“You learn most things by experience, but it’s usually less painful for you if it’s someone else’s experience.”
A “character” is a person, often someone who plays a part in a story and is an example from whom we can learn, but it is also a trait or attribute that can be applied to that person and to his/her leadership. When we study the character of that character – identifying biblical characters, and then identifying something in their character that can teach us something about who we are and how we lead – we learn things about the character of leadership that can be applied in our own lives.
Here is the link to the podcast.
When I was in high school, my dad, who was a pastor, was implementing a temperament profile as a teaching and counseling tool for himself and for a class he was teaching. It was a profile that identified certain temperaments and traits and then compared them to different persons in the Bible. He had me take this profile, and my matching biblical counterpart was Moses (who was described as a melancholy temperament, which seemed to match my temperament). This was a great learning experience for me, and probably my first introduction to personality profiles, and how they could help you understand yourself.
Recently, something reminded me of that experience, of learning about myself by looking at a biblical character (and in my case, Moses). But thinking about that character led me down a different path of thinking about two different uses of the word, character, and about how they can work together to help us learn more about leadership.
In the first use, a “character” is a person, often someone who plays a part in a story. It’s typically not a perfect person (in fact only Jesus was perfect), and often it is someone who is far from perfection. However, it is frequently an influential person, and in some form, an example from whom we can learn. Therefore, to understand a character is to know a little bit about who he/she was, and the context in which they lived or operated.
In the second use, as a separate definition, “character” is a trait or attribute that can be applied to that person and to his/her leadership. It is the identification of a particular behavior, attitude, or characteristic that defines the type of person they are, and is reflected in their conduct.
That word “character,” then, applies to both a person and an attribute. With that in mind, I think that there is lot that we can learn from the character of characters in the Bible. Therefore, there is great value for us in identifying biblical characters, and then identifying something that stands out in their character that can teach us something about who we are and how we lead. So for the next few weeks, and probably periodically after that, I want to select various people in the Bible and ask questions like, “Who is this character?” “What is their character?”, and “What do we learn from the character of this character?”.
I have often told my own children, “You learn most things from experience, but it’s usually less painful if it is someone else’s experience.” In this case, we are learning from someone else’s experience by looking at their character and the lessons of their successes and failures because of that character, and then seeing how to put the character of that character into practice in our own lives. We are learning about the character of leadership.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.” John 3:16
There are two sides to the coin of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary. One side is the price that He paid by His death as a perfect, sinless man, which was the sufficient price to pay the penalty for the sins of mankind. That’s why last week I made he point that Jesus died for you. The other side of that coin, however, is the victory that was achieved when the perfect man who was also fully God rose from the grave victorious over sin and death. That’s why I can also so that Jesus rose for you.
Jesus died for you and me because we were not able to pay the penalty that was necessary for our own sin, which also meant that we would be forever separated from God because of our sin. But thankfully, and graciously, God provided the substitution for us through his son Jesus Christ, who sacrificed his life on Good Friday but then rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. And that, my friends, is what we really celebrate! Jesus died for you to pay your penalty, but he rose for you to make it eternal. And because Jesus died and rose again, the Bible tells us that all we have to do is place our faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross to receive salvation, and the assurance that we will spend our eternity in heaven with God.
Jesus died for you to pay for your sin, and then He rose for you so that you could be reconciled to God. If you have never placed your faith in Jesus, accepting His payment for your son, I would encourage you during this Easter time to make that decision. Jesus died for you. Jesus rose for you. All that is required of you is to believe.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
Easter is almost here. You can tell because the seasonal aisle at the store is full of plastic eggs, Easter baskets and candy, chocolate bunnies, stuffed bunnies, and all the things that tell you that the important holiday that celebrates the Easter Bunny bringing candy-filled plastic eggs and pastel-colored hard-boiled eggs has arrived. But is that what really makes this day significant? Sure, it’s fun to decorate the eggs and give Easter baskets to kids, but is there a deeper purpose for Easter?
You probably already know the answer to that. Beyond the Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies, the true focus of this day is Jesus. Specifically, it is something that Jesus did. Even more specifically, it is something that Jesus did for you. What exactly is it that He did? He died for you!
Easter is really about that. It’s about “celebrating” the death and resurrection of Jesus. (Next week, I want to focus on the significance of His resurrection, but this week I am focusing on the significance of His death.) Now, I use that word “celebrate” carefully, because it is not a celebration of the beating, torture, and death of someone who was viewed as antagonistic to societal and cultural norms. Rather, it is a celebration of what that death accomplished.
