Continuing our journey through a book called Spiritual Leadership by Henry & Richard Blackaby. Going through it with a few guys. Week 1 is here.
“The key to growing an organization is to grow its leaders… Leadership development is synonymous with personal development. As leaders grow personally, they increase their capacity to lead... The best thing leaders can do for their organization is to grow personally.”
Our past has a great affect on us today: failures, crises, personal struggles, hardships. “The key to leadership development lies not in the experiences, but in peoples responses to those experiences.”
Failure is a powerful tool that God can use to build certain qualities deep within one’s character that could not be fully developed any other way. However, many people have a fear of failure. This leads to:
· Stress
· Perfectionism / obsession
· “play it safe” attitude / avoid risk / stick to what’s known
· A culture where other’s are on edge / no innovation happens
“God seldom intervenes when people are about to make mistakes, rather, He allows them to fail, but stands ready to redeem them.”
Abraham is a great example of how God develops a leader:
· Abraham was an ordinary person
· Abraham built on his heritage
· Abraham grew through failure
· Abraham built spiritual landmarks
· Abraham experienced God’s redemption
· Abraham learned by experience
· Abraham was not allowed to take shortcuts
· Abraham demonstrated his faith
· Abraham obeyed God and became a friend of God
Two Key Ideas - Leaders develop as God matures people in their character as well as in their relationship with Him.
1) Character includes wisdom, integrity, honesty and moral purity. Character flaws left unchecked can reappear in subsequent generations. God’s assignments are based on character. The greater the character, the greater the assignment. (Luke 16:10)
2) Relationship with God involves trust in God, obedience to Him and love for Him. The length required to develop as a leader for an assignment is based on our trust in God and obedience to God.
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