3 MUST HAVE Characteristics of a Christian Leader

A leader is a person of INTEGRITY. Integrity means that you are the same person in private that you are in public. You do not have a secret life. It does no good to try to lead if people will not follow you, and the thing that will sabotage your leadership more than anything else is a lack of integrity. What we are talking about is trust. People will not follow someone they cannot trust. Your biggest asset is leading by example. You cannot take people somewhere you have not gone or are not willing to go. You cannot just teach good behavior, you have to model good behavior. A leader is someone who has become a follower and is a follower of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 11:1 it says, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ”. To get people to follow Christ, Jesus had to first get them to follow him, and to get them to follow him they had to know that he was following Christ. If we want to be leaders and for other people to follow us then we must first follow Christ.

A leader has to have VISION, because he has to know where he/she is headed. Most often this vision comes from God who gives to all who call upon him. He allows us to see what could be and helps us to go after the vision. If you are going to lead you have to have a plan. A vision is a dream with a plan. You can be someone that’s dreaming the impossible dream, but what good is it if the dream is actually impossible. People of vision dream big dreams, but they also see how to get there. If you put a plan and vision together then you can achieve any dream that you might have. In Proverbs 29:18 the Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. You need vision to be a leader.

A leader must have ENDURANCE. If you are going to last as a leader you have to be willing to push through the tough times. You can’t give up at the first sign of resistance. You can’t be negative or pessimistic. You have to believe in the vision and

do whatever is necessary to make it a reality. You have to be responsible and be a person who is willing to work very, very hard. If you are going to be a leader, you not only have to see what other people cannot see, you have to do what other people are

not willing to do. You have to have endurance and always be hopeful.

1 Corinthians 9:24-25 says

24 "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.  25  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” Run your race and push to win your eternal prize. Have integrity, a vision and endurance while trusting in Christ to get you through the process of becoming the best leader you can be.