Good Evening Gentlemen! My name is Clint Wilson. My family and I worship at Eel River Community Church of the Brethren in Silver Lake, Indiana. I made my weekend on Brethren Way of Christ #40 where I was blessed to set at the table of Paul. This weekend I am once again blessed to be sitting at the table of Matthew. Before I start this talk on Leaders I would like to give you a brief introduction to myself. I live in North Manchester, Indiana. My smoking hot wife Beth and I have been married for almost 21 years and we have three daughters. Ashleigh my oldest who is 20, Destiny my middle who is soon to be 18, and my youngest Dakota who is now 10. Ashleigh has given me one amazing grand daughter who is 2 named Kali and she is baking me another one due in Feb. As you can see I am greatly outnumbered by women in my family. Even our two dogs are female. Destiny is a Senior at Manchester high school and serves on National Honor Society and is taking college level classes, she has aspirations to go on and pursue a degree in education. Dakota is in fifth grade at Manchester Intermediate school and she states she wants to be a Dentist or a Lawyer, the way she likes to argue, I think she would make a great lawyer. Beth my wife has been a CNA at Timbercrest Nursing home for over 16 years now, and I myself work in the IT field full time, and am also a part time pastor for our church.  I am also the chaplain for Wabash County EMA and DHS. Further more to add to my already full schedule, I am the executive director of Teen Horizons Christian Outreach, and am currently taking classes at Bethany Seminary for the TRIM program and eventually to earn my Masters degree in Divinity and Psychology . In front of you, is an outline for my rollo. I have gone through and tried to list the key points that I will emphasize in this talk, and the scriptures that I think are relevant. I will also attempt to illustrate these key points with examples, some from me, some from colleagues, or friends of mine. As you look at the outline you will notice it is not complete and will require some input from you to complete. The first thing I want you to do is fill in the title of this rollo with LEADERS. I want you to think of the term leader and what it means to you personally. Picture the definition of a leader in your mind. (pause) Now picture some leaders that you know. (pause) As you pictured these leaders, did you include yourself as a leader? Would you consider yourself to be a leader? The first question on your outline asks the question Am I a Leader? Underline either yes or no. (PAUSE) I hope that with God’s grace and the things you’ve learned the last 2 days to help you see that each one of you is in actuality a leader in each of your many environments. We all have leadership qualities and abilities, but often times we do not realize we have them. We sometimes like to sell our selves short and convince ourselves that “I am a follower, someone else will leader”. Many times we are even blind to the fact that we are lading simply by our actions and the way we respond to situations. Leader mean different things to different people. The most common thought of a leader is someone with power, someone who takes a group and whips them in to shape and accomplishes things. Maybe your idea of a leader, is your boss, the ceo of your company, your college professor, a high school principal, a foot ball coach. These are all good examples of leaders no doubt, but this talk is about something much different, a different type of leader. We will focusing on helping you realize you are a leader, and by being a leader we all can change the world in some way. The change may be very small, or may be very large, it may be so small you don’t even realize it, yet all of it is important! As stated earlier, several key parts of this talk are on the outline in front of you. As I go through I will ask you to complete these key points by filling in the missing word or words. Don’t worry there is no quiz, I will give you the missing words. So lets do the first one under roman numeral 1 in your outline we see that a leader is anyone who influences the thinking and actions of others. THINKING for the first blank and ACTIONS for the second. A leader is anyone who influences the thinking and actions of others. Everything in your life, every situation, every place, has people who are the main influences on what happens at that place, that situation. These are not always people in position of power. They do not give orders, but just by the kind of people they are, the influence others. Their ideas carry weight, their decisions, opinions, and attitudes, influence the decisions, opinions, and attitudes of those around them. A leader is many things, a leader is a teacher, a coach, he listens, and probably most important in my opinion he leads by example. Let me tell you a short story of a man named Mike. Mike was a good Christian man, but worked in an environment that was not very Christian oriented. His coworkers cussed all day long and carried on. Mike, had no worries cause he wasn’t doing any of this he was leading by example right? Wrong, one day Mike dropped the F bomb right in front of his kids. He then realized he had been using the same language as his coworkers for some time. Mike’s