There’s a strong place in my heart about this statement: “the values of today will shape the values of tomorrow”. It burdens me to see a generation succumbs to the worldly pleasures and gives in to temptations. What a heart-breaking sight to see! If we do not act now in building today’s generation leaders, we will all lose the next.

We must understand that people can lead without God in their lives. People can also be successful without Christ. If I talk and define what a leader should be and do, what benefit is it to you? There are a lot of characteristics we can find to become the best leader, but what attitudes can separate a spiritually-driven leader? How do we know that our leadership matters? It’s when we impact eternally. So below are five of the essential attitudes I want to share with you.

1. Holiness – In the backbone of leadership, a Christian must live a holy life. These days Christians no longer know the meaning of holiness and tend to mix holiness with feelings, focusing more on how we can feel God through worship or anything. A life of holiness is a life of obedience to Christ through His Word. A true leader must be faithful to live out God’s commandments in his life.
2. Repentant – Pride is the number one enemy in leadership for it might raise you to heights, while failing to realize you’ll just fall splat according to how hard and heavy your head is. We all fall short in handling people or leading our community as it is not easy. We need daily repentance to continually commune with God in our leadership success. Without repentance, you are allowing Satan to invade your mind.
3. Humble – We all know that we must humble ourselves before the Lord and that humility is one way we can learn and grow as a leader. However, humility is not an easy road to walk yet this is a must because it teaches us to be gracious and loving to those people who are hard to love.
4. Teachable – A leader that is not teachable will not thrive in the ministry and even in a secular career. I have learned that without a teachable heart, ideas and strategies will lead to traditional way and develop an attitude of legalism. It will decay your joy.
5. Prayerful – There is no better way to love God and to seek Him than by doing prayer and devotional. This should be the strength of every leader in his daily activities. The enemy will do whatever it takes to hinder one from being successful in doing God’s ways. In order to do things victoriously, a leader must know how to fight his battles—through putting his knees on the ground every single day.

These essentials are not a step to follow but a life to live. They are not separated from one another, rather should be applied as one. I challenge those people who might read this article to capture once more Christ’s wonder and beauty. We must redeem this generation to the centrality of understanding the life of Christ so that we can truly become effective leaders.

This is what God has been leading to me lately. In my own leadership journey, what my student leaders truly need is a greater motivation rather than a reward system, than a chance to lead, than a strategy to teach, than a support of their plans. That though I have given and done these things so they may become a leader, it will not surmount what Christ has done for them. I always give them Christ like sending them videos that talk more of the beauty of the Gospel that they may be burn with passion in their hearts as what Paul washer said:

“The challenge to become an effective leader is always the degree of your love, intimacy and depth in Christ.”

True leadership does not come merely from a strategy or a technique or a system although they play a crucial part of leadership. True leadership comes from a renewed life in Christ, of how convinced you are at it. It is how we treat people; it is how we respond to pressure, even to criticism; and it is how we build our character upon. May God find us to be good stewards of His flock!