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"The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers," said Max De Pree in his book Leadership Is an Art. He also added, "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor." Even though he is writing primarily to secular leaders, Max De Pree is describing “spiritual leadership.” Spiritual leadership combines the spiritual – deep faith, discipleship, and the heart and mind of Christ (Philippians 2:4-8) – with the leadership competencies of vision, organizing, strategic thinking, and servanthood. It is not enough only to be spiritual. It is not enough to lead only out of one’s competencies. Spiritual leaders combine both of these qualities to transform people and effect change. Without this combination, the church will falter, stumble, and fail. |
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Spiritual Leaders and Vision Spiritual leaders are compelled by vision. Out of their love of Christ and their hope in God’s coming reign, they work to help a congregation discern a compelling vision for itself. Spiritual leaders help others to follow that vision. In leading toward a vision, spiritual leaders do three things: |
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| The Right Question | |||||||||||||||
Kenichi Ohmae maintains that a good strategist makes a habit of challenging prevailing assumptions by relentlessly asking the same question about the current way of doing things. That simple question is: Why? |
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Editors: Lovett H. Weems, Jr. and Ann A. Michel Copyright © 2006 by the G. Douglass Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Leading Ideas material may be freely distributed with attribution (exclusive of material protected by separate copyright). |
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