The S's of Leadership

"The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly." - Jim Rohn

 The following is a document I wrote in 2004, maybe?

The S’s of Leadership

Strength

Servanthood

Submission

Sacrifice

Strength

Strength is something required of leaders.  It is a mental strength.  An emotional strength.  A life full of purpose and conviction.  Leaders create a sense of belief that other people see and want to follow.  Otherwise they are not really leaders. 

            Jesus calls us to be light in a world of darkness.  This requires us to be leaders.  It does not require us to stand on podiums or give orders or start our own company.  It requires us to believe in our mission and bring others on board the mission. 

Read Matthew 28:18-20.  Making disciples and teaching and baptizing are skills of leaders.  Therefore Jesus calls us to be leaders in this world.  A world full of hopelessness, pain and doubt.  A world full of loneliness.  Jesus tells us to go and do what he has done.  To not fear those who oppose us (and many will oppose us if we lead; nobody really opposes someone who never does or says anything against the norm), and in fact shows us how to respond to those who would tear us down: with wisdom, peace, and, sometimes, a little attitude.  But, mainly with love.  (and in this world, love is not something people turn to use when faced with a problem or someone/something that annoys/challenges them).  1 Corinthians 13.

Discuss as a group what our individual strengths and weaknesses are.

Discuss as a group if we think we are strong enough to do something no one else has done, to take risks, to stand out in a world that tells us to conform.

As a leader, provide examples of your own risktaking and results, along with areas of failing to take a chance or step up as a leader and your own feelings and results of that too.

Everyone shows their strength in different ways. How has God blessed you with strength? Can you withstand temptation and show your strength by holding firm? Does your strength hold a group of people together?

Read the following for encouragement regarding God strengthening us.

Is. 41:10

Psalm 84:5-7

Strength is not a muscle.  Strength is the focus, determination, belief, and trust in God to do what others do not.  Are you strong enough to follow God?  Do you know why or why not?  Do you believe God will be strong for us even when we are weak?

God provides us all the strength we need (2 Peter 1:3-4).  Do we believe this?  Do we live a transformed life and lead in a world that needs Jesus as their leader, to be salt and light?

Discuss what are actions we can take this week to act courageously.  Some options might be to speak to someone we know about Jesus.  Another could be to ask someone you have been talking to if they’ve though about following Jesus.  

Pray as a group about the fears and apprehensions behind these ideas.  Have people write out what they are going to do, and have them trade these with another for accountability during the week to make sure it happens.

Servanthood

Washing of the feet

Leaders are, by nature, the best of the best.  They cause people to do what they would not naturally do.  They lead, and others follow.  Often time leaders reach a point where they only direct others and often have them do what they themselves would no longer do.  People see leadership as rising above.  Today we will see how Jesus turns this thinking upside down.

Read John 13:1-20

Discuss verse 1.  What does Jesus know here?  How has he loved his own in the world so far?

What is Jesus doing in v. 3-5? 

What do people’s feet look like after walking around all day in sandals?

Whose job do we usually think it is to wash feet (or who would it be if not us; should say slave or lowly servant…)?

Why does Peter refuse to let Jesus wash his feet?

Why does Jesus say in verse 7, “You don’t understand now, but later you will.”?

How does Jesus convince Peter in v. 8?  What does Peter think the “share”is?  What does Jesus mean by being with him?  (heaven…)

Discuss v. 12-30.  jesus says he is teacher and lord, and that if he washes feet they should wash feet.

How do we wash other people’s feet?

What jobs to we not like to do?

What things do we expect other people to do for us?

How do we serve other people?

What was the grossest, most disgusting thing you’ve ever cleaned?  For someone else?

We have no right to think of ourselves as greater than Jesus.  Therefore we must do as our teacher does. 

Discuss ideas on what as a group are good opportunities to serve.

Discuss in small groups what are good individual opportunities to serve. 

            As a note, there are many things to do in setting up Mosaic on Sundays.  Perhaps as a  small group you can select one Sunday a month to go serve in whatever ways are needed.  Contact the Connections team (Neal Nakamoto, David Sandler, Jessica Jin, Tom Bustamante, Nichole Darling, Dan Romo, Crystal Banasiak, Jade Lucas) about these opportunities to serve.

Pray as a group for humility.  Jesus is telling his disciples to do the unthinkable and do the lowest jobs (see Peter’s reply again).  But the fact is that Jesus is able to lead BECAUSE he is willing to do the dirty jobs too.  He commands us to do everything he has done, and no less.  SO if he does the hard stuff, so should we.  Can you imaging if Jesus had just been like one of the Pharisees and given orders and sent someone else off to die for the sins of others?

