Discovering Your Mission in Life

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Please find a place to read this blog where you can be alone and uninterrupted. Empty your mind now except what you are about to read.

“[Imagine] you are going to the funeral of a loved one. Picture yourself driving to the funeral parlor or chapel, parking the car, and getting out. As you walk inside the building, you notice the flowers, the soft organ music. You see the faces of friends and family you pass along the way. You feel the shared sorry of losing, the joy of having known, that radiates from the hearts of the people there. As you walk down to the front of the room and look inside the casket, you suddenly come face to face with yourself. This is your funeral, three years from today. All these people have come to honor you, to express feelings of love and appreciation for your life. As you take a seat and wait for the services to begin, you look at the program in your hand. There are to be four speakers. The first is from your family, immediate and also extended – children brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents who have come from all over the country to attend. The second speaker is one of your friends, someone who can give a sense of what you were as a person. The third speaker is from your work or profession. And the fourth is from your church or some community organization where you’ve been involved in service. Now think deeply. What would you like each of these speakers to say about you and your life?...What character would you like them se to have seen in you? What contributions, what achievements would you want them to remember? Look carefully at the people around you. What difference would you like to have made in their lives?”

Before you read further, I would like to invite you to visualize yourself and take a few minutes to jot down your impressions.

This excerpt from Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People shows the importance of beginning with the end in mind. As you engaged yourself in this visualization exercise you touched for a moment on some of your deep, fundamental values. This picture of the end will serve as your frame of reference or the criterion by which everything else is examined. By keeping this end clearly in mind, you can make certain that whatever you do on any particular day does not violate the criteria you have defined supremely important, and that each day of your life contributes to a meaningful way to the vision you have of your life as a whole. So many people often get caught with the “activity trap” where they invest all their energy and resources into working harder and climbing the corporate ladder of success only to discover they are climbing against the wrong wall. People strive for achievements and victories that are empty and devoid of meaning.

When we ensure that we have a coherent worldview and picture of the future we are able to manage ourselves each day to what really matters most. Covey says “if the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster. We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective only when we begin with the end in mind.”

So, in order to begin with the end in mind, it is important to unearth some of your underlying, fundamental value system. This can’t be done overnight. I hope to provide an intentional approach to help you increase your self-awareness by realigning your paradigms to bring them in harmony with correct principles.

Victor Hugo once said that there is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has finally come, you may call it a credo, a philosophy, you may call it a purpose statement it's not as important as to what you call it, no it's how you define your definition. That mission and vision statement is more powerful more significant, more influential, than the baggage of the past, or even the accumulated noise of the present.

Now, review some of the key impressions and words that you wrote down earlier on in the visualization exercise. Now, let me guide you in formulating this into a personal mission statement. An effective technique in discovering your mission is to first identify your roles and goals. Covey says “we have each number of different roles in our lives – different areas or capacities in which we have responsibility. I may, for example, have a role as an individual, a husband, a father, a teacher, a church member, and a businessman. And each of these roles is important. One of the major problems that arise when people work to become more effective in life is that they don’t think broadly enough. They lose the sense of proportion, the balance, the natural ecology necessary to effective living. They may get consumed by work and neglect personal health. In the name of professional success, they may neglect the most relationships in their lives. You may find that your mission statement will be much more balanced, much easier to work with, if you break it down into the specific roles areas of your life and the goals you want to accomplish in each area. Look at your professional role. You might be a salesperson, or a manager, or a product developer. What are you about in that area? What are the values that should guide you? Think of your personal roles – husband, wife, father, mother, neighbor and friend. What are you about in those roles? What’s important to you?”

Writing your mission in terms of the important roles in your life gives you balance and harmony. It keeps each role clearly before you. You can review your roles frequently to make sure that you don’t get totally absorbed by one role to the exclusion of others that are equally or even more important in your life.

Below, you’ll see an example of my personal mission statement. I would encourage you take some time alone as we approach the end of 2011 to seriously think about what success means to you based on creating your core values.  

Mission:

My mission in life is to give the utmost glory to Lord Jesus Christ by maximizing my God-given talents, gifts, and potential for the transformation of people and organizations.

To fulfill this I will:

I put Christ at the centerpiece: I strive to apply the Christian principles in all my endeavors and ensure all major decisions are discerned through my deeply held core values, mission, and vision.

I continuously learn and grow: I devote my time, talents, and resources to transform organizations and cultivate untapped potential within people.

I generate value and service: What I do creates extraordinary value and service for people and organizations in building “vanguard companies.”

I inspire: Through actions and words, I epitomize the Christian businessman who openly practices the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

These roles take priority in achieving my mission:

Son/ Brother – I provide support to my family in every facet by being there.  

Boyfriend – I cultivate a long-term relationship with my girlfriend through cultivation of character and practicing of holy life

Christian – I nurture the virtues of the Christian, manifest it in action, and spread the good news.  

Change agent – I am a catalyst for developing high performance culture, team, and enterprise.

Leader – I serve the needs of others through inspiring others and mentorship.

2012 New Year's Resolutions

Around the end of the year, our family has a tradition that we uphold to: year-end family meeting/service. It started when I was in my young adolescence where my dad would initiate a family meeting with mom, sister, and I. He would open up the meeting with a word of prayer and praises. He would then choose a passage from the Scripture and share our thoughts around the message. With this leading service, the main topic of our discussion shifts to how each one of us spent the past 365 days. Usually, we would spend some time to gather our thoughts before this meeting, but nonetheless, we start to talk about key events and accomplishments as well as failures we encountered in life. This discussion led into what we expect to accomplish for the following year. In all of this, we never lose the context of how Jesus Christ is at the centerpiece. When I was younger and lacking maturity, this time with our family wasn't exciting and simply boring. However, after living apart with my family for over a decade now, I learned how important family has become in every facet of life. I now very much look forward to these type of family events.

