We can learn a lot from the Bible, such as the wisdom of conducts in society, finance management, church nurturing and how to develop future leaders. Also, Jesus can teach us much from how he chose the twelve disciples and guided them.
A speaker shares three steps to build leaders in a training session called "Courageous Leadership" held in a house church of Shanghai. She put forwards a leadership plan that can be divided into three steps.
First Step: five qualities determined.
Great leaders should be required to have the following qualities:
1. Influence. A potential leader always positively influences others. Even though not intentionally, they naturally bring influences. Influence is considered as the core of leadership.
2. Characters. Many influential people lack good characters, consequently, they can't use the influence in a constructive way or according to the Christian principles. Observe people who have great characters or not, including integrity, humility, steadiness, and receptiveness. Pay attention to the evidence that may show that they walk with God sincerely, obey the guidance of the Holy Spirit and keep faithful to God's word.
3. Interpersonal skills.
The skills contain the sensibility to be in tune with others' feelings and ideas and the ability to listen to others' opinions. The leaders can deal with different kinds of people, regardless of those with perverse dispositions, in favor of power or lack of self-esteem.
4. Enterprising spirit. This kind of people is innovative, willing to take action. Entering restaurants, they may be the first one to claim ordering food.
5. Talents. Talents include the capacity to handle change, process a lot of information and assess possibility as well as strong comprehension and wide knowledge. Moreover, leaders should be enthusiastic and curious. With mental flexibility, they can learn and grow constantly.
Second step: Training new leaders
This comes to the phase of cultivation or training. How to be effective in training them?
The speaker claims that the best learning way for new leaders is to learn from other leaders. And senior leaders should be responsible for providing necessary opportunities for next generation leaders and helping them prepared for the future challenges.
Third Step: empower new leaders
If you ask what catalyst is the best for leaders' growth, the answer is empowering the potential leaders. Nobody can actually grow unless he or she faces real challenges to lead.
The speaker gives Jesus as an example to illustrate this point: Jesus chose and trained the twelve disciples; he sent them to preach the Gospel when the time was right. Matthew 10:16 says, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. " This means that there was a risk in what they were about to do and they might fail. Moreover, Jesus didn't claim that he would protect them from any danger, but they had to move one step forward.
We can see from Jesus that the church should find the future leaders, cultivate and train them, meanwhile committing the real responsibility to them.
