 All right. Good morning everyone. Let's just pray before we begin our class. So maybe one of us can please pray. Jafina, go ahead, Sir Chris. Father, we thank you this morning. We give you all the glory. We thank you for the gift. We thank you for the life. We thank you for our meeting this morning. I thank you, be cordial to all mighty. Thank you for the knowledge imparted in your Son to share with us this moment. May that glorify in the name of Jesus. And I decree, I declare this morning, it shall be a wonderful moment with you all mighty God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Sir. Thank you, success. All right. So last week, we, on Monday, we spoke about strategic partnership, right? And how it is important to whether ministry, whether in the workplace, when we partner with each other, there are certain rules, there are certain guidelines that you and I must keep in mind. And even as we plan to get into these partnerships, you must be wise, ask direction, ask leading from the Holy Spirit and make sure those partnerships are in line with your vision and the values of your organization. Right? So today, we'll get into chapter 13, a very, very important chapter. And the chapter 13 is on leadership, right now. Each one of us are leaders, right? So let's look at some important aspects on leadership, which we can apply both in the workplace and in ministry. So leadership among many things, I believe, is influence, right? Leadership is a place of influence, right? Sometimes, you know, leaders are delegated, leaders are, you know, leadership is either delegated, it's inherited, or leadership is earned, right, over time. So why is leadership so important, right? There's a wonderful book on spiritual leadership. I would encourage you to go ahead and read that as well. And it's a wonderful book where it gives us greater insights on leadership. But let's look at a few points on this chapter and how you and I can be good, effective leaders, right? And these are certain principles that we can apply in whatever we are doing, right? So first one, if you don't see it, you cannot lead people into it. Matthew 15, 14, let them alone, they are blind leaders of the blind and if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch. Now, this is in response to the disciples who are talking about the Pharisees and the Sadducees who are, you know, saying, how can you go and do all these things? How can you work miracles? How can you, you know, bring so many, you know, raise up these crowds and what you're doing is not right. How can you call yourself a Messiah? And Jesus responds to that and says, leave them alone. It is like the blind leading the blind. Leadership, as we mentioned, is influence, right? You and I as leaders can influence people, but if we don't see the vision in our mind's eye, we will not be able to take our people to that place, right? And we always say this. Something that I always keep telling myself is the imagination. The greatest nation is our imagination, right? Meaning we can think, we can look at the future, right? Leadership requires the ability to look into the future, requires the ability to envision outcomes in the future, right? Because many times in a team or, you know, maybe in a church or whether in the workplace, you have people just coming, they work and they go. There's no sense of direction. There's no passion. There's no zeal. There's no sense of vision for what they are doing or for the organization. This is where a leader has to take his place. So as a leader, you and I must drive the vision that we have. Now, it could be, for example, there's a church, right? This is just an example. There's a church, right? And you see, okay, there's, you know, maybe 50 people at the church with 20 volunteers and 20 or 20 volunteers, right? Volunteers and leaders, 20. Now, if you don't have a vision for the next, at least for the next two years or a five-year vision broken down each year, you're just going to, we're just going to keep doing the same thing and we will not be effective in what we are doing, right? Why? Because you and I as leaders need to envision what you want to see in the future. And whether you're there or no, that is secondary. But in the future, I want to see this in my mind's eye. And so what do we do? We work towards it, right? And we work towards reaching that goal. And here is where leaders are important, right? And, you know, I remember when I was in Bible college, you know, I would stand in front of the mirror and preach for every day in the morning one sermon in the evening, you know, after we come back from our college, the evening one sermon. So sit, prepare the sermon and, you know, during those, of course, there were these phones and videos, but I didn't care about recording it, it didn't bother me. What I wanted to do was I wanted to learn it. I wanted to really prepare and I always envisioned myself, okay, one day I'm going to be preaching and I'm going to be preaching in front of hundreds of people. So I better, you know, prepare myself now. So in leadership, very important. You have to envision, right? Have to envision what you want to see, right? So it could be in the church, it could be in your organization. If it's a corporate or the workplace and you're looking at your organization or you're part of an organization, you're working there, envision yourself what you want to be in that organization, right? Just the problem is, you know, whether we are in leadership or we are in a team, never walk without a focus or without a vision. I never do that because we will lose our way, right? So