Leadership...

Everyone seems to have a pet topic of some sort that they like to read about, or do research on. It's different for each person and are often topics that are slightly off the wall, or that other people would consider looking into if it was only homework for some class. For me this topic is leadership. I don't really know why but ever sense my Pastor back home in Portage gave me John Maxwell's "the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership" to read I've been hooked. I don't really know why but it could be because I have seen and had to work with so many different types of leadership. Working in churches provides one type of leadership style, while being in the Army provides a totally different type. Yet on that point it surprises me on how many principles of leadership are the same between the two. They take different approaches but they work out the same.

Now one of the things I have found while reading numerous books and articles on this topic is something that I actually first realized while preparing a Bible study on servant hood. Leadership is in fact one of the truest forms of servant hood. I mean if you think about it when someone is leading others they not only have influence over them, they are working for them! True leaders are not working towards bettering there own existence they are actually working towards improving those who are under them. When in a leadership position you are looking after the others, if they have a problem they come to the leader to have them straighten it all out, if they don't understand something the leader will explain it or they will find out what it means. These thoughts challenge me, to be a leader anywhere be it in the Army or in a Church I must first seek to be a servant. It kind of brings a new twist to the whole "first will be last and the last will be first" concept. just to back up my position a little, those of us who are Christians, we should strive to become like Christ and if there was anything that Jesus modeled it would be servant leadership. The most popular demonstration of this is of course at the last supper where Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, but it is also found all through his life and even his death. Jesus' whole existence here on earth was for the people, for us! When they were hungry he fed them, when they were sick he healed them, when their lives were full of sin he forgave them, when their feet were dirty he washed them, when our futures were at stake he died for us. Jesus Christ was indeed the embodiment of servant hood while on earth and he is still serving us as he is interceding on our behalf to the Father, God himself (Rom 8:34).

So as we all will be in a leadership position at one time or another we need to remember that being a leader does not mean you have reached the top of the ladder but that you are the one giving support and holding the ladder for all the others.

So until I can think of something else to write....