By: Prof. Bellon
Rom 12:6-8 ‘If it is to lead, do it diligently’. Diligently means to be persistent, detailed, moving all the way to the end.
God cares about leaders. God is interested in leaders. When leaders serve God, the people get blessed. God is concerned about leaders. God tells stories about leaders in the bible e.g. Moses, David, Jacob, Paul etc. There is a contribution that only you can make, and there is something that only you can bring on the table.
Four Key Things to Lead Diligently
1. Cherish dynamic relationship with Christ Jesus (spiritual formation)
If you want to lead to your full potential, you need a dynamic relationship with God. You have to decide, and you have to act on it. Our desire is to know Christ and participate in his suffering. As leaders, we have to be formed. To grow, be formed, become more and more like Christ. We have to lead from the inside, be formed from the inside.
What is your spiritual formation goals? What are the gaps? What are the areas of improvement? You need to be head over heels in love with Jesus Christ and seek to please him alone.
2. Strive towards excellence (professional excellence)
Leaders who lead diligently, strive towards excellence. They push themselves and become stretched; they pursue excellence and are dissatisfied with the status quo. In order to reach to a place that God wants us to be, we need to put effort, strategize, engage, in order to stretch. Do not power down. Instead press on (active service) to higher standards. Seek opportunities to press further on our calling and our abilities. God wants us to lead diligently. We should give God our best.
3. Leaders raise the standards in the room
We help others get better. We challenge other people, we become the benchmark for leadership. We raise standards in the office, at the marketplace, in ministry etc. When you lead diligently, we raise the standards
We influence relationships around us, we motivate others, we help others invest more. We make others be able to do more. We influence our families, children, relatives, we become the benchmarks. We make sure we are grounded in the word of God. When we raise the standards, we build the standards and lead based on the word of God. People know where we stand. We challenge the quality of ministry; we ask the tough questions so that others can strategize. We commit to give God the best. God looks at those fully committed to him, to strengthen them.
It requires that we fire ourselves up/ or fire ourselves back with setbacks
If we experience difficult times, we use these difficulties to rise up. We need to be steadfast, unmovable knowing that our labour in the Lord is not in vain. Setbacks will definitely come. Challenges will come. Life is not a bed of roses. Decisions and actions will create difficult situations, but you have to lead. We have to decide what to do with setbacks; not staying there. We have to decide what to do when people say mean things about us.
4. How do we lead effectively, when we go through setbacks?
We overcome evil with good. You overwhelm the with the love of God. Do not allow setbacks to push us down.
