Video Transcript: What is an effective leader? Part 2

Welcome back to our study of learning to lead. Learning those skills we need to be more  effective leaders for the Kingdom of God, or wherever it is God has called you to serve. 

Now, in the last couple of sessions, we've been looking at leadership, and we've defined it as a leader, interacting with a culture, and the way things are done here, to define a preferable future and then define and describe the actions that are needed to get there, through prayer and planning. 

And here's the words that we've been putting with it. A leader, with all his pluses and minuses, strengths and weaknesses, interacts with a group of people to define the culture, the way things are done here, in order to develop a vision for a preferable future, and then provides the impetus for doing the actions necessary to bring about that future with plans and prayer. 

Now, last time, we looked at some examples within the American culture of effective leaders from history, and some present leaders in business and the church world. These are people who have demonstrated a capacity for helping God's people move forward into a God ordained and God called Vision. 

But when we look to the Bible, we find again, some just excellent, excellent models of what it means to be a leader. And so we're going to look at  some of them today. 

First of all, Joseph, we read about his story in Genesis 37, through 50. Joseph, you remember, was a young man who was the favored son of Jacob. And he had these dreams where, you know, there are these stars and all of his brothers stars, and even his father's stars are bowing down to him and sheaves of grain in the field, and they're bowing down to him, and his brothers t took exception to his picturing himself as higher than them, as more important than them. And as a result of their resentment of that, and his father showing favoritism toward him, they sold him into slavery to Egypt. And he ends up in Potiphar's house and then Potiphar's wife tries to seduce him and he runs from her, and as a result, she accuses him of trying to rape her, and then he's thrown into prison. And in prison, he languishes for a period of time until he finally rises to become the second most powerful leader in the nation, the country of Egypt, during a time of famine, prosperity, first for seven years and famine, because he's been given the ability to interpret dreams, by God Himself. Some things about him, first of all, he was somebody with vision. 

Now he understood even as a child, because of the dreams God gave him. Way toward the end of this session on leadership, we're going to talk about how God leads us and how sometimes that happens through dreams. But he had these dreams of a future where he  was going to be a recognized leader. He had competence. We read that when he comes into  Potiphar's house, he was given eventually rule over the entire estate of this important man.  Why, because was competent, he knew how to run things, how to manage things, how to deal with people, he had character, he wasn't going to compromise his beliefs, by dealing with Potiphar's wife when she comes to him. And he had this character that is repeated over and over again, that showed that the Lord was with him. In fact, it's stated again and again. And that's why things always kind of turn out well for him, even though he spent years, years in prison, years as a slave, not a result of anything that he had done. But one of the most  important things about his leadership was he was able to keep the big picture in mind. In fact, when his brothers come, and they're trying to ensure that he's not going to get his revenge on them after their father dies, his statement is the one on the screen there. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good. Incredible leader. As a result, he saved the nation of Egypt, he also saved the promised people of God, the descendants of Abraham, from whom a Messiah was going to come. And it's all because he was an effective leader. 

Moses. We read about Moses in Exodus and Deuteronomy, and there are many things we could say about Moses, first of all, is definite call. In Exodus chapter three, we read about that burning bush experience. Wouldn’t you love to have that? First of all God calling him to the burning bush and saying take off your shoes for the place you're standing is holy ground. Then say, I want you to go and deliver my people from slavery in Egypt. I've heard their call. Wow. I’d love to have a call like that, wouldn't you? Moses didn't want it. As a result he tried to avoid going. He said, Please don't send me, send my brother Aaron, etc, etc. But finally he  listened to God's call, and he became an incredible leader. He's known in the history of the  Jews as the great lawgiver. He had an influence on Pharoah, and on the nation of Egypt as  the plagues proceeded, and Israel, he defined the future of the nation of Israel in so many  ways, by defining the laws asGod gave them to him on Mount Sinai and as he lived them out elsewhere. We also sense in him a great humility of spirit. It’s said of him that he was the  humblest man on the face of the earth. And we see that in that situation with his father in law, excuse me, Jethro. We read about it in Exodus chapter 18, where Moses are getting tired, because every day he's got all these people from the from the nation of Israel out in the wilderness coming to him to solve their problems and, and to mediate their disagreements. And Jethro says, This isn't good, you got to find a better way to do this and describes an organizational system. Now I suspect he was somebody who was on the manager side of the scale that we talked about last time. But Moses listens. Now, if you've got a father in law, you know how significant that is. Willing to listen to your father in law, change the structure of a nation of Israel to allow it to move forward and allow him to leave. He was somebody who kept before them the vision of a preferable future when going to the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and he was close to God, as a wonderful description of him. As he comes down off the mountain after spending the days 40 days with with God  getting the law, the 10 commandments on the tablets of stone, and his face is glowing,  glowing, because he had been with God. So Moses, definitely effective leader, incredible  leader, and we can learn much from him. 

