How do We Lead Here?
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever heard of the DISC Assessment? DISC is a personality trait categorization tool published in 1928 where you self asses how much dominance, inducement, submission, and compliance you have as your personality traits. As a part of Karis’ and my study at the Children’s Ministry Institute, we were led by a DISC Expert through this personality-like assessment, and then told whether or not we would be good leaders, and even told which positions we would thrive in within the organization.
During that training, I was told that I was a decent leader, but not amongst the best of the best, because I wasn’t dominant enough, or didn’t have enough dominance in my personality trait to effectively be a directing leader. This, combined with my experiencing trying to be a Godly leader ultimately led me to seminary to study ministry leadership to try to become the most Godly leader that I could be. So, along with a the New and Testaments, I studied “Developing Leaders and Managing Resources.” Along with Theology, I learned about “Current Trends and Issues in Ministry Leadership.” Knowledge can build up, and knowledge can puff up, but in my experience, it can also help to cultivate a sense of profound humility once you realize how little you understand something.
Warren G Bennis said, “leadership is the most studied and least understood topic of any in the social sciences” and “never have so many laboured so long to say so little”, Warren G Bennis . On becoming a leader. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2009.
Maybe you’ve taken a personality test, and have been told that you’re a leader, or maybe that you’re not one. Maybe you desire to be a leader, but you’re afraid that’s a bad thing, or you’re already a leader, but you wish you were not.
“Worry less about where you will lead, are more about who you will become while you get there. ~PBJ
“Leadership is virtue based influence”
-Dr. Mark McCloskey
Faith
Faith
Faith = Clear and compelling purpose beyond self-interest.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
“Faith is dependence upon the veracity of another.” -DL Moody life words and gospel addresses of DL moody
Faith is dependence upon the veracity of God.
How’s your faith life doing? Are you resting in the promises of God?
Hope
Hope
Hope = Expectation of a future, un-guaranteed good. Biblical Hope
“Hope is the ability to believe in the good when the things seems bad” GK Chesterton C is for Christmas
114 You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word.
How’s your hope? Are you confidently walking in the certain hope that God has for your future, or are you fearfully treading in the present, worried what the future will bring?
Love
Love
Love = behavior intended to benefit others without expectation of external reward, and to esteem them, or respect them.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
Wisdom
Wisdom
Prudence (wisdom). virtue of realism, practical discernment, and insight. Psalms and Proverbs.
Broadly speaking, wisdom denotes what a good teacher has and what a good student wants—a desire to acquire knowledge and the ability to perceive the world accurately. -Zach Keele The term ‘wisdom’ is used in manifold ways but is generally associated with life.
Wisdom is practical knowledge.
Wisdom is skill for living. -Leland Ryken
We learn wisdom all throughout the text of scripture, but most poignantly in the wisdom literature of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Psalm of Solomon.
Justice
Justice
Justice (access to resources and information). Idea of fairness, equality, and proportionality.
“Justice is the application of God’s righteous moral standards to the conduct of man. It starts with God, not man.” -Paul Nyquist. He goes on to say… “THE PURPOSE OF JUSTICE If justice has its starting point with God and not with man, then the purpose of justice is determined by God, not man.”
Micah 6:8
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Courage (Fortitude)
Courage (Fortitude)
Courage (Fortitude) = The inner strength to advance in hardship
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. —G.K. CHESTERTON, Orthodoxy
“Courage is the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, and pain in spite of the fear that may be present.” -Shirley Palmer, not on screen.
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Self-Control (Temperance)
Self-Control (Temperance)
Self-Control (Temperance). Inner discipline of self-restraint. Acting in self defense of our inner-moral order; defending it against our own base desires of self interest.
Self-control is an inner disposition or virtue that enables a Christian to restrain “the flesh” in order to concentrate on higher goals. Self-control is a gift of grace to be developed through discipline into a habituated pattern of response.
7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
“Worry less about where you will lead, are more about who you will become while you get there.”~PBJ