Having a better understanding of who you will give you an edge over most other leaders. This will give you a good base to start growing. The effective spiritual leader will evaluate themselves on the following traits.
- Curiosity
- Ability to feel the need
- The ability to take prayer seriously.
- The ability to take action
You, Spiritual Leader, rise up and take responsibility for your life. True success starts with becoming curious. Curiosity may have killed the cat but is essential for the spiritual leader. What are you doing to create the curiosity muscle? Among my favorite activities is reading. Once I was asked how I picked my next book. I hadn’t realized it but I usually picked my next book because of a quote or idea that I wanted to chase down in another book. Of course, that book led me to another book or podcast or webinar or, or or. If you are a leader you are designed to solve problems. The higher that you go up in leadership the more difficult the problems become. You must take time to investigate, research and consider many different directions that you might take to solve those problems. The Spiritual leader must add to the mix a curiosity around God. What has He said and done in the Scriptures? How might that look in our modern world? Get curious.
A Spiritual Leader must feel the need. For those of us that grew up in the 70s and 80s the television each morning would be filled with pictures of people in some third world nation who were starving, hurting and needing care. These commercials spoke to my heart. These men and women had needs. One of the commercials showed them receiving a large bag of rice. About that time, I came to really like the taste of rice. While it seems ridiculous now, remember, I was six years old I decided that being poor was not too bad because you got to eat rice. I mentioned this to my teacher Sister Mary Gabriel and she scolded me. While I liked rice, I also enjoyed the meat and vegetables that went with it. I also enjoyed a home with AC or heat as needed. I enjoyed indoor plumbing and relative safety in my neighborhood. The people on that commercial had little stability in their lives and that bag of rice was going to keep them alive but that was about it. Today I take time to imagine what it would be like to sleep on the streets of my town. Wondering where I would find food or a safe place to sleep. Wondering if anybody cares. To be a spiritual leader you must take time to feel the need.
A Spiritual Leader must take prayer seriously. The prayer life of the man or woman of God is the energy that will grant you success or failure. Do not phone in your prayer times. Schedule the time, be deliberate with the time and make sure that you allow at least as much time for listening as talking. God wants to speak with you. Sit down and invite Him into a conversation. Sit in solitude and listen for His still small voice.
A Spiritual Leader must also take action. Prayer is great and an important first step. But once God gives us marching orders we must act. There are those in the Gospels who lost out after Jesus said, “Follow me,” because they made something else their priority. Listen to God and then take action.