As I mature every year, I find myself amazed how my perspectives and thought processes changed. Just last year in 2011, as I review my New Year's Resolutions, it is self-evident of how highly ambitious and focused I was particularly around building my professional career. Many goals were supplementing my goal to become a successful professional.

After a year or so, I have seen the things that worked and didn't work. Thankfully, I have a stronger grasp of who I am, my natural inclinations, tendencies, strengths, talents, and weaknesses, and core values which have enabled me to constantly reinvent myself. Prior to 2011, my extensive and proactive involvement in my business school has shaped my goals, underlying assumptions around work, and values to a certain extent. However, these goals and assumptions were tested in the 'reality' and I was compelled to make necessary changes to adapt. I have thus expanded my perspective into a more holistic viewpoint of how I view life. With that, I have made significant revisions on the framework of how I develop my New Year's Resolutions for 2012.

Below, my 2012 New Year's Resolutions are categorized in six dimensions in life: emotional, intellectual, professional, physical, spiritual, and social. Thus, instead of focusing on one dimension, I applied a more holistic approach to goal-setting for the new year. Also, with respect to wording, I have used past tense in order to help me visualize the changes that I already have done from a end first perspective in mind.   Thank you for reading.



In Reflection of 2011

In ten days the year of 2011 will become history – like any other year. Before I close this year, I decided to spend this time as a post mortem to pen some of my thoughts on how the year went.  Unlike any other year, the first thought that cropped in my mind was how uncharacteristically and incredibly fast the year has passed by. It sort of felt like I have been transported from a time machine in which I skipped several months throughout the year.

Now, this got me started thinking more about this fundamental notion on ‘progress.’ In many respects, 2011 have represented a monumental year for me. First, it is the year I turned 25. Granted, it boggles my mind when I come to the realization that I have roughly lived one third of my life. I suppose when you look through this 30,000 foot level, life seems way too short. Rick Warren is right when he says that life on earth “a parenthesis of eternity.” The prospect of dying has not been a major concern of mine thus far, but I am beginning to seriously understand the utmost importance of living a purpose-driven life always thinking the end in mind. With this big picture on the back of my mind, I felt on one hand that I have achieved nothing significant; on the other hand, I have been always striving for something

Another key factor differentiating in 2011 is the fact that it marks my first journey into post-school life where academic theories are not safeguarded from the ivory tower, but where real-world application trumps it all. My initial disillusionment with work has disoriented and discouraged me, but as everyone does, I was compelled to either quickly adjust or opt out. Idealistic expectations nurtured from school were eclipsed by how things actually work in real life. Most important, I have witnessed the power of surroundings and its impact into my very own life. However, I know with utmost certainty that all of these realizations and lessons will prepare, hone, and shape me for the better.

The respective changing circumstances in 2011 thus have been inherently poised to become a year of progress. But not so much, I initially thought. Why, you may ask..? As I really probe into the underlying reason for this lack of progress, it originated from my unquenchable yearning for knowledge. Progress, in my perspective, was measured by how much books I read and tangible achievements from work and certifications etc. Thus far, this was how I narrowly defined “progress” and in all these time, I have strived to achieve excellence in this. However, with this definition, I will confess that 2011 was devoid of much progress. In fact, I probably regressed instead of making a progression in life.

The breakthrough moment, the light-bulb moment came to me with the emergence of a special relationship. I am indebted to the special lady in so many ways. My narrow focus in life was radically exposed to something larger than career. I am not dismissing the importance of career by any means, but life was designed by God to become more holistic than just career. With this special relationship, this served as an opportunity to divulge my true self and understand people in a very intimate manner. 2011 was a time of cultivating my character as a more loving, generous, caring, and authentic person. Thus, my core values were tested and reinforced through the development of this relationship.

My one-dimensional notion of progress has been dispelled by this breakthrough experience in my life. With this narrow definition, I certainly did not read 30 books for the year, how many times I read the WSJ on a daily basis, but I believe the time spent elsewhere in building relationships honed my character as a holistic, balanced person.

As 2012 emerges, I must regain balance how I perceive progress. On one hand I cannot afford to not develop myself professionally through readings and learning, but at the same time, I must expand my horizons into something more than quenching my professional ambition. This healthy balance comes from when my relationship in Jesus Christ takes precedence over all worldly things. As the year-end approached, I felt this was where I felt I could have done a better job. Instilling a strong sense of discipline in how I manage life is a task that needs to be mastered throughout 2012 and beyond. 


The balance between the two are critical. The following is the highlights of my 2011:

Self-Awareness Project – Discovering my Leadership Capability

Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade? 

Benjamin Franklin is right. His insights into these very words has resonated profoundly with me in the last twenty five years of my life. In fact, for most of the my life, I truly felt that I was bereft of talent. I believed I represented quintessential mediocrity, if not an inferior superiority. Tough decisions, changing environments, and, insurmountable pressure debilitated my emotional and mental health in my early adolescence . 

However, the year of 2001 has been a turning point in my life. This is when I made the decision to study abroad in North America at the age 14. Since then, I have been blessed by the grace of God to be surrounded me with numerous people who have been a constant source of inspiration, encouragement, faith, and hope in my life. 

