The Art of Leadership
A leader has the task of having to work with different types of people with different ideas, different values and different attitudes to work. The leader has the task of harnessing their best qualities and achieving the best with them.
- A leader has workers who are sons and daughters.
“But ye know the proof of him, that, AS A SON WITH THE FATHER, he hath served with me in the gospel.”
Philippians 2:22
There are people who will work with you in the ministry as sons and daughters. Such people live and work as though they are in a family business. They do not have the usual employee attitude.
They do not have the usual “I am here for what I can get” attitude. They are with you to give their all. Their hearts are as they who have shares in a business.
I find that many difficulties are eliminated by working with sons and daughters. Think about it – you will probably enjoy working with your father more than with your boss! In reality, not all workers are sons or daughters. Some are simply good people who want to work in the organisation.
- A leader has workers who have the same spirit as the leader.
“I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? Walked we not in THE SAME SPIRIT? Walked we not in the same steps?”
2 Corinthians 12:18
There are people who work but have a different spirit from their leader. It is a blessing to find people who work with you with ‘the same spirit’.
Paul was not in the ministry for financial gain, and he found in Titus someone with the same spirit. It does not take very long to find out that people work in the ministry for different reasons. What a blessing it is to find someone who will work with you in the ministry with the same spirit!
Other leaders will encounter this same spirit in the people they work with. There will be some who have the same spirit as you do and give their hearts to what you are also willing to die for, as a leader. When you discover such people, you will experience great joy working with them.
- A leader has workers who are prone to abandoning him.
“For DEMAS HATH FORSAKEN me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.”
2 Timothy 4:10
There are people who are given to you for life. God has called some of us to live and work together for the rest of our lives. A leader experiences a feeling of peace as he works with this permanent family.
On the other hand, there is a type of full-time minister who will abandon you midstream. After being in the ministry for some time, I can often see the type of person who will suddenly resign from the ministry. Demas is the minister or employee who abandons ship in the midst of the journey. Do not become the Demas of your church and ministry.
- A leader has workers who refresh him.
“The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for HE OFT REFRESHED ME, and was not ashamed of my chain.”
2 Timothy 1:16
The most refreshing people are those who are not ashamed of you. Every leader becomes very excited to work with people who are proud of him. It makes it easier to sell his vision to such people because they are wired to ensure that the vision is accomplished.
Such people love everything about the leader, including his unattractive aspects. It is only the deepest kind of love that embraces everything; the good, the bad and the ugly.
Such people do not serve with you for money. They are there because of a very personal love for the leader. A leader always senses when people have a personal love for me. The leader senses that they love him in spite of his imperfections. That is really encouraging!
Every leader has a shameful chain around him. Not everyone who works with him is happy to associate with him. Not everyone who works with him has a personal and permanent love for him.
May you have the spirit of Onesiphorus, and work well with your leader!
Dear leader, may you find great people to work with! May they be like sons and daughters to you!
May they have the same spirit you have! May you be at ease in working with the team you have! May those you work with bring great refreshment to you as you put your hand to the plough!
Have a blessed time of work in 2024!
theaol@ymail.com
By Dag Heward-Mills