ECYC 2012

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Eastern Canada Youth Conference

ECYC 2012 Seminar: Christian Leadership

Daniel Dragan Stojonavic

Christian Leadership

It is my pleasure to be with you and to start, only to start with the biblical guidelines.

I have already 7 presentations similar to this 1.

And I chose only 5 texts from the Bible because to talk about biblical foundations for the leadership in 1 hour, it's not possible.

It's only possible to start to introduce you.

I remember that my professor in France, He was the professor of systematic theology and he decided to write a manual of systematic theology.

And then he said that he will have 1 book of introduction to the systematic theology.

And then he started with 4 books of introduction.

So right now I think that he's writing the 12th book of his systematic theology.

So it is almost the same for the leadership.

When you start, you understand how huge it is.

And you cannot forget so many texts from the Bible.

So I chose 5 of them, hoping that we will find enough of food for ourselves and for our encouragement to do leadership.

So I hope that you are all ready to be leaders.

If not, it would be almost difficult for me to present.

I cannot present things if you are not ready to act.

Just as introduction, I would like to tell you that When you start your leadership, don't expect the results immediately.

I was 17 years old, I think, around, and I studied music, violin.

And in my church, we had, my church was about 400 members.

And when I was 17, someone said that I will be the choir director, because I attended music school.

School of music, I don't know how to say.

And this is how I was in front of 70 people, 70 young people.

This was a big church, a lot of young people.

And you imagine when you do a mistake in front of 70 people, it's even worse if they are young than they are old.

If they are old, they will forgive you easily.

But if they are young, they will make your life really difficult.

And if you know the music in general, in each measure you have 234, how to say, beats.

And the song, a very no easy song for a youth choir, started on the fourth beat.

So as I was not with experience, for me, I started 123, and I hope for them that they will start on the fourth beat.

But For them, it was the sign that they take a, how to say, breathe, to breathe.

So we started in a wrong way, and probably 2 or 3 measures after, it was a silence.

And then someone said to me, start from the beginning.

And right after the song, I said, I will never be a choir director.

If I tell you how many times I was choir director after, it will not be good because I will talk about myself.

But somehow, after having my master in choir direction and orchestra direction, I understood that you will not think about the beginning of your activities as a reference for what you can do.

Mistakes are normal at the beginning of what you are doing.

Sometimes mistakes have huge consequences.

If you are a beginner as surgeon, It's better for you to be with someone who is an excellent surgeon, because if not, someone will die because of your lack of experience.

So if you are only a choir director, it will be easy.

A mistake, you start again, and that's it.

It is very important for us to have confidence, even though we don't see results immediately.

Someone said, Alan, a very known philosopher in France, he said, because he had a question.

A question was asked, how can I be sure to be able to write a piece for theater?

Just do everything in theater, everything.

At the end, write 100 pieces for theater.

Then come to me, and I will tell you if you are able to write 1 piece for theater.

Just preach 100 times and come to me, and then I will tell you if you are able to preach.

So if you start after the first sermon to say, it's not good, I will tell you something about my first sermon, and this is probably everywhere.

I need time to practice in order to be good in something.

And so during my first sermon, I wrote everything, word, every word.

So I had a bunch of, how to say, paper sheets.

And I tried to make the best presentation possible.

I was probably, I don't know, 17, 18 years old.

And they opened all the doors because air condition didn't work.

And so they open all the doors, windows, everything.

And somehow, Probably after 10 or 15 minutes of my sermon, we had a wind.

And suddenly, all my notes started to fly everywhere.

And I saw young people trying to take the notes to give me back.

I remember a young man sitting and trying to put all notes together in good order.

And at the end, he told me, you are here.

Valmy Karemera

Three Essentials of Christian Leadership

Let's have a word of prayer before we begin.

Heavenly Father, Lord, at this moment, we come before you.

Father, we pray that your spirit may be with us as we go through this seminar on Christian leadership.

We pray that your spirit may open our hearts.

As your booklet indicates, this session is on Christian leadership, biblical leadership.

And this morning, I want to discuss with you 3 elements or 3 essentials of leadership, of Christian leadership.

If I may begin by asking, what is leadership?

It's not a rhetorical question, just as an open question.

Taking 1 people from 1 point to the next?

Or pointing people from 1 point to the next?

Showing that you have a different shape than others, that makes you a leader, because you're leading them.

I think all the answers are correct, because as you do a little bit of studying what is leadership, there are various definitions of leadership.

And oftentimes, depending on the context of that leadership, where leadership is done.

For example, if you look in the dictionary, it may say that leadership is an act or instance of leading, guiding, or providing direction or a capacity to lead to cause change.

Also, other dictionaries do say that leadership implies responsibility.

So if you have any responsibility, you have some leadership qualities that people have seen in you to be able to bestow upon you such responsibilities.

I want to read for you these statements from Ministry of Healing, page 469.

And for me this is what I would call a working definition of leadership.

And it's found in ministry, the book Ministry of Healing, page 469.

And it says, what a man is has more influence than what he says.

What a man is has more influence than what he says.

What a man is has more influence than what he says or does.

So if I could narrow it down and define a leadership, I would define leadership as character.

Not necessarily what you do, but who you are.

That is the foundation of leadership, who you are as a person.

And as this statement says, what a person, a man or a woman is, has more influence than what he does or says.

So who the person is is much more essential than what he does.

So who you are and who am I speaks volumes than what we do.

So as a working definition, leadership is who we are, character first.

John Maxwell in his book, he has written many books on leadership.

In 1 of his books, he says, everything rises or falls on leadership.

So if we use our definition, our working definition, if everything rises or falls on leadership, everything also rises or falls on our character, on the person we are, on who we are.

Another person has said that anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

But when chaos or the storm arises, it's when true leadership is exhibited.

Kwame Nkrumah, who was the first president of Ghana, once said that revolutions are brought about by men, by men who think as men of actions and act as men of thought.

So a combination of action and thought, which essentially goes back to who the person is, how we think, as the Bible tells that how we think determines also how we act.

You hear it in many circles that no movement ever arises higher than its leadership.

No movement ever arises higher than its leadership.

In other words, you as a person also can never rise higher than your character is.

There are so many people with so many great talents I have seen, and yet when you place them in a situation, they cannot be able to use those talents because their characters cannot keep them there.

In other words, you might be a person of distinguished talents, definitely coveted talents, but when placed in a situation, your character cannot keep you there.

So movements will never rise higher than their leadership, than their leaders, because their leaders, their leadership is dependent on the quality of the characters of their leaders.

No movement rises higher than its leaders.

The quality of leaders and their leadership shape the direction of the movement.

And the quality of our characters also shape the direction of our lives.

Who we are determines the destiny of our lives.

So this morning, I want to share with you 3 core, what I would call 3 core essential of leadership 3 essentials of leadership or 3 principles of leadership with number 1 the call of a leader the call of a leader and number 2 the Commission of a leader and then, number 3, the character of a leader.

So 3 essentials of leadership, the call of a leader, number 2, the commission of a leader, And number 3, the character of a leader.

I just want to ask the question, how do you know God has called you?

Let me read for you a statement in Patricks and Prophets in the chapter, The Call of Abraham, page 126.

They do not hear the voice of God speaking directly from heavens, but he calls them by the teachings of his word and the events of his providences.

They do not hear the voice of God speaking directly from heavens.

Series

ECYC 2012 Seminar: Christian Leadership

Christian Leadership

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

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