I can remember when I was a teenager, one of the things that bothered me more than anything else was when my younger brother, or as some say, bother, used to follow me and want to do everything just as I was doing. If I went outside, he wanted to go outside, if I took a shower, he wanted to take a shower, if I wanted to play with a certain toy, he wanted to play with that same toy. I even used to beat up on him to try and make him stop copying me. I try not to remind him of that now, since my “little” brother is over six foot tall and weighs about two hundred and thirty pounds. It is interesting, that at that time, I didn’t want him to follow me or imitate me, but now I spend my life trying to lead people and help them learn to make right decisions. One of the most convicting quotes that I have ever heard is, “If you want to know if you truly are a leader, just turn around and see if anyone is following you”. In reality it is hard to say that you are a leader if you have no one following you. I think one of the greatest problems that we have in the world today, and especially in the ministry, is a lack of leaders that can truly lead. As we have mentioned in previous posts, our goal in the ministry is to train leaders that are going to train leaders. So that brings us to the question that I want to address today. How do we lead people? I believe that one of the reasons that we don’t have leaders is because many have no idea how to lead others. So while there are many aspects to leading people, I want to give you three basic things that I think will help you better lead people and teach others to lead.
Treat them like you would want to be Treated:
This is what we see in Matthew 7:12 and is known as the golden rule, and for a good reason. It seems like it would be obvious but I see many leaders treat people in a way that they would never accept if someone were treating them the same. The idea would be to always think of how you would like to be treated if in the same situation. This is because it is always easier to judge others when they are wrong than to judge ourselves and to be harder on others than on ourselves. The Bible uses the amazing illustration of two people, one with a speck of dust in his eye and another with a beam stuck in his eye. The man with the beam tries to get the speck of dust out of the first man’s eye without even considering that he has a beam stuck in his eye. Anyone seeing a situation like that would say, “How absurd” but that is what we do when we treat others differently than we want someone to treat us. While there may be times that we have to be stern with people to lead them, it is only through eyes of love that we can truly lead them to be what they should.
Lead them like a Shepherd:
The job of a shepherd is a very interesting one and very different from what we see in leadership in mainstream society today. When i first heard about how a shepherd gets his sheep to go to a certain place, or do a certain thing, I was very surprised. When I was younger I grew up on a farm and when the cows would get out we would walk behind them and run them back into the field from where they escaped, but that is not the case as a shepherd. The shepherd must lead his sheep by going before them. If he tries to drive them, they will just scatter, going in many different directions. He also has to call them and lead them gentle because they are easily spooked. It is only when one will not follow or obey that he must take serious action, but that is usually not the case. So as a spiritual leader, if we are going to shepherd our people, trying to push them or beat them into submission is not going to work. We must gentle lead them by going before, and setting the example, to make sure that they make it safely to their destination.
Seek to make them a Success.
When we are trying to help people grow as Christians, it is easy to get discouraged, especially if we only see their faults. If we only see them as they are now, we might feel like we have failed or that there is no hope. I have learned, while raising our children, that the only way to not want to give up is to see each problem as an opportunity to teach them once again what is right and once they are on their own they will have to decide if they will use what they have learned. So instead of saying, “There he goes again” or “He did it again” we must take that opportunity to teach them one more time in hopes that they will get it. When I think about the people that have invested in my life, and didn’t give up on me, I can trust there is hope for that one that I am leading. So the goal should be to invest in their lives every chance we get with the hope that they will become a success, and realize in the end the results are in the Lord’s hands.
I really believe that if we treat others like we would want to be treated, shepherd them with loving sternness, and they realize that our goal is to make them a success, they will gladly follow us as we follow the Lord. Not only that but at the same time we will be teaching them how to lead others in their own lives. So the question must be asked. When you look behind you, who is following? If there is no one, you might want to think about these three things.