To promote the sinicization of Christianity, the church shall have a qualified leader. The passage tries to explore the expectations of qualified leaders in the trend of sinicization of Christianity and what qualities a leader in the church shall have.
Continue Reading: The Church Calls for Qualified Leaders (I) (II)
Below is the third part.
3.1. To have good qualities:
(1) The church is different from the ordinary groups in our society. A church leader needs to consider church characteristics and have good administrative management. This places higher requirements on church leaders. They shall have firm political belief and the ability to govern the whole situation.
As early as 800 years ago, Dante said:" Morality can make up for the insufficiency of knowledge but knowledge can not fill the void of morality."
There is a saying goes that your ability promotes you to a high position and your character determines how long you will sit in the position. Zhang Guangjun, the president of Southeast China University, said: " Force leads to little victory; wisdom leads to moderate victory; morality leads to the biggest victory." Morality is the most beautiful character of a person and the basis of success.
Morality is also the foundation of any kinds of leadership. A leader who lacks morality is not qualified for leading others. Morality can win people's respect and trust, which are the most fundamental factors in all relationships. A leader must be trusted and followed.
Samson who had saved the Israelites with his supernatural power given by God failed at last due to the weakness in his personality. He was randy.
Samson faced the challenge of sex but he never repressed his desires. It is natural that he often crossed the border. As a result, he had to face extinction.
Morality is the most attractive factor to people. A leader who can share significant visions will also attract people to follow since they will arouse the interest of others by telling them the object of life and the future path. When a leader holds the morality and the vision, he will have the power to motivate other people.
Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in traditional Chinese culture have something in common. First of all, they all praise the value of life. Second, they all emphasize loving others as loving yourself. Their moral standards are essentially the same. Sun Yat-sen had an idea of serving others just like Jesus advocated serving people instead of being served.
Traditional Chinese culture advocates convincing others with morality and reject repressing others with strength. A leader of the church shall lead with morality. As Peter teaches: " Take care of believers according to the will of God and be the example of a group."
Pastor Tang Chongrong said, "If the church leader is not qualified to be a model, then you are deceiving yourself when you say Christians are the light of the world."
As a preacher of the new age, we shall also be the practitioners of the truth! We shall take the lead and affect others with our morality and decent appearance. We shall hold a kind attitude towards people and treat them with a broad mind.
3.2. What are good characters:
(1) Be modest:
According to the dictionary, being modest means having a humble opinion of yourself.
The Bible says that if you are moderate you will think others are better than yourself.
Confucius said that among three people there must be someone who I can learn from. When John the Baptist met Jesus, he said peacefully that Jesus will prosper and he will decline.
In reality, when a modest person finds someone is more capable, he will feel happy from the root of his heart because he has found a rough diamond. He will never envy, attack or repel talents. He will provide talents with a platform to grow and achieve a career.
"I will walk before you to repair the rugged terrain". Leaders with a broad mind not only act as pioneers but also provide opportunities for talents. This kind of humility is based on the spirit of Christ. They have the whole situation in mind regardless of personal gain and loss.
True humility is to serve God with heart and soul. We shall sacrifice ourselves for God's will. Don't steal others' thunder.
Paul said: " We shall learn from Jesus. He took the form of a servant even though he is genuine God. He didn't grab anything from people due to his identity. "
"God's Son is and will always be God. However, he didn't seek self-gratification. He cherishes other people's interests more than his. As the great king of the universe, he gave up everything to become a mundane Jewish baby and chose the cross in the end."
Humility is not self-centered but God-centered. True humility is the knowledge of where you are standing and what you are doing. The power of the leader is not decided by his position or title but his contributions to love and humility. The power of a leader comes from his service to God.
Leadership is not a symbol of power. It is a gift given by the church that unites everyone to achieve God's goal. A genuine leader will regard God as the head of the church. God gives them gifts, builds them the church and arranges the job of ministry for them.
Doctor Samuel Southard said: "The growth of pastor's power is both subjective and objective; it is both silent and evident. A qualified leader is able to prove that he is totally managed by God by means of evangelism."
There are some leaders wearing a "humble" mask. In fact, they are fishing for fame. This kind of practice is due to their narrow mind. It is no different from government-owned standard thought and has become a very serious problem in today's church. They were even too impatient to sit beside Jesus and replace the position of God. The terrible phenomenon had severely restricted the healthy development of the church.
Drucker said: "Good leaders places much importance on their responsibility and colleagues. However, they pay little attention to their own fame and fortune. They have a mind as open as a valley. They are willing to let cleverer people perform on the stage."
(2) Holy and Flawless:
"You have to get along well with all people and pursue holiness. Without holiness, no one can see God." Holiness is the goal of Christians and particularly important to a church leader.
To cultivate good characters, the first step is to learn self-discipline. We must rely on
God. Then we will be honest and far away from sin. Once you can lead yourself, others will trust you and follow you.
People are willing to forgive those leaders who occasionally make mistakes due to the lack of abilities especially when the continuous growth of leaders are seen. However, people will not forgive a leader with moral problems.
In today's church, you will find that some leaders are very concerned about spiritual theory and practice. However, in terms of dealing with people, they may not act better than non-Christians. Such leaders couldn't guide the believers. In fact, how leaders conduct themselves matter a lot to the revival of the church.
(3) Broad mind:
John the Baptist was the first prophet in 400 years since the break of the tradition so he drew attention from many Jews.
However, the prophet's glory only lasted six months because another prophet Jesus appeared. Faced with the opponent, John calmly said: "He will prosper and I will decline."
John went out of the stage of history and completely declined. In contrast, some pastors are concerned about their leading position in the church without considering the healthy development of the church. They always prevent others from prosperity and keep their own glory.
A leader cherished by God is not afraid of others' success. He would like to train others and make them stronger,
Elijah trained his apprentice Elisha. When God took Elisha away he said to Elijah: " May my soul would be more moved than yours." Elijah was not angry and he was willing to fulfill his requests. He taught Elisha with appropriate methods.
Elijah had a sense of security and he was not afraid to be surpassed by his apprentice. He was a good leader.
(4) Honesty and Integrity:
Honesty and integrity are fundamental to a good leader. A leader lacking honesty and integrity couldn't win the trust of others. Chinese people are careful and affectionate. As long as you really treat others with sincerity and heart, others will sooner or later feel it and work for you.
The personal charm of a leader can attract some people but only honesty and integrity can retain people. However, many leaders tend to improve their own image with some lies and fake stories. True loyalty is in accordance with the truth of the Bible, or it may become "stupid loyalty".
Lawrence Richards said in his book: "If we establish our beliefs of value on the basis of Bible and prove that we are dependent on God's promises, believers shall be touched and react to us.
3.3.Conclusion
To promote the sinicization of Christianity, we need more qualified leaders to rejuvenate the church! The age calls for good leaders; the church is looking forward to good leaders; Jesus searches for good leaders! We hope that more talented and responsible leaders who know about the needs of the times and care about the society will become good servants of God.
