[Monday's Devotional] - Leadership

This week, we will be looking at leadership. I want to start with a quote from a Christian writer on leadership:

 

Leadership is a ‘glow word’ on many lips. Politicians pretend it. Youth question it. The old yearn for it. Parents grasp it. Children defy it. Police seek it. Armies impose it. Terrorists seize it. Executives claim it. Corporations exploit it. Scholars study it. Pundits pretend it. Sound bites impose it. Media announce it. Sycophants worship it. Religions bless it. Psychologists psych it. Autocrats manipulate it. Experts teach it. Conservatives defend it. Liberals suspect it. Ethicists critique it. Philosophers debate it. Theologians integrate it. (Those who love it, one suspects should rarely be granted it; those who usurp it not allowed it; those who feel entitled to it not be trusted with it; only those who accept it as – a service delegated by community and for community – deserve to serve in it)1

 

Leaders are not just people with power and authority, neither are they simply managers.  A leader is someone who is in charge of setting the goals and the direction of travel of a group of people with a common interest; this could be any group from a desire to do something for the homeless, to a local running club, to a multi-national company. Leadership is something that we all interact with each day. Are you someone who finds themselves exercising leadership? Are you someone who aspires to be a leader? Do you regard leaders as trustworthy? Or, has life taught you not to trust people who seek to influence or lead you?  

 

Well, whatever your position with regards to leadership, it is clear that leadership is a responsibility, a huge responsibility in fact.

 

For prayer

 

Let’s start the week by praying for the leaders that we interact with. Pick two or three leaders that you come into contact with and spend some time praying for them. Ask God’s blessing on them, but also ask God what you can do or say to support them in their role.

 

1 David Augsburg ‘Evaluating Servanthood: From Servant Leadership to Leading as Serving,’ The Three Tasks of Leadership, Ed Eric O Jacobsen, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009, (99-109), 100.

 

John Martin-Jones