wife told him yes it has gotten worse. Mike went in to prayer, and decided he would lead better by example. Mike went back to work, and asked his coworkers hey if you hear  me curse remind me of my kids, He explained what had happen to his co workers and they agreed. Over a short time Mike quit cursing again, and then he noticed something else. Others in the office had either quit, or if they did they would apologize. Was Mike trying to get them to quit and lead them down that road? Not intentionally, but his actions spoke louder then words and he made a positive impact on his coworkers. This may seem small to you in the grand scheme of things, but remember what I stated earlier about the change may be so small you don’t even notice it. Our next key point is that Christian leaders are those who have heard Christ’s call and respond with a desire to bring the world to him. John 15:16 you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bare fruit…… John 15:16 Section 1 B of your outline feel in the missing word with RESPOND. Christian leaders are those who have heard Christ’s call and RESPOND with a desire to bring the world to him. Ephesians 2:10 states “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Jesus Christ to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” Ephesians 2:10. I am not talking about the Bill Gates, The Jeff Bezos, or any other CEO or leader of any large company. I am talking about the factory worker who has lunch daily with his co-workers, the police officer who encounters all kinds of people everyday, the paramedic who saves lives daily, I am talking about you in your daily lives. See as I stated earlier we are all leaders, God formed us to be leaders it is in your DNA. How you conduct yourself in your daily environment sets the tone for all situations. Which takes us to 1C “We are all leaders because we all influence SOMEBODY or have an influence on SOMETHING.” Your first blank should have somebody and your second blank should have SOMETHING. “We are all leaders because we all influence SOMEBODY or have an influence on SOMETHING.” Roman numeral II the formation of a Christian Leader. What is formation? Formation is something that has to be worked at. You was formed in your mother’s womb, it did not have overnight it took 9 months for your formation to complete. So forming yourself as a Christian leader will not happen overnight as well. The Christian life involves three key factors. Discipline: It does not come easy. Last evening Josh gave us seven steps in his Piety rollo that can help us discipline out lives and bring it into alignment with the plan God has for us.A Christian life involves training. Mark gave us good examples this morning in his study rollo of things we can do to bring our understanding of what God expects of us to a higher level.A Christian Life involves A willingness to be formed by the Holy Spirit. James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that he testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything James 1:2-4” To show you what I mean about formation (or change) does not come over night. I want to do a quick experiment. Everyone cross your arms (CROSS ARMS) now look which arm is on top? For me it is my left arm. Now uncross you arms, and cross them with the other arm on top. Does it feel natural? Probably not (unless you are me and have used this example numerous times) studies show that it takes 35 days of repetitive actions to make a change. When Mike was trying to quit cussing earlier it took him 35 days of reminding himself constantly not to curse, until it finally set in. BTW I need to come clean with something there is no Mike, Mike was actually me. Believe that Christ will lead you in every step of the way if we will let him. He has a mission for each of us if we will only ask what it is. (And listen to what he tells us) He never will give us more to do then we can handle or are capable of doing. Lets move to Roman Numeral III on our outline Qualities of a Leader. These qualities can be divided in to two classes. The first class and KEY point in III-A we will call NATURAL Qualities. Can you please fill in Natural for Natural Qualities. Lets look at the 9 natural qualities of a leader and these are also key points. The first is knowing the IDEAL please add ideal for A leader knows the ideal. A leader has ideals, that give him direction to where he is going and what he wants to accomplish. Rob talked to you yesterday about finding your ideal. I suggest establishing 1 or 2 main ideals to guide your life. Key Point #2 A leader is self DISCIPLINIED please fill in DISCIPLINED, a leader is self disciplined. In this meaning of self discipline, it means trusting God’s plan for you. We must be obedient to God. We must follow God’s will not our own. Let me tell you how this played an important role in my life. Just a few years ago, I was at this same weekend, doing the duties that weekend of a table cha. I had a huge internal conflict going on, the conflict was rather or not to leave the church I had been attending. Something I did not take lightly. Up in the chapel here I went and prayed with a couple of brothers. My prayer was for God to give me a clear sign of what path I should be taking. God laid it on my heart that I should move to a