a leader without a vision is blind, right? It's blind. That's why the Lord Jesus says to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, it's the blind leading the blind. They are leaders. They are there in the temple. People are going to them, offering sacrifice, but they don't know what they're doing. They don't have a vision. They don't know what is ahead. They have no clue what they're doing. That's why if we don't see it, we cannot lead people into it. Right? So for example, you have a church of 50 people who drive your church to tell them, hey, we are going to pray. We are going to seek God and one day, you know, in this year, we're going to keep this. You talk to your church folks, you tell them, so we're 50 by the end of this year, 2023, let's reach 100 people. And in this 100 people, we need to have at least 50 leaders. Let's start new life groups. And we should have at least five new life groups. We should have a Bible site. If we do not tell them, what will happen is, it's just going to be, you know, they're coming Sunday, going back home, coming on Sunday, going back home, right? So right now, in one of our locations, the locations that we are in, it is the east of Bangalore. And we have approximately about 120. If all of them come together, we're about 150 or adults. How about I tell the volunteers, put 150 chairs? All 150 chairs should be full by the end of this year. It's something that I tell them, you know, we tell, we sit together as leaders, how do we do that? We have the big vision, probably be the soldier. And so as leaders, you need to tell your people, need to communicate your vision to them, right? And even as you do that, maintain proper hard attitudes. Look at this, Matthew 20, 25 to 28. So Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, you've observed how Godless rulers throw their weight around. How quickly to be that way with you, whoever wants to be great, must become a servant. And whoever wants to be first among you, must be a slave. That is what the Son of Man has done. He came to serve, not to be served, and then give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage. Look at this, it's self-explanatory. Jesus is saying, you look at the world, they get leadership, they become rulers and it gets into their head. Basically, you know, there's an attitude, there's an attitude problem. Power goes into their heads, but it's not going to be so for you and me because in God's Kingdom, it's the opposite. If you want to be great, become a servant. Once you become a servant, great will be your work in the Kingdom of God. And that's what Jesus did. He was a great preacher, great ruler. People, Romans were willing to, you know, the Romans and Churion came and pleaded with Jesus. And people knew he was powerful. Nobody is going to follow one person, 5,000, 10,000 people following one person. They're not going to do it unless they've seen something in them. There was this leadership quality. Now, nowhere does Jesus throw his weight around. But many of places, he's humbled. He says, you know, great is your faith. He looks at the woman with the issue of bleeding and he says, faith has healed you. I haven't done anything. Jesus could have said, oh, this is the kind of faith you must have. See, he touched the hem of my garment. You see the power that I have. He says, your faith has healed. I was just walking, minding my own business. I was going to go somewhere else. But you see the heart there, a heart of servanthood, a heart of passion, but a heart of self-control. And this is the heart that you and I must have. Yes, God will raise us up. God will give us positions of leadership, but in God's eyes, we are also to walk in humility, to walk in servanthood. And it's wonderful, you know, especially in the corporate sector, when you see these men and women who are high up in the ranks, they're high up in leadership, you know, they're heads of companies, but they walk in humility. They walk in humility. They walk in, and that is power in that, right? There's power in that. So these are the three main attitudes that we must desire, that we must prevail even as we are leaders. Now, during the course of time, leadership, there's many things involved, right? There's connection that is setting things, right? That is bringing, giving feedback. All of that is there, appreciation, changing things. All those things will be there, right? But in why we're doing all that, our heart must be a servant heart. You know, there will be times as leaders, you may need to ask people to step down, right? But even as we do that, our heart attitude must be right. It's not like somebody's not performing, say, okay, because, you know, I have, I'm a servant heart. I can let them to keep, it's not about that, right? Servanthood, passion, self-control, three main heart attitudes. So let's look at each of them. First one is servanthood. The leader's heart is that of a servant, right? He serves people, right? It's the opposite, right? He serves people. He serves the organization. There's, the servanthood is an expression through humility, meekness, and sacrifice. And the Lord Jesus is our perfect example of servanthood, right? All through the Bible we see, we see, especially in Jesus' ministry, he talks about this every now and then. Remember the Sons of Thunder? He says, he says to them, they say, Lord, you tell us and we'll call down fire to this place. What does Jesus say? He says, no, don't do that. They need forgiveness as much as you and I need. So, servanthood is something that we owe, right? We owe. Now, the servanthood is very