Effective leaders are innovators and change makers. Read Mark 2:18-22.

The Jewish people had refined and re-defined the established religious practices of Judaism since God called Abraham and established the Jewish people. As often happens, the refinements in Judaism slipped toward legalism and eliminated some of the freedom God had initially established for His people as they worshiped Him. Jesus came on the scene with full knowledge of God’s original plan and even though He lived in total obedience to God’s sovereign will, His actions sometimes looked and felt like heresy to the religious leaders since the original practices had been changed over the years.

A hostile audience is a great test of a leader’s communication skills. Read Matthew 21:23-27 and Matthew 21:33-46.

Those serving in leadership of Judaism despised Jesus. The strict rules of the priesthood came down hard on anyone claiming to be a representative of God let alone the Son of God. Even though Jesus did not proclaim He was the Son of God in His public messages, neither did He deny it and to the religious leaders the lack of denial was equal to proclaiming it. Lest I leave the impression all their motives were pure, the religious leaders also did not want to have anyone upset their power grip on the people and their profitable financial activities. These leaders were angry with Jesus and would have had him killed but they were afraid of violating the law of the Roman occupying force and they were afraid of the Jewish people who thought Jesus was a prophet.

Wise leaders involve their team in solving difficult problems. Read Matthew 15:29-39.

As the crowds following Jesus grew He moved further into the remote regions of Judea using the open area to accommodate His ever expanding audience. At one point large crowds had been following Jesus for three days and were totally out of food. Jesus disciples urged Jesus to send the people away to purchase food but Jesus, afraid some may actually faint on their way to find food, told His disciples to feed them before they left. This presented a major problem because the crowd numbered 4,000 not including the women and children and the lack of food was the problem.

Instead of simply calling bread down from heaven, Jesus involved His disciples in solving the problem. He had the disciples determine the available resources, and then asked the disciples to become the primary means of distribution of those resources; He asked them to be stewards of whatever may be leftover. Jesus did the miracle of expanding the resources but He gave the disciples confidence by giving them a role in the process.

John Maxwell discusses the fastest way to gain leadership credibility in his notes in the Maxwell Leadership Bible:

1. Jesus deepened His credibility by solving the problem of a hungry crowd:
2. He identified the problem and informed His team (v. 32).
3. He instructed them to brainstorm the solution (vv. 33, 34).
4. He invited them into the problem-solving process (vv. 35, 36).
5. He included them in the solution (vv. 34-37).

Even though leaders won’t be able to supply the miracle Jesus supplied in solving this problem, the wise leader can learn from the team involvement processes Jesus used.

Romans 12:10 “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.”

The greater the leader the more likely they are a problem solver. Read Daniel 5:10-16.

Babylon had gone through a change of leadership. King Nebuchadnezzar had died and his son Belshazzar was king. Early in his reign he threw a party “for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them” (5:1). As the party got more ruckus, Belshazzar tried to impress his guests by serving wine in the gold and silver goblets taken from the temple of God by his father when he captured Jerusalem. This prideful, brazen insult to the One True God went too far and “Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall…” (v. 5). The party was pretty much over, Belshazzar went white as a sheet and started looking for someone to interpret the handwriting on the wall.

The best leaders assess every situation and respond appropriately. Read Ezekiel 18:1-32.

The Jewish people used a proverb that said the next generation would suffer the consequences for the actions of the current generation. Ezekiel was directed to tell the people that this proverb will no longer be used by the people. The goal was to let the people living in exile in Babylon know that if they lived a God-honoring life they would flourish as a people even though their relatives living in Judah were still in rebellion against God. Ezekiel was to make it clear that God looked at each specific situation and it was their own actions that would determine their blessing or curse not the actions of the generation before. Chapter 18 makes it clear that God discerns each individual situation and responds appropriately for each situation.