A Leader (pt 1)....intro

According to John Maxwell, Leadership is Influence. Nothing more, nothing less. If you have no influence with people you cannot lead them. In my pursuit for scholarships for college I interviewed for the President's Emerging Leaders Program (PELP) at Austin Peay and I was asked, "What is a Leader?"

My answer, as a super intelligent 18 year old, "Um, Someone who leads others. Yea, that's it, a leader is someone who leads." "Ahh you idiot!"

I knew I had bombed the interview. I knew I would not get into the program or receive the nice $8000 scholarship that would come with it. Thankfully I was wrong! I did get in. Over the course of 4 years we were supposed to learn the basics of Leadership and take enough classes to almost earn a minor in Leadership. I remember very little from any of the classes or the experience, and they have since added 2 more classes to the program to allow for a minor in Leadership. John Maxwell's name was never even mentioned. Hopefully they have caught on since then.

But my experience over the past 8 years (has it been that long since I graduated college) along with a few conferences, many conversations, and books I have learned a little more of what a leader should and should not be, do, and say. Over the past few months I have contemplated the qualities that I believe as a leader I should hold very tightly in importance. These are also qualities that I also look for in others to serve along side me in whatever I do in ministry and out. I have taken them to one of the greatest expert on leadership that has ever lived to hear what He has to say about these qualities. Not only did He initiate change in his own time but instilled certain values into His followers that are still impacting and changing the world today. That Leader is Jesus Christ. Through both word and deed with the disciples, Pharisee, and outcasts He defined a leader in a way that was counter-cultural then.....and still is today. I'm sure their are several qualities, but for what I see as important this is my list. This is just the list....the breakdown will follow later.

A LEADER........
.....SERVES
.....IS HUMBLE
.....IS RESPONSIBLE
.....HAS INTEGRITY