Being a Leader

In the past few weeks I have thought about what I need to do in order to fulfill the calling God has laid on my life. How do I need to start living in order to make sure that I do not fall into sin when I become a pastor. I see student leaders all the time who are publicly doing stuff they should not be or worship team members saying and doing stuff they should not be doing. As leaders who are looked up to in the church setting by younger students and by the staff of the group, they should have more integrity and more discipline. I realized that I was glad that I was not a student leader and I think I was hesitant to be for the very fact that I did not think I was ready enough. Every time the opportunity presented itself, I thought about it but I just did not feel it was what I needed to be doing at the time. I had things to work on in my life and I did not want to be one who praised God and helped students at church but then fell in my personal walk during the week. These leaders are not beneficial to a group and they are living a life that is not following the call God has laid on them. In the word leader, the root word is lead and to lead means to guide or indicate a road, course, or method in which to follow. This can be done through speaking and being a guide but the people who guide God's people into worship and show them the way should be ones of integrity who live the life in which they are telling the people to follow. In other words, practice what you preach. It is cliche I know but I believe it is how God would wants us to live in regards to being a leader.

If you think i might be misguided then we shall take a look at 1st Timothy 3:1-3 which states, "Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money." Paul is writing to Timothy listing off the qualities of being a leader and I think these characteristics cover exactly what I was trying to convey in the opening paragraph. Being self-controlled and respectable relates directly to living a life of integrity and following what God has set before the leader and not falling into sin through temptation. There are ays to avoid temptation but it is inevitable that we will be tempted. Jesus was tempted and he is Jesus, the sinless person was tempted even when Satan knew he would not sin. Satan does not care how strong you are, he is more than willing to tempt you to see if he can get under your skin. There have been quite a few reputable religious leaders that have fallen in past years and people wonder how they can sin and if you ask me, it is because they let their guard down and stopped giving 100%. See we can only get through things with the help of God and once we look elsewhere we fall. It is tough to be a leader because everyone is watching you but that should be motivation to be good because if people follow your example, you have been entrusted by God to keep people in him and bring people to him by doing what is pure and what is noble. That is why these standards are set, God can use earthly examples in order to encourage people and show them that a pure and blameless life is possible with his help. Now we are all sinners and we screw up but we need to make sure that we are do not try to hide our sin when we screw up, it only ends up hurting us more in the end. I will not go into full detail about that, for it is another topic. But in general, God knows what we are capable of and that is why he has called some to be many different things (Ephesians 4:11-13). God wants me to show myself that I can overcome and that I can be as clean as possible so that I can lead others through speech and by example.

I know that some people are going through rough times right now and sometimes we ask where God is, I encourage you to keep seeking him and look through your bible, do not let my blog be your only source of Christ, it is supplemental to what you already do. If you do not have a Bible, let me know and I will see what I can do. I am willing to do what it takes to bring people to Christ. I am praying for all of you and I hope that you continue to pray for me. God is awesome and I hope you all had an amazing day.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson