Tag: leader

Leadership 101: Partial Obedience Is Not Obedience

by Brianboswell

Several weeks ago, my daughter and I were having a conversation. Earlier in the day, I had asked her to clean her room. She disappeared for a while and when she came back out of her room later on, I asked her if she had cleaned it. She said she had. When I went to her room to check it out, I found that while she picked up a couple of her toys out of the floor, the room was largely still a mess. I expressed my disappointment that she did not obey me.

“But I did obey you Daddy,” she said, “I cleaned most of my room.” It was at this point, I knew that I needed to sit her down and talk more. I kindly explained to her that partial obedience is not obedience. Obedience means that you have to listen and complete every command to the fullest extent. If you only partially obey, that means you are also partially disobeying.

Following God is no different. We cannot partially obey God’s commands. We either obey him or we don’t. There is no middle ground there. God expects our full and complete obedience. This is one of the reasons why we need a savior. We are a disobedient bunch and we need His Spirit to give us the ability to obey fully.

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Leadership 101: Leaders Are Tested

by Brianboswell

One of the things I’ve said before is that all of us are leaders. Some are leaders in the family, others leaders in their employment. Even if you don’t have a “title” or “position”, you can still be a leader.

Leaders are those that take initiative and keep going when everyone else stops. Godly leaders know that it’s not good enough to simply know the truth, you have to put the truth into action. You have to be a doer of the word, not just a hearer only, as James writes.

What I have found in my life is that when I put a biblical truth into action, I am tested. It seems like it’s almost immediately in most instances. I grab a hold of a new truth that God has given me and suddenly, there I am in the furnace of testing. God wants us content with his truth, but not complacent with it.

So we are tested.

When we enter into a time of testing, most of us think that we have done something wrong. For myself, I immediately start taking inventory of my life. “Where have I sinned?” But God doesn’t need us to sin to test us. He tests us for our own good. He already knows how we will respond when the furnace is turned on; it’s for our good that he flips the switch on us.

I am reminded of God’s servant Job. Job had it all, but it was all taken from him. You want to talk about being tested? Job was tested. His family, his friends, all that he owned…Job was being tested in every area of life. Most of us would not survive a testing like Job went through. But Job went through it, so we could learn from it.

“But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth like gold.”

Job 23:10

Job understood testing better than anyone and I love his bold statement here… “I shall come forth like gold.” Job understood the purpose of testing. He understood that God wants to refine us in the testing. He wants to get the impurities out. These impurities are thoughts and actions that only bubble to the surface in the refiner’s fire, in the testing. Job understood this.

Where are you today? Are you being tested? Do you feel like God has abandoned you? Take heart. God has not abandoned you, even if you feel like it. Job knows how you feel. In the midst of the trial it can feel like you are alone, but you are not alone. God is with you.

This is the life of all of His leaders. If you desire to lead others, you will be tested. You will have times where things don’t go the way you want them to, but it’s only a test.

I recently came out of a time of testing and I wasn’t sure I would make it through it. My emotions were all over the map, one minute I could sense a victory over the situation and a few minutes later, I felt nothing but defeat. When you are in the fire, you cannot trust your feelings. Lean into His word. God assures us that He doesn’t leave us. Hold on to His promises. True leadership is forged in fires like these.

The best analogy that I can come up with is that of an airplane flying into a storm. When the pilot flies into the storm, he can’t trust his gut. He can’t trust his feelings. He has to trust his instruments. Those are his guides. He can’t see where he is going. The storm is all around him. It’s easy to get turned upside down if you don’t follow your guides. The instrument cluster on the plane tells you where you are going and how far off the ground you are. As the pilot you have to trust those gauges. As a godly leader, your instrument panel is the Word of God. When the storm rages, check your instrument cluster and make sure you stay the course. God gave us these tools. Use them!

Leadership 101: Empowering Others

by Brianboswell

Too often leadership becomes about the leader. Leaders are put up on pedestals in our society. Look no further than our politicians. This is the opposite of what leadership looks like in the kingdom. God expects his leaders to serve others and empower them, not the other way around.

Leading through empowerment is one of the most effective tools a leader has in his toolbox. When you empower others, you multiply your influence. John Maxwell says, “leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.”

In the kingdom, influence is with a purpose. Influence isn’t to make people adore the leader more, influence is to get people to be more like Christ. When we are granted influence over the lives of other people, it is a solemn responsibility.

Typically you find at least two ways leaders will use influence – empowerment or authoritatively. Some leaders simply wish to lord over those under them. They don’t want to see others succeed, they want to see themselves succeed. Those who use influence to garner more authority do not realize they are actually limiting their influence, not increasing it. Godly leaders increase their influence by giving their authority to others.

“And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.”

Luke 9:1-2

Jesus models leadership to us in this passage. Jesus was the one with authority. He was the one with power. But, He didn’t lord that power over his disciples. He gave them his authority and power. This is the very definition of empowerment. Jesus empowered his disciples to do the work of the ministry.

