Why Patience Is A Particularly Difficult Virtue For Leaders To Develop!

Running shoes are more comfortable than work boots. Getting our way, winning an argument, and keeping the machinery running at all cost is much easier than, gracefully waiting, speaking with seasoned words, and allowing a certain amount of failure to come about because of the flaws of ourselves and others. It is much easier to end a problem and have closure, with the desired results or not, than it is to suffer long and endure. Patience is only learned through the trials of “thorns and thistles”. Many leaders would rather run away than to weather the storm. One can conclude that unless a spiritual leader is willing to afford themselves discomfort, denial of self, and getting our agenda passed, they will never learn the virtuous quality of character known as patience.

The Positive And Negative Aspects Of Anger In Leadership!

On the surface, it seems that anger and leadership only mix in a dictatorial environment. While it is true that dictators, whether ministers or CEO’s, often have anger as a fault, being righteously indignant is a quality that all spiritual leaders need. A classic example of this would be when Jesus drove the money changers from the Temple with a whip. No level-headed person would overlook the fact that Jesus was angry. His anger was not sinful. It did not overrule His emotions where He lost control of His temperament. His righteous passion for the dignity of the Temple, including all of its functions, caused Him to conclusively end the deceitfulness of those who were in violation of God’s Law. Thus, He was angry at their sin. This anger led Him to serve His Heavenly Father in a constructive and holy way! Every leader of God’s people must have anger as a spoke in the wheel of their character.

Just as anger can help a man deal with a disturbing situation and keep him in the battle until the smoke clears, it can also hurt him; costing him everything. There are high stakes in this arena of anger. A hot-headed man, who is always boiling over, will not mature in character. Rather, he will regress and eventually lose the respect of those with whom God has placed into his care. Anger can behave much like a termite does in wood. On the inside, inch by inch, the core is being eaten up. After a while the signs show up on the outside. Sooner or later, the structural integrity of the building will collapse. So it is with the spiritual leader who fails to utilize anger in the right way.

Common Deficiencies And Failures Among Church Leaders!

The one problem I face, my own troubled fountain, is also the scourge of most pulpits in this country. I am speaking, of course, of the leader driving the car and not God. We often impose “our” deadlines, “our” agendas, “our” plans, “our” projects, “our” expectations, “our” standards, “our” convictions, “our” dreams, and forget what God wants. We get blinded by our own ambition. Instead of governing as if God was in control and we were simply following His lead… instead of leading our company of soldiers in this battle while following our own Commander-In-Chief, we design our own battle field and its choreography. More often than not, church leaders are guilty of creating our own battles and then providing our own solutions. Basically we take the role of deity and make our church family lowly subjects who slave and provide the money to build our kingdoms. We should instead be the “under-rower”, the servant of all and promote the church family to the status that God sees them as: His Sheep! We would do well to spend time in prayer to find out which way God is going and follow Him!

A Thought!

I have been soberly reminded of the fact that true spiritual leadership is as scarce today as million dollars bills are. Up until now, I have simply looked at the person who fills the position as a spiritual leader. It is apparent to me, at this point, that not every occupant is a true spiritual leader of men. God has a hard time finding leaders because men either will not yield themselves as pupils in His “school of hard knocks”, or they indulge in sin so much that they are in no condition to lead others because of their testimony. Still others feel that they only need training and a diploma to serve. Human education is simply not enough to equip an individual. God makes the spiritual leader through the sanctification process of the Holy Ghost maturing the servant into the image of Christ. The spiritual leader is always learning, even while holding an office and edifying his peers.

An Early Experience

Several years ago, a man in my home church wanted to start a new Wednesday night class. He wanted to take the seventh and eighth graders that had aged out of our King’s Kids program and try to develop them further. The class was approved by my pastor and this man needed help. I wanted to be a part of this class, but felt unsure about what to do. After my inquiry, and answering his questions, he was willing to use me.

Having some issues with a man I was helping in another class, I felt like leaving, but was undecided as to how to make my exodus. I did not want to just up and quit, but I ended up doing that very thing. Being a co-leader of this new class was appealing to me. Looking back I feel like it was just flesh, and when I vacillated in my decision to help in the new class, my co-leader “to be” stated in a very convicting way that I needed to be in much prayer. He further stated that I should not be a part of this class if God was not in it. Never before had I someone to speak to me in this way about making a decision.

I knew little about prayer, being I was only a 2 year old Christian. Whether or not I was a young Christian should not have had a bearing on my knowledge of prayer, but it did in this case. I did not have complete assurance about helping, but I did help a week or two anyway. What resulted shames me to this day! I quit on the new class and ended up helping very little in the old class. I just got side tracked by something good, and missed out on the best God had for me. I learned a lot through this experience and I hope that I have been edified by it.