It is with this purposely long-winded introduction that I write the main crux of my thoughts. Leadership is all about influence. In order to have influence, one must have a solid understanding of the subject one is leading. This can be achieved only if the leader understands himself/herself - what motivates himself, temper, pressure, personality etc. In the past three month, I have stumbled across a Harvard Business Review article, Making Yourself Indispensable" by Zenger and Folkman which ignited me to embark on this project. Below is a brief idea behind this project: 

With Good leaders can become exceptional by developing just a few of their strengths to the highest level—but not by merely doing more of the same. Instead, they need to engage in the business equivalent of cross-training—that is, to enhance complementary skills that will enable them to make fuller use of their strengths. For example, technical skills can become more effective when communication skills improve, making a leader’s expertise more apparent and more accessible. Once a few of their strengths have reached the level of outstanding, leaders become indispensable to their organizations despite the weaknesses they may have.

Step 1: Identify my strengths & weaknesses
Strengths and weaknesses can be interpreted in various ways, but in the context of effective leadership, your view of your own is less important than other people's, because leadership is simply all about your effect on others. That's why I started to conduct a 360 feedback. I have selected 17 key people who have been an influential part of my life in many facets of my life including personal, social, work, and leadership life. I have asked these individuals to identify top five strengths and three weaknesses according to Zenger and Folkman's 16 Leadership Competencies Framework. See the two graphs below for the 16 leadership competencies and complementary behaviors for each strength.

Step 2: Choose a strength to focus on
It's important to identify competencies that matter most to the organization and about which you feel some passion, because a strength you feel passionate about that is not important to your organization is essentially a hobby, and a strength the organization needs you don't feel passionate is just a chore. In order to identify your passions, Zenger and Folkman suggests asking the following questions: 
-  Do I look for ways to enhance this skill?
-  Do I look for new ways to use it?
-  Am I energized, not exhausted, when I use it? 
-  Do I pursue projects in which I can apply this strength? 
-  Can I imagine devoting time to improving it? 
-  Would I enjoy getting better at this skill? 


If you have answered "yes" to these questions, this was a solid way to quantify your passions. For me, I have identified five passions, including self-development, problem solving, communicate powerfully and broadly, inspires and motivates others, relationship building. 
I consequently created a simple spreadsheet with the collective feedback from the 17 contributors. Overall, there were three pronounced strengths.  Please see below for the top five strengths that each contributor ranked me on. 

The worksheet below summarizes the collective responses outlined as three categories: My Competencies (which are gleaned from the top 5 strengths from 17 contributors), My Passions (through asking questions through the evaluative framework), and Organizational Needs (which in this context is consulting which is where I eventually want to be in).  

Step 3: Select a complementary behavior
People who excel at motivating others are good at persuading them to take action and to go the extra mile. So I scanned the list of competency companions for my top strengths (in this case, let's say self-development)
-  Listens
-  Is open to others' ideas
-  Respects others
-  Displays honesty and integrity
-  Inspires and motivates others
-  Provides effective feedback and development
-  Takes initiative
-  Is willing to take risks and challenge the status quo


It's important to choose a companion behavior that like a good strength is important to the organization and makes you feel enthusiastic about tackling it. However, at this point, it's constructive to consider your lower scores as well. 


Step 4: Develop it in a linear way. 
After identifying the key strengths, I have identified direct ways to improves these skill sets. Here is an example of how I plan to improve my communication skills. 
- Find ways inside and outside of work to improve communication skills (volunteer to make presentations to senior management, ask colleagues to critique e-mails, speech)
- Practice talking about a random topic at mirror twice a week for 30 minutes. Record myself and correct errors
- Listen and observe great communicators and learn their techniques. 
- Customize my communication styles to different audience (avoid the tendency to impress with sophisticated words - be direct, engaging, and simple) 
- Read books out loud. Engage all five senses. 


I know that in all this effort the make-or-break factor hinges on the willingness and  persistence to push myself to the envelope. I hope my unquenchable thirst for learning and growth coupled with strength in self-development will propel me push myself beyond mediocrity. I am truly indebted to all my friends and family who have been a constant source of inspiration, encouragement, and hope in my life. I thoroughly enjoyed reading each candid feedback which has vastly helped me in my leadership journey. 


PS. If you are interested in learning more about strength-based leadership, you can click Zenger and Folkman to learn from their research and thought-leadership. 

From My Files - Quotes on Potential

This week I’m sharing on Twitter some of my favorite quotes on potential. But I’m not always able to include them all. Here are the thoughts of some people, both famous and unknown, on our potential and how we use it:

An unused life is an early death. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it. –Soren Kierkegaard

If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. –Soren Kierkegaard

The real tragedy is the tragedy of the man who never in his life braces himself for his one supreme effort, who never stretches to his full capacity, never stands up to his full stature. –Arnold Bennett

The real contest is always between what you’ve done and what you’re capable of doing. You measure yourself against yourself and nobody else. –Geoffrey Gaberino, Olympic gold medalist

We throw all our attention on the utterly idle question whether A has done as well as B, when the only question is whether A has done as well as he could. –William Graham Sumner

On our track to success, we have to fight the tendency to look at others and see how far they’ve come. The only thing that counts is how we use the potential we possess and that we run our race to the best of our abilities. –Denis Waitley and Reni L. Witt

We spend most of our 20s discovering all of the hundreds of things that we can be. But, as we mature into our 30s, we begin to discover all of the things we will NEVER be. The challenge for us as we reach our 40s and beyond is to put it all together – to know our capabilities and recognize our limitations – and become the BEST we can be. –Catherine B. Ahles

A man is a good deal like an automobile. You can’t tell how much gas he’s got in his tank by the sound of his horn, and you can’t tell how much horsepower he’s got under the hood by the noise of his exhaust. There’s usually the most noise where there is the least quality. –HP Thompson

What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. -Eleanor Powell

Courtesy from John Maxwell

Fruit of Authentic Christianity

Have you ever wondered why the success rate of proselytizing in developed countries are dismally low? I continually find myself astonished that the greatest obstacle does not come from the sheer denial of the Christian worldview or its fundamental tenets, but rather the uncharacteristic, inappropriate, and maligning thoughts, words, and behaviors of those who profess to be "Christians." It is when the Christian fails to "walk the talk," non-believers seriously question the veracity of our faith.