David, a powerful leader, somebody who seemed to be a natural leader in many respects. He was chosen by God. We read about that story in I Samuel, where Samuel comes and anointed Him as King, even though Saul is king. And then we find that he is chased for years by Saul, who wants to kill him because Saul recognizes that God has blessed him and called him to be king in his place. And we see during that time, David consistently calling upon God, seeking God, obeying what God tells him to do. And somebody who trusted God, was willing to take great risks. Imagine being a young man, and fighting a Goliath, who was nine feet tall and fully equipped and trained as a warrior. And all he comes with is a sling and five stones. Incredible trusting God saying God's going to give me the delivery. Wow, if you want to learn something as a leader, read the story of David and learn about what it means to trust God. And you can also read in there about his failures. And there were many of them, starting with Bathsheba, but David failed forward. In other words, he was somebody who learned from his failures, who sought through repentance, God's forgiveness and restoration and encouragement. And so David's a wonderful model of leadership that we can follow today. 

Nehemiah maybe the best example of just a pure leader in Scripture. When we are introduced to Nehemiah in chapter one of the book of Nehemiah, we find that he is simply asking a question. Hanani one of his brothers comes from Judah with some other men. And it says, I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. And they said to me, Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire. When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. What a call. 

We're gonna talk later about one of the ways God leads us into the preferable future, helps us  identify the preferable future. It’s just the fact that he gives us a burden for something. And so  Nehemiah is called by God. And he's got a clear vision. He wants to rebuild the wall of  Jerusalem. Now a wall back then was a significant thing, because there was no security in a  city if you didn't have a wall. Marauders could come, bands of variety of people, bandits  could come in and just walk into the city and take whatever they wanted. And so to be in a  city without a wall was a challenge and meant that the city could not move forward. The city could not grow, the city could not become the foundation of a nation where we were going to find eventually the Messiah coming out. And so Nehemiah feels this call. And you'll find him seeking God often during the process, refining that vision, but the vision is to build the wall, to build the wall. You see him with great communication as he talks to the people of Jerusalem, and finally convinces them to Let's go, let's go. And they say, Yes, let's go! All of them say, Let's go except for a couple of people who are problem creators. And then you find that he is a tremendous problem solver is able to look at situations where he faces and say, Oh, we can solve this problem and problems with people who are threatening to attack the city. And he says, Okay, let them come, we're going to half carry our swords and spears and the other half will work on the wall and problem after problem after problem show up in the  process. And he's able to come up with solutions as he works with the people. And then there's that focus. You know, at one point he is called to try to have a confab of sorts, gathering with other leaders in the area who are representing the nation that controls Jerusalem at that point. And he says, How can I leave here, I'm involved in a great work, I'm going to stay here and do this work. If you want to learn about leadership and effective leadership, read the book of  Nehemiah. Read the book of Nehemiah several times, and just make note of all the characteristics, as we've been talking about them here, that made him an effective leader. 

Of course, you can't talk about leadership without talking about Jesus. Throughout the Gospels, chosen, appointed by the father, sought God regularly, sometimes spending whole nights in prayer, especially during significant changes in his ministry, like choosing the disciples. The night before that, he spent the night in prayer, wanting to connect with God, he wanted to talk with his father about the preferable future. He gathered what we're later going to call a guiding coalition, those 12 apostles who are going to become leaders on their own in the church that was going to be planted on the day of Pentecost. And then he gave a vision, a kingdom vision, and gives it several times and he ties that vision to the culture, because he  continually and repeatedly calls upon the Old Testament, and says, You know what, I'm going to read this passage from Isaiah, you know, the lame walk, the blind see, the poor have the gospel preached to them, the kingdom of God is here. He anchored it in their culture, and yet gave them a vision of a of a preferable future. Now, they thought the preferable future at the time was freedom from the slavery that was imposed upon them by the Roman Empire. But as Jesus goes on, and preaches and preaches and preaches about the kingdom, they become aware that the kingdom of God is inside you. He's inside you. And so he gave himself to that vision. And then he poured himself out. And he was willing to die for that vision. In fact, that was an instrumental and incredibly important, strategic part of his plan, to offer salvation to the human race again. It could only happen through His death. And so we find him pouring himself out in the garden, weeping, sweating drops like blood. Taking the beatings, the crucifixion, doing that all because of his vision. 

