Are you Capable?

“Leaders are born and made.”

Their are things that God wires us for. Some of us to lead large groups of people, and some run behind the scenes and get things set up, torn down and all the technical details taken care of. How are you wired? In whatever leadership capacity you hold, maybe God has made you for that or given you the gifts and skills to be great or good at what you do. Throughout history you see the example of people who God has made “for such a time as this.” However, just being born with special abilities (gifts or talents), doesn’t make you excel as a leader. 

Aubrey Malphurs in his book Being Leaders looks at some things that all of us can focus on as God grows our influence, things that can help us sharpen our skills as Christian Leaders.

1. Character – This is the foundation of Christian Leadership. We should always be evaluating the innermost details of our lives to be sure that we can lead with a “true heart.” (Psalm 78:72)

2. Knowledge – At a conference a couple years ago, I remember being challenged to always stay current with what you are doing. We should stay on the cutting edge of our trade, this is only going to sharpen our knowledge and allow us to push beyond the self made barrier of status quo.

3. Skills – Even the best players on the team show up for practice (unless you are some over-paid pro athlete). The best thing that we can do is practice what we are good at and also the things that we aren’t good at so that we can always be improving.

4. Emotions – I struggle with this one. Emotion is the first thing that happens all the time, we can’t help getting our feelings hurt, we hear sad news, we hear great news, emotions are first. Acting upon emotion is what we can control.

Sharpening these capabilities coupled with the way that God has wired us will help us be more capable leaders.