different church. I did not understand this feeling, I had many friends, I was a church “leader” at my current church by teaching Mens Sunday School, in charge of the Laymens fellowship among other things. So the next Sunday I found my self at a different church, that I really liked, I asked God is this where you want me? I heard a small voice inside me say no. God where do you want me I cried out. I heard him say Eel River, the pastor at the time of Eel River was one of my best friends. I did not want to attend there, because I did not want to have my best friend as my pastor it did not seem like a good fit to me. I ended up going and well I am still there and this past January was installed as one of the pastors of the church. When I went in to that chapel here a few years ago, being a pastor was the furthest thing on my mind, but God has a plan, and I did listen, God knew Andrew would be taking a new church out west, and that the Church would need me. (I still don’t see the need, but others say they need me there). Key Point Number 3 A leader displays personal authenticity. A leader displays personal A-U-T-H-E-N-T-I-C-I-T-Y. A couple of synonyms for this may be integrity and/or honor. They all define an individual who is what his actions and attitude says he is. Don’t try to be what you are not. Be truthful with yourself, be real and you will be a light to those around you. Key Point Number 4 A leader is generous. Please fill in generous G-E-N-E-R-O-U-S A leader is generous. A leader is generous almost to a fault. He is kind, complimentary, polite, and gives his time. He gives all what he has, he gives what he is, gives what he can, totally and without keeping account of the merit of his sacrifice. Corinthians 9:6-8 states “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in ever good work” Corithians 9:6-8 Key point number 5. A leader has EMPATHY for others. Please fill in EMPATHY on key point number five.A Leader has EMPATHY for others. Empathy the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. A leader is about understand and listen to another person’s point of view. He is willing to listen to all sides of an argument before making any judgements. He has genuine concerns for the needs of others. We must be able and WILLING to identify with others. We must learn to show real concern, without ANY judgement. For judgement is not our call. Sometimes we rush to the judgement of others without really knowing the situation.  Last year the company I work for hired on what used to be our intern. When he interned with us, he was an exemplary employee. Something changed and he started to slack off and spend more time in the bathroom then actually working. He actually had an app to see how much money he was making by going to the restroom. That should have been a sign. So me being the unofficial HR counselor for our company, I was asked to take him to lunch and see what was going on. Sounds all find and dandy right? Wrong, I made a preconceived judgement in thinking this 18 year old kid fresh out of high school is just lazy and does not want to do true work. So I take Daniel to lunch and over noodles and the Noodle Company we begin to talk about his attitude and his work ethic. In talking with him I realized a few things, first and foremost he honestly did not realize what he was doing was cheating the company. Then it dawned on me, Daniel has not changed at all he was always like this and it was always tolerated for the year he was an intern, he was never taught any different or never told what he was doing was wrong. So we talked some more, and when questioning about the bathroom situation I found out he actually was recently diagnosed with Celiac disease and it was truly causing him problems. Now I still think he was falling asleep in there, but that is another story. So in the coming weeks Daniel continued to do good and school and was a good employee. My judgement of thinking just laziness was actually correct, but on the wrong people. The laziness was myself and the others in our organization who never tried to correct the bad behavior. Daniel later left us cause of college, and he still comes in to see us and have lunch. He was also one of the few Christian co-workers that I had so I was sad to see him go. Key point number 6 probably in my opinion one of the most important key points. A leader has a sense of responsibility. Please fill in the blank on Key point 6 RESPONIBILITY R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y life is a challenge. Leaders possess the ability to respond to that challenge. Leaders possess the ability to respond to that challenge. This does not exempt leaders from fear, worry, doubt, inadequacy, or anxiety, but they will not shy away from their duties. Recently I was at work and I could tell my blood pressure was high, I was feeling weak and unbalanced. I collapsed at work, I did not pass out, I just went down. I was able to get up on my own and set down for awhile. I told my boss and my scheduler that I needed to get to the hospital cause I thought I was having a heart attack. My office is very close to one of the hospitals I was taken in and treated as a heart attack. My fear set in, my blood pressure was 190/90 when I went in. It was not a heart attack though, it was actually