On today’s episode of Leaderview, I want to share with you Five Things You Need to Move Your Nation or Organization Forward as a Missionary Leader! I believe that as a leader that you are, one of the things that is paramount in your heart is success. No leader wants to fail or prays to fail in any form. I don’t think I have come across any leader who sets out on a journey of leadership in order to fail. Success is always the goal and this is why I believe this podcast today would be of tremendous benefit to you and your leadership assignment as a man or woman on a mission. So, in order not to waste your precious time, let us go straight into those five things.
Listen to Podcast: 5 Things You Need to Move Your Organization or Nation Forward as a Missionary Leader
The first thing you need to do as a missionary leader in order to move your nation or organization forward is: Seeking Divine Guidance!
Many people believe that a leader is sufficient in himself or herself and therefore, does not need to seek guidance or counsel from any other person. The truth of the matter is this: Your success or failure as a leader is premised on where you seek counsel from. When you examine from history leaders that fail, you would discover that one of the factors that contributed to their failures is in the fact that they fail to seek counsel. When you understand as a leader that the source of your authority or influence is from God, then you will not hesitate to seek guidance from Him.
Romans 13:1 (TPT) says: “Every person must submit to and support the authorities over him. For there can be no authority in the universe except by God’s appointment, which means that every authority that exists has been instituted by God.” If you recognize the authority of God on your life as a leader, based on this Scripture we just read, then you would seek counsel from Him.
When news came to Nehemiah about the state of his country, he did not immediately swing into action. The first thing he did was to pray to God on which way to go. Nehemiah 1:11 says: “O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” And if you read further, this prayer he prayed was granted by God as we will soon find out under subsequent points.
The second thing you need to do as a missionary leader in order to move your nation or organization forward is: Displeasure with status-quo!
The starting point to making any meaningful change in leadership is by first and foremost registering some displeasure with what has been happening. If there is nothing driving any change in you towards a system or a change in the nation as a whole, then you don’t need to aspire for any leadership position. Your mission as a missionary leader should be towards going to make a change or difference. Nehemiah became displeased with the status-quo after hearing negative news and reports from his home country, even though he was in another nation doing well for himself.
“Therefore, the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart.” So, I became dreadfully afraid, 3 and said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?”
Nehemiah 2:2-3
Nehemiah was so displeased to the point that king, his boss at the time, saw the displeasure in his countenance. It was based on that displeasure that the king asked him what the problem was. You see, it is not enough to complain about the state of things in your organization or nation, it is not enough to just criticize those who are in leadership. That displeasure and criticisms must push you to the point where you begin to take the needed steps towards making the necessary change that you have seen. After seeking divine guidance through prayers, the next step is to act.
The third thing you need to do as a missionary leader in order to move your nation or organization forward is: Catch a new Vision!
It takes a new vision to lead a new cause! Don’t aspire for any leadership position in your organization or nation if you cannot see anything new about that organization or nation. The reason is because it is whatever you see or are able to conceive that the nation or organization would become. What you see ultimately becomes the destiny of that organization or nation, and this is very key in moving your nation or organization forward as a missionary leader. In Jeremiah 1:11-12, see what the Bible says here: “Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” In other words, what is before your eyes? What is your vision for your nation or organization? “And Jeremiah said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.” Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.”
What Jeremiah saw in that vision concerning his nation became the destination or destiny of his nation at the time. Don’t just aspire for leadership positions alone, the starting point is actually catching a new vision, seeing things differently from the way they had been and having a new insight into how things can be done differently that would propel the nation or organization forward.
The fourth thing you need to do as a missionary leader in order to move your nation or organization forward is: Creativity!
Creativity they say is the mother of inventions. Creativity talks about new ways or ideas of doing things. Things cannot be done the same way and it would produce a different outcome. As a missionary leader, apart from catching new vision, you must constantly think about new creative ways and ideas that can propel your nation or organization forward.
The fifth thing you need to do as a missionary leader in order to move your nation or organization forward is: Collaboration!
If you are going to move your nation or organization forward, you sure need collaboration. As a leader, you don’t know it all. You don’t possess all the power and energy needed for the assignment. There must be time when you need the efforts and strength from others, matched together with your own effort to produce the needed result. Collaboration brings together people, ideas, creativity, systems, talents, skills to achieve the result. Exodus 31:1-11 shows us a perfect example of this. The Bible says:
“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. 3 And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, 4 to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, 5 in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. 6 “And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you: 7 the tabernacle of meeting, the ark of the Testimony and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the tabernacle— 8 the table and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, 9 the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base— 10 the garments of ministry, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests, 11 and the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place. According to all that I have commanded you they shall do.”
If Moses had failed to collaborate with those men in the assignment of building the tabernacle, he would have failed woefully. Come to think of it: As a leader, could it be that the reason you haven’t made so much progress in your leadership assignment is simply because you have failed to collaborate? I think you really need to give this a thought and examine where you have been lagging behind.
Alright, I believe you have gleaned something from this week’s edition of Leaderview.
[Centre for New Dimension Leadership]
