A good leader will be able to influence people to set their energy and resources to achieve a specified objective. And, accomplishing the objective must be done within the moral and social framework of the society in which the leader and his followers live and function.
So, there are good leaders and bad leaders. A Pastor is a leader. There are good Pastors and bad Pastors. A good Pastor is one who is sensitive to the leading and inner voice of the Holy Spirit. The Pastor who follows the leading and direction of the Holy Spirit will never see failure, that is, not in the sense of reaching and accomplishing the overall objective. This is not to say that there won’t be trials and tests along the way. For we know, every leader will be tested.
A good leader must be able to influence others. A good leader cannot be shy or timid. And, a good leader must be a person of vision and be able to effectively communicate that vision to others. To be a Christian leader means that you must be a person of faith. You must have faith in God and believe that He will lead you and guide you to success and give you the ability to overcome the tests and challenges along the way. You must be a man or women of faith. If you cannot have faith for yourself, then, how can you teach faith to others?
A Christian leader must be bold and fearless. A true Christian leader will stand in the face of adversity and trust in the Lord to deliver him out of any situation. No matter what the problem is, no matter how daunting the task, no matter how difficult the circumstances, a good Christian leader will have that quiet inner confidence of knowing that God is with him and that God wants him to succeed.
A Pastor must be humble in the sense that he recognizes God as his source, however; at the same time, leadership does not mean the Pastor is to exhibit some type of false or pseudo-humility. And, this is what we are seeing more and more of in today’s pulpit. That is, Pastors who exhibit a sort of vague desire to lead people, and may even think they are good at being a leader, but they cannot project true leadership.
Some Pastors have taken it upon themselves to fulfill the role of the “anti-leader”. That is, these Pastors, at some point in their life, believe that they were called by God to be leaders of men, but, when it comes to truly exercising leadership, they perseverate. They perseverate because they have adopted a false, pseudo-humility about themselves. They have developed the hubris of imagining that they have a “need to be humble” because of the greatness of their position and responsibility. But, when it comes to exercising true leadership and offering true spiritual guidance and insight, they simply are not providing leadership to the people. These Pastors want to be recognized as being great leaders, but in reality they are not leading.
The truth is, these Pastors are men-pleasers. They seek the accolades and praise of men, rather than God. To the untrained ear, these men come across as being able to lead and make decisions in the most difficult and trying of times and circumstances, but a closer examination shows that they are not leading people at all. Rather, these pseudo-leaders are simply “empty suits” who say nothing. They are “straw men” who blow here and there with every fad and trend coming “down the pike”. These men want to be seen and known as having keen insight and knowledge, but, yet when it comes time to exhibit character and leadership, they are bankrupt. A closer examination of their lives will reveal that on the more difficult issues, they don’t make decisions. They abdicate their decision making responsibility to others, or, even worse, through their agonizing and tortuous indecisiveness, they really don’t come to a conclusion about anything. It leaves you with the impression that these men feel they have accomplished their duty and fulfilled their responsibility by simply drawing attention to the problem, without making a decision to do anything about the problem. In other words, “we all know the ship is taking on water, but, let’s all now just remain calm and drown gracefully”.
What the church lacks in this hour is a clear sound coming from the pulpit. Where are the preachers who will sound the trumpet of the Lord? Where are the preachers who are not afraid of the media? Where are the preachers who are not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Where are the preachers who even have the guts to speak that name anymore – “Jesus”? Where are the preachers who are willing to give everything for the cause of Christ? Where are the preachers who will preach the truth of the Word of God, even as the world heaps ridicule upon them? Where are the men who will say “I will be a fool for Christ’s sake”?
There is a type and style of leadership that has evolved in the church that has down-played the characteristics of leadership to the point that what we are seeing now is an actual model of “anti-leadership”. Any hint of strength of character is quickly subdued and apologized for, as if it is somehow “offensive” to others. Any hint of being strong and bold is quickly emasculated by an effeminate culture of pseudo-conformity. It is kind of like doing away with the grading system in school. After all, isn’t everyone the same? Should anyone be allowed to stand out and show the gift of being able to exhibit strength of character and leadership qualities? Or, are we all just simply products of a chance occurrence in the universe who are now collectively groping and morphing along in our evolutionary process? And, as we grope along in our aimless existence, let’s be absolutely sure that no one exhibits any leadership traits or characteristics that would distinguish them from others. It would be “wrong”.
What the church desperately needs in this hour are men and women who know that they have been called by God to be leaders. A true man or woman of God will not apologize for the call of God on his or her life. A true Christian leader will not perseverate or fawn when it comes time to exhibit the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Consider Moses at the Red Sea, David standing before Goliath, Deborah riding out to battle with Barak, Esther standing in the court of King Ahasuerus, Elijah standing before the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel, and Peter on the day of Pentecost. These leaders did not dink around or game-play when it came their time to be used by God. They boldly took their position in the role of leadership and did not apologize for being used by God. And, I might add, afterwards, these same men and women fully received the recognition of the people as being their leader. The men and women of the Bible are to be our examples today. We can learn from them, imitate them, and be led by the same Holy Spirit as they were.