We live in a time when there just don’t seem to be any leaders out there, but then people have been saying that for centuries.  Yet throughout history, leaders will emerge periodically, sometimes almost from nowhere.  These great leaders are often called statesmen when they lead nations, but they don’t always come in the form of national leaders.  Over the centuries, great leaders have also led great movements within the church and moved the banner of Christ forward in a dark world.  

The late historian, Professor J. Rufus Fears came up with a short list of qualities that statesmen have shown throughout history, and I thought I’d share it with you today.  Fears said that a great leader (statesman) always demonstrates four qualities:

1. A great leader always has a bedrock of principles.

2. A great leader always has a strong moral compass.

3. A great leader has the ability to build a consensus.

5. A great leader has a vision for the future.

Consider the examples of Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill. Both of these great leaders had these four qualities, both of them came to power at the right time, a time of crisis, and each came from nowhere, particularly Lincoln.  Abraham Lincoln was about the most unlikely man to lead a nation that I can think of, and yet he strode onto the scene at just the right moment, and because he also had the quality of humility, he grew into his office in a way that we seldom see.  Churchill, while hardly an unknown, had fallen out of favor in his career and was thought to be completely out of the game, and yet he too strode onto the stage and led his people in a great time of crisis.

Now consider their opponents.  Lincoln’s opposite was Jefferson Davis, a politician, not a statesman, a man who had qualities like vision and principles perhaps, maybe also a moral compass, but in the end he was not able to put a true governing consensus together, and some might add that his vision failed him as well.  Churchill’s opponent was Adolf Hitler, a man of vision certainly, nightmarish as it was, a man who put together a consensus. You might even say that he was a man of principles, evil ones to be sure.  But Hitler was so entirely devoid of any kind of morality that he was doomed from the beginning.  He was a strong leader, yes.  He was neither great nor any sort of a statesman.

In our day, statesmen are scarce, maybe the idea of such a thing is even out of style.

Can we learn more about all of this, particularly as it may apply to spiritual things?  I think so.

All of us who are followers of Christ are called to be disciples who make disciples.  This involves a certain amount of leadership. Some are called to be leaders of congregations; this is a pure and noble calling to lead God’s people forward in taking the Gospel into the community around us, a leadership role for sure.  We will never be called statesmen, and will probably never go down in history, but we can be great leaders where God has placed us.

As Christ’s followers, we should come with 2 of the 4 qualities of a great leader: Bedrock principles and a strong moral compass come directly from the teachings of Christ Himself, but what about the other 2?Can we build a consensus to lead God’s people?  This may bring instant confusion from 2 sides.  One might immediately assert that we must never compromise with the secular world, so building a consensus is inappropriate.  We preach, everybody follows.

Of course, an assertion anything like that one is just plain silly!  We build a consensus when we take the time to share discipleship with others.  We don’t lead by just preaching at people, we lead by sharing with them, by loving them as brothers and sisters, by guiding them through their walks with Christ; by being in relationship with them.  Consensus should be easy to attain in time.

Another possible criticism is that we don’t need to build a consensus, because God will do the leading, and as soon as He tells us where to go, we’ll lead the people forward.  I might suggest that a person who has this level of understanding might better serve God in a non-leadership capacity. I make this suggestion because a church leader should really be more familiar with Scripture…

The quality that so many church leaders lack entirely is vision for the future.  We even argue about it, yet we avoid having it and our congregations suffer as a result.  The vision of Christ for His church is all through the New Testament. his vision for the church is one of discipleship, love, service and selflessness.

I would suggest in closing that maybe we all should take a closer look at what Christ’s vision for His church is, and make His priorities our priorities.  Great and godly leaders emerge from such reflections.