As Christian coaches each of us have a niche or group we’re called to serve and personally I’ve felt called to serve leaders.
Throughout history, there have been many great Christian leaders. These leaders impacted the lives of the people that they lead and have left a legacy that continues to impact people today. Here are 5 secrets of great Christian leaders.
1. They lead from the heart
Their external world matches their internal world. Jesus tells us that, “Out of the heart the mouth speaks,” and, “you know a tree by its fruit.” Basically, you can know what is going on inside of someone based on what comes out of them. Great Christian leaders have gotten their internal desires (things like love, peace, security) met to a point that what flows out of them matches what’s inside of them. We have all experienced someone leading to fill their desire for significance or for worth. These things aren’t bad in and of themselves, but they’re meant to be met in our relationship with God first.
In order to lead from the heart, we first need to enter into a desire filling relationship with Jesus. To do this, we need to understand what it is that our heart truly desires. Then, we need to simply ask.
2. They know their season
Great Christian leaders know what season they’re in. When we start out our Christian walk, we often think that it’s going to be onward and upward. But then life happens. Life is filled with mountains and valleys, and it’s important to engage God differently in each season because he’s doing something different in each one.
Mountain tops are all about external productivity. This is where we all love to live because life seems to be on track. This is where Joseph got his colorful coat or where David killed Goliath. In a mountain stage it feels like we’re moving towards the call the God has placed on our lives.
Valleys are all about internal re-tooling. But often times, we don’t have space for this in our lives, or worse, we fight against it. This is where Joseph was sold into slavery or where David lived in caves being chased by Saul. We often view valleys as a demotion when in fact they are a graduation. God is pleased with what we have done in our last season and so now he wants to take us away to be with Him, to form something deeper in us.
The reason valleys can be so painful though is often we’re trying to get back to where we were. When God is saying, “Actually, I want to take you higher and further. But first, I need to form something deep within your heart so that when you get to the place I want to take you, you don’t fail.
Great Christian leaders know what season they’re in and how to engage God in that season.
3. They build a culture of feedback
In Matthew 16 Jesus asked his disciples both, “Who do people say I am?” and, “Who do you say I am?” Jesus got feedback from those closest to him.
Often as we rise in leadership, we fall into the feedback trap. The more and more influential we get, the less and less people are willing to give us feedback. The people around us have typically risen with us and so often they fear giving feedback because it is costly for them. They fear losing relationship, influence, or maybe even their job. And so the only people that end up giving us feedback are the people who are so upset with us that we dismiss them as emotional basket cases.
Great Christian leaders provide a safe place for those around them (superiors, peers and subordinates) to give them feedback.
4. They’re authentic
They are comfortable in their brokenness because they already know they’re fully accepted. And they’re equally comfortable with their glory because they are already fully approved.
Going back to point 1, great Christian leaders have already received their acceptance from Jesus. They know in their hearts that they are accepted and so they don’t feel the need to hide their brokenness in an attempt to be accepted by those they lead.
On the flip side, they also know that they are fully approved. They aren’t compelled to try and prove to those around them how great they are to try to get their desire for approval met. They’ve already received this from Jesus. And so they are free to share their successes from a place of approval, not for approval.
We know that the disciples were witness to Jesus multiplying food, walking on water, and healing countless numbers of people. But have you ever thought that the only way for us to know what Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion was for him to later tell his disciples? They were sleeping when it happened!
Or we know how 3,000 people were saved on the day of Pentecost. But have you realized that one of the reasons we know so much about Peter’s betrayal of Jesus is because it’s written for us to read in the gospel of Mark? Traditionally, Mark wrote down Peter’s sermons and that became his gospel. So Peter preached on his mistakes!
Authenticity is the ability to be as open as the situation requires without worrying about how you look. Being authentic builds trust. Great Christian leaders have gotten their desires for acceptance and approval met in Jesus first, and so are able to share both their brokenness and glory with those they lead out of a full heart.
5. They learn to see failures and setbacks from the perspective of Heaven
As leaders, we’ve been taught to fail forward, or to always learn from our mistakes. But so many times we miss the point because we turn our failures into a head exercise instead of a heart exercise.
When we fail, we ask questions like “What can I learn from this?” or “What do I need to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again?” And while these questions are ok, often times we still find ourselves facing a similar challenge again and again because we’re trying to change something externally while God is trying to change something internally.
God is always for us, using circumstances to form us, and his plan is a process. Romans 8:28 tells us that “all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” The connotation in the Greek is that God is working things together for our inner goodness. God is using circumstances to form something good in us.
Some better questions to ask when setbacks come are, “Jesus, what are you forming in me through this circumstance?” or “Jesus, who do you want to be for me in this situation that you couldn’t be in any other way?”
That way we can better partner with what God is forming in us to become the leader he has called us to be.
Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Great Christian leaders learn to see things from heaven’s perspective and what God is doing, and partner with that.
Chris Frost is founder of Strata Ltd, a coaching firm that specializes in coaching leaders in transition. That transition can be anything from not knowing how to take your business or personal life to the next level, to an unexpected loss or tragedy. Because of his unique training in coaching the heart, he is able to explore and often times help resolve areas that have kept people stuck for years. For more information go to www.stratacoach.com or email him at chris@stratacoach.com.