Components in Christian Leadership - Rev. Richard Kishore

James chapter 3 gives some insights to Christian Leadership. Here, I would want to bring in two components that are relevant for Christian leadership.

Honesty vs. Dishonesty: The word honesty has a wonderful etymology. It means wholeness or completeness. The idea of honesty comes from the mathematical term integer meaning a whole number. If something is whole, it has solidity. It’s strong. People of honesty are strong. Their ‘yes’ is ‘yes’ and their ‘no’ is ‘no’. In short, they mean what they say and they say what they mean.

They don’t say one thing to one person and another thing to another person. People of honesty are whole people. They have an integrating center to their life. These are the kind of people James had in mind in the third chapter when he said the teachers in the early church are going to be judged with greater strictness – ‘Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly’ (Jas.3:1).

James was saying the gospel of Christ needs leaders who will stand up and be counted for the gospel and who will get involved in situations of injustice. He was saying that if you do not have honesty, your tongue could lead you off the path – ‘The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell’ (Jas.3:6).

Your tongue could deny Jesus Christ. Also, if you’re not careful, your tongue, the very thing that God gave you to be a leader, could lead other people off the path. As a community of people who believe in the calling extended by God, we understand that God looks out for us to guide the next generation so that our world and our nation won’t decay into darkness. Shunning dishonesty makes us more trustworthy and caring towards others and their genuine needs. Thus, in order to build a strong character for Christian leadership, cultivate ‘honesty’ and reject ‘dishonesty’.

Commitment vs. Convenience: Another necessity is to be sensitive to Convenience. Convenience also has an interesting etymology. It means any means to an end – the bottom line is all that matters. It does not matter how you get there. It does not matter whom you hurt or whom you walk on. Convenience is too often the way of our world today. People just look at targets. We need to accomplish them by hook or crook.

However, the consequences are many and one of them is that it does not help our personality to be tuned for a trustworthy relationship with those around us. Even in the church, we find leaders who want to get their things done even if it means going against the fundamental beliefs of Christian life. This in turn resulted in a loss of legitimacy and faith in the leaders and Christian faith as a whole. However, we have the responsibility to make our world a different place. For this, we have to stretch ourselves us beyond what we could imagine to help our city, our nation and our world to get it on the right track.

In addition, our spiritual life has reached a point where we are more interested in getting the best out of all systems of religious faith. However, in this, there is no commitment to what one believes, but is more a search for maximizing our good experiences. However, this is not helping matters. As a chosen community of believers in the God revealed in Jesus Christ, commitment is important.

It is hard work, following Jesus. It is not an easy road, and calls for going against the trend – ‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction’ (Mt.7:13). Jesus Christ said – ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’ (Mt.16:24). This calls for making God the center of our lives. When we have made God number one and the integrating center of our lives, we live with honesty and all the relationships of our life take on meaning. Accordingly, everything we do is a commitment because all of it reflects to the honor and glory of God. ‘Honesty’ and ‘Commitment’ are important ingredients in leadership, more so in Christian leadership. Let us look into the scripture to allow God to talk to us and encourage us to cultivate these as a part of our lives.