Pray for each other  to be more humble and to see opportunities to serve.  Because “whoever receives on eof you sent by Jesus, receives Jesus and also God, who sent Jesus.”

Submission

“Not my will, but yours”

Read Mark 14:32-37, what is going on with Jesus right now?  Why is he acting this way? 

Describe the situation and what you might feel like being in that situation yourself.

Describe a situation when you know you have to do something but you just don’t want to do it or are very afraid to do so.

Read v.36 again.  What is Jesus Trying to do here?  What is the cup and why does he want it removed?  (Note, the cup is described in the OT as the cup of wrath.  Jesus is going to drink it and take all the world’s sin upon him and then be sacrificed to save the world).

Discuss heavily the last line.  Jesus submits to God’s authority and leadership in his life, even though jesus himself is a great leader.  He knows what his purpose is and ultimately states that he will do what he has to do, even at a great cost to himself.

            Open discussion into who it is that we submit to. 

Ask how much it is that we actually submit (to work, to family, to friends, to other peoples leadership, to God).

            Discuss what Jesus is agreeing to here (submitting his whole life).  Ask whether or not we have decided to submit our whole life to God.

Ask what exactly this means, how far exactly people are willing to submit.

            Are people willing to submit their job to God and go do something that makes less money just because God asks us to?  Or do we not trust God to supply what we need financially and so do what we think we must instead?

            Are people willing to submit their hopes for family and children if God asks us to?  Or do we constantly try to find someone and do not have faith that God will provide if it is His will to do so?

            Are you willing to submit to another person whom God entrusts to you – a disiple, a mate, a friend?

            Are people willing to leave their friends and family behind and go anywhere in the world He tells us to go?

            Are people willing to give money to the poor, needy, and helpless?  The widowed and hungry?  The homeless?  What if it means giving more than your actual paycheck this month? (Read Mark 12:41-44 regarding this – the widow’s offering of 2 coppers coins).

            Are people willing to sacrifice their time to help a friend move?  What about a non-friend?

            Are people willing to suffer for their enemies?  Willing to step in front of a gun to save a random person’s life?  Willing to give an organ that might cause another to live but you may die?

           

            These are very harsh and deep questions.  Difficult questions.  These are questions that Jesus has already demonstrated an answer to.

            Have the group pray for one another.  Pray specifically about being able to say to God, “Not my will, not what I want, but your will, God, what you want.”

            This week, write out what you would be willing to submit to.  Take the opportunity to serve someone in a challenging way for yourself.  Perhaps tell someone just how far you’d go for Jesus.  But remember that Jesus didn’t just talk the talk, he walked the walk. 

Sacrifice

On the Cross

A leader will lay down his own life for those of his people.  Often it is required for a dangerous mission to be done, but no follower will go unless they believe their leader would not do themselves what they are being asked to do.

Read John 17 and evaluate what Jesus is praying for here.

Look specifically for examples of what Jesus has first done and is now calling his disciples to be able to do.

Read John 19:17-30 and discuss to what lengths Jesus went in his mission.

Why did Jesus do this? 

What is his purpose? 

What was his belief system behind this sacrifice? 

Why did he leave his people leaderless (read John 16:16-24 to help in this question)?

Open discussion with how we follow Jesus’ leadership.  Investigate what it is that holds us back from doing any of the things Jesus asks us to do and has done practically before us.

            Ask the question: “what would we give up to follow Jesus?”

            Next, ask the question, “What would we give up to show others Jesus?”  Explore whether or not people are WILLING to lay their lives down.  Stress the point that this does not necessarily mean we will die brutal deaths ourselves, but are we willing to?

            Third, find out about people’s prayer lives.  Jesus was only able to lead and sacrifice because he knew what it was he was doing and the purpose and reason behind it.  He heard from the Father and had trust in God’s leadership to fulfill the promises (to rise from the dead and sit at the right hand of God) that made such sacrifice worthwhile and good.

            In conclusion, pray for one another.  Read Acts 2:1-4 to help motivation if necessary.  For it is when we pray (as community especially) that God’s power is unleashed through us.  It is when we pray that we are encouraged to take risks that we were not ready to take until now.  It is when we pray that we might hear God’s voice and know his will and feel his presence and so have the strength to lead as light into a dark world that needs to know Jesus and follo