Take the Lead - 1

I’ve been in a teaching series on Wednesday nights about leadership called “Take the Lead” and the response has been awesome. I thought I would take some time to lay out some of the lessons in blog form for the next several weeks.

Leadership plays a huge role in our lives, and I believe I’m safe saying that it is probably the key difference-maker, maybe the most significant determinant in any venture. A winning team, successful business, healthy family, growing church…what’s the common thread? Leadership. What our good friend, John Maxwell says is so true, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”

Here’s my first theory – Leadership Begins with Aspiration

I Timothy 3:1 - This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be an elder, he desires an honorable position.”

Some translations of this verse use the word leader…If someone aspires to be a leader…So, the word “aspires” means to seek ambitiously. So, here’s the deal - I think that often we’re too passive. We’re waiting on God to do something He’s waiting on us to do!

Obviously leadership has to be “sought” in the right way, with the right spirit and attitude. No one likes a power broker, a pushy opportunist. But, we can’t let the distaste we have for those kinds of players, keep us from ambitiously seeking leadership. I love ambition and ambitious people. When it’s handled the right way, ambition is refreshing and appealing. Look up “ambition” in a thesaurus, and the antonyms are laziness, apathy, aimlessness. The only kind of ambition the Bible warns us about is “selfish ambition”, which is ambition used primarily to promote yourself. True and pure leadership, however, is always about others, caring for others, helping others, and at its purest form is selfless. So, don’t dismiss all ambition as selfish or self-centered.

The bummer is for many of us, we’ve lost that aspiration and we’re just going through the motions, not really reaching for something great. Have you lost your ambition? Was it ever there? Let God resurrect it in your life. I think it’s where leadership really begins.