Challenges on Christian leadership Today, reflecting to own context and biblical response

 

 

Challenges on Christian leadership Today, reflecting to own context and biblical response

 Christian leadership

 

            A Christian leader is someone who is called by God to lead, leads with and through Christlike character, and demonstrates the functional competencies that permit effective leadership to take place. Everyone experience it, or the lack of it, in daily life. Successful leaders find satisfaction in making a difference in their world. Struggling leaders agonize in the knowledge that others recent them and blame them for their organization’s failures. Discouraged, these Christian leaders carry the added burden that they are ailing not only their people but also their Lord. There are many leaders who are not experiencing fulfillment and reaching the potential God intended for them. 

 

 The pressures of today’s leadership

            Today leaders have unprecedented opportunities to impact their organizations. However, the new millennium also brings significant challenges. Technology’s unrelenting advance has made communication both a blessing and a curse. In times past people wrote letters to their leader and waited weeks for an answer. Such delayed responses were accepted as a matter of course. Leaders could take time to ponder decisions and to consult with advisors before offering thoughtful replies. In past days leaders had certain times in their day when they could retreat to review situation and make appropriate decisions. The pressure to make rapid decisions and to maintain constant communication can intimidate the most proficient leader. Our world craves good leaders. Effective leadership is the answer for every challenge society faces. Whether it’s in political, religion, business, education, or law, the universally expressed need is for leaders who will rise to meet the challenges that overwhelm modern organizations. The problem is not a shortage of willing leaders. The problem is an increasingly skeptical view among followers as to whether these people  can truly steer them to their goals. People know intuitively that claiming to be a leader or holding a leadership position does not make someone a leader. People are warily looking for leaders they can trust, and who can faces the challenges.

 

A leadership challenges

            Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus to help establish the Church. Though the Christian community was well on its way as a growing and influential church in the broader Asian area, “certain men” had emerged and secured for themselves prominent leadership positions. Unfortunately, these men were anything but qualified to lead both in terms of what they believed and taught and in the way they lives. Not only were they teaching false doctrine, but they also demonstrated arrogant attitudes and action. Here Timothy, a young man faced the challenges facing some men who were no doubt much older than himself, men who were already in influential positions and in the process of leading believers astray. Problems such as these are not solved easily nor quickly, which helps explain Paul’s challenge to Timothy in his second letter. In that Epistle, Paul charged his younger colleague to ‘fan the flame’ the gift God had given him and to never became intimidated by these powerful and influential leaders. He was to face the problem head on with a ‘Spirit… of power and love and discipline’ (2-Tim.1:7).

             Even in today’s leadership similar challenges are still going on.

 

   A. Challenge reflecting on own context

                 According to my own context one of the main challenge that is face by the leaders is ineffective decision making. The lack of effective decision making makes a great problem and causing a division of Churches began to rise. Decision making is a fundamental responsibility of leaders. People who are willing or unable to make decisions are unlikely leadership candidates. People need leaders who are capable of making wise, timely decisions. The fear of making a wrong decision is the overriding impetus behind some people’s leadership style. Such people become immobilized by their fear of making a mistake. All decisions have ramifications, and leaders must be prepared to accept the consequences of their decisions. Those without the fortitude to live with this reality should not take on leadership roles.

               In contrast to irresolute leaders are those who make decisions recklessly. They reach conclusions flippantly without giving serious consideration to the possible outcomes of their choices. When a decision proves disastrous, the leader does an about-face, adding a second mistake to the first one. Such fool handy decisions made in rapid succession, are often contradictory, creating confused organizations with bewildered employees scrambling helter skelter, never sure which direction they should go. Decisions must be reached carefully because, as Peter Drucker observes, “

Every decision is like surgery. It is an intervention into system and therefore carries with it the risk of shock”.

   

B. Causes of ineffective decision making

           More likely, such results from a lack of training in decision making process, problem-solving techniques and the general discipline of thinjing. To be sure, not every decision a leader faces allows for full problem solving process. But many do, and once decision have been submitted to that kind of proccedure, future decisions will be facilitated and improved. Better thinking comes through intelligent practice. Good leaders cultivate the skills of observation, fact gathering, reflection, reasoning and judgment to arrive at a solution that advances the cause of the organizations they serve. In many ways, to think is to learn, we all have mental pockets in which debris of old, unresolved problems lies rothing by the stream of thought. There are at least four other things could be mentioned;

Lack of clear-cut objectives: for their own ministries or who serve organizations without clear-cut objectives based on the mission will struggle to make wise decisions.