easy to have when we are small. We just start off ministry. We are starting off an organization. We are not known. Nobody knows us. We are small. There's no appreciation. There's not much of an impact, but as we grow, whether corporate sector, whether in, in the ministry, when we grow, people will recognize, people will want to join you. That is when we need to maintain our hard attitudes, this attitude of servanthood. Second one is passion, right? Being passionate as leaders, we must be passionate. Now, passion is something, you know, passion for the vision that is ahead of us. And passion is something that keeps us going, right? Yesterday I was just watching a clipping of this, this man who was building a rocket. It was a small rocket, but he had, you know, he was trying to put the electric work. It was a homemade rocket. So he was trying to make that rocket and every time he tried it, he, he, it failed. It either bursted, it blew up, it just got burned or it didn't fly. Something was happening, but he kept trying it and he kept trying it, trying and trying and trying. And about the 40 or 45th attempt, there was some kind of hope, right? So that rocket just flew up. Then he decided, okay, I'll use the same method and build a bigger rocket. I'll use real, you know, iron and I'll use the real material that is required for the rocket and so he did that. And eventually, you know, this man went on to build a real rocket. What started off small, like he started off with these, you know, cardboard, fitting the machine inside of it and trying to make it work, but he shares his whole experience. He says, the interviewer was asking, weren't you tired of, you know, it's not easy, you know, go out to the field, you try to get the rocket to work at first. What was your attitude when you came back home with that burnt pieces of the rocket? He says, I knew that one day I will build my own rocket. So I had to do this. Passion is something that drives us. Failure will never stop it. Problems will never, you know, suppress that passion, right? Passion is something that drives us. And so a leader's passion and enthusiasm is contagious, right? This passion is demonstrated through hard work, the ability to stay the course, the ability to just go through those turbulent times, the ability to enjoy, to be cheerful, to stand with each other, you know, and even when you look at people who are great men and women of God, they were passionate, passionate about God. When you look at the Welsh revival, we talked about revivals. Look at the Welsh revival. Look at the Ravian revival. They were passionate. They had one vision, one goal. What, O Lord, your Spirit God, better be a move, right? And it's just so powerful to have a vision. This passion is something that needs to be kept burning in each one of us. Romans 12, 11 says, don't burn out, keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of masters, cheerful, expectant. Verse 12, don't quit in hard times. Pray all the harder. So I want to encourage each one of us. Be passionate. If your passion is not in it, you know, sometimes, you know, God makes us do things that we, we feel we may not be passionate about, but over time, we become passionate over it, or sometimes we're doing something and we know that this is not really what you want to do. Prayerfully think about what you want to do next, right? Sometimes God may completely turn the course of events, but, but again, we need to be wise on how to make changes in our life. But basically, the point is, whatever we're doing, be passionate about as pastors, as leaders, you need to drive every passionate, right? We need to be passionate. And that's when we are passionate, it's contagious. People will catch it, right? People will catch it. And so that is something that we must always keep in mind. Next one is self-control. Again, very important. Self-control is the ability to be self-governing, demonstrated through self-discipline and self-restraint, right? Many a times, through seasons, especially difficult times, times when we have a lot of work, we may feel get upset, we may get angry, we may burst out, you know, these are natural things, it's natural, but God is calling us as leaders to have self-control, to be self-governing, to be, to keep a check on himself, his time, his work, his habits, productivity, interactions with people, his resources, everything, self-governing because the reason is nobody is going to come and ask a leader, did you play, did you spend time reading the word? Did you minister to people? Did you have your, you know, what are your habits? I hope you're not watching too much of television. I hope you're not watching using the phone. Nobody is going to come and ask a leader because he's a leader, right? So you and I must, as leaders, must be self-governing. We must know, right? What we must do, right? You know, if there are things that are taking you away, taking your time away from, from what you have to do, just keep it away. Just, you know, many people ask me why you don't have Instagram and Facebook. I don't, I'm not against it, but I just don't want it. I don't want to waste my time. I just feel that we can do something better. I'm being an author, but it's good. It's good, you know, you can use it, especially now. You know, media is very important. You need, I said, don't say, okay, you know, no need of Instagram. We need all that, right? We need to, right? As a church, we have Instagram, right? We promote all our programs, events. But personally, I don't have it. I choose not to. Personally, perhaps that, you know, I, you know, I