Written by Barry-Werner on March 3rd, 2011. Posted in Attitude, Character, Encouragement, Jeremiah, Leadership Principles,Listening, Obedience to God, Old Testament, Personal Development. A team can consider good leadership a blessing from God. Read Jeremiah 30:10-22. God had allowed Babylon to take some of the people from Judah and Jerusalem into exile to Babylon while others still lived in the land. Between the time of those first exiled and 586 BC, the time when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, Jeremiah wrote these words of hope to the current captives and those who would join them later, “’The days are coming’, declares the Lord, ‘when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity and restore them to the land I gave their forefathers to possess says the Lord’” Jeremiah 30:3. One of God’s promises meant to give hope for the returning exiles is found in verses 21 and 22. God promised them good leaders. How informative that God looks at good leadership as a blessing for those being led. Is it any wonder that He holds leaders to a high level of accountability! The following are the criterion found in versed 21 and 22 to be considered a good leader: During my years with World Wide Pictures, the Billy Graham Film Ministry, part of my job was an oversight role during production of new movies which meant I needed to be on set with film crews during the production. A film crew was sometimes as large as 60-70 people. Not all those on the set were believers, in fact some individuals made that quite clear fairly often, but the production was dedicated to God and, for the film to have a spiritual impact, the movie set needed to be looked at as holy ground. To be the spiritual leader of that team if found I needed to stay close to God and be devoted to Him and His purposes, I needed to represent Him and all His justice, fairness, honesty, love and truthfulness to the team and yet I could not be “holier than thou” but had to fit in with that team and be one of them. A tough assignment to be sure and I prayed every day that I could be God’s promised good leader for that team. Most leaders live in the real world with rough edges similar to a movie set. Godly leadership is not easy in these environments. I found it helpful that God gives leaders a short list to fulfill and still be considered His good leader. It would not be difficult to make an exhaustive list of leadership qualities that have been identified in the Bible concerning good leadership. But, it has been my personal experience that if leaders lived up to this very short list most of the other leadership qualities flow naturally from the consistent application of the list God detailed through Jeremiah.
Do you strive to be a God-honoring leader? (163-4)
