Leadership Community

A Leaders Qualities: (1 Timothy 3:2-7, Titus 1:5-9, 1 Peter 5:1-4)

Leaders in the church are supposed to have basic maturity as a believer (1 Timothy 3:6) and a reputation for godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Otherwise the new christian is likely to become disillusioned when people criticize, complain, and refuse to cooperate. If you don't believe it read the story of Moses, it is a great study in leadership. Practically speaking though many churches approach these passages as if they were a secret code for finding good leaders or a checklist that must be followed if you want to be "Right". Should leaders be married, must they be men, can they drink, can divorced people be leaders or not? Then we ask why the list are slightly different? Did Peter and Paul have different standards? What about Paul - he was a single, migrant worker, with a prison record. Most often churches review these qualities and ask, "who among us comes closest to the goal? Then as leaders we continue to come back to the standard to measure our own progress.

A Leaders Purpose:

Paul told Timothy to train faithful men who would be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2) and in Ephesians 4:12 the leaders were told to "equip", "prepare", or "train" the saints for the work of the ministry. This implies that a leader needs to have a plan and a purpose for what he does and that there is a strong value in the leadership community for reproduction, self replacement, and the welfare and survival of the church. To assist with the leaders role we provide leader resources.