Is Christian Leadership only for the Church?

More often than not when someone hears the term Christian Leader they automatically assume that the person being referenced to has a place of authority in the church. This should not be the case, because any person who calls themselves a Christian and is in a role of leadership is therefore a Christian leader.  The kind of leader we are should be based upon our character stemming from our relationship with Christ so others can see the difference in our leadership style. Christ himself said that we are salt and light, in the Gospel of Matthew he says, ‘“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”’ (Matthew 5:14-16 ESV)

As far as a personal experience goes there are not many work place experiences I can recall. I since becoming a Christian ten years ago I have many different jobs but not in a leadership role. The best thing that I can think of is when I was running my advertising business with my best friend. We started out with the goal to offer affordable advertising, while maintaining integrity in the industry. As we began to gain more clientele my partner stopped focusing on pleasing God and only wanted to make money. After several months of bad decisions and continued loss, which I would attribute to our  lack of focus on God and a downward economy, I left him the run the company on his own. Since then I have felt my life become more pleasing to Jesus, He has allowed me to finish my BS in Religion and  now working on my MDiv.  

Review of Steven Furtick's Greater

I recently finished reading Greater by Steven Furtick. I really enjoyed reading his first book Sun Stand Still, and was really looking forward to reading this work. After I read the work I was a little disappointed. I did not take away as much from this book as I did his first. I guess that if I had never read his previous work I would have enjoyed this one much more.

            Furtick’s book was not difficult to read by any stretch of the imagination, as a seminary student I do a ton of reading, and I was able to read his work at a slow leisurely pace in a few days, (if I had wanted to I could have read it in a day). He is trying to stretch your faith and get you to put in to practice trusting God for your life. There is more than one occasion that as I read the book he came across as a self help guru more than a mega-church pastor. He based the majority of this work off of the life of Elisha the young up and comer following Elijah.

            Through out certain parts of the book Furtick’s battle cry is burn the plows, meaning leave your escape plan in ashes; move onto what God has in store for you and  leave no way to go back to your old life. He exhorts us to trust God that faith is never wasted; even at times it seems our prayers go unanswered. I would recommend this book as an encouragement to those looking to strive for something more, but it was not my favorite work I have read this year. Per federal law I received a copy of this book in exchange for my review. If you would like to read the first chapter for free follow this link: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/blog/2012/04/01/sneak-peek-greater-by-steven-furtick/.