Leadership
5 Characteristics to Model Before Your Congregation
If you want to be a people builder, start by giving people an example to follow. Leadership begins with you and with how you live. At its most basic level, leadership is about being a model for others.
Why? You can only take a person as far as you have gone yourself. That’s why the first audience for your sermons each week isn’t your congregation—it’s you. You can’t preach what hasn’t changed your life already,
The problem today is we don’t know the difference between being a leader and a boss. They are not the same. Dictators demand. Leaders model. You don’t lead by dictating. You lead by example. The Bible says, “Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care but lead them by your good example” (1 Peter 5:3 NLT).
Jesus never asked anybody to do anything he hadn’t already done or wasn’t already doing. The Bible says in John 13:15, “I’ve given you an example to follow. Now do as I have done to you” (NLT). Jesus said he did it, now you do it. In this particular case, he had just washed the feet of the disciples and modeled servanthood. Now he expected his followers to do it. But he modeled it first.
Pastor, what do we need to model to those we serve? Paul gives us five particular characteristics in 1 Timothy 4:12:
- Speech. How do you talk to people?
- Life. How do you live your life?
- Love. Do you really show love to other people?
- Faith. Do you really trust God?
- Purity. Do you live a life of integrity?
Are you modeling those behaviors for your family? Are you modeling them for your church?
Leadership is a choice. The role of the leader doesn’t come automatically when we’re given a title—even if the title is pastor. There are plenty of pastors who aren’t leaders. But you can be a leader. It starts by making choices that other people choose not to make and providing that as an example to others. Anyone can be a leader.
The issue is, do you choose to be one?