spend, we use WhatsApp and I, so that we can just communicate, make things easier. But I'm very steeringly trying to use it. Why? Because it's not that I don't like it. It's just that I want to be, I keep a check on myself. Right? Nobody's going to come and ask, but we need to be self-governed, right? Now, next one, maintain proper people's skills. Proverbs 20, 28, love and truth form a good leader. Sound leadership is founded on loving integrity. The mark, Proverbs 14, 28, the mark of a good leader is loyal followers. Leadership is nothing without a following. Now, remember, ministry, we talked about this, right? Ministry of business, organization, it's all about people. Leadership is about people. If there are no people, who are we going to lead? Nobody, right? So leadership involves vision, goals, planning, direction, responsibility, decision-making, governance, correction, and resolving disputes so much, right? But as leaders, since we need to do all these things, we need to maintain good people relationships, good people person. We cannot have a leader who is, you know, just somebody who will come, say something, walk away. He or she as a leader must be able or must have this ability to develop people relationships. People's skills is what we call it, people's skills. We talk to people, right? So for example, you have new people coming into your church, the first-time visitors at church. As a pastor or as a leader, you must be able to talk to them. We can't say, hey, I'm an introvert, can we choose somebody else, go and talk to them? Most often, people who come to church, they want to meet with the pastor or the life group leaders. They must be willing to talk, right? They must be willing to engage with them. Can't say, hey, thank you for coming to church. Hope to see you next week. That's not going to help. We've got to get to know them. You know, hey, what do you do? Where are you from? How have you been? What is your work? And you just begin to get to know them. What is that? That's people's skills, right? Now, when you already have a team, you're a leadership, you know, last week we met as leaders and, you know, we were discussing some points. At this point came up, you know, as leaders, we are so often looking at the tasks. Okay, tasks one, two, three, four needs to be done, right? But we forget the fact that we are dealing with people. As leaders, we are dealing with people. So as people, they are going through different seasons of life. They may be going through a physical challenge, a mental challenge, financial problems, or they just tired and weary, or, you know, they're worried about their children, or some of them are, you know, looking for a spouse, looking for a marriage proposal, or some of them are praying for children. There's so much people within the team. So I remember we just met and we said, okay, even as we are, you know, work oriented, we want to do these tasks, that's good. Let's remember to the leaders who will also minister to one another, working people, right? To the member that, hey, they're also people, and they're going through problems. Because one of the things that I've noticed is, as leaders, sometimes what happens is, we have these tasks always in our mind, right? And that's a natural thing, right? So, you know, the first thing that happens to me on Monday morning, or even Sunday night is, okay, the new week is going to start. Monday morning, first hour, then after that, we have the life group leaders meeting, then we have the member care meeting, then we have the church leadership meeting, then we have things to do in the office, Tuesday to hours, Bible college, Wednesday Bible college, Thursday to hours, Bible college, these are the things that I need to do. So it's all there. But many a times we meet with people and we forget to ask, how are you? So it's all about the task, about the things to get done, right? So as leaders, we must develop these skills, right? Working with people takes sensitivity, be sensitive to their feelings, the challenges, listen to their perspective, respect people, regardless of what their role is, what their position is, whether they are, what language they speak, what culture they are from, regardless of all that. If they are on your team, if they are part of your ministry or your organization, we have to respect them and all of that, right? Leaders are encouragers. Leaders are positive. They always inspire people, right? They know how to speak the right words, speak the right thing to the right people and how to get them, you know, being built up. Leaders build people, they empower people, they influence them, giving them opportunities to decide, giving them opportunities to grow and develop themselves. Good leaders don't show partiality, right? Leaders correct people lovingly and the good leaders want to see others grow. The moment a leader sees somebody else and says, oh, this person can, you know, everyone like him, everyone want to, you know, appreciating him and the moment a leader tries to suppress that person, that person has failed as a leader. Yes, failed as a leader because the responsibility of a leader is to make sure that he brings out the best of those in his team. Now, why, what happened between Saul and David? Everyone respected Saul as a king. Everyone was running away when they saw Kallayat, it was only David, right? But Saul said they all started seeing the Saul. Saul killed thousands, David killed tens of thousands, right? David killed only one person. That was equal to tens of thousands. Saul was angry, Saul was upset. He wanted to kill him. He lost