Earning Leadership

1) People need leaders.

a) When petty fights, selfishness and quarrels begin to threaten the integrity of your team you as a leader need to reestablish the vision and call the team back to it. When the strong willed individual on your team is sabotaging your leadership by doing things that compromise the best interest of the team – if at that moment you don’t step up the whole team can come apart. When there is a major blind spot in one of your team members, that blind spot is jeopardizing what your team stands for, it is then that your team needs you to step up and do what needs to be done – and part of it is that a decision needs to be made. When one of the guys on your team is making all of the girls feel uncomfortable, you as a leader need to call the guy on the carpet and help him to move on.

b) But the most common scenario that you will face revolves around everyday stuff – boredom, distractions, exhaustion, illness and loss of vision – these are times that your team is really going to need you.

2) – ask someone there to read the verse. “No one from the east or the west or the desert can exalt a man. It is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.

a) No matter what it looks like on the outside, no matter how helpless it seems to you, God is fulfilling His plans for the world. And He is doing it, at least in part through the leaders He chooses to raise up or put down in order to accomplish his good purposes.

b) Remember that God has put you in this role through your staff because they believe you are growing in your leadership. So what is the problem- those who put you in this role are not the ones you are going to be leading. Your team is made up of others who may or may not believe in your ability to lead.

c) If military – someone doesn’t follow you you would just get thrown in the brig.

d) If Business – you might dock their pay or fire them.

e) What is different about your situation? You are leading a group of volunteers who are your peers. There will be the day that you are standing in front of your team in China, and they are dog-tired and their emotions are raw and you as there leader that you know is going to be unpopular – It is at that moment that if you have not earned leadership you are in for a real rocky ride that will lead your team to be ineffective this summer.

i) Leadership is a privilege granted by a follower. It is not your giftedness or charisma that make you a leader. Followers make you a leader. It is when in their hearts they say “you go ahead – Ive got your back. When in their hearts they say “I am your man forever” It is at that moment and not before that you are a leader.

ii) If your team doesn’t give it to you, you aint got it. Your biggest challenge as a leader is earning that leadership. Every one of your team members is going to be asking the same question – Can I trust this guy, this gal? Does she have what it takes to make our team successful.

What I want to try and do tonight is bring you to a place where it will be easier for your team members to begin to trust you. I want to give you some tools that will help you to say “come and follow me as I follow Christ. You can trust me.

1) First – nothing will subvert your leadership more than unresolved sin between you and a team member. There is something ugly between you and another and you are minimizing it, refusing to address it.

· We have seen it with the Catholic, and more recently Baptist church leaders who have refused to address the sexual abuse that has gone on for years. Refusal to deal with it has led to a loss of trust.

· Guys, if there has been any impurity between you and any of the women on your team – you must go to them in brokenness and ask forgiveness before you leave for your trip. If there have been hurtful words and you are thinking it is no big deal, we get along on our campus. The first time you ask them to do something hard, something they don’t want to do, do you know what they will be thinking? Faker, hypocrite.

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2) It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honorable to seek one’s honor. Like a city whose walls are broken down, is a man who lacks self-control.

· Both honey and seeking recognition are things that will make you especially vulnerable to the enemy.

· Self control – especially in the area of humility is your protection.

Your team will be able to tell quickly if you are leading them from sense of self-promotion or humility.

My friend Mohammad, regularly asks me to tell him if he is doing anything that would hurt his witness for Christ. I challenge you to began asking your closest, most trusted and spiritually minded friends…What am I communicating with my words and actions. Do I communicate a passion to become nothing with my tongue? Am I sarcastic, and what does that communicate? What about the way that I use humor? What about with my posture and the way that I dress, who I talk to, and my tone, especialy when times are tense?

3) Third piece of advice is found in

"Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. 21“What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” 22“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered. 23Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.” 24When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. 25Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—28just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”"

· Leadership in the kingdom will look very different – the one who would be great among you must be your servant.

· You wont earn the loyalty of your followers by drawing attention to yourself. You will earn it the same way that Jesus did – when you lay down your life for those you are asking to follow you. When you humble yourself and make yourself a slave.

This one is critical – When a team member gets sick are you willing to stay with them and letting another team member be involved with the people you are reaching out to. Are you eager to allow a team member to share Gospel with someone that is ready to become a Christ follower or do you have to be the one to do it.

· Last December I retired from leading FOCUS International, a missions training organization for students. Many of the missionaries we worked with said that students coming through FOCUS were some of the best trained, most effective students they have ever worked with. Please understand, I am not tooting my own horn when I tell you this. We were effective, not because of of me but because of the faithfulness of men and women like your campus leaders. They work at providing ministry opportunities for you and then work to equip and empower you to be the men and women God is calling you to be.

· Servant leadership is talked about in churches a lot, it’s practiced a little. So sometimes it’s hard to see what it looks like. Your campus ministry staff is working hard and at great personal cost of time, energy and sometimes money so that you may be successful. They are creating an atmosphere where you can be trained to lead your peers.

4) - Your team members will follow you the same way that you follow those who lead you. Through the years I have learned much about campus leaders by watching their students. If students have humility, more often than not their director is. If students are sarcastic, so is their director. Your teammates will model more of who you are than doing what you say.

Let me give you a few practical guidelines for the summer:

1. If your mind is where your body is, as a servant leader you are a step behind. When you are at dinner, in the market or in class – if your mind is where your body is you are a step behind. The servant leader doesn’t have the privilege of living only in the moment. You need to always be thinking a step ahead – how can I best facilitate the transition of moving the group to the next place? How can I best serve this team in the next context? And you will need to do this and not be oblivious to what is going on around you at the moment.

2. Serve according to their needs and not your strengths. If you serve according to their needs, that will be where you earn leadership.

a. Some of you are really good at listening, others at carrying things, etc. Give yourself to helping your team be successful at your expense.

b. Failing while trying desperately to meet their needs will earn you more leadership than succeeding at something that is irrelevant to them.

3. Expect nothing in return – no strings attached. Serve by laying down your life for your team. This is the example of Christ.

a. 20 years ago at FOCUS orientation we asked the students to do some work around the retreat center. It was physical, hot and dirty work. A team from OK began a chant that the entire group picked up. “to obey is my objective, to suffer is expected, His glory my reward”

4. Go hard – you are the pace setter. Harold Bullock, my friend of almost 50 years and the man who discipled me once told me – “if you are going to ask your followers to bleed, you have to hemorrhage” When it is the hardest to do, it matters the most.

Are there people that you need to be reconciled with?

Are there areas of your life that are out of control?

A great passage for you to memorize and live by this summer is Phil. 22:3-4