Insecurity of position or authority:  If you are not sure you have the jurisdiction to make the decision, that doubt will often obscure the decisions.

Lack of information: Critical thinking/decision making is a great deal like research. One goes through procedures, and the old adage certainly applies-‘garbage in, and garbage out’. A major decision affecting the future of organization could work against you very quickly if you lack crucial pieces of information.

Fear: Good decisions are often hindered be fear, fear of changes, fear of making the wrong decision fear of the consequences that might ensure , may be even a fear of the decision- making process itself.

 

Solution from biblical perspective

               A single leadership decision has the potential for critical impact on employees and their families. Mistakes therefore are costly on both a corporate and personal level. Basing decisions firmly on biblical principles helps leaders avoid mistakes. Spiritual leadership does not exist apart from the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

            Leaders make decisions by seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance: Christian leaders make two choices every time they make one decision. First, they opted to rely on either their own insights or on God’s wisdom. Their second choices is the conclusion they reach or the action they take. People don’t naturally do things God’s way because people don’t think the way God does (Ps.118:8). The world’s approach to decision making is to weigh all the evidence, compare pros and cons, and take the  most logical course of action. If spiritual leaders make their choices their way, they could lead their organization in the opposite direction of God’s will (Pro.14:12).  God does not desire us to do what we believe is best, he wants us to perform what he knows is best,and no amount of reasoning and intellectualizing will discover that God himself must reveal it. The Holy Spirit reveals God’s will to those who are seeking his mind and his heart. God’s Spirit guide us through prayer. Scripture other believers, and circumstances.

          The Holy Spirit guides through prayer: Prayer is the leader’s connection with the one who promised, “call to Me, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jer.33:3). As a leader prayer must always be the first. Spiritual leaders ask God to guide them daily, in each decision they will make, as opposed to praying only when they face problems. Leaders of Churches and Christian organizations are not the only one God guides through prayer. God responds as readily to Christian business and political leaders. People tend to draw distinctions between secular and Spiritual matters. God is not restrained by such artificial boundaries. He is a powerful in the business would as he is in the church. Daniel had huge government tasks, yet he made it his habit to pray at least three times a day, when his political rivals sought to oust him before his position and have him executed, Daniel had complete confidence in his rich relationship with God, and he came out of a seemingly hopeless situation victories.

         The Holy Spirit guides through God’s word:  The Bible is the plumb line for Christian living. When spiritual leaders acknowledge their utter dependence on God. They immerse themselves thinking according to biblical principles. When difficulties arise and sensitive decisions are necessary the Holy Spirit brings helpful Scriptures to mind, providing timely guidance.

         The Holy Spirit guides through other believers: It is said that the difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. The book of Proverbs candidly describe the enormity of suffering that results from foolish choices- Proverbs enjoins, “where there is no guidance the people fall, but abundance of counselors there is victory” (Prov.11:14). Without consultation, plans are frustrated but with many counselors they succeed (Prov.15:22). The essence of these Scriptures can be summed up in two truth; i) leaders should recruit a variety of godly counselors, and ii) leaders should give advisors the freedom to express their opinions. The key to effective counselors is not that they always agree with their leaders and support every decision but that they share things the leader would not know or recognize otherwise. Spiritual leaders need advisors who walk closely with god and take their counsel from him. Godly counselors have a great advantage over those who do not have God’s word as a frame of reference for their decision making. One of the great downfalls of leaders is letting their egos hinder their effectiveness. They shield themselves from those who could give healthy advice.

            The Holy Spirit guides through circumstances: Leaders are never simply the victim or pawns of their circumstances. Wise leaders watch for God’s activity in the midst of their experience. Just as God speaks by his Holy Spirit through prayer, the Bible, and other believers, so God can send clear message to leaders through their experience. Spiritual leaders astutely evaluate ‘coincidence’ to see if these are God’s answers to their prayers. Spiritual leaders are not discouraged by their circumstance; they are informed by them. Through situation and trial in leader lives, God leads them forward in his will.

 

 

 

           Leaders must decide to decide. After seeking God’s guidance and confirming it through the Scriptures, through prayer, through the affirmation of other believers, and through an evaluatin of their situation after they have gathered all the relevant information and after they have discuss with with trusted advisors, the time comes for leaders to make an informed, Spirit-led decision. To delay further would b an abdiction of leadership. As important as decision making is for leaders, making the decision in only half of the process. The leaders should accept the consequences, admit their mistakes, stand by their decisions. The leaders should evaluate the decisions they are making, they should cultivate their relationship with God, seek God’s vision, seek God’s wisdom. God supply everything essential for peole to make wise choices.