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A Christian Leader's 2022 Commitments.

 

Making commitments, taking us beyond 2022

Every year, like millions of other people I make new year's resolutions. This year I did no such thing, then among my papers, I found these 10 commitments that I had shared at a leadership seminar a number of years ago. Perhaps these should be the type of commitments that we as Christian Leaders should aspire to.

 

1) People Matter.

 

People are our purpose. People are not a means by which we can create our own ends. When we reach out to people, they are our objective and the focus of our attention.

 

2) We will help people think.

 

If people are our objective, we will not get bogged down in the process. We will help people to think through our process to recognize our objective rather than just getting them to do and blindly follow. That objective is and always will be to point people to Jesus. He is after all "The way the truth and the life."

 

3) Create great environments.

 

When people come to us they have sociological problems, they feel worthless and unloved and want a solution. We need to help people become great, not just fix their problems. We need to show them that they are loved by their creator and that HE wants a relationship with them. We do this by creating great environments by which they can grow and build their relationship with God.

 

4) Create opportunities for initiative.

 

As people grow we need to help them see and experience a spirit of excellence. They need to see opportunities where they can succeed rather than just avoid errors.

 

5) Be curious.

 

As a leader you don't need to know everything, even though a little knowledge on everything will help a leader to find out what others think and see.

 

6) Be committed to the new paradigm of creating a leader-leader structure rather that a leader- follower.

 

It is not about a hierarchy where the leader empowers followers but rather a structure that believes that everyone is or has the capacity to lead (influence). It is about influencers influencing others who in turn do the same.

 

7) As a leader look to gather information.

 

Don't create an environment where you expect people to give you the information, rather encourages people not to keep asking you for permission.

 

 8) We are not perfect.

 

We will fail, it's OK to say I am sorry.

 

9) We need to be lifelong learners.

 

We will get better at what we do. We will never settle for just being good. Learning is a way we can expand our knowledge and our emotional intelligence.

 

10) We will hold ourselves accountable.

We as Christian leaders will set a standard and allow those with wisdom, and those we consider our role models, to speak into our lives. When we slip, they will speak life not death and will hold us to the standards we ourselves have publicly set.



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