You want to learn about effective leader, read through the Gospels. And just take note of all the times that you see Jesus being an effective leader, as you see him defining a preferable future to the disciples, as you see him working within that culture. Stepping outside the culture occasionally into the Samaritan Village in John chapter four, and the Decapolis and other areas, Caesarea Philippi. But most of his time was spent working within the culture of Judaism, to define a culture that's beyond that, and then after the resurrection, after the resurrection he continually works with his disciples through the power of the Holy Spirit to continue to refine that vision and grow that vision again. If it was left to the disciples, they never would have reached out to Gentiles, of which I am one. They never would have done it. But Jesus had to come in a vision again to lead Peter as these men arrive. Coincidence. And say, we've been sent to Peter to go to this  home of a Centurion. And the Holy Spirit falls on them. And all of a sudden the church vision all of a sudden explodes beyond Israel being the chosen nation of God to this new reality. And God is creating this wonderful future of salvation, and Heaven, for all of us. Incredibly effective leader. There are even books written about Jesus’ leadership. If you want to learn more, you can consult those. 

So Jesus, an effective leader.

The apostles, as you read the book of Acts, you read them presenting the vision. And the vision is that God is a God of love, not just judgment, and he wants you to be with Him in Heaven. And so come join. And you find that they sacrificed themselves. In fact, we don't know exactly what happened to all of them. But we do know that as we look at their histories, all of them with the exception of the apostle John, died violent deaths somewhere. Now, hopefully, that's not the call for you or for me. It may be for you, depending on where you are and the culture you are in, and how Christ is seen in your culture, it may be. 

Part of being an effective leader is saying, as a Christian culture, is God, I am going to give myself to this vision. Now, sometimes that requires us to change  directions. I had this recently, I just retired. And so I was enjoying my retirement. I love camping. So I was camping and hiking and biking and doing things to get back in physical shape. And one night, I had a dream. And I woke up from that dream and realized—In the dream, a group of people that I had been part of was charged with coming up with a strategic plan for the next year. And we are all peers in ministry. And so I have no leadership role among them. 

But as we’re talking about it, in my dream, we're sitting around, and we're talking about, How in the world will you go about making a ministry plan anyway? For a regional group of churches, these are churches that are spread out over miles and miles and miles. How do you go about making a ministry plan that encompasses all of them, in changing our region, as we're reaching out and building the kingdom. And I awoke just after in my dream God says to me, You know how to do this, go and do it. And I woke thinking, Whoa, that was quite a dream. And to my surprise, God continued to speak to me and I began—in fact I got up and started writing down the steps for doing this for a regional group. My experience has always been in the local church, or in a denominationl perspective, but to do it with that group, which is geographically diverse, and ethnically diverse was new. But now I had to plan. And so listening for God is important, listening in the dreams that he gives you the visions that he gives you, and then being willing to live them out. They also listen for God, it's fascinating how God defined his preferable future. Now, many times in the  book of Acts, you find these miraculous things happening. Paul, figures out God's will, because he tries to go to Bethania, but the spirits stops him. And he ends up going instead to Greece and sharing the gospel there. Sometimes that's the way it happened. Peter gets this vision and he acts on it, even though the rest of the church is appalled at first until they catch the vision themselves. 

But Acts 15, for me is always a wonderful example of a group that was learning leadership together. Acts 15 is the Jerusalem Council. When you read  about the Jerusalem Council, you find that they first got together because they didn't know what to do about the Gentiles. There were some who were teaching the Gentile believers that they had to follow all the Old Testament laws and practices. And so they began to talk about that and they gathered together and argued and they discussed vociferously, angrily sometimes, but there's a give and take. And at the end of the day, they decided to send a letter to all the Gentile believers saying, you know, you don't have to be circumcised. You don't  have to keep the feast day. You don't have to be ritualistically a Jew, you can be who you are. We only suggest that you do these things. Abstain from sexual immorality and blood of animals offered and blood eating blood. And they started that letter by saying this, It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. Now sometimes God will lead you through a dream and This is the way we got to go, this is what we got to do. But many times, most times in my experience, it happens to the collaborative discussions within people who are part of the culture as you help to find together what God is calling you to. So that's, that's some people, some people that you can look to for models of leadership within scripture. 

Next time we're  going to be looking more carefully at you, and how God has made you and fashion you to be  the leader that he's called you to be.