his vision, the vision of what God had called him for and got it already discussed and God had already revealed that he's going to be taken off the throne. There's going to be a new leader. What could have Saul done differently? He could have said, okay, David, these are the things I learned. Now, David was just an army, sorry, just a shepherd. He had no clue about armies. He had no clue about guerrilla warfare. Maybe what Saul could have done was okay. David, how old are you? I'm about 15 years old. Okay, you do one thing. Every week, three days in a week, you come to the palace. I have some people here in the army. They will train you on how to use these swords and how to do warfare. They'll train you on how to survive in the desert. And by the time you're 30, 35 years old, when I pass on, I'll gladly give you the leadership and you can be the next king of Israel. When you're the king, you can do better. Did that happen? No. But could he have done it? Yes. He would have been a very effective leader. We looked at Nehemiah, right? He saw how he led the people. That was beautiful. He brought out the best of everyone. As leaders, this is something that we must have proper people skills. Next one. Even as I go on, feel free to ask your questions. You can post it on the chat. You can also unmute and ask questions. But I'm just going to keep going with the flow. If the head is not right, the body won't be right. Or it's 2912. When a leader listens to malicious gossip, all the workers get infected with evil. Now, here in this verse, it says only gossip. But then the head is not right. Meaning when the leadership is a problem in leadership, it will affect those in the team, under them. Why? Because it is just the head and the body. Now, picture this. If you get a terrible headache, what's happening? You just want to sleep. You just want to rest in the bed the whole day. The head is aching. Nobody says, only your head is aching. Your hands, your legs, your body, everything is fine. You just want to keep sleeping. Now, it's going to affect the whole body. Did you fracture your hands? Did you get any muscle aches? Nothing. Your body is complete. From neck down, you're completely fine. The head is aching. It affects the whole body. You want to sleep. You want to rest. That's how it is. For example, you get a cold or a cough. What happens? There's a running nose. You get sinus. Only this portion is paining. There's just pain. The whole body is like, I can't stand. That's how it is. If the head is not right, the body is also not going to be right. Look at the other way. When we get hurt in our body, there's physical pain in the body. Or we have gone through some pains. Sometimes it affects the mind. The head is affected. I can't do this. I need to sleep. I need to rest. As leaders, if we want the body to be in good shape, the head should be right. If the leader is not right, if his motivations, his decisions and actions are not right, the rest of the body will be affected. If you look at ministry, there are many, many organizations or churches and ministries which the leader was not right. They were either involved in fraudulence, they were involved in sexual morality or prostitutes or they were involved in money laundering or prostitution. Money laundering. All kinds of things. And when they are involved in all of these things, what's happening? Now you have a group of maybe 1,000 people in the church sitting every Sunday. This is what pastor is going to say. He wants this team, that team. You have given the vision. You are driving the vision. The head is not right. This is what happened. The pastor was involved in some money laundering case and he is going to go to the court. What's going to happen? The whole body is going to be like under what he did. Under what vision, everything is going to be sucked away. And I think we spoke about the Mars Hill church. And it's not only Mars Hill. Mars Hill was a significant drop from 30,000 to 40,000 people to just a few hundreds. But there are other ministries as well. Other organizations as well. In the corporate sector, many organizations have fallen just for fraudulent work. In the corporate sector, they don't care that the bosses are living in section of morality or they are living a fornicated life. It doesn't really matter. But there are other things that I do. Basically, the leader must be strong, must have a sense of protecting ourselves, keeping ourselves to make sure we are staying right as leaders. We need the right kind of people to speak into our lives and to keep us on track. Very important. Stay away from evil. Especially as you grow up in leadership. Be wise. I think one of the things that we need as a church is wisdom. Yes, power, God's holiness, all of that is there. We need all of that. Wisdom is the soul writes from his wisdom. He writes from the wisdom. He says, this and I have enjoyed everything. All you need is wisdom to handle everything. You got a lot of money, you need wisdom. You got a lot of leadership roles, you need wisdom. You got a family, you need wisdom. You have children, you need wisdom. You have a ministry, you need wisdom. So everything just as leaders, we must ask God to direct us. We must ask God to say, God, help me help me to that my head as a head, I should be right. Only then I can speak into people's lives. Right, so now I'm not saying that we won't make mistakes. When we make mistakes, we can always go back and correct them. Bring correction to our lives. We humble enough to say, hey, this is something that maybe I shouldn't have said and even now sometimes I do. Sometimes