an Anxiety attack. I was right in the middle of several projects for my classes, work was beating down on me, I felt like I was ready to implode and my body basically did. You may be asking what is the responsibility in this? Well the two parts I left out of this so far is that, I had a huge networking job that afternoon that had to get done. I was able to brief a coworker so it could get handled by him. The other two things that was responsible was I had papers due through school, and I was talking to one of my class mates while in the hospital and she went and told everyone for prayer. My instructors all offered me extensions on my papers. I accepted, but still had my papers completed and turned in on time. For me being late would had been an additional stresser. The most responsible thing was probably going to the hospital. Key point 7 a leader knows the REALITY. A leader knows the reality Please fill in the blank with REALITY. A leaders know the reality. What is your environment, Where are you going to work, What are the problems of the people who surround us? How can we deal or work with one that will be meaningful to him. Reality is something I find also very important. I am going to take a few moments to share a bit about the reality I have known in my personal leadership both secular and Christian. When I was 16 my mother passed away in our living room after fighting cancer for several months. A few days later I lost my father in a different kind of way, he turned his grief in to alcoholism. This was when one of my first leadership roles kicked in. I had a 4 year old sister at the time with no mother and basically no father just me. I became the leader in our house. I took her to dance, to preschool, I made her meals, washed the clothes, did dishes, did everything in the house. Until a point came a few months later when my Dad and I was not seeing eye to eye on anything and I was kicked out of the house. Now I am 16 living nowhere. I got involved with a gang called the disciples and found family again and almost always had a place to lay my head. I quickly moved up in the ranks of the gang, and became the rank of High Priest (irony right?). Now I was a leader in a bad way. Fast forward two years, and I attempted to take my own life with what should had been a lethal dose of narcotics.  I was tired of being the man I was, I saw my own reality finally and saw what I had become, but instead of turning to God (I didn’t know him yet obviously) I decided death was the solution. Something miraculous happen that day and even though I did not know God he intervened in the form of my best friend who had been trying to help me and I pushed him away, showed up out of the blue and was able to get help there. Less then 30 days later I accepted Christ. I have been working on my discipleship ever since that March day in 1992 in the hospital in Tuscaloosa Alabama. I can not tell you the date, there was no calendars behind the doors so to speak. I had no clue when anything took place. The month and year is about it. Fast forward 6 months later, I am now mentoring with a pastor and heavily involved with the youth group I became the leader of the group and the reality was it was in dire need of help. With the help of some others we started a movement called from Drugs to the Cross and we started speaking at youth rally’s about our addictions. This grew the youth group in this small Southern Baptist Church till the youth group doubled the number of adults. Which also was a bad thing for reasons yet not known to me. Moving forward over the years, I have held several positions of leadership in companies. I owned and operated my own IT company for awhile, but got tired of the boss, so I fired myself and closed the doors. Now in my current position I am a Senior Systems Engineer and the reality around me is not Christian, I had to identify that and continually put on the full armor of God each day to protect myself against attacks. The new reality I am starting to see includes co workers, who when I was in the hospital sending me a text message saying I am praying for you brother. The reality is my direct boss is an atheist, but I am able to respect him and we are great friends. Don’t always see eye to eye in the work world, but that is another story. We have had many biblical debates, and we both have mutual respect for each other. A leader knows his reality and acts accordingly. Key point number 8 a leader is willing to RISK, please write RISK  a leader is willing to risk. In the corporate world leaders have to take risks all the time. I used to take risks with my money all the time playing the stocks. Some paid off but most of the time I lost. I am too old for those risks these days, but these are the same risks many leaders take. There is a quote from Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook who stated “The biggest risk is not taking any risk…. in a world that changes really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” Why do we not take risks? Most of you will think or state because we are afraid of failing. I ask you this, do you think Paul was taking a RISK when he became a Christian? Did Judas take a risk when he turned in Christ? I could go on and on about Biblical characters that took risks, some even