In this age of postmodernism, the Christian is bombarded with false teachings, such things like moral relativism, existentialism, materialism etc. When the Christian either intentionally or unwittingly embraces these ungodly worldviews, the knowledge of God begins to evaporate and is replaced by his/her Christianity. The orthodox adulterates into something unorthodox. The continual need for meditating of the Word has never been greater today, and the imperative of establishing a biblical worldview - the bedrock for one's spiritual growth - has become indispensable.

So, in light of all of this, I'd like to share 11 defining characteristics to help us to manifest the Christian values. Each defining characteristic is supported by relevant verses.  It is unfortunate even to differentiate authentic and inauthentic Christians, but the spirit of the times impel us to provide greater clarity into the truth. I hope you take the following descriptors seriously and live out these principles in your daily life. No one said living as a Christian is an easy feat, but our Lord is gracious and blesses those who give their entirety to Him.

 The Fruit of Authentic Christianity                                  

Love For God	Psalms 42:1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. Luke 10:27 So he answered and said, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.
Repentance from Sin	Psalms 32:5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Proverbs 28:13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. 2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. 1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Genuine Humility	Psalms 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-- These, O God, You will not despise. James 4:6, 9 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."
Devotion to God’s Glory	Psalms 105:3                  Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! Jeremiah 9:23, 24 Thus says the Lord: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;  But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the Lord. 1 Corinthians 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Continual Prayer	Luke 18:1 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints-- Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 1 Timothy 2:1-4 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Selfless Love	1 John 2:9, He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now 1 john 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Separation from the World	1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. James 4:4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 1 John 2: 15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world.  And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Spiritual Growth	Luke 8:15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. Ephesians 4:12-16 For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;  that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,  but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ--  from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Obedient Living	Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. Romans 16:26 But now has been made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures has been made Known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith.
Hunger for God’s Word	1 Peter 2:1-3 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,  as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Psalms 1: 1-6 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.  He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.  The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.  For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Transformation of Life	2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

The Marks of a Spiritual Leader

I  recently stumbled across the widely respected pastor John Piper's blog in which, to my utter surprise, I excavated a brilliant article elucidating the notion of spiritual leadership. His insights profoundly crystallized my understanding of what it genuinely means to be a 'godly leader.' 

Just look around the world and see for yourself what kind of leadership it offers. You will likely find yourself more confused than ever as you begin to embark your leadership journey devouring leadership literature as I did. After all, books are merely theories; leadership is theory in action. Most of the real learning happens on the job. It seems the world can never universally agree up on single definition of leadership. In fact, type in "leadership" at Amazon.com, and you'll find yourself deluged with more than 67,500 hits. Sure, leadership gurus such as Warren Bennis, Jim Collins, and Marshall Goldsmith provides compelling leadership frameworks, but as followers of Christ, how do we know which model or framework is the definitive path to aspiring into a spiritual leader? The answers: Word of God. It doesn't take too long to see that in the Scripture,  God has used numerous men and women of God as His instrument in which all were thoroughly infused with the Holy Spirit, making their bold steps in altering the course of history through their unique spiritual gifts and God-given talents. I would challenge you to read this article in one-sitting alone and meditate on the key insights from this article assessing where you are in your leadership journey and what it takes to aspire into a spiritual leader. God bless!
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I define spiritual leadership as knowing where God wants people to be and taking the initiative to use God's methods to get them there in reliance on God's power. The answer to where God wants people to be is in a spiritual condition and in a lifestyle that display his glory and honor his name. Therefore, the goal of spiritual leadership is that people come to know God and to glorify him in all that they do. Spiritual leadership is aimed not so much at directing people as it is at changing people. If we would be the kind of leaders we ought to be, we must make it our aim to develop persons rather than dictate plans. You can get people to do what you want, but if they don't change in their heart you have not led them spiritually. You have not taken them to where God wants them to be.

Everyone has the responsibility of leadership in some relationships. But my concern in this paper is with the characteristics that a person must have in order to be a spiritual leader who excels both in the quality of his direction and the numbers of people who follow him.

Biblical spiritual leadership contains an inner circle and an outer circle. The inner circle of spiritual leadership is that sequence of events in the human soul that must happen if anyone is to get to first base in spiritual leadership. These are the absolute bare essentials. They are things that all Christians must attain in some degree, and when they are attained with high fervor and deep conviction they very often lead one into strong leadership. In the outer circle are qualities that characterize both spiritual and non-spiritual leaders. What I would like to try to do now in this paper is simply explain and illustrate these qualities on the inner circle and the outer circle.

The Inner Circle of Spiritual Leadership

1. That Others Will Glorify God

The ultimate goal of all spiritual leadership is that other people might come to glorify God, that is, might so feel and think and act as to magnify the true character of God. According to Matthew 5:14-16, one of the crucial means by which a Christian leader brings other people to glorify God is by being a person who loves both friend and foe. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid, nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven." This text shows that there is an attitude and lifestyle that is so distinctive that when it appears in the arena of fallen humanity it gives valid evidence that there is a God and he is a gloriously trustworthy heavenly father. When the reality of God's promises to take care of us and to work everything together for our good grips our hearts so that we do not fall prey to greed or fear or vainglory but rather manifest a contentment and a love and a freedom for other people, then the world will have to admit that the one who gives us hope and freedom must be real and glorious.

