The word, Leadership, is thrown around a lot today in the church world. Gone are the days of  if you wanted to read something about leadership, you went to your local Bible Book Store to find the latest John Maxwell book, as he was largely the only recognizable “spiritual” voice on the subject.  Now there are dozens of Podcasts, blogs, books, and even conferences on this very subject. So why does it matter? Better yet, what does it matter to someone that looks at their own life and says, I’m not a leader, I not leading anything, I have no followers, I don’t run a business, I am not a president of a organization, I don’t manage any employees, So what does leadership matter to me?  That is a great question.

Lets look at three areas concerning leadership.

The Bible speaks about following God’s leadership, in Psalms 32:8 (ESV) “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;  I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”  To receive instruction, we must be submissive to the instructor. Also, Psalms 23 speaks about God as “My Shepherd”, acknowledging Him as my shepherd says that I get to chose to submit to His leadership or not. The passage goes into His leading of His sheep and where He will take them. We must recognize His leadership in our lives so that we become true disciples of Him.

How about our families? They need a leader, regardless of your role of Father or Mother, your family needs you to be leader. It is not up to our kids to lead themselves, rather they need someone to tell them it’s time to go to bed, do Homework, and yes go to church. I guarantee you, (if it has not already happened) that they will not want to do one or all of these at some point in their lives, at that time it takes a leader to step in and do what is right, even if it is met with resistance. In Proverbs 1:7-9 “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”  Instruction and teaching, all signs of a leader leading their house.

Lastly we will look at ourselves, we need to lead ourselves. As adults we can no longer rely on others to do what we need to do for ourselves, 1 Corinthians 9:27 “I beat my body and make it my slave”, I am not advocating hurting oneself, what I am saying, is that we need to lead ourselves. For some it might look like going back to school, for others it might be developing the discipline to go to the gym, to read the Word with more regularity, or guarding our tongue. In whatever form it takes, it all takes leadership.

So maybe leadership is more than just the latest hot topic to be thrown around in the church world, perhaps it is so much more than that. No matter where you are in your life, take time to develop Leadership skills.

Pastor Tim Campbell