Episode 323: I’m Talkin. . .Leader

I’m Talking, episode 323 for June 23rd, 2024.

This is Joel from the I’m Talking microcast, where I share my thoughts on a topic that has piqued my interest this past week.

This week we’re talking leader.

So I thought this week I would start with a definition, even though leader is a very common word, I think.

But I liked what the dictionary said, and it said someone who commands a group, an organization, or a country.

So really expansive.

And when we think of the word leader, we understand what that means.

And we can think of it in terms of organizations that we might belong to.

We can think of it as the leader of the company or even the small group in the company for which we work.

Those are all common things that we see when we think about the word leader.

And then more globally or nationally, we can think of presidents, we can think of kings in other countries, those kinds of things.

And overall, I think we have a pretty good grasp of what the word leader means.

So the word leader is normal.

We understand that.

We understand its definition.

And many people will strive for that position, whether they want to be called boss, whether they just want to be in charge.

You know, there are many different reasons where someone might want to be called the leader of whatever they are involved in.

Many of them are very personal reasons.

Oftentimes it might be salaries, it might be moving up the corporate ladder, those kinds of things.

And they feel like that is the progress of what they need to do.

Otherwise, they may feel stagnant.

There are some who are not interested in positions of leadership, but probably many people are and maybe many people should not be.

And therein lies the challenge for those of us who call ourselves Christians.

So here’s the deal.

As Christians, the definition of the word leader is much different than what you get from the dictionary.

When you read scripture, you get a much different picture.

You get a leader as a servant.

You get a leader as someone who sacrifices for those he is leading or she is leading.

You get the leader set up and as an example.

So that really puts a target on them for their public and private performance or persona or what they do, how they act, those kinds of things.

A leader is called to instruct from the scripture, so they’re actually speaking for God at many points in what they’re trying to do as leaders.

And in that, there is a super accountability to be the people that they should be, to be the people that others want to follow because they are godly men and women.

And that in itself is a very tough assignment.

So there are many scriptures.

One that jumps out at me is James that talks about why we should not want to be a leader potentially and says that actually many should not be leaders.

So in our striving in the regular world, let’s say, for leadership, we need to remember that those qualities that we see as leaders in the Christian environment have to carry over to the real world environment so that we are different than other people.

And as leaders, people will want to follow us to the places that we’re going and hopefully to the saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Until next week, this is Joel from the I’m Talking Microcast.