2. Love Both Friend and Foe by Trusting in God and Hoping in His Promises

But how shall we attain to a love that is strong enough to bless and pray for its enemies? The answer given in Scripture (and this is the third level in the inner circle) is that trust in God and hope in his promises leads to love. Galatians 5:6 says, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love." That is, when we have strong faith in the goodness of God it inevitably works itself out in love.Colossians 1:4, 5 says, "We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven." In other words, when our hope is strong we are freed from fears and cares that prevent the free exercises of love. Therefore, a spiritual leader must be a person who has strong confidence in the sovereign goodness of God to work everything together for his good. Otherwise, he will inevitably fall into the trap of manipulating circumstances and exploiting people in order to secure for himself a happy future which he is not certain God will provide.

3. Meditate On and Pray Over His Word

But how shall we sinners come to have this kind of confidence in God? Romans 10:17says, "Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ." And Psalm 119:18 says, "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." These two texts together show us that faith in God is rooted in God's Word. When we hear God's Word, especially the preaching of Christ in whom all the promises of God have their yes, we are moved to trust him, but this does not happen automatically. We must pray that our eyes be open to the true significance of the Word of God in Scripture. So the spiritual leader must be a person who meditates on the Word of God and who prays for spiritual illumination. Otherwise, his faith will grow weak and his love will languish and no one will be moved to glorify God because of him.

4. Acknowledge Your Helplessness

But finally, we must ask how a person comes to be willing to spend time with and be open to the Word of God? The answer seems to be that we must acknowledge our helplessness. All true spiritual leadership has its roots in desperation. Jesus commended the man who said, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." Jesus said of his own ministry, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous but sinners." This means that the beginning of spiritual leadership must be in the acknowledgement that we are the sick who need a physician. Once we are humbled to that point we will be opened to reading the doctor's prescription in the Word. And as we read the wonderful promises that are there for those of us who trust the doctor, our faith will grow strong and our hope will become solid. And when our faith is strong and our hope is solid all the barriers to love, like greed and fear, will be swept away. When we become the kind of people who can risk our lives, even for our enemies, and who don't hold grudges and who devote our energies to do others good rather than seeking our own aggrandizement, then people will see and give glory to our father in heaven.

The implication of this inner circle of leadership is that in order to lead you have to be out ahead of your people in Bible study and prayer. I think there will be no successful spiritual leadership without extended seasons of prayer and meditation on the Scriptures. Spiritual leaders ought to rise early in order to meet God before they meet anybody else. They will probably want to keep a journal of insights and ideas as they read the Word and pray. They will want to read books about the Bible (for example, books by J.I. Packer and Paul Little and John Stott and dozens of other excellent evangelical authors) and about prayer (for example, the eight books by E.M. Bounds). They will want to take a periodic half-day retreat with a Bible and a notebook and a hymnbook. If you want to be a great leader of people you have to get away from people to be with God.

Hudson Taylor's Example

Dr. Howard Taylor, in Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret (page 234f.) describes an experience that he had traveling with his father, Hudson Taylor, through China. He writes,

It was not easy for Mr. Taylor in his changeful life, to make time for prayer and Bible study, but he knew that it was vital. Well do the writers remember traveling with him month after month in northern China, by cart and wheelbarrow, with the poorest of inns at night. Often with only one large room for coolies and travelers alike, they would screen off a corner for their father and another for themselves, with curtains of some sort; and then after sleep at last had brought a measure of quiet they would hear a match struck and seek the flicker of candlelight which told that Mr. Taylor, however weary, was pouring over the little Bible in two volumes always at hand. From two to four a.m. was the time he usually gave to prayer; the time when he could be most sure of being undisturbed to wait upon God. That flicker of candlelight has meant more to them than all they have read or heard on secret prayer; it meant reality, not preaching but practice.

The hardest part of the missionary career, Mr. Taylor found, is to maintain regular, prayerful Bible study. "Satan will always find you something to do," he would say, "when you ought to be occupied about that, if it is only arranging a window blind."

George Mueller's Example

George Mueller is noteworthy for his great faith in the work of his orphanages. In his autobiography he has a section entitled, "How to be Constantly Happy in the Lord." He complains how for years he used to try to pray early in the morning and found that his mind wandered again and again. Then he made a discovery. He records it like this:

The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished . . . Before this time my practice had been at least for ten years previously as a habitual thing to give myself to prayer after having dressed in the morning. Now I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, while meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord. I began, therefore, to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord's blessing upon his precious word, was to begin to meditate on the word of God, searching as it were into every verse to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for a while making confession or intercession or supplication or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me that food for my soul as the object of my meditation.

The result of this is that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation and that my inner man almost invariably is almost sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not a happy state of heart.

Now that God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for the inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as everyone must allow. Now what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.

By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had to pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I have ever had before; and after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it. How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one!

It should be an encouragement to all of us to persevere in the meditation upon God's Word when we read a letter which, in 1897, George Mueller sent to the British and Foreign Bible Society in which he had to excuse himself from attending a meeting in Burmingham. He said, "Will you have the kindness to read to the meeting that I have been for sixty-eight years and three months, viz., since July, 1929, a lover of the word of God and that uninterruptedly. During this time I have read considerably more than one hundred times through the whole of the Old and New Testaments with prayer and meditation." If we are going to be powerful spiritual leaders we must move in the direction of Hudson Taylor and George Mueller.

The Outer Circle of Spiritual Leadership

Everyone in the church has one or more spiritual gifts. Everyone should be involved in ministry. Everyone should be seeking to lead others to the point where they bring glory to God by the way they think and feel and act. But there are some people to whom the Lord has given qualities of personality that tend to make them more able leaders than others. Not all of these qualities are distinctively Christian, but when the Holy Spirit fills a person's life each of these qualities is harnessed and transformed for God's purposes.