when I'm preaching I may say something and then I realize after some time or people come and share and they say, hey, listen. I say, oh yes, maybe I shouldn't have said it that way. That's not what I meant by the example, but it didn't come across that way. So I can always I can always go back and say, hey, this is what I meant. I apologize. I came out the wrong way. It's just being humble. Nothing wrong in apologizing. Because you're keeping the team, the ministry with this priority. That's the priority. Next one. Demonstrate, emphasize, empower and celebrate honesty. Proverbs 16, 12 to 13. Good leaders abhor wrongdoing of all kinds. Sound leadership has a moral foundation. Good leaders cultivate honest speech. They love advisors who tell them the truth. In a world that we are living in today, honesty is sometimes risky. Can't be honest. If you're honest, then we can't go up the ladder. Or if you're honest, you may be suppressed. People may ridicule and mock us. Others may strike back to those who are honest. Leaders must protect people who are honest by putting themselves at risk right from people who are dishonest. It's basically going into the battlefield and it's like the leader comes and he stands in front of them saying if you're shooting arrows, let it first go through me because these are the people that I back up. And they are honest people. Empower honesty. Empower people to be honest by celebrating their honesty. Empower people to be honest in your organization. Never let honest people feel vulnerable or even punished by the choice of their honesty. It does happen and especially in corporate even in ministry. Sometimes people are honest but the leaders don't see through it. It may just come out as a rod of correction. You did this, you did this. As a leader, some people hate you for your honesty but there will be some who will stand by you. Stay honest no matter what. I want to give this example and I never thought of it but I just thought of this. It really even to think of it it was just it brings tears to my eyes because really a very very powerful event that happened. So when I was in Mangalore there was this couple who had come to church and they were an elderly couple and over time what happened was they were always there was always some problem, they were always not happy. I did my best to minister to them to reach out to them and eventually what happened was they I was young that time probably I was 30 or 30 and so they felt that I was too young and I was not a good pastor I was not a good leader and I was being dishonest I don't know where but they felt that I was being dishonest and they wrote an email to senior pastor and they said you know he's dishonest this is what he did and all kinds of false accusations false everything was so false right and after that you know I was talking to pastor and pastor mentioned you know I got a mail from this couple I said what was it about so he sent me that and when I read it my heart sank because I did so much we did our best all false accusations just the little thing and saying things that didn't make sense at all after this after reading that email I didn't say anything but I remember you know pastor just called me and he said ask them to find another church lovingly correct them ask them to move out request them to exit out of the WhatsApp groups request them to move to another church if they feel that you are not a good leader but I know that you are a good leader and that was like as a leader to hear that it was I think the greatest sense of satisfaction that you can get he never asked me what happened never asked never said did this happen to them never in the email he replied back saying I know Paul for more than 10 years and I know that they are good leaders I know what they are they studied with us well it was I'll never forget that it was a sign when people are against you when you are honest your leaders will stand for you it's a powerful thing to do stay honest when things go right when things go wrong God is fighting for us always remember that your attitude wrecks or invigorates people tolerate or celebrate your attitude right people tolerate or celebrate your attitude but let's see problem 16 14 and 15 an in temperate leader wrecks havoc in the lights you are smart to stay clear of someone like that good tempered leaders invigorate lives they are like spring rain sunshine attitude is quick noticeable your attitude affects whether others whether people like it or not your attitude either refreshes or inspires or it dampens and kills people people spirit when we are people who are always ridiculing and mocking you will find that your team will and they see you they will run the other way they don't want to speak to you that's something wrong it's the attitude it's quickly noticeable people tend to avoid you the best they can and simply tolerate bad attitudes sometimes they don't have a choice they have to just follow they just have to work but you have a good attitude you draw people to you people will come to you people will share their thoughts we will be open to share whatever it is for the third years we were talking about discipleship there is a point which has really touched me discipleship firstly not always people will come and share all their thoughts and their problems with you but the more we are open more we have right hard attitudes they will begin to express they will begin to share over time so always stay positive always have a great attitude even when things are not going when things are going right it's good to have a good attitude but when things