Sunday, January 29, 2017

Leadership Intergrity (Part 5) - The Power of Commitment

“The Power and The Back-Bone of Vision”. You cannot be committed to what you don’t know. So, what do you know as far as your vision in life is concern? And how much do you really know? Let me tell you a grand story about a particular missionary. It happens many years ago; a missionary met a group of some young people in the Philippines who were thinking about joining the Maoist rebels.


                                                              PHASE 05
COMMITMENT
One day, the missionary asked the group’s leader what he found so attractive in Maoism that could not be experienced in the Christian faith (faith in Christ), I added. The young man’s answer was profound and yet devastating. He explained; “Maoism provides us …. With four essential things: 
  • A unified and coherent view of the world, history, and reality.
  • A definite goal to work for, live for, and die for.
  • A call to all people for a common fraternity, and
  • A sense of commitment and a mission to spread the news that there is hope for the hopeless.
The young leader continues by saying: “The fact is …. That the Christian faith in all of its beauty seems to be unable to provide us with such a vision”

In effort to discover more facts, I came across a comment written by Darrow Miller, Bob Mottitt and Scott Allen. Here: “In sadness and frustration, the missionary watched these young and idealistic people get caught up in destructive ideology that captured their zeal”
Commitment is birthed through zeal; the only vehicle that transports your commitment to its right destination is zeal. Zeal is a fire and passion for living. Imagine a life or an endeavor void of commitment. Leadership without commitment is like a car that has no engine. “Commitment brings consecration”. Sometimes you may not even know how good you really are, until you commit to something – a worthy course.

THE POWER OF COMMITMENT
Commitment is a path that every successful person had trodden. They all had gone through those painful, disappointing, betraying, lonely, and seemingly ‘hopeless’ roads in their lives. There has never risen a man who progressed in life without commitment – the grand ingredients. Here is an assignment for you: 
  1. What challenges can you draw from the story of those young rebels who would have served Christ but choose something else and why?
  2. Discuss the consequences of weak commitment to what we claim to believe in.
  3. Draw from the book of Ruth – in details, extract all qualities and power buried in staying committed to something or someone.
  4. What other basics and concept of leadership do you know that is not mentioned in this book? Please discuss further.
The concept of leadership is one of the most confusing, controversial, and highly misunderstood teachings even in our ‘religious’ books. Some have lunched violent revolutions in the name of leadership or impacting people via the same issue. Others have advocated elaborate schemes of social engineering and wealth redistribution in the name of leading and establish ‘Christian’ leadership. The sad side of the story is that we have a line-up of very lazy followers! They simply ignore the concept associating it with ‘spirituality’ or denominationalism, and some with Christian sects that seem or that may seem theologically heretical; and it doesn’t seem to border them!
 
In the same vein, some see it as fancy and something wonderful. They think of it as a place of rest once they’re appointed or nominated or selected or elected into a particular post. I’d like to advise here that you try to get one of my books titled: “The Mantle and the Title”. It will surely open your eyes to what position had done to many of our heroes past. We must of a necessity come to a point where we’ll clearly know and truly realize that; leadership is responsibility, if only you’d understand what that means! In my little years of experiencing and understanding what it means to lead, I’ve been very much ‘afraid’ of titles and positions; they suddenly  became too heavy for me; very heavy for my little head!
 
Moses was so committed to the leadership mandate given to him by the Almighty that even his own life was nothing to him. The people he was called to lead, was what matters to him. The Creator, who had given him the responsibility, was his standard. He never majors on the minors; and could not allow the minors subdue the majors! What a man he was! He knew what leadership was all about. *discuss in details and elaborate the leadership qualifies we see in the life and ministry of Moses.

1 comment:

  1. The power and the strength of leadership is buried deep in commitment.
    As a matter of fact:
    "You cannot convince/convert someone who is more committed to what he/she believes than you to what you believe"!

    ReplyDelete

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