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Leadership in any organization or event is always critical. It is important to have the right people be in place to lead the group. This should start with the thought of starting a Bible study for men. Men either want to be leaders or want to be led. Not all can be leaders so many must follow, but they will only follow someone who is a good leader. Getting the right combination of people in place is essential to getting a group going and maintaining it for years.
We have identified three areas of leadership that need to be framework for a leadership team when organizing a Bible study for men. Although we see these three positions as important it can have a very different look from group to group.
There are certain characteristics that must make up the leadership team. These characteristics will be seen in several different members of the leadership team. A leadership team can have several members, anywhere from one to five but we have found that three seems to work best. With only one you have the ‘lone wolf’ leader who does everything and everyone depends on him to do everything. This puts undue stress on him and you will find that he may burn out quickly. If that is your only option though, it can be done but other leaders should be developed to come along side him. With more than three you get into difficult group dynamics and it will eventually break down. In this situation it can get to a point of “Everybody”, “Somebody” and “Nobody”--- “Everybody” thought “Somebody” was going to do it and “Nobody” did it---. Sometimes discontent can also emerge resulting is a premature end to the group. When you have three men that have a balanced proportion of the characteristics you get a favorable group dynamic that will prove to be edifying and encouraging.
But you ask, “Why three?” This number was not come upon lightly. With a study of the Scriptures you see that three is a significant number. Ecclesiastes 4:12 states “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” The Trinity is another prime example of this, it is no mistake that there are three persons of the Godhead. Jesus worked with many disciples, sending seventy-two out to preacher the Gospel of the Kingdom (Luke 10), as we are very familiar with the twelve disciples that were with Him continuously, but there was the inner circle of disciples, James, John and Peter. These are the three men that Jesus chose to be with Him at the Transfiguration; it is them that were the first to the empty tomb; it was them that became the leaders of the new church. As we delve into the characteristics of our leaders you will see how they fit into this same dynamics.
The Seven Characteristics of Leadership
We have identified seven characteristics that should be seen of the leaders on your team. Each leader should exhibit some or all of these traits although in varying degrees.
1. Able to Teach: The teacher must have the ability to get the point of the lesson across to his ‘students’. He should have a good working knowledge of the material being covered and have cross references handy for ‘outside the box’ or widened discussion.
2. Able to Exhort: This can be connected to the teacher who exhorts and encourages the members of the group. By exhortation it is meant that they prod the members on to obey the imperatives brought forward, encourage them to grow in the admonition of the Lord.
3. Able to Discern: The leader must be able to discern when someone is confused or not engaged in the discussion. It could be that they were taught something different and feel that it may not be good to bring it up. This discerning can go to the outside as well, finding out why someone missed a couple of weeks.
4. Able to Administer: The leader would be the one that gets things set up, organizes the group.
5. Able to Evangelize: Reaching out to non believers is a gift. Although the person who has this trait may have the gift of evangelism it is not essential. As Paul exhorted Timothy “to do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:4)
6. Able to Serve: This person will be sensitive to the needs of the members, sometime setting up ‘service projects’ for the group to do.
7. Able to Shepherd: The shepherd in the group will come along side and guide the group or more importantly the individual who needs it.
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