are not going right align yourself to God's will there is a reason why this is happening there is a reason why these challenges are coming through but as a team, as a leader I will stay in right attitude so that I can continue to empower my team continue to empower the ministry and the vision that you have given us we will be down to earth avoid pretense a pretentious showy life is an empty life a plain and simple life is full of life leadership is not show business remember that a leader is just a normal human being not a super human from another planet it's very good to be real it's very good to be down to earth avoid pretentious don't put yourself on a pedestal be accessible be approachable laugh, cry, be normal don't have to show that nobody can come near me if they come near me my anointing will become lesser it doesn't matter just be normal just be down to earth laugh with people don't have to be, I am a leader I should be strict always be strict don't have to come near me just be there laugh with people those who are mourning to be born with them just be normal people will know that they can come to you especially when we go to the north of India it's a very different culture because leaders and pastors are given so much of priority I don't know how it is now I hope things are changing but it's not for them everything, or pastor, or prophet or whatever so we used to go to north India for missions all our conferences and we used to do our own thing we used to take food, we used to eat what they eat, we used to stay in those small rooms we used to wash our own plates wash our own clothes when we were staying there for weeks we used to do it ourselves it's too much how is it that they are doing this themselves you can't do it it's the same thing we are also people we are having food, we have the same food no special food from the hotel same thing just being normal some of them don't know how to play instruments some of them know how to play instruments just being there, hey this is something that you can do we can learn this song this is in all these things even as we are being normal being down to earth hold to high standards yet be a normal person I hope you are getting what I am saying hold to high standards yet be a normal person so for example you know you are going to teach that you are teaching me the best of your ability or you are going to have a team meeting and be the best high standards, give your best if it's worship or even if it's in the corporate sector if it's something that you are doing you are doing an assignment or an event that has been assigned to you hold to high standards yet be normal as it is and when success comes just be normal we don't have to show that we are above all of you or all of them but here is another very important point be careful of familiarity in the wrong sense that people no longer take you seriously in your words what matter very important right so be normal we do what they what just being humble being normal you cry there with everyone go out just being there but even as you do that make sure hold to high standards and that familiarity as leaders should not affect what people say and your words must still be powerful it should still be able to that's a balance that we must find it's a balance we must find okay this is what it says I need to be friendly but there is also this aspect of okay I am also a leader so I need to know right so there are there will be times I remember this happened quite a few years back the youth they said hey let's all go for a outing for a movie they said we will go here we will have some fun together we will fellowship together then we go for the movie so I said to them see you can do what you want I will come with you you can eat something but I am not comfortable with you because I am not interested I was there with them we had a good time we had a good meet we had a good lunch good fellowship but I held my friend I said no I am not comfortable with you she said no pastor you come it's okay nothing it's not I said no there are certain standards that I have not that I don't want to be with you but this is something that I will not do so then they realized okay words are still powerful as a leader they know this is so from the next time they know they will not call me for it so this is something that it's not like I found out everything but these are some things that we learn that we inculcate know that we are approachable humble but they know that we are also leaders our words are important we are called to speak into their lives speak into their lives right alright so let's stop sorry I took a couple of minutes extra but let's stop any questions any thoughts any one then I hope taking everything that we are learning together alright let's close in prayer quickly let's close father we thank you for this time we thank you lord for your wisdom and your grace your anointing on each of us lord even as we have studied today on leadership pray god that you will empower us to be great leaders effective leaders and we pray god for wisdom for passion for self-control for self-control lord that we will walk in these attributes and continue to lord just glorify your name and build your kingdom lord we thank you for this wonderful opportunity I pray for the students that will bless each one of them and help them lord no matter which phase of life they are in lord that they will continue to draw from you continue to lord disperse you in their lives thank you give you all the praise and glory you Jesus name we pray amen god bless you all have a wonderful week I'll see you all