Leadership 3 – Character
Review
Week 1 – Defining Leadership
Leadership is influence
Leadership can happen at different levels but it is still leadership
1. Leaders should possess high character
2. Leaders must know what the vision or direction is, why that is important, and how to communicate it with clarity and conviction
3. Leaders need to be able to facilitate movement in the people they are leading
4. Leaders must always remember that they are leading people and operate with respect and care for people while still encouraging giftedness and maintaining high expectations.
5. Leaders needs to be excellent in their area and be willing to grow and learn and develop.
Week 2 – Developing Leadership
Timeline of leadership development
Principles of leadership development
Invest, Commit
Be teachable
Lead from your strength
Exercise self discipline
Why Character?
Developing Character develops the ‘real you’
“Character is who you are when no one is looking”
Last week – Developing Leadership: under discipline:
Quotes
“If you cannot lead yourself, you cannot lead others”
“Before we can conquer the world, we must first conquer the self”
“If you could kick the person responsible for most of our troubles, you wouldn’t be able to sit down for weeks”
More potential leaders fail because of inner issues than outer ones
The ‘real us’ will come out in leadership
When the pressure comes, the real person comes out…and leaders can tend to be under pressure.
Good character leads to good leadership
You will lead easier when you are consistent with yourself
You’re not trying to be someone else when you lead
Leading a double life is exhausting
Character provides natural rules and principles for leadership
You’re not guessing the right thing in moral/people situations
Week 1: You are leading ‘real people’
People are more likely to follow someone of good character
Leadership = influence
What provides more influence?
A leader who is petty, or unpredictable, or selfish
A leader who is focused, and honest and caring
Everyone appreciates a leadership who has character
It makes it much easier for them to follow
The people you are leading see your character
And they learn from it.
What leaders expect in theory: “You should do what I say, not what I do”
How followers respond in reality: “I will be who you are, not what you claim to be”
“More is taught than caught”
To truly lead is to create a legacy of people who have caught who you are just as much as what you do
In a church context, it is even more important
So much of the Christian walk has to do with Biblical character
The fruit of the Spirit
Sermon on the Mount
Love in 1Cor 13
It is practicing what we preach
We need to be able to say with Paul “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)
[[Gorah’s Story]]
What does good character look like?
Biblical Leadership Character (Elders & Deacons)
Motive
as a steward of God,
not covetous; not greedy for money,
Godly Attitude
reverent, a lover of what is good,
just, holy, faithful in all things.
sober-minded,
blameless, have a good testimony among those who are outside,
Personal control
not quick-tempered, quarrelsome, or violent
self-controlled, not self-willed,
not given to wine
not double-tongued, or slanderers
gentle, temperate,
of good behavior,
Family
husband of one wife, one who rules his own house well
Skills
know and defend sound doctrine, able to teach;
hospitable
Fruit of the Spirit
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
Paul in Thessalonica
1 Thessalonians 2:7-12 7 But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. 8 So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. 9 For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; 11 as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, 12 that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
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