All of us can lead

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” --- John Quincy Adams

I have been thinking a lot about leadership. I have been reading a lot about leadership, just having read five books on leadership during my recent study leave. I think most of us would agree there is a terrible leadership vacuum in our country. The concept of leadership has been co-opted and corrupted and more often than not seems synonymous with worldly power, greed and personal gain.

One of the things which I read recently stuck in my brain. It was this. The local church has the opportunity to contribute to the citizenship of the community by modeling, nurturing, and encouraging people in the ways of group decision making, compromise, and leadership development. I had never once thought of this, but it is a really interesting idea. The church is a laboratory for civic learning!

Imagine the impact on our country if people better understood and were able to actually live out the things necessary for growing leadership: listening, discernment, empowering, service to God and country, as well as the moral corrective which genuine faith delivers.

Each one of us has at least a small sphere of influence in which to act as a godly leader: to inspire, to encourage, to support others to do, to dream, and to grow. All of us can lead.