failed. One of the biggest failures from taking a risk in the Bible was Peter when we walked out on the water to meet Jesus. He failed though cause he lost faith. I urge you keep the faith and the Lord will see you to more successes then failures. Key point 9 A leader takes initiative I-N-I-T-I-A-T-I-V-E A leader takes initiative. I hope sharing some of my stories and other stories of friends, you can start to see the outcome even a small example of leadership can have on others. But there is much more then knowing the outline in front of you. You must be committed to being a good leader. A commitment that can help lead others to Christ. Flip your sheet over and we will look at section B of leader qualities. Section B is SUPER NATURAL qualities of a leader. SUPER NATURAL   super natural qualities of a leader. The previous 9 qualities were human qualities, qualities that will allow you to be a leader in any situation.  These next four qualities are supernatural qualities that let us draw on the power of God for changing the world for him. Number 1 “The first supernatural quality of a leader is a living faith” Please write LIVING Mark 10:27 states “Jesus looked at them and said with man this is impossible, but not with God….. all things are possible with God” Mark 10:27. This verse is powerful if we really dig in to it, I could do an entire sermon on that one verse, but for this let me point out that this is simply telling us to give ourselves over to God. Fully trusting the will and power of God. It is faith that speaks of our relationship with God… a faith that comes when we realize that God sought me and has lived with me from the beginning…. Even when we turned from him… It is a faith that God is alive. The second super natural quality of a leader is hope. HOPE  Hope is to believe in the impossible and live as if the impossible were the reality. Hope is not a dream, but the basis which dreams are made upon. Hope stems from our knowledge that the Lord is always with us. Matthew 28:20 says “And surely I am with you always even to end of time” Matthew 28:20. Key point 3 says that the supernatural quality in a leader is LOVE.  Here we will define love as the giving of self to others in service. It is Christ’s prime objective to love one another as he has loved us. It does not get any more simpler then that. There are no circumstances that excuses us from loving our fellow man. Love can not be exclusive is HAS to be all inclusive. Christ did not tell us just to love other Christians, or people of the same ethnic background, color, or any social class. We are called to reach out and love wherever pain or injustice exists just as Christ did. Christ did not judge, he did not look down his nose as the sinners, he did not snob those afflicted with leprosy or those that was in the oldest profession of prostitution. Christ even loved the tax collectors. He simply loved them and in doing so set a visual example for us to follow. Now most of us do not want to fully follow this example, I am guilty of this myself. Are we content just to go to church, close the doors behind us and pretend that the world is a beautiful place and everyone is already saved and going to heaven? I would call that being Anti-Kingdom, and I myself become anti-kingdom on occasion. People do not care how much you know until they know much you care. Christ’s prime objective once again let this sink in to all of us including myself is We are to love one another as he has loved us. Super natural quality number 4 of a leader is HUMILITY please write don’t boost about your accomplishments. It is by the power of God that you have succeeded he allowed it. Philippians 2:3 states “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself” Philippians 2:3 We all have God given talents and it is no prideful to recognize these talents because they are gifts of God to be used to fulfill a purpose. Each of us are worthy, we are special in God’s eyes just as we are. Men as we bring this talk to a close, lets remember a Christian Leader there is NO separation of the natural and super natural , but rather an integration of both in to on person. Christian leaders know how to live their response to God’s call. They are acutely aware of their responsibility to lead others and do so by using all their God given resources. Now go to roman numeral 5 and fill in the following. You should already know the answers by now, but just in case you don’t here are the answers. Statement A “The world will receive the good news through leaders like MYSELF” Statement B “Pratice and awareness will move MYSELF from theory to habit.” Statement C “I am called to be a Christian leader!” Statement D God calls me to be FAITHFUL not SUCCESSFUL How am I personally as a Christian Leader am I doing everything right? No I am not, I struggle on a regular basis, but I keep the faith and the hope that through God all things will work out. I am not afraid anymore to take risks. Now turn your outline back over to the front and CIRCLE and HIGHLIGHT YES beside Am I a Leader? And finally, I will pray daily for each of you men, that you take time and look at the opportunities in the environment around you and learn what you can do to become the faithful leader that Christ wants you to be. GOD LOVES YOU AND SO DO I