What is a Godly Leader? (3)

What is a Godly Leader? (3)

Aubrey Malphurs, is his book, ‘Planting Growing Churches’ says this: ‘Christian leaders are Godly persons (character) who know where they are going (vision) and have followers (influence)’ (p126)

Having mentioned vision I move on to my final part, ‘influence.’

Influence

A man of Godly character who has some sense of the direction he is going in, will, generally, be influential to those around him. Good leaders inspire people. Good leaders exert a Godly influence on people. Good, Godly leaders attract people. If you are wondering why others can do it and you can’t, then take a long, hard look in the mirror. Jesus was such a leader. Men gave up everything they had to follow Him. There was something intensely attractive about the Lord Jesus Christ, what he had to say and the manner in which he went about it. In John 1:43 he simply instruct Phillip to ‘follow him’ and he does! This wasn’t some ‘heeby jeeby’ mind meld stuff. This was something else. Grown, hardened men following this simple teacher from Nazareth.

I like to observe people and I have plenty to say on this blog. But in a public context I like to keep my head down and observe. At Bible College I was the same. There were plenty of others who lived to tell the lecturer what the Greek for ‘uninspiring’ was. The same at conferences. I keep my own counsel. I hate ‘groups’ where you have to share your findings. I don’t know why. That’s just me. Unless somebody really hacks me off and I have to blurt it out I keep my head down. And in my observations what I find is that those with attractive personalities stand out a mile. They don’t have to try hard to impress. They’re not jumping up and down with their hands in the air shouting: ‘look at me I know stuff and I’m dead charismatic too!’ There’s just something about these types of people. Amongst other things:

1. They tend to know where they’re going in terms of their ministry.

2. They are confident yet not arrogant in their own fields of expertise.

3. They have a particular life experience that intrigues people.

4. They genuinely love Jesus and take an interest in normal people and not just those who they consider to be helpful to their rise ‘up the ladder.’

5. They communicate clearly and passionately.

6. They are team builders.

7. They inspire people in their walk with the Lord.

Maybe some of you can think of some more.