The effective leader must pass the “Commitment Test.” Read Luke 18:18-23.

During the three years of Jesus’ public ministry, as His popularity grew, many people desired to be close to Him, join His team, seek affirmation for their life decisions, and get His answers to spiritual questions. It is refreshing that Jesus always went straight to the central issues in their life that would keep them from finding the answers they sought and achieving their potential.

Leaders are stewards of the resources under their control and must always be prepared to give an account for their actions. Read Matthew 25:1-30.

Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus a series of questions about His second coming. He told them that no one would actually know the day or the hour of His second coming and then He taught on some important principles concerning stewardship. Even though the Bible is clear that salvation is a free gift from God based on the actions of Christ on our behalf during His first visit to earth; when Jesus taught on His second coming, He made it clear that we will be evaluated on our stewardship of the gifts He gave us. Jesus used two stories which illustrate this truth, both stories contrast people who utilized their mind and physical resources, staying prepared for the master’s return, with those who thoughtlessly wasted opportunities and had to answer for their slothfulness.

A leader’s decisions affects the stakeholders. Read Jonah 1:1-17.

God gave Jonah a command to preach repentance to the Assyrian king and the people living in Nineveh. Jonah chose to go the opposite direction and caught a ship in Joppa bound for the port of Tarshish. God decided to recall Jonah and in the process sent a mighty storm that threatened to sink the ship. Jonah’s decision to run from God threatened the lives of the unsuspecting sailors. The cause of the storm lay with a man they had never met based on his decision he made before the journey began. Jonah became part of the sailors’ system and their lives were dramatically affected.

Wise Christian leaders include God as an integral part of their leadership. They have a high level of dependence on God in their attitude and actions. Read Lamentations 5:14-22.

The leaders of the nation of Judah failed to recognize the authority of God over their nation and that oversight led them to make decisions and condone actions that broke their covenant with God. Jeremiah confesses the sin of the people and also acknowledges that God reigns forever and will ultimately restore what has been lost. Successful Christian leaders don’t depend on their own strength and wisdom but on the sovereign God.

A leader’s stress is directly related to the choices they make. Read Isaiah 57:1-21.

The people of Israel made some choices that brought unbelievable stress into their lives. In Chapter 56 of Isaiah we learn that the spiritual leaders of Israel, called watchmen, had stopped leading. They chose to stop leading. From history we know that Manasseh was the king and because of the lack of spiritual leadership, Manasseh turned the nation so far away from God’s standards that he even sacrificed his own son in a fire to worship a false god. The people chose to leave the worship of the one true God and worship gods made by human hands from wood, metal and stone. We see the evidence of the depth of their choices in verse 5 when it says, “You burn with lust among the oaks and under every spreading tree; you sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging crags.”