1. Restless

Spiritual leaders have a holy discontentment with the status quo. Non-leaders have inertia that causes them to settle in and makes them very hard to move off of dead center. Leaders have a hankering to change, to move, to reach out, to grow, and to take a group or an institution to new dimensions of ministry. They have the spirit of Paul, who said in Phil. 3:13, "Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Leaders are always very goal-oriented people.

God's history of redemption is not finished. The church is shot through with imperfections, lost sheep are still not in the fold, needs of every sort in the world are unmet, sin infects the saints. It is unthinkable that we should be content with things the way they are in a fallen world and an imperfect church. Therefore, God has been pleased to put a holy restlessness into some of his people, and those people will very likely be the leaders.

2. Optimistic

Spiritual leaders are optimistic not because man is good but because God is in control. The leader must not let his discontentment become disconsolation. When he sees the imperfection of the church he must say with the writer of Hebrews (6:9), "Though we speak thus, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things that belong to salvation." The foundation of his life is Romans 8:28, "God works all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose." He reasons with Paul that, "He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will then surely give us all things with him" (Rom. 8:32). Without this confidence based upon the goodness of God manifested in Jesus Christ the leader's perseverance would falter and the people would not be inspired. Without optimism restlessness becomes despair.

3. Intense

The great quality I want in my associates is one of intensity. Romans 12:8 says that if your gift is leadership, "do it with zeal." Romans 12:11 says, "Never flag in zeal, boil in the spirit!" When the disciples remembered the way Jesus had behaved in relation to the temple of God they characterized it with words from the Old Testament like this, "Zeal for thy house has eaten me up" (John 2:17). The leader follows the advice of Ecclesiastes 9:10, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might." When Jonathan Edwards was a young man he wrote a list of about seventy resolutions. The one that has inspired me the most goes like this: "To live with all my might while I live." Count Zinzendorf of the Moravians said, "I have one passion. It is He and He alone." Jesus warns us in Revelation 3:16 that he does not have any taste for people who are lukewarm: "Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth." Spiritual leaders must go out alone somewhere and ponder what unutterable and stupendous things they know about God. If their life is one extended yawn they are simply blind. Leaders must give evidence that the things of the Spirit are intensely real. They cannot do that unless they are intense themselves.

4. Self-controlled

By self-controlled I do not mean prim and proper and unemotional, but rather master of our drives. If we are to lead others toward God we cannot be led ourselves toward the world. According to Gal. 5:23 self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. It is not mere willpower. It is appropriating the power of God to get mastery over our emotions and our appetites that could lead us astray or cause us to occupy our time with fruitless endeavors. In 1 Corinthians 6:12 Paul says, "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything." The Christian leader must ruthlessly examine his life to see whether he is the least enslaved by television, alcohol, coffee, golf, computer games, fishing, Playboy, masturbation, good food. Paul said in 1 Corinthians. 9:25, "Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." And he says inGalatians. 5:24, "Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passion and desires." Spiritual leaders ruthlessly track down bad habits and break them by the power of the Spirit. They hear and follow Romans 8:13, "If you life according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live." Spiritual leaders long to be free from everything that hinders their fullest delight in God and service of others.

5. Thick-skinned

One thing is for sure: if you begin to lead others you will be criticized. No one will be a significant spiritual leader if his aim is to please others and seek their approval. Paul said inGalatians 1:10, "Am I seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men I should not be a servant of Christ." Spiritual leaders do not seek the praises of men, they seek to please God. Dr. Carl Lundquist, former President of Bethel College and Seminary, said in his final report to the Baptist General Conference that there was hardly one of the 28 years in which he served the Conference that he was not actively opposed by many people.

If criticism disables us, we will never make it as spiritual leaders. I don't mean that we must be the kind of people who don't feel hurt, but rather that we must not be wiped out by the hurt. We must be able to say with Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:8, "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." We will feel the criticism but we will not be incapacitated by it. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:16, "We do not lose heart."

Leaders must be able to digest depression because they will eat plenty of it. There will be many days when the temptation is very strong to quit because of unappreciative people. Criticism is one of Satan's favorite weapons to try to get effective Christian leaders to throw in the towel.

I should, however, qualify this characteristic of being thick-skinned. I do not want to give the impression that spiritual leaders are closed off to legitimate criticism. A good leader must not only be thick-skinned but also open and humbly ready to accept and apply just criticism. No leader is perfect and Jonathan Edwards said once that he made it a spiritual discipline to look for the truth in every criticism that came his way before he discarded it. That's good advice.

6. Energetic

Lazy people cannot be leaders. Spiritual leaders "redeem the time" (Eph. 5:16). They work while it is day, because they know that night comes when no man can work (John 9:4). They "do not grow weary in well doing" for they know that in due season they shall reap if they do not lose heart (Gal. 6:9). They are "steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord their labor is not in vain" (1 Cor. 15:58). But they do not take credit for this great energy or boast in their efforts because they say with the apostle Paul, "I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Cor. 15:10). And: "For this I toil, striving with all the energy which He mightily inspires within me" (Col. 1:29).

The world is run by tired men, someone has said. A leader must learn to live with pressure. None of us accomplishes very much without deadlines and deadlines always create a sense of pressure. A leader does not see the pressure of work as a curse but as a glory. He does not desire to fritter away his life in excess leisure. He loves to be productive. And he copes with the pressure and prevents it from becoming worrisome with promises likeMatthew 11:27, 28 and Philippians 4:7, 8 and Isaiah 64:4.

