Effective leaders have the persistence to overcome obstacles. Read Mark 2:1-12.

Jesus’ reputation as a teacher of God’s law and as a man who could heal the sick and perform other miracles had spread among the people. Crowds were getting so large whenever Jesus spoke in public that it became difficult for people to get their sick friends to Jesus for healing. When four men, carrying a man on a stretcher, tried to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus there was no possible way to get him through the crowds and into the house where Jesus was teaching. They did not give up; they climbed to the roof, tore a hole in the roof and lowered him into the room where Jesus was teaching and he was healed.

Leaders give their attention to what they value most. Read Matthew 6:1-7:27 focusing on 6:19-21.

In the first of Jesus’ recorded sermons, He puts a major emphasis on values. Without values any action to achieve the goal would be an acceptable action, but for Christ’s team that would not be acceptable. Jesus made His vision clear when He said they would be “…fishers of men” but in chapter 6, He established the acceptable values that would drive His team’s behavior as they accomplished that goal. Jesus’ words got His team to confront foundational core truths early in their time on His team and verses 19-21 were the focus of His lesson. He insisted that their heart’s focus, attention, and affection center on pleasing God, a heavenly focus, not on pleasing the religious leaders of the day.

A leader without commitment, defined as devotion and dedication to the cause, person or relationship, will find excuses for failure. Read Proverbs 26:13-16.

The unflattering words about the sluggard in these verses reveal the sad state of those who live without commitment. For the individual described in these verses any excuse will do to keep from putting in the work to accomplish the goals. Leaders must strive to provide themselves and their teammates vision and goals that are motivating and to which they will commit themselves.

Outsiders’ demands have a tendency to sidetrack a leader from accomplishing the goal. Effective leaders stay focused on the vision and goals rather than giving time to every peripheral demand. Read Nehemiah 6:1-9.

Several regional leaders had enjoyed great favor with the Persian kings and had great wealth and power from the area known as Judah before the Jews had resettled the land after the Babylonian exile. Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem were all regional leaders or area governors of Judah and Jerusalem prior to the Jews being allowed to leave exile in Babylon to resettle the land. Every step the Jews made to become self-sufficient and a sovereign nation directly serving the king of Persia threatened their power over them and their ability to tax them. A wall being built around Jerusalem would greatly diminish their ability to intimidate the Jews living there and exacting taxes from this group would be virtually impossible.

Effective leaders understand the need for the constant restatement of goals and core values. Read 2 Chronicles 17.

King Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he became king of Judah and reigned in Jerusalem for 25 years. Jehoshaphat desired to be a leader that led a nation that honored the laws and moral code of the one true God not just in his palace but every part of the nation under his rule. In a day when the communication and transportation options were limited it would be difficult to see how a leader would quickly turn around not just people’s observance of an external set of laws but the internal value system they chose to live by.