So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27, ESV).
“To adequately define leaders and leadership, we should think about where all of this started. God is the Creator of all things as we clearly see in Genesis 1. He created the first man and woman and gave each responsibilities to carry out (Gen. 1:27-31, 2:15-25). He set the boundaries and kept in contact with those He created (Gen. 2-4). God is visionary influence. He is the ultimate leader.”
“Let’s define leadership. In Joseph C. Rost’s book, Leadership for the twenty-first century, he gives ‘four essential elements of leadership that flow from the definition: (1) a relationship based on influence, (2) leaders and followers develop that relationship, (3) they intend real changes, and (4) they have mutual purposes.’ I would define it even simpler: leadership is visionary influence. It is leading and modeling how to lead. It is showing others how to follow. The one who leads sees where people need to go and influences people to follow. You will find thousands of books on leadership. At the time of this writing, there were 156,000,000 web pages that came up in a Google search of the word leadership; so, there is plenty out there should you want to dive a little deeper into the subject or choose another definition.”
“What does the Bible say and what do we as women need to know about leadership in general? I am convinced that the reason that we have problems in the church is because of people, and specifically, leaders. We have a huge leadership problem in the church. Unfortunately, this huge problem often begins with us.”
“Let’s start at the very beginning and look at what God’s Word says about leadership. The best way to change the world is one person at a time so let’s begin with ourselves.”
Pray with me that we will be the leaders that God calls us to be!
(excerpts from Chapter 4 – Follow the Leader by Jaye Martin, Women Leading Women, Martin & Stovall, B&H Academic, 2008).
