Spiritual Leadership Insights
The identity and influence of a Spiritual Disciple-Leader with local and global influence
1. Sonship in relationship – We belong to the Father; have significance in the Son, and capacity to serve in the power of the Holy Spirit.
In leadership, we first enter into the intimacy of the Son with the Father and enjoy the influence of the Holy Spirit in our identity in the Son’s mission.
2. Secret place of silence and solitude – Going deeper with God to seek His face enables us to go further with people in His enabling grace.
Jesus encourages us to go into our room, close the door, and meet our Father in secret. It is the pace of conversation with Abba. It is the place where we say, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”
3. Servant – If we start here, we could soon burn out in leadership. However, if we begin with identity in the Son (sons and daughters in Christ) and serve out of the resource we find in our intimacy with the Father, then our capacity to lead is enhanced by the power of the Holy Spirit.
To be a servant is to focus on the needs of others.
4. Shepherd – We care for the well-being of others and seek to provide an environment for their growth so that we lead them through the experiences of life in a way that they can participate in the purpose of God more fully.
The heart of the shepherd goes after the one who is broken and trapped by life situations. It is to have a heart for the one, not just popularity with the ninety-nine.
5. Suffering – This will be an essential ingredient for any leader following a Kingdom agenda in a fallen world.
6. Soldier – Leadership and management require discipline. This will be evident in our relationships, our work, and our witness.
7. Steward – We need to be responsible for the resources that ultimately belong to God. Leadership and management involve good stewardship of these resources.
8. Significance – As leaders and managers, we treat everyone with respect and value them as being significant to God and created in His image.
9. See – We need to learn to catch vision from God and to see what He is doing so that we can help people embrace His purpose. Prayer and the Word are central to spiritual leadership.
10. Struggler – God has not finished with us yet. We are still a bunch of ragamuffins in need of daily grace to grow in maturity and effectiveness.
11. Sadness – This will be a reality in awareness of personal failure, the suffering of others, and failure in the people served.
12. Sing and Soar – Experience the love, the joy, and the grace of God in repentance and worship when faced with life’s mysteries, failures, setbacks, and successes.
13. Sign of Grace – All true spiritual leadership flows out of the grace of God at work in our lives.
14. Sovereignty of God – We recognize that the work and the people belong to God. He is at the centre, and His hand guides us in His purpose.
15. Student – Spiritual leaders are lifelong learners who are able to interpret their experiences so that they add value to their vision and walk to the future.
16. Seasons – Healthy leadership identity leads to good succession planning and recognition of the seasons of life’s influence. This is not limited to a leadership position but is about walking in God’s path and in God’s time.
17. Sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit – Without the leading of the Holy Spirit, we tend to control and command in leadership instead of guiding and governing in a way that allows God to give the lead.
18. Sense and Strategy – Good leadership and management make sense of the situation and find practical ways forward that help move people to bear fruit in the vision given by God.
19. Synergy – Spiritual leaders work with the team that God has given to harness their strengths together to accomplish a shared purpose.
20. Surrender – Aligning our own natural leadership ability in order to completely submit to the Father’s will in the power of the Holy Spirit and humility of the Son. This is impossible without supernatural grace.
21. Source – The source of a spiritual leader’s authority is found in the truth and love that flow out of a secure relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This love and truth give authority to influence others.
22. Solid Biblical Convictions – Spiritual leaders are anchored in Scripture and the living Word, with faith in the message of the Cross and the power of the gospel to transform lives.
23. Space – Spiritual leaders provide space for others to exercise their spiritual gifts and contribute to leadership influence.
24. Strengths – Spiritual leaders know their strengths and weaknesses and learn to submit to the strengths of the team.
25. Spiritual Warfare – Spiritual leaders are aware of spiritual realities and take action to stand against demonic attacks.
26. Support and Sponsor – Spiritual leaders create space for others to lead and affirm their leadership to others.
27. Specific – Hold people specifically accountable for agreed outcomes in their leadership.
28. Sifted and Sanctified – Spiritual leadership is set apart for the holy purpose of God.
29. Soiled yet Sacred – Clay vessels containing the treasure of God’s aroma. God’s hand is on spiritual leadership, and His fingerprints—not man’s blueprint—will be seen in eternity.
30. Safeguard – Spiritual leaders safeguard their integrity and purity through appropriate accountability, boundaries, and friendships.
31. Send – Spiritual leaders send and train people to be successful and bear fruit in life and ministry.
32. Substance – Spiritual leadership is not a show nor about status but about what we do when no one is watching. It is a show before God, with status in eternity.
33. Style and Shape – Spiritual leaders recognise the blend of personalities, spiritual gifting, and natural talent in the community of God that can be aligned to shine in the purpose of God.
34. Select – A spiritual leader selects people for the team who have a passion to serve God’s greater purpose, grow, love people, and live in humility.
35. Selfless – A spiritual leader has an ambition for what is best for others, whatever the sacrifice.
36. Solutions – Spiritual leaders look for solutions in a way that seeks God’s glory, love for everyone, and a passion for a better future.
37. Strength – Spiritual leaders draw strength from the grace of God to make tough and sometimes unpopular decisions to define a clear way forward when the circumstances are messy.
38. Shalom – Spiritual leaders are peacemakers, seeking unity and reconciliation through Jesus, who is our peace.
39. Satisfied – Spiritual leaders are dissatisfied with what is wrong today but satisfied in God’s redemptive plan in Christ to bring healing and reconciliation.
40. Sufficient – A spiritual leader finds sufficiency in being bonded as a slave to Christ’s purpose, with a sense of total inadequacy except for the enabling presence and Lordship of Christ.
A leader with spiritual identity and influence is a follower of Jesus – a disciple maker on mission with Jesus.