The Four C's of Christian Leadership

I recently read a paper submitted by Dr. Bruce Winston of Regent University. He stated that the board at Regent met to discuss what it actually meant to be a "Christian Leader." However, this was met with little success and the question continued to gnaw at him. After a ten hour car ride with his spouse he began to place four main elements, or traits, for which a "Christian Leader" would display. I thought that his insights were creative, easy to remember, and very well thought out. Here I display his four elements with my own words on each in the hope that those who feel led to lead are checking themselves daily to make sure they are doing there best for the kingdom of God. What better post for a blog titled "Useful Christian Leadership?" The four elements of Christian leadership are Calling, Competence, Confidence, and Character.

1. CALLING - this means that you are being obedient and carrying out the will of God in your life. A lot of people will pin it down to a few things like pastorate, or worship, or hospitality, and so on. Although those are absolutely things that you can be called to do that is not your entire life. Your calling is whether or not you are constantly lining yourself up with the will of God. It would be necessary for someone you expect to lead you to be following the will of the one in control. Think about some great leaders in the Bible: Moses, Abraham, Joshua, and David. In every single one of these cases they were required to show that they fully and truly put all of their trust in faith in God. It is detrimental to continuously check and make sure that you are aligning your will with that of our king.
2. COMPETENCE - this means that you do what you do well. Imagine if you had a leader that was ill prepared, or unable to carry out the job effectively. Then it is not just the leader who suffers, but all those under that person. It should be said that God will not call you to something for which you are unable to do. This means that if you are being incompetent in your position then you are either in the wrong place, or it is your own fault. This is why it is important to check yourself and make sure that your in the right place, if your in the right place then do what you do to the best of your ability, and do not be afraid to ask for help. There may always be someone around who is better at the job than you are, but God put you there for a reason, Just look at Moses in the Bible. God called Moses, and Moses questioned his own competence every time. Yet God assured him that he was more than able to carry out the will of God who sent him, and when Moses required assistance then God placed Aaron right where Moses needed him. Just remember that God is in control, and he just wants you to do the best that you are able.
3. CONFIDENCE - this is knowing what you can do by yourself and what you need God's help on. John 15:5 gives you your answer. "I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him will produce much fruit. You can do nothing without me." Here Jesus makes it very clear that without him you are unable to do anything, but the positive side about these elements is that they overlap. God CALLS you into a position to which you are able to COMPETENTLY perform CONFIDENTLY, because he is the one who sent you. One thing I know is that God does not make mistakes. What is there to be more confident in than that?
4. CHARACTER - this is living your life according to Biblical character values. As a Christian Leader your main purpose is to help others grow, and learn in Christ. However, a Christian leader is a shepherd, not a boss. We lead by example. We have to show the Characteristics of Jesus in our lives so that other people want to take on those characteristics. It is imperative that your walk follows your talk. No one wants to be lead in Christ by someone who doesn't know how to follow Him. That being said, everyone makes mistakes. Continuously humbling yourself, getting up, asking for forgiveness, and doing your best to learn and improve are characteristics of a real leader. A real Christian leader has character.

Developing leaders should first be filtered/selected by their sense of calling and calling, followed then by education and training to increase their competence. Then developing leaders can receive counseling and education to increase their confidence and finally, developing leaders can be coached, measured, critiqued and developed in character traits. It is important to continually check yourself so that you can do your best to carry out the will of the One who sent you. With love for all.
-Joshua
References: https://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/innerresources/vol2iss2/winston.pdf