The Calling of Leadership

Greetings;

Let me start today’s blog with a reminder that the body of Christ is a Theocracy, God speaks and we respond to His will. The leadership team of any corporate expression of Christ must lead in response to God’s will of leading. I have written in regard to this in my earlier blogs.

Today I want to address some key ingredients to a leadership team. Each member of a leadership team must first know that he or she is a part of the team because God has divinely called him or her as a leader with specific God-given responsibilities. Each leader’s responsibilities are given to them by God and not merely by men. Each leader must carry the weight of this responsibility. It is God who appoints leaders, since leaders are a gift from God to those they lead.

Because leaders are divinely called and appointed to be in this position of responsibility together, the members of the team must choose to seek to develop a relationship with one another. As I stated in my earlier blogs, friendship is the glue of any covenant team.

The task of leadership should never exceed the friendship found among members of the team. This is not an either/or option among the members of the team. Relationship and function are both essential ingredients in the team. Team members should seek to love and honor one another within the team. They must keep in mind that this is not a license for personal agendas, motives, or attitudes among team members. The basis of friendship and function in a leadership team are both God ordained and Spirit led. These together will propagate life within the team.

Each member of the team must understand that due to human uniqueness there will be misunderstandings, different perspectives, different opinions, disagreements, and even unintentional offenses at times. Members of the team must work through every challenge with a spirit of love and understanding. Each member must be committed through the bonds of love to seek to resolve any communication difficulties. Leadership purpose must be the goal with friendship and function as the ingredients of life within that purpose.

As communication challenges arise between any of the members of the team, each team member must commit to approach one another on the basis of relationship and submission in order to seek to resolve any misunderstandings and maintain a spirit of unity within the team. Team members must give one another the right to go to the other team members on their behalf to help work out any communication difficulties. They should even request such action of one another. The motive of this is never to prove any member’s personal point. This is for the sake of friendship and a spirit of life in the team. Whatever atmosphere exists in the leadership team will also pervade in the body they lead. The spirit of the team should be one of family and faith for one another. A spirit of comfort, exhortation, and encouragement should always exist within the life of the team in order to propagate an atmosphere of mercy and grace.

Team members must accept that it is ok to disagree on matters at times, but it is never ok to carry a spirit of disagreement among one another. Differing views and diversity of opinions is part of the sound of harmony within the team as long as views and opinions are not presented as the absolute truth for the team. The God-sent leader to the team is sent to have the final articulation of the will of God to those they lead, but diversity of expression within the team enables the lead leader to articulate the full will of God in a matter. The implementation of this can differ for different styles of teams, but the principle of leadership and authority must be the way of any team operation.

Each team member must resolve that he or she is committed to the other members of the team and to the common purpose as leaders. Members must choose to commit their conversations, their attitudes, and their thoughts toward one another to the grace of God and to their ability to love and support each other as fellow team members.

Each individual member of the team lives for God and for God’s purposes in his or her area of ministry responsibility. In dependence upon God the team commits to make all their strategies, decisions, and actions and they must rely upon God’s grace to bring His people into His inheritance and to propagate this destiny.

Leaders must remember that they do not represent the people. They represent God’s leading to the people. Members of the leadership team represent the sent leader to the team or to any expression of the team and the entire team represents the will of God for leadership to those they lead.

Food For Thought,

Ted J. Hanson

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