Leadership You Can Respect

I am a student of leadership. Once I start talking about leadership, you can’t shut me up. I have been in various leadership roles and leading a church now for many years. I’ve learned a lot through the years about leadership.

I think one of the most important lessons I’ve learned about leadership is that respect is earned. People today are starved for leaders they can trust. People are looking for leaders they can respect. Let’s be honest, we’re all feeling a little burned by our political leaders. Whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat, or whatever, we want leadership we can respect.

In the church world, earning people’s respect is even more critical. Aside from the fact that, as a leader, you stand as a representative of God, in the church world, people choose their leadership. They don’t have to follow you. That said, it’s vital to earn the respect necessary to effectively lead people. Respect is easy to lose and hard to get. Earning respect takes time and hard work.

When you think of respect, you have to think about integrity. They just go together. You cannot separate one from the other. Think of integrity as being like a strong foundation. Storms may come and blow everything else away, but the foundation (integrity) remains. When the foundation is weak, the storms of life soon expose the cracks and can cause the foundation to crumble. Integrity and respect are like that.

Not everyone succeeds in leadership and some blame their circumstances for their failures. The truth is, your circumstances are as responsible for your failures as a mirror is for your looks. What you see only reflects what you are.

People choose to follow leaders because of who they are and what they represent. They want leaders they can respect, but you have to earn it. Earning respect is less about position and more about personhood. Titles and position mean little without respect. The Bible describes the character traits of a leader as it describes the position of an elder:

“An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless, not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it” (Titus 1:6-9).

Did you notice that the biblical qualifications for an elder are about character, integrity and respect? Very little is said about the duties of an elder. The biblical focus is on the quality of the leader. May the church be filled with leaders you can respect.

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