You see, Jesus – the Son of God and one of the persons in the Holy Trinity, and therefore fully divine – took on human form, born as a baby in a manger in Bethlehem, and lived about 33 years as a human being, a living person like you and me. However, because of His divinity, He was able to live sinlessly even though He faced temptations just as we do. Because He lived a sinless life, He was, therefore, qualified to pay the penalty that our sin deserved, that we are unable to pay. The result was that the crucifixion of this perfect person satisfied the debt we owe, enabling you and me to be reconciled to God.
Our sin separates us from God, because God is perfect and we are not, so our sin disqualifies us from spending eternity with God in heaven. Our imperfection means we cannot go to a perfect heaven to dwell in the presence of a Holy God without something being done to resolve that issue. (My dad once said, if you find a perfect church, don’t join it because you’ll mess it up.) The wonderful thing is that something was done. Jesus, perfect Jesus, died on the cross to be the sacrifice that pays for all of our sin. His death paid for our sin, so that God would se.e us through His substitutionary act, seeing us as perfect through Jesus so that eternity with God became possible. To say it simply, Jesus died for you so that you could live with God.
The “Be-Attitudes” of better leadership: be genuine, be relational, be trustworthy, be knowledgeable, and be excellent.
In this “Be A Better Leader” series of website articles and podcasts, I am talking about a variety of attributes, characteristics, and skills that are essential to effective leadership, and discussing how they are reflected in practice. I have grouped these things into five categories of what a leader ought to be, which is why I am labeling them as the “Be-attitudes of Better Leadership.” These five categories are: “Be Genuine,” “Be Relational,” “Be Trustworthy,” Be Knowledgeable,” and “Be Excellent.” We have spent a fair amount of time discussing all five of these, and today in part 22, I am concluding our discussion of the series.
Here is the link to the podcast.
In this “Be A Better Leader” series of website articles and podcasts, I am talking about a variety of attributes, characteristics, and skills that are essential to effective leadership, and discussing how they are reflected in practice. I have grouped these things into five categories of what a leader ought to be, which is why I am labeling them as the “Be-attitudes of Better Leadership.” These five categories are: “Be Genuine,” “Be Relational,” “Be Trustworthy,” Be Knowledgeable,” and “Be Excellent.” We have spent a fair amount of time discussing all five of these, and today in part 22, I am concluding our discussion of the series.
I began the series by describing how this grouping of characteristics originated when, years ago, I taught a series of workshops at an educator’s convention, called “Be A Better Teacher.” The idea for these workshops had started with a single workshop called “The Be-Attitudes of Better Teaching,” in which I identified and explained some of the most important attributes and characteristics that should be reflected in who and what a teacher should be (at the time I was a teacher and school administrator). Because it was a Christian School convention, it was a little bit of a play on words from the Beatitudes that Jesus shared in the Sermon on the Mount. This one workshop ended up growing into six workshops – Be Prepared, Be Good, Be Funny, Be Yourself, Be a Teacher, and Be an Influence – that focused on effective teaching techniques, methods and characteristics of good teachers.
At some point much further down the road in my leadership experience, something triggered my memory of these workshops, it dawned on me that the same kind of idea – a list of “Be” statements – was true in leadership as well. Certain attitudes, skills, and characteristics are important in a leader for that leader to be effective, so I started thinking about what those things might be (pun intended). While not an all-inclusive list, I identified what I believe are a few of those “Be-Attitudes” in the context of leadership that are essential to leading well. And that became this series of articles and podcasts that I have discussed over the last few months.
I grouped these characteristics and attributes into 5 broad “Be” attitudes, and in each one I discussed four different ways they are each reflected:
- Be Genuine, by being: authentic, an example, humble, and yourself.
- Be Relational, by being: a listener, a talker, a teacher, and a relationship-builder.
- Be Trustworthy, by being: honest, consistent, safe, and transparent.
- Be Knowledgeable, by being: aware, teachable, a learner, and a reader.
- Be Excellent, by being: intentional, flexible, and reflective, and doing what works.
I would encourage you to go back and look through these “Be-Attitudes,” now that you see the whole forest so that you can learn even more from the individual trees. I hope that in this journey, you have gained a grasp of some of the most important characteristics and practices that need to be embedded into yourself and your leadership, for you to be the most effective leader you can be. My prayer is that you have learned things that are helping you to “Be a Better Leader.”