Servant
Leadership School
March 30, 2003
Small Groups
Accountability – Break into small groups and share. How has this been
affecting your Quiet Times?
Has it helped knowing that you might be sharing?
Share: Quiet Times – How many
times this week did you have a Quiet Time? Share one “highlight” from this
week’s Quiet Times.
Tim
Teach for 5-10 minutes
Chapter 15 – The Cost of Leadership
Jesus said,
(Luke 14:27-33 KJV) And
whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
{28} For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have
sufficient to finish it? {29} Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation,
and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, {30}
Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. {31} Or what king,
going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with
twenty thousand? {32} Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he
sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. {33} So likewise,
whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
In the past I’d probably want to discount some of the things in this
chapter and say, “It’s not all that bad”.
But it is. Leadership isn’t
easy. It is not uncommon for a person to
start in a leadership position and want to quit because things get difficult
and they weren’t counting on things being that tough.
Self-sacrifice
A cross stands in the path of spiritual leadership, and the leader must
take it up.
No cross, no leadership.
Scars are the authenticating marks of faithful discipleship and true
spiritual leadership.
Study Guide Question #2 – What
does it mean for a leader to take up his or her cross?
Perhaps it means to be willing to suffer and give up your own selfish
interests.
Note: The elements of this
chapter are things that sometimes I’ve tried to try and lesson, trying to say
that leadership isn’t all that hard.
I’ve been wrong in doing that.
True leadership is TOUGH!!! The
enemy will try his hardest to make you quit.
We need to “count the cost” so we will not quit when it gets tough.
Loneliness
Because the leader must always be ahead of his followers, he lives with
loneliness.
(Perhaps it’s just my personality, but I think there’s a sense that this is
correct. There are going to be times
when you simply have to walk alone. It’s
the right thing to do.)
It is sometimes heartbreaking to make decisions of far-reaching importance
that affect the lives of beloved fellow workers – and to make them alone.
The leader must be a person who, while welcoming the friendship and support
of all who offer it, has sufficient inner resources to stand alone – even in
the face of stiff opposition to have “no one but God”.
Fatigue
“The world is run by tired men”.
No lasting good can be accomplished without this expenditure of nervous
energy and personal power.
Criticism
“There is nothing else that so kills the efficiency, capability and
initiative of a leader as destructive criticism … It tends to hamper and
undercut the efficiency of man’s thinking process. It chips away at his self-respect and
undermines his confidence in his ability to cope with his responsibilities.”
(If I’m not careful, I find that I’m almost paralyzed for days when this
happens.)
“It does not matter what happens to us, but our reaction to what happens to
us is of vital importance.”
Samuel Brengle’s approach to criticism:
“From my heart I thank you for your rebuke. I think I deserved it. Will you, my friend, remember me in prayer?”
Part of handling criticism is finding the balance of being teachable and
finding “independence from human opinion”.
Rejection
“No man is ever fully accepted until he has, first of all, been utterly
rejected.”
Pressure and Perplexity
The pressure of trying to discern God’s will, and the perplexity of finding
how difficult it is to know God’s will.
Study Guide Question #3 – How
should leaders handle just criticism and rejection?
We need to understand that this is part of the territory. This is a part of being a leader.
We need to try and learn whatever lessons there are in the difficult time.
We can draw near to Jesus because He’s quite familiar with this path.
Chapter 16 – The Responsibilities of Leadership
Serve
A leader must serve others
Discipline
An unwelcome duty.
Five guidelines to discipline:
1. Conduct
a thorough and impartial inquiry
2. Consider
the overall benefit to the work and to the individual
3. Do
all in the spirit of love and in the most considerate manner
4. Always
keep the spiritual restoration of the offender in view
5. Pray
it through
Providing guidance.
This requires knowing where you’re going in the first place and then
leading others to follow.
The leader cannot assert his will recklessly.
Initiate.
He does not wait for things to happen, but makes them happen.
More failure comes from an excess of caution than from bold experiments
with new ideas.
Taking responsibility willingly.
Taking the things that are handed to you.
Chapter 17 – Tests of Leadership
Compromise
Study Guide Question #5 – What’s
the difference between good compromise (the opposite of stubbornness) and bad
compromise (the opposite of commitment)?
How can you tell when compromise is right and good?
The issue is having standards of right and wrong, especially according to
God’s Word. When two sides both contain
things that are good and right, then compromise is appropriate. When one side contains things that are bad or
evil, then compromise is wrong.
Lowering standards is always a backward step.
Pharaoh kept trying to make Moses and the people compromise instead of
leaving Egypt. Moses said “no”.
Illustrations
In Nehemiah 6, the people had been in a compromise, influential people
marrying Ammonites and bringing the nation into compromise.
My wall in the back yard – our neighbors have a fence that is screwed into
our back wall. They have this vine plant
that covers the wall and has grown quite tall.
When the winds blow, the plant starts to sag, pulling at the fence,
which has in turn pulled part of our wall down.
Compromise is the connection between two things that can’t
support each other. Unequally yoked.
Ambition
A leader cannot do things for his own selfish gain.
Are you doing things so you can become “important” or have a title? These can be dangerous things that creep into
your ministry.
The Impossible Situation
A true leader rises to face baffling circumstances and complex problems
Hudson Taylor faced many hard situations in his career to win China
for Christ. He counted three phases in most great tasks
undertaken for God:
Impossible, Difficult, Done.
Failure
Many people who appear to be at the height of their careers hide a great
inner sense of failure.
Successful leaders have learned that no failure need be final.
(We are all going to experience failure.
We need to learn that it is going to happen.)
Jealousy
Mr. Sanders means here the jealousy that others might have for you.
The person who fills a role appointed by God need not worry about
vindicating his or her work when rivals become jealous or treacherous.
God will defend the leaders he has chosen.
These are hard concepts to trust in when you are feeling shaken and uncertain
because of criticism or jealous people.
Study Guide Question #7 – Which
test of leadership do you fear the most?
Chapter 18 – The Art of Delegation
Dwight L. Moody … once said that he would rather put a thousand men to work
than do the work of a thousand men.
Thoughtful delegation – being careful not to put square pegs into round
holes. Learning to discover people’s
potential and giftings, and helping them flourish in their ministry.
Failure to delegate can be interpreted at times as a lack of confidence.
A one-person office can never grow larger than the load one person can
carry.
Once a leader delegates, he should show utmost confidence in the people he
has entrusted.
Subordinates perform better when they feel sure of the leader’s support,
whether a given project succeeds or fails, so long as they have acted within
the bounds of their assignment.
Paul Super wrote of his association with John R. Mott: “My greatest pride is his belief in me”
Failure to make provision for the succession of leadership has spelled ruin
for many missions and churches.
There is no virtue in doing more than our fair share of the work.
Stand by your leaders and be reluctant to intervene.
Study Guide Question #8 – How do
you know that you have communicated instructions carefully enough? How can your ambiguities in delegation return
to haunt you?
I’m not sure you can ever know for sure.
It helps if you put things down in writing. It helps if a person can tell you what you’re
asking of them.
Ambiguity leads to surprises in how things are carried out (if at all).