This is an important principle for church ministry as well. Paul echoes this when he is describing the function of church leadership in Ephesians chapter 4, “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry”.

Church leadership really has one goal – to equip others. As leaders, we have to be willing to empower our people to do what God has assigned them to do. The point is not to get a large church so that we can say, “look at how good of a leader I am!” That’s not leadership.

I think a lot of people avoid church for this reason. They do not like to be lorded over. They want to be empowered. They have a lot to offer and they have typically been devalued by others. This simply should not be the case. I want you to know, that no matter where you are or what you are doing, you are valuable. You are valuable to God. You have a lot to offer.

Don’t think that you are unworthy. Jesus empowered Judas even though he was going to betray Him. Leader, sometimes the people you empower will hurt you, but you can’t let that stop you from doing what God expects from all of his leaders. Empower others. It will multiply your ministry.

Leadership 101: Holding On To The Prophetic Word Given To You

by Brianboswell

I believe life to be a struggle. And I think its that way because that is the way God designed it. He wants us to struggle so as to encourage us to put our trust in Him. When things go smoothly, its much more difficult to admit your need for Him. But when things are falling apart, you are forced into His arms confessing your need for Him.

In leadership, there are points in your journey that God purposely puts there to reawaken the leader to his need for God. Sometimes a leader can become so reliant on their giftings that they will rely more on themselves than they do on God.

Godly leadership must always come from a heart of knowing that we are utterly dependent on God to accomplish his calling in our lives. When we take the calling that He has given to us and try to accomplish it in our own strength it will always fail.

Think about the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar. Abraham was given a prophetic promise from God – a calling. God had given Abraham and Sarah the promise of a son and truly more than that, a promise of offspring that would be innumerable.

But after years of believing for that promise, they began to doubt. It was not a lot of doubt, but they began to doubt. And when doubt creeps in, one of the tendencies in leadership is to try to “help God out” and in our strength try to bring about the promises of God rather than waiting for God to fulfill what He has promised us.

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Leadership 101: Leaders are Doers

by Brianboswell

So you want to be a leader? Sounds like fun, right? Well for many people, leadership is something that they aspire to be a part of, but never quite make it. They spend their lives studying and wishing that one day someone would put them into a position of leadership. They really want to show the world what they’ve got.

The problem is a lot of people never get past that point. They get bogged down in the day to day schedule and never actually get that opportunity. And what they fail to realize is, leadership has very little to do with your title, but it has more to do with your character. You can be a leader without ever actually owning a leadership title.

Leaders are not born, they are grown. I’ve heard people speak of another person and say something like, “That guy is a born leader.” And while they may have some wonderful talents, leadership isn’t something you are born to do. It’s who you are. It’s your inner character. It’s something you work at. Leadership is not something that you are appointed to. Now, don’t get me wrong, there have been plenty of people appointed to a position of leadership and later it was discovered that their character wasn’t up to snuff. But, in honesty, they were appointed because they had some giftings, they didn’t earn that title.

Too many people within the church are more concerned about elevating giftings and not character, which is why we see so many leaders falling into sin. They may be extremely gifted speakers, but their character has been completely ignored. God is more concerned with your character.

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Matt 7:24-27

Jesus gives us a great comparison on wise and foolish leaders. Wise leaders will build upon the rock, foolish ones will build upon the sand. We know that storms will come. That’s a given. The question is whose house will be standing once the storm hits? Well we all know the answer, the one who built his house upon the rock. If you have been to church for any length of time, you know the rock is Jesus. But here’s what people miss about this story, the very first sentence…”therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man…”

The context of this verse is that it’s located at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has spent an entire sermon talking about character. He has spoken of being meek, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, loving your enemies, giving, etc. This verse ties all of that together. If you want to be a wise builder, you won’t just hear the words that Jesus has spoken, but you will do them.

James, the brother of Jesus, encourages us to not just be hearers of the word, but to be doers (James 1:22). If we only hear the words of Jesus and never put them into practice, then we are being a foolish leader. Too many leaders are busy doing stuff, but they aren’t busy working on character. Get rid of your pride and spend time before the Lord asking Him to transform you into a merciful leader. Ask Him to make you into a peacemaker. Stop spending some much time working on your gifting and spend more time working on your character. That’s what true leadership is all about.

The Spiritual Gift of Administration

by Brianboswell

In this episode, we study the spiritual gift of administration. We talk about the misconceptions of this gifting and how it’s really a gift for leadership. In our Good News segment, we talk about a couple of teens rescued by a boat named “Amen”. Our Unreached People Group is the Teli of India. Today’s Word is from John 9:1-12.

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Five Characteristics of Godly Leadership: The Gift of Leadership

by Brianboswell

Five Characteristics of Godly Leadership_ The Gift of Leadership

In this episode, we discuss the gift of leadership and five characteristics of a godly leader. Our good news is about a man in Durham who is raising awareness for PTSD by doing a good deed. Our unreached people group is the Kunbi of India and Today’s Word comes from John 7:25-52. Continue reading “Five Characteristics of Godly Leadership: The Gift of Leadership” →