7. A Hard Thinker

"Be babes in evil, but in thinking be mature!" (1 Cor. 14:20). It is not easy to be a leader of people who can outthink you. A leader must be one who, when he sees a set of circumstances, thinks about it. He sits down with pad and pencil and doodles and writes and creates. He tests all things with his mind and holds fast to what is good (1 Thes. 5:21). He is critical in the best sense of the word, that is, not gullible or faddish or trendy. He weighs things and considers pros and cons and always has a significant rationale for the decisions that he makes. Careful and rigorous thought is not contrary to a reliance on prayer and divine revelation. The apostle Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:7, "Think over what I say, for the Lord will grant you understanding in everything." In other words, God's way of imparting to us insight is not to short-circuit the intellectual process.

8. Articulate

It is hard to lead others if you cannot state your thoughts clearly and forcefully. Leaders like Paul aim to persuade men, not coerce them (2 Cor. 5:11). Leaders who are spiritual do not muster a following with hot air or waves or words but rather with crisp, solid, compelling sentences. The apostle Paul aimed, like all good leaders, at clarity in what he said. According to Colossians 4:4 he asked the people to pray for him, "that I might make it clear, as I ought to speak." It is astonishing and lamentable how many people today cannot speak in complete sentences. The result is that a great fog surrounds their thought. Neither they nor their listeners know exactly what they are talking about. A haze settles over the discussion and you walk away wondering what it was all about. If no one rises above the muddle-headedness and verbal chaos of "You know . . . I mean . . . Just really", there will not be any leadership.

9. Able to Teach

It is not surprising to me that some of the great leaders at Bethlehem Baptist Church have been men who are also significant teachers. According to 1 Timothy 3:2 anyone who aspires to the office of overseer in the church should be able to teach. What is a good teacher? I think a good teacher has at least the following characteristics.

• A good teacher asks himself the hardest questions, works through to answers, and then frames provocative questions for his learners to stimulate their thinking.
• A good teacher analyzes his subject matter into parts and sees relationships and discovers the unity of the whole.
• A good teacher knows the problems learners will have with his subject matter and encourages them and gets them over the humps of discouragement.
• A good teacher foresees objections and thinks them through so that he can
  answer them intelligently.
• A good teacher can put himself in the place of a variety of learners and therefore explain hard things in terms that are clear from their standpoint.
• A good teacher is concrete, not abstract, specific, not general, precise, not vague, vulnerable, not evasive.
• A good teacher always asks, "So what?" and tries to see how discoveries shape our whole system of thought. He tries to relate discoveries to life and tries to avoid compartmentalizing.
• The goal of a good teacher is the transformation of all of life and thought into a Christ-honoring unity.

10. A Good Judge of Character

Jesus knew the hearts of men (Jn. 2:17) and he urged us to be perceptive in assessing others (Mt. 7:15ff.). Leaders must know who is fit for what kind of work. Good leaders have good noses. They can snoop out barnacles in a hurry, that is, people who are forever listening but never learning or changing. They can detect potential when they see it in a beginner. They can hear in a short time the echoes of pride and hypocrisy and worldliness. The spiritual leader steers a careful course between the dangers of rigid pigeonholing on the one hand and indifference on the other hand.

11. Tactful

Paul said in Colossians 4:5, 6, "Conduct yourself wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, to know how it is necessary to answer each one." And the writer of Proverbs said, "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver" (25:11). We must remember that leaders are aiming to change hearts, not just to get jobs done. Therefore, alienating people unnecessarily is self-defeating. Tact is that quality of grace that wins the confidence of people who are sure you won't do or say something stupid. You can't inspire a following if people have to hang their heads in embarrassment at the inappropriate and insensitive things you say or do. Tact is especially needed in a leader to help cope with embarrassing or tragic situations. For example, very often when you are leading a group someone will say something totally irrelevant, which is recognized to be very foolish by everyone in the group. A tactful leader must be able to divert the attention of the group back to the main course of the discussion without heaping scorn upon the individual. Another example, which I recall, comes from my experience at Wheaton College. I was present at the chapel service where V. Raymond Edman had a heart attack in the pulpit and fell over and died. Hudson Armerding, who followed him as president, was sitting behind him when Dr. Edman paused in his lecture, took one step to the side, and fell over. In one of the most beautiful and sensitive demonstrations of tact that I have ever seen, Dr. Armerding quickly kneeled beside him as 2,000 students fell silent. Then he stood, led us in a brief prayer committing Dr. Edman to the Lord, and dismissed the students quietly. Dr. Edman died as we walked out.

The tact of a leader must demonstrate itself in forthright confrontation. The person who is unwilling to approach a person who needs admonition or rebuke will not be a successful spiritual leader. Combined with his judgment of people's character, a leader's tact will enable him to handle delicate negotiations and opposing viewpoints. His choice of words will be astute rather than clumsy. (There is a big difference between saying, "Your foot is too big for this shoe" and "This shoe is too small for your foot".)

12. Theologically Oriented

Colossians 3:17 says, "Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." 1 Corinthians 2:16 speaks of the spiritual man as having the mind of Christ. A spiritual leader knows that all of life, down to its smallest detail, has to do with God. If we are to lead people to see and reflect God's glory, we must think theologically about everything. We must work toward a synthesis of all things. We must probe to see how things fit together. How do war and sports and pornography and birthday celebrations and literature and space travel and disease and enterprise all hang together? How do they relate to God and his purposes?

Leaders must have a theological standpoint that helps give coherence to all things. This will give the leader a stability that keeps him from being knocked off his feet by sudden changes in circumstances or new winds of doctrine. He knows enough about God and his ways that things generally fit into a pattern and make sense even when they are unpleasant. So the leader does not throw up his hands but points the way onward to God.

