I am greatly moved by God in this season to focus in on leadership and our leadership assignments. I’d like to share with you for a season of time about leadership because I truly believe that there has been a mantle passed to us and a baton handed to us for the running of a final lap. As I look back at all the things I longed to see and experience in my life, I realize I desired all of that in order to be able to recognize those things I so desired when they appeared. Now, as I look around my world, I realize as we enter into this season in God that “this is that” for which I longed.
As an AIM leader of a ministry, of a small group, or of individuals, you need know how important your leadership role is in advancing the culture of the Kingdom of God—locally and beyond. Experience has taught me that advancement is always based on the leader. Advancement turns on leadership and therefore advancement is directly proportional to what that leader does and how that leader leads.
The assignment on Jesus’ life was to bring the Kingdom of God upon the earth. In the 4 Gospels and in The Acts of the Apostles, there is more teaching about the Kingdom of God than any other subject. Jesus came to change earthly culture (which had become immersed in religion and filled with oppression and pain) to heavenly culture (which is immersed in relationships and filled with freedom and wholeness). He accomplished his mission by his representation of Father God (“if you have seen me you have seen the Father”), his teaching (“They were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes”) and his lifestyle (“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me”). Jesus was a Change-Agent leader who passionately lived to fulfill his assignment.
- Because of Jesus the Christ, we know salvation saves people, the Holy Spirit fills people, and the Kingdom changes people.
Do you as a leader burn with passion for God’s presence? Do you model worship, praise and prayer before your family, constituents and community? Are you actively engaged daily with what the Holy Spirit is revealing to you about the world around you? As you lead, what is it about your assignment that gives you traction?
Advancing the Kingdom of God is going to take a new breed of leader. As leaders in AIM, we have been given a cutting-edge challenge to watch God’s movement in the earth and then prepare to lead our constituents accordingly into growth and understanding. Change-agent leadership is a leadership style that is based on the Word of God and is exemplified by many tremendous Biblical characters). This change-agent leadership style is interlaced with the movement and instruction of the Holy Spirit and touches people right where they are found. I hope the forth-coming blogs are an encouragement to every one of you who leads in this hour and who are such an integral part of Antioch International Ministries.