Leadership

Leadership
Author: Bruce Lane, Executive Pastor
Running the Race - Part 5

According to leadership expert John Maxwell, “Everything rises or falls on leadership.” For the past ten years, I have spent countless hours helping organizations develop leaders. I can say without a doubt that this statement rings true—everything rises or falls on leadership! People flourish, and organizations thrive when they have great leaders!

The Bible is full of verses about leadership. Here are a couple of my favorites:

• “Without guidance, people fail, but with many counselors there is deliverance.” – Proverbs 11:14 
• “He shepherded them with a pure heart and guided them with his skillful hands.” – Psalm 78:72
• “Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” – Philippians 2:3-4 
• “It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many.” – Matthew 20:26-28 

Notice the attributes or traits of a good leader in those scriptures—guidance, shepherd, pure heart, skill, humility, others-oriented, and servant. When leaders have those traits, people flourish, and organizations thrive.

I believe John Maxwell’s quote that “everything rises or falls on leadership” is also true of the church. Ultimately, Jesus is the leader and head of the Church, but He also established a need for local church leaders. On Sunday, Pastor Tim talked about the qualities of a Godly leader for the church. The most important quality is the leader’s character. The Apostle Paul says this to Titus about leadership character in Titus 1:7-8, “For an overseer, as God’s administrator, must be blameless, not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not addicted to wine, not a bully, not greedy for money, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled.”  

Notice the character traits of a church leader in those scriptures. When church leaders have those traits, the church family flourishes, and the church thrives.

I am thankful we have seen those qualities in Pastor Tim over the past 40 years, and we see those qualities in Josh today. I am excited to see how The Ridge will thrive over the next 25 years!