Stand up and be counted!

Fulfil your Christian leadership destiny!

“What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love him.” [1Co 2:9 GNB]

Demonstrate Christian leadership and grab hold of your future!

“I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for.” [Jer 29:11 GNB]

Become the Christian leader you are meant to be!

Christian leadership is more than a mere position or appointment.

Do you really know or understand what Christian leadership is all about? Few people do.

There is much confusion regarding leadership and management. This is because managers are often, but not always, also required to lead and leaders are often, but not always, also required to manage.

Because of this overlap between Christian leadership and management, people are coming up with a wide variety of definitions for Christian leadership, most of which would not pass the test.

If I would ask you now to define the difference between Christian leadership and management, what would your answer be?

Just to say that “a leader leads and a manager manages”, is not an answer, because you cannot define a word with itself.

Most attempts at an answer can probably be answered with: “a manager also does that” or “a leader also does that.”

I have heard it said that ‘Leadership is about people’, whereas ‘Management is about process.’

This is not good enough. Managers certainly also work with people!

Christian leaders lead people. Managers manage resources. Of this, the human resource (people) is the most important. People can therefore not be made the differentiating factor between leaders and managers.

What then is the difference between Christian leadership and management?

The best comparison will be that of sheep herders in the Western world versus those in the Eastern world.

The bible analogies of shepherds depict the shepherd walking in front and the sheep following. This is leadership.

In the Western world the shepherd would keep the sheep together and drive them towards their destination. This is management.

Christian leadership is all about vision.

A Christian leader, by definition, is someone that leads. You cannot lead if you don’t know where you are going.

Christian leadership starts at the conception of an idea, not only at birth.

Christian leadership comes to play when you are the first to:

• see a need,
• have a vision for addressing the need,
• make the decision to do something about it;
• and finally, act upon it.

For example, if you notice an empty soda can littering the floor that needs to be picked up, have a desire for a clean environment, decide to pick it up and throw it away and follow through on your decision by actually doing it, then you are a Christian leader by being the first to do it.

Christian leadership is possible even without having followers

Being the first to do something does not necessarily imply that there will be a second or a third. Nevertheless, it still makes you a leader.
 Having followers does not make you a leader, it only defines a type of leadership.

“When God calls you, don’t look over your back to see who is following!”

As a Christian leader, you should understand that there is no clear cut differentiation between the elements of leadership and management. Rather, it forms a continuum.

The following summary, however, could serve as a guide to help you differentiate between the two processes.

Leadership is about activating vision. Management is about process.

If you have a vision, but you don’t act upon it, you are merely a dreamer!

Both leadership and management are about people.

Yes, Christian leadership is about leading people. The church is in dire need of leaders, but what the church needs more than just people caring about people, is Christian leaders that can receive a vision from God and bring it to fulfillment.

What I am saying with my soda can example, is that your leadership is all about your leading, not about your followers.

NOTE:

While all of these leadership ideas can be fairly interesting, there is nothing that compares to the covenant walk with God, where He personally shapes you as a leader. 

“The LORD your God will make you the head and not the tail—placing you above and not beneath—if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I’m giving you today to keep and observe. [Deu 28:13 ISV]