A Leader Must Handle These Two Skillfully

Acts 6:1 – In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them COMPLAINED against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

Acts 6:7 – So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Leadership is important and it makes a difference. Leadership is one single factor that by itself has more impact on an organization than all others combined. A good leader gives an organization a fighting chance even under the worst of circumstances. A bad leader will make things worse for an organization even under the best of circumstances. Leadership is critical.

Leadership is required at many and every level of society and organizations. We are all likely to be leaders or influence leadership at various levels. We may be leaders of our small nucleus family or leaders of a whole community or international organization.

What are the two things that a leader should handle skillfully? What are these two that we should be prepared to handle? Handling skillfully suggests a careful approach to ensure best results.

The first one that we learn from the early church is challenges. Organizations will face challenges. Challenges will keep coming. A leader must skillfully handle challenges. Financial challenges. Human resource challenges. Whatever challenge.

The early church had a challenge of discrimination complaints. The church was getting divided because of discrimination related issues. The leaders rose up and addressed the problem.

The leaders first made it clear that the challenge should not affect the core business of preaching. That is wisdom. Challenges should not be allowed to distract us from the core business of our existence. When you allow challenges to affect the core business you are failing as a leader.

What is the core business of your organization? As challenges come. Protect your core business. A church shouldn’t stop evangelizing. A school shouldn’t stop teaching. A business shouldn’t stop making profit. Protect your core business.

The next thing the leaders did was to choose wise and godly people to study the challenge of discrimination and solve it. Leaders have other leaders under them. Leaders know other people can handle problems well. Leaders know that right assignment will yield right results.

Assign the right people and the job will get done. Don’t assign friend or relatives but the right people. Wise and spiritual. That is how the challenge got resolved.

Involve as many people as possible in accepting the problem and addressing it. Leadership shouldn’t be isolated from those they lead. Work with those you lead in solving problems. It should be our problem and our solution, as opposed to their problem and their solution.

After taking the right steps in selecting right leaders under them, they then prayed for them. Prayer is part of the tools a leader uses. It is not the only tool. It should not be the only tool. It is one of the handy regular tools a leader uses in addition to other proper steps to problem solving.

That is how the early church handled challenges. That is how we should handle challenges. Challenges will and must always come. Handle challenges skillfully.

The second things a leader must learn to handle skillfully is success. After addressing the challenges, the church grew significantly. The church succeeded. The church doubled membership. The church expanded into new territories.

If we do not handle success well, it can be the last one we experience. Success can divert your attention from the core business to self centerdness. Success can cause you relax morally like David who ended up with Bathsheba. Success should be handled skillfully or else the leader becomes arrogant and dictatorial.

Many a good leader has survived challenges only to end up as a dictator after success. A good leader has become incorrigible after success. Success can destroy a leader because of the sense of entitlement.

The early church did not brood over success. It was reported. It was recorded. Nothing more and they moved on to more work. Success should be celebrated but not given too much attention.

Enjoy the success and quickly move on to the core business. That is a skillful way to address success. Enjoy and quickly move away from it and get busy.

If you can handle these two as a leader, you will be excellent in your work. Challenges and success should be handled skillfully. May God help us, in Jesus’s name, Amen!

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