Humility:
People in leadership tend to think more highly of themselves than they
ought. Stay out of pride. A true leader loves and serves those he leads.
Leaders tend to see people as a means to their end. Leaders are usually task
oriented rather than people oriented. They often use people or plow over
them in order to achieve their goals or their agenda, plan for the day,
week, year or life. I do this—I don’t take time to be present to people…I
have my agenda and work to do and that’s my focus. Much to learn here
Compassion:
With compassion we are equipped to strengthen the brethren. Leaders tend to
be short on compassion, lousy comforters and impatient with others. They
don’t stop very long to care for the wounded as they pursue their goals.
After being sifted by Satan, Peter was well equipped to empathize with
others’ weaknesses. He could strengthen others in their ordeals. I don’t do
compassion well.
Courage:
Not the impetuous false kind of courage that caused him to swing his sword
so wildly to cut off the man’s ear in the garden, but the kind of courage
that is mature, settled, intrepid willingness to suffer for Christ’s sake.
Lies are set against the truth. Satan is set against God. And demons are set
against the holy purposes of Christ. Peter would face difficulty wherever he
went. I don’t really do courage so well either.
Peter was not perfect, long after he learned these lessons and was “the
rock” of the church, preaching, leading and bringing people the message of
salvation with courage and insight, he still goofed up. Paul had to correct
him in the presence of everybody when Peter left the Gentiles to eat with
the false teachers. (Galatians 2:11-14) BUT…to Peter’s credit, he responded
to Paul’s correction. When the error of the Judaizers was finally confronted
at the full council of church leaders and apostles in Jerusalem, it was
Peter who spoke up first in defense of the gospel of divine grace. He
introduced the argument that won the day. I don’t respond to correction
well.
March 20, 2007
I recently read the book 12
Ordinary Men and I especially liked the chapter on Peter. From the life of
Peter, we can learn what God looks for and how He creates leaders. In this
chapter I learned some things about myself.
RAW MATERIAL:
These are things that God has put in you in your mother’s womb. You cannot
get these things from training.
1) Inquisitiveness: Someone who asks a lot of questions. Curiosity is
crucial to leadership. People who are content with what they don’t know,
happy to remain ignorant about what they don’t understand, complacent about
what they haven’t analyzed and comfortable living with problems they haven’t
solved - such people cannot lead.
I’ve got this one, I ask A LOT
of questions.
2) Initiative: Drive, ambition and energy, someone who
makes things happen. This person is a starter. It is hard to try to motivate
someone who is always passive and hesitant. It is much easier to tone down a
fanatic than to resurrect a corpse. Some people have to be dragged tediously
in any forward direction. Not Peter. He always wanted to move ahead, to
understand what he didn’t understand. I think of this as someone who is
self-motivated. I‘ve got this one.
3) Involvement: True leaders are always in the middle of the action. A true
leader goes through life with a cloud of dust around him. These leaders go
where the action is, they are not content to sit on the sidelines and tell
everyone else what to do. I’ve got this one too.
LIFE EXPERIENCES:
By life experiences Christ refines us into leaders. True leaders are made,
not just born. Experience can be a hard teacher. The Lord dragged Peter
through three years of tests and difficulties that gave him a lifetime of
the kind of experiences every true leader must endure. These experiences,
even the difficult ones were all necessary to shape Peter into the man he
needed to become.
Some of the lessons that Peter
learned were: crushing defeat and deep humiliation often follow hard on the
heels of our greatest victories. (Peter got commended by Jesus for his great
confession of “You are the Christ the Son of God”, right after that – Peter
got rebuked by Jesus “Get behind me Satan…”) Peter had just learned that God
would reveal truth to him and guide his speech as he submitted his mind to
the truth. He wasn’t dependent upon a human message. The message he was to
proclaim was given to him by God. He would also be given the keys to the
kingdom-meaning that his life and message would be the unlocking of the
kingdom of God for the salvation of many. Peter fell victim to Satan the
night he denied Jesus 3 times. Satan was sifting him as wheat and Peter was
learning just how much chaff and how little substance he had in him. He
learned how watchful and careful he must be to rely on only the
Lord’s strength. He learned that in spite of his own sinful tendencies and
spiritual weaknesses, the Lord wanted to use him and would sustain him and
preserve him no matter what.
I’ve learned much, but do I apply it? Peter learned the first time he was
presented with the issue, he learned in 3 years—I took 30.
CHARACTER QUALITIES:
Character is what makes leadership possible. In spiritual leadership the
great goal and objective is to bring people to Christ-likeness. The leader
himself must manifest Christ-like character. God’s been working with me on
this one.
Submission:
Leaders must be in submission to God and to any higher earthly authority
placed above them.
Jesus modeled this by paying temple taxes when he really didn’t need to
because he was the son of the God worshipped in the temple. Just as the
king’s sons didn’t pay regular taxes. I’m getting much better at submission,
I think I’ve got this one, but I can always use more.
Restraint:
Self-control, discipline, moderation and reserve don’t necessarily come
naturally to someone who lives life at the head of the pack. We need to
learn these and also to curb anger and out of control passions. I’m not good
at discipline; I’m getting very much better at self-control and moderation,
reserve. This is still a journey in progress.