Leadership Encouragement

                                                                      Leadership Encouragement
 
        Throughout the summer we try our best to put people in place that can best show our campers the love of God and the life of Christ. This requires giving the campers a lot of attention a lot of the time. However, we also value investing into our staff and counselors lives. This summer we have been blessed to have a great God focused man that has taken the lead on this through our Sunday night bible studies. David Luck has taken time every Sunday to meet with our staff, and occasionally counselors, to help show them what biblical leadership looks like. During the study we looked at the life of seven individuals who symbolized biblical leadership and ended the study with David, Beth (David’s wife and camp nurse), Alan, and Lisa praying over our staff about God sending them out to continue His mission as the summer ends. I would like to share a little bit about those leaders we looked at this summer with hopes that they can inspire and encourage you the same way they did us!
 

1. Joshua              
   

               A.    Mentored by Moses – Numbers 11:28-30
                      i. With Moses from his youth
                      ii.Respected the Spirit’s leadership in Moses
            B.    We must also find a mentor who is lead by the Spirit who will help to teach and encourage us the same way Moses did Joshua
   
    2. Deborah
              A.    Delegates when needed – Judges 4:5-6
                     i.She had a lot on her plate as a judge
                     ii.She trusted others to accomplish a task when God told her to
            B.     As leaders it is easy to want everything to be our responsibility because of pride or a desire to do things “right”, but a great leader listens for God to tell you when to delegate
   
    3. Gideon
             A.    Seeks God’s guidance and leading – Judges 6:36-7:1
                    i.He wanted to confirm his calling
                    ii.Listened for God’s response and obeyed it
         B.    Sometimes we feel like God is asking too much of us, and it causes us to doubt our calling as a leader. God usually asks to much of us so that through our success we realize it was His guidance that brought the success not our skills or talents

    4. David
          A.     Example of God being our source or power – 1 Samuel 17:45-47
                  i.He was not afraid because he knew God was on his side
                  ii.His faith in the power of God was well placed
          B.    This makes me think about the saying “God does not call the equipped, He equips the called”. If you are called by God to be a leader, He will equip you for all the battles that are ahead
   
     5. Peter
          A.    The Spirit at work – Acts 2:14-41
                  i.He becomes active when he realizes what has just happened
                  ii.He immediately capitalizes on the opportunity to share the story of Christ with all who could understand him
         B.    There will be questions asked of us when we are leaders that we do not know the answer to. Make sure you leave every door open for the Spirit to speak through you during these times. Just because we do not have an answer doesn’t mean that the Spirit within us doesn’t have an answer
   
     6. Paul
          A.    Reality of a lifestyle change – Galatians 1:11-17
                  i.He did not hide from his dark past
                  ii.Pointed to God saving him from his sinful flesh
        B.    In Romans 12:1-2 Paul teaches us as believers, and especially as leaders, that we have to change our mindset. The reality of a changed mindset is that it quickly changes our lifestyle too

    7. Jesus
        A.    All of these leaders and more – Luke 22:42
              i.Being 100% man meant Jesus became broken while bearing the weight of our sins (sweat like drops of blood; verse 44), He wanted another way
                  ii.Knew the importance of God’s will being fulfilled rather than ours
       B.    Running from a problem is easy even for a leader, but that does not fix the problem. Christ showed us in his darkest moment that perusing the will of God is what truly what makes a leader great 


​I hope that you can learn and grow from the examples set by these leaders. Anyone can be a leader, but it takes someone special to be a God centered leader. You can be that someone special!!