3 Choices Effective Christian Leaders Embrace

Have you identified the choices necessary to be effective in life and leadership? If so, have you determined if they need to be? Do we make them once or multiple times? Is there a benchmark for Christian leaders to follow relative to these choices?

Reading leadership or management books is beneficial but should never serve as the foundation for life and leadership. We should learn from examples like the Prophet Daniel (1:4), whose godliness provided the foundation for his skills and knowledge of his times.

David Livingston, pioneer missionary to Africa, formed his choices into a prayer to God…

“Lord, send me anywhere, only go with me; lay any burden on me, only sustain me; and sever every tie, but the tie that binds me to Thy service and Thy heart.”

In 1 Chronicles 28:1-10, the veteran leader David is communicating strategic decisions to the next generation. Verse nine presents Three Choices Effective Christian Leaders Embrace.

We must determine if we are willing to?

1. Know God Experientially. – I am referring to more than your personal faith, but nothing mystical. Oswald Chambers said, “The Almighty creates no desires deep in the human soul that He cannot Himself satisfy.”
   Knowing God experientially means looking to Him first for satisfaction and doing so daily.

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2. Serve God Loyally. – A person who serves like this does so with wholeheartedness, there is no room for duplicity. I am reminded of H. Dale Burke’s definition of a “Core Value” in his book Less is More Leadership. He says it is “something you will not abandon even if it hurts you in the marketplace.” Loyalty trumps popularity, applause, acceptance or wealth.
3. Obey God Willingly. – The ultimate life is to live in obedience to God because you delight to do so, it brings great pleasure. I love what Nancy Leigh DeMoss said in her book Surrender on this subject.“Someone has said that the will of God is exactly what we would choose if we knew what God knows.”

These three choices may sound simple or common, but I have never found them to be so in my forty-five plus years of leadership. Every day I have to make a choice to know God, to have an undivided heart and to willingly walk in His ways. Tell me about your journey as a Christian leader!