13. A Dreamer

According to Joel 2:28, in the last days (in which we now live), "Your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions." This is the positive counterpart to restlessness. We must not only be discontent with the present but also dreaming dreams of what could be in the future. In 2 Kings 6:15-17, Elisha and his servant were surrounded by Assyrians in the city of Dothan. When the servant sees this and cries out with dismay, Elisha prays and says, "O Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see." So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

Leaders can see the power of God overshadowing the problems of the future. This is a rare gift – to see the sovereign power of God in the midst of seemingly overwhelming opposition. Most people are experts at seeing all the problems and reasons not to move forward in a venture. Many pastors are ruined by boards who think that they have done their duty when they throw up every obstacle and problem to an idea that he brings. That's cheap. Hope and solutions are expensive. The spirit of venturesomeness is at a premium today. 0, how we need people who will devote just five minutes a week to dream of what might possibly be. The text says that old men will dream dreams. How sad it is, then, to see so many old people assuming that their age means that now they can coast and turn over the creativity to the young. It is tragic when age makes a man jaded instead of increasingly creative. Every new church, every agency, every new ministry, every institution, every endeavor, is the result of someone having a vision and laying hold on it like a snapping turtle.

14. Organized and Efficient

A leader does not like clutter. He likes to know where and when things are for quick access and use. His favorite shape is the straight line, not the circle. He groans in meetings that do not move from premises to conclusions but rather go in irrelevant circles. When something must be done he sees a three-step plan for getting it done and lays it out. A leader sees the links between a board decision and its implementation. He sees ways to use time to the full and shapes his schedule to maximize his usefulness. He saves himself large blocks of time for his major productive activities. He uses little pieces of time lest they go to waste. (For example, what do you do while you are brushing your teeth? Could you set a magazine on the towel rack and read an article?) A leader takes time to plan his days and weeks and months and years. Even though it is God who ultimately directs the steps of the leader, he should plan his path. A leader is not a jellyfish that gets tossed around by the waves, nor is he an oyster that is immovable. The leader is the dolphin of the sea and can swim against the stream or with the stream as he plans.

15. Decisive

In 1 Kings 18:21 Elijah cries out, "How long will you go limping with two different opinions: if the Lord is God follow him; but if Baal then follow him." A leader cannot be paralyzed by indecisiveness. He will take risks rather than do nothing. He will soak himself in prayer and in the Word and then rest himself in God's sovereignty as he makes decisions, knowing that he will very likely make some mistakes.

16. Perseverant

Jesus said in Matthew 24:13, "He who endures to the end will be saved." Paul said inGalatians 6:9, "Let us not grow weary in well-doing." We live in a day when immediate gratification is usually demanded. That means that very few people excel in the virtue of perseverance. Very few people keep on and keep on in the same ministry when there is significant difficulty. Vision without perseverance, however, results in fairy tales not fruitful ministry. My dad once told me that the reason he thinks many pastors fail to see revival in their churches is that they leave just before it is about to happen. The long haul is hard, but it pays. The big tree is felled by many, many little chops. The criticisms that come your way will be long forgotten if you keep on doing the Lord's will.

17. A Lover

Here I am speaking directly to men who are husbands and leaders. Paul said in Ephesians 5:25, "Husbands, love your wives!" Love her! Love her! What does it profit a man if he gains a great following and lose his wife? What have we led people to if they see that it leads us to divorce? What we need today are leaders who are great lovers. Husbands who write poems for their wives and sing songs to their wives and buy flowers for their wives for no reason at all except that they love them. We need leaders who know that they should take a day alone with their wives every now and then; leaders who do not fall into the habit of deriding and putting their wives down, especially with careless little asides in public; leaders who speak well of their wives in public and complement them spontaneously when they are alone; leaders who touch her tenderly at other times besides when they are in bed. One of the greatest temptations of a busy leader is to begin to treat his wife as a kind of sex object. It starts to manifest itself when the only time he ever kisses her passionately or touches her tenderly is when he's trying to allure her into bed. It is a tragic thing when a wife becomes a mannequin for masturbation. Learn what her delights are and bring her to the fullest experience of sexual climax. Talk with her and study her desires. Look her in the eye when you talk to her. Put down the paper and turn off the television. Open the door for her. Help her with the dishes. Throw her a party. LOVE HER! LOVE HER! If you don't, all your success as a leader will very likely explode in failure at home.

18. Restful

We began with the quality of restlessness and we end with the quality of restful. "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep" (Ps. 127:1,2). The spiritual leader knows that ultimately the productivity of his labors rests in God and that God can do more while he is asleep than he could do while awake without God. He knows that Jesus said to his busy disciples, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while" (Mk. 6:31). He knows that one of the Ten Commandments was, "Six days shall you labor and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God" (Ex. 20:9,10). He is not so addicted to work that he is unable to rest. He is a good steward of his life and health. He maximizes the totality of his labor by measuring the possible strains under which he can work without diminishing his efficiency of unduly shortening his life.

Conclusion

There are no doubt many other qualities which could be mentioned which, if a person has, would make him an even more successful leader. These are simply the ones that came to my mind as I was pondering this subject. one need not excel in every one of them. But the more fully each one is developed in a person the more powerful and fruitful he will be as a leader. Let me emphasize again that it is the inner circle that makes the leadership spiritual. All genuine leadership begins in a sense of desperation; knowledge that we are helpless sinners in need of a great savior. That moves us to listen to God in his Word and cry out to him for help and for insight in prayer. That leads us to trust in God and to hope in his great and precious promises. This frees us for a life of love and service which, in the end, causes people to see and give glory to our Father in heaven.