{"id":30577,"date":"2023-10-27T08:24:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T14:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/?p=30577"},"modified":"2023-10-27T08:24:11","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T14:24:11","slug":"a-legacy-of-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/a-legacy-of-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"A LEGACY of\u00a0 Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

I picked up the hotel room movie guide and was struck by the tag line for a program titled Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:<\/em> \u201cWe will be known forever by the tracks we leave behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t often think in such terms. We live our lives from day to day with little or no thought about the tracks we are leaving behind. It\u2019s not a question of whether we leave a legacy or not; the only question is whether it\u2019s a legacy we want to leave behind.<\/p>\n

Many people naturally aspire to leadership, to influence, to making a difference in as many lives as possible. But leadership seldom happens naturally. Such a legacy is the product of a leadership perspective, leadership character, and leadership development. All three are on display in an early Christian letter in the Bible.<\/p>\n

Servant perspective<\/h2>\n

Paul, the great church planter of the first century, wrote the following to his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Titus:<\/p>\n

Paul, a servant of God\u00a0and an apostle\u00a0of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God\u2019s elect and their knowledge of the truth\u00a0that leads to godliness \u2014 in the hope of eternal life,\u00a0which God, who does not lie,\u00a0promised before the beginning of time, and which now at his appointed season\u00a0he has brought to light\u00a0through the preaching entrusted to me\u00a0by the command of God\u00a0our Savior (Titus 1:1-3).<\/p>\n

Notice Paul\u2019s perspective, how he identified himself in this letter. He called himself \u201ca servant of God\u201d and \u201can apostle of Jesus Christ.\u201d To Paul, those two terms were virtually interchangeable.<\/p>\n

To be a Christian leader means being a servant. Paul isn\u2019t the only one who serves as our model in this. Other leaders in the early church signed their letters:<\/p>\n

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ (James 1:1).<\/p>\n

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:1).<\/p>\n

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ (Jude 1:1).<\/p>\n

They were all servants first, foremost, and fully. After all, that\u2019s the way Jesus said it should be:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all\u201d (Mark 10:42-44).<\/p>\n

This is our perspective. If you would leave a legacy of leadership, be a servant. Swallow your pride. Wash people\u2019s feet. Stoop as low as you can because the most effective leaders are the willingest workers, the ones who show up early and stay late because there\u2019s garbage to take out and coffee to brew.<\/p>\n

Strong character<\/h2>\n

Paul also wrote to Titus:<\/p>\n

An elder must be blameless,\u00a0faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe\u00a0and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer\u00a0manages God\u2019s household,\u00a0he must be blameless \u2014 not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable,\u00a0one who loves what is good,\u00a0who is self-controlled,\u00a0upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly\u00a0to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine\u00a0and refute those who oppose it (1:6-9).<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s counsel to Titus makes it clear that anyone who wants to leave a legacy of leadership should focus not on building a following but on building strong character and a sturdy reputation. In fact, anyone who would lead others might use Paul\u2019s words as a sort of checklist from time to time:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Is my conduct blameless?<\/li>\n
  • Am I faithful to my spouse?<\/li>\n
  • Am I teaching and training my young children well?<\/li>\n
  • Am I pushy and overbearing?<\/li>\n
  • Is my temper under control?<\/li>\n
  • Are my appetites under control?<\/li>\n
  • Am I belligerent?<\/li>\n
  • Am I honest in my business practices?<\/li>\n
  • Do I show hospitality to others?<\/li>\n
  • Am I drawn to good things and positive people?<\/li>\n
  • Am I self-controlled?<\/li>\n
  • Am I upright and fair-minded?<\/li>\n
  • Is my way of life holy and pure?<\/li>\n
  • Am I disciplined?<\/li>\n
  • Do I have a grasp of what is biblical, sound doctrine?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    That may seem like an unrealistic standard to some, but it\u2019s not a call to legalistic perfection. It\u2019s a depiction of what a leader looks like so that Titus would be sure to know one when he saw one. And though Paul used male language when he wrote to Titus, it doesn\u2019t mean only men may lead. In other letters, he unabashedly referred to women in leadership, even to one who was \u201coutstanding among the apostles\u201d (Romans 16:7).<\/p>\n

    If you would leave a legacy of leadership to those you love \u2014 those who come after you, those you may not even know yet \u2014 focus on building the kind of character Paul describes to Titus. If you read the checklist above and a few weak areas pop out at you, start focusing your prayers, seek help, and become accountable to someone in those areas, because true leadership is a product of character.<\/p>\n

    Character development<\/h2>\n

    Paul introduced himself as a servant, described the character of a leader, and then explained why the development of such character is so important in the church:<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk\u00a0and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households\u00a0by teaching things they ought not to teach \u2014 and that for the sake of dishonest gain. One of Crete\u2019s own prophets\u00a0has said it: \u201cCretans\u00a0are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.\u201d This saying is true. Therefore rebuke\u00a0them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths\u00a0or to the merely human commands\u00a0of those who reject the truth. To the pure, all things are pure,\u00a0but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure.\u00a0In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him.\u00a0They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good (Titus 1:10-16).<\/p>\n

    At the time Titus lived and ministered there, Crete was an excessively materialistic, greedy, belligerent, dishonest society. That may not resemble your country, city, or neighborhood. But when it comes to leaving a legacy, it won\u2019t do for us to whitewash ourselves or our situations. Paul\u2019s words suggest that anyone who aspires to lead should be prepared for a struggle. That\u2019s how we develop.<\/p>\n

    It may be a struggle like Titus faced, against \u201cliars, evil brutes, and lazy gluttons,\u201d or it may be a struggle against wonderful, well-intentioned people. It may be a struggle against folks who are \u201cdetestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good,\u201d or with people who are smarter than we but don\u2019t have all the information we have. It may be a struggle against \u201cthe spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms\u201d (Ephesians 6:12) or against our own thickheadedness or immaturity. Or it may just be a struggle to develop the skills and training we need.<\/p>\n

    If you would leave a legacy of leadership, be prepared to struggle with yourself, with others, with God, with circumstances, with your spouse, with your superiors or subordinates, with your need to learn more skills. Be prepared, even, to struggle with the very calling and aspiration to be a leader when it would be easier to just lay low, sit back, and let your legacy be \u2014 whatever it\u2019s going to be. This is the way to spiritual development.<\/p>\n

    But if you are determined to leave a legacy of leadership, begin now \u2014 or continue \u2014 to cultivate a leader\u2019s perspective, character, and development. This way, years from now \u2014 even generations from now \u2014 you will be remembered by the tracks you leave behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I picked up the hotel room movie guide and was struck by the tag line for a program titled Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: \u201cWe will be known forever by the tracks we leave behind.\u201d We don\u2019t often think in such terms. We live our lives from day to day with little or no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311,"featured_media":30578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,2516],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nA LEGACY of\u00a0 Leadership - Bible Advocate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/a-legacy-of-leadership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A LEGACY of\u00a0 Leadership - Bible Advocate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I picked up the hotel room movie guide and was struck by the tag line for a program titled Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: \u201cWe will be known forever by the tracks we leave behind.\u201d We don\u2019t often think in such terms. 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