about our nation, our families, our schools, or workplaces “returning to God,” in the sense of reapplying Judeo-Christian values in our daily activities. Before any organization or culture returns to God, though, individual leaders must make this the core of their personal and professional vision. How would we go about this? 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 instructs godly leaders in this way: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” With this Scripture in mind, consider: Returning to heightened awareness. “Be watchful” means to have a keen sense of what is going on around us. Know what is happening in the world and culture. Be attentive to what is happening in your children’s lives, your wife’s day, your community’s news. Gain awareness of world events and be prayerful regarding conflicts and crises as you become informed of them. When it comes to general awareness, most leaders have been lulled to sleep, blissfully unaware of important occurrences in their sphere of influence.
Question: Am I aware of what is going on both in the world and in my own home today, and thinking about how I might influence or act to glorify God in the moment?
Returning to a firm stand in faith. “Stand firm in the faith” means a consistent and growing spiritual foundation for your life. To be firm is to be unwavering, not stumbling or easily moved. Be in God’s Word and prayer daily as a first priority. And be united with and active in the community of faith through a local church. In these ways a faith-centered leader will be growing in their knowledge of and trust in God, understanding important doctrines and living out their beliefs in their service to their church family and community.
Leadership
January 23, 2025
Newsletter
Restoring America
As I started working on my newsletter about leadership, I found that people separate Christian leadership from secular leadership, but this is not God’s way. God’s way is that we incorporate our faith with our working world. Our faith must be part of our entire life. In these newsletters I will be writing on what does faith leadership looks like. I will also give examples of leadership.
Zig Ziglar is one of my favor speakers; read what he said about his faith “As a new believer, I was stunned when well-meaning friends and colleagues told me that I must not talk about my faith from the speakers’ platform because it would ruin my career. The Holy Spirit moved in my heart and I felt strongly that it would be terribly wrong to heed their advice. From that day until this, I have not hidden my core identity: I am a witness for Jesus Christ. I have made my faith an integral part of my books and each of my presentations. Regardless of whom I’m speaking for, all I do is paraphrase the Bible, throw in some human-interest stories, and tell some funnies.” Did sharing my faith in Jesus Christ destroy my career? The answer is a resounding no! I’m extraordinarily grateful to say that for more than thirty-five years, I haven’t solicited a single speaking engagement, and I do not have a booking agent. The reason is very simple: God’s Word does not return void, even if it’s been paraphrased. People are seeking truth today more than ever before. They are hungry for spiritual knowledge and thirsty for that which will set them free—the person of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior”. Zig Ziglar
As faith-centered leaders we should refuse to be moved to sin by those around us, and to act as strong men in the face of challenge and adversity. At the same time though, we should extend lovingkindness to all who are in our sphere of influence. Galatians 5:22-23 instructs us how this will look in our lives and work: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Only a faith-centered leader has the spiritual foundation that allows him to be both resolute in belief and kind in temperament.
Zig Ziglar tells us: ‘When I committed my life to Christ, every facet of my life was radically changed for the better. I became a new creature and quickly learned that God’s possibles are infinitely greater than man’s permissible. As a born-again Christian, I wanted to make decisions that were consistent with my faith, and I became acutely aware of my responsibility to represent Him well. I asked God to remove temptation from my life so that I could focus on Him without distractions and to help me be about the business of telling others about Him and His love. He has honored that prayer, and I have been humbled by the number of people He has allowed me to share Him with, not only at church but also in the marketplace. Ziglar, Zig
Jesus intends for us to integrate our faith with all aspects of our daily lives—including the marketplace. After all, as Ed Silvoso points out in his insightful book Anointed for Business, Christ was a businessman; He was a carpenter until He started His ministry at age thirty. Not only was Christ a businessman, but His disciples were also businessmen. They were fishermen, tax collectors, physicians, shepherds, and farmers—in short, they were all businessmen.
And interestingly, many of the miracles Jesus performed were not in the temple, but outside, in the marketplace. He did not limit His teaching to the formal services of the synagogue, either. Much of Jesus’s ministry occurred as He was going about His day in the marketplace, interacting with the people God had put in His path. Like Jesus and the disciples, we, too, must take our witness into the marketplace, on our jobs, and into all the corners of our everyday lives.
If we could integrate our faith into our leadership and our work. We could see our nation abound and God would bless our nation.
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