Is your leadership generous? (82-4)

One of my mom’s 10,000 sayings was “you can give without loving, but you can’t love without giving.” Leaders who fail to display generosity should ask themselves if they really love the people they lead. Read Ruth 2:8-4:10.

Boaz was a leader that modeled generosity. He owned a large field and employed reapers to gather his harvest. According to Jewish law, when the harvesters had finished, the less fortunate were allowed to “glean” in the field, taking whatever the harvesters had left behind. Ruth was one of the “gleaners” in Boaz’s field.

In The Maxwell Leadership Bible, John Maxwell writes about Generosity, Boaz Doesn’t Keep Score, He Keeps Giving.

Boaz’s generous spirit surfaced immediately when he saw Ruth. He asked the reapers about her identity, then expressed his generosity to her. Boaz displayed his generous leadership in several ways:

1. He was generous with his compassion (2:8-9). He told Ruth not to glean anywhere else; she would get all she needed from him.
2. He was generous with his compliments (2:11-12). He noticed her sacrifice and complimented her efforts.
3. He was generous with his courtesy (2:14). He invited her to join his staff for a meal, kindly serving her all she wanted.
4. He was generous with his crops (2:15-16). He told his reapers to put out extra bundles of grain for her to find.
5. He was generous with his credibility (3:11-13). He showed respect by doing what was right by her request.
6. He was generous with his commitment (4:9-10). He committed himself to ensuring that Ruth’s former husband had offspring to carry on his name.

When great leaders err, they always err on the side of generosity…

Jesus talked about this generous spirit when he said, “If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. (Matthew 5:40-41 NKJ).

A generous spirit drove Boaz to go the second mile with Ruth, even before he suspected she might become his wife. (He assumed she would be attracted to a younger man (Ruth 3:10). Even so, Boaz gave her extra time, attention, grain, respect, favor, and honor.

How about you? Is your leadership generous? What elements of your leadership do you find yourself withholding benefit from others? As we learned from Boaz, generosity entails more than dollars and cents but it can be as difficult to part with honor, respect and attention as it is to part with money. Effective godly leaders are generous leaders.