Several years ago, a 19-year-old man, desperate to get to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, hopped a bus and demanded that the driver take him there.
Some say the man was drunk, others that he was disturbed. Either way, only a few of the passengers were concerned, and everyone stayed calm.
That’s because the hijacker wasn’t holding a gun, waving a knife, or carrying a bomb. He was completely unarmed. Also, the bus he wanted to hijack was already headed to Haneda Airport.
The harmless hijacker was quickly arrested. The Tokyo Times commented that the man “just wanted to make a scene; which if nothing else, he did manage to do successfully.” (“Hopeless Hijacker,” www.Tokyotimes.org, 3-24-05; www.PreachingToday. com)
There are a lot of people who want to make a scene. They want to be the center of attention, but that does not make them a real leader.
After all, if your objective is to keep people happy, take them only where they WANT to go. However, a real leader takes people where they NEED to go even if they don’t want to go there at first. It’s like Tom Landry once said, “Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.”
So how does a real leader do that? How does a real leader influence people to achieve more than they ever thought they could? How does a real leader motivate people to be all that God has called them to be?
This is an important question for parents and grandparents, for business leaders and teachers, and for anyone who wants to be a positive influence on others. How does a real leader inspire people to real greatness? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Joshua 18, Joshua 18, where we see how Joshua effectively led an obstinate, stiff-necked people to possess the land God had promised them.
Joshua 18:1-3 Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them. There remained among the people of Israel seven tribes whose inheritance had not yet been apportioned. So Joshua said to the people of Israel, “How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? (ESV)
The people of Israel are gathered at Shiloh, the geographic center of the Promised Land and the spiritual center, as well. The tent of meeting, or the Tabernacle, is there, hosting the Shekinah Glory, a powerful display of God’s presence. God has subdued all their enemies, and yet seven tribes hesitate to take what God has given them. Instead of moving out to posses the land, they huddle together around the Tabernacle. So Joshua gets up on the side of a mountain. He points to the land surrounding them, and says, “Take possession of what God has given you!”
Joshua doesn’t have to say much, because the land is right before them. All he has to do is point it out and tell them to go after it. Joshua displays the Promise right in front of them.
He shows the people exactly what God has for them, and that’s what you must do if you want to motivate people to go after all that God has for them.
CLEARLY DEFINE THE VISION.
Show people the future God has for them. Display the dream as plainly as you can.
That’s what a government worker did for John Ortberg and 150 others reporting for jury duty. As Ortberg tells the story:
“It was 9:00 on a Monday morning and [he] was one of 150 unhappy campers sitting on plastic chairs crammed into a sterile basement room in the San Mateo County Courthouse, reporting for jury duty. They all had one thing in common: They wanted to be somewhere else.
“Until Larry happened.
“Larry works for the government, and however much we pay him, it's not enough,” Ortberg says. “In a few short minutes, [Larry] won over the crowd of prospective jurors and infused [them] with a sense of honor and purpose. ‘I know you're all busy people,’ he said. ‘But I want to say thank you. I want to tell you, on behalf of the judges and our legal system and the county of San Mateo and, really, our nation, we're grateful for your service.’
“Although almost no one is happy about getting a summons to jury duty, Larry said, it's actually incredibly meaningful, and it's the foundation of a justice system in which people have a right to trial by a jury of their peers. He told [them] a story about a ninety-five-year-old woman who was no longer able to drive, but who took three buses to get to the courthouse so she could serve. When she arrived, Larry asked her, ‘Did you call ahead like you're supposed to, to find out if you're even needed for jury duty?’ She said, ‘I couldn't. I don't have one of those push-button phones.’ Turns out, she still had a rotary dial phone.
“Larry reminded [them] of the nobility of justice, and the long centuries of struggle for it, and how, even now, people around the world were fighting, and in some cases dying, for the right to exercise this privilege. As he spoke, people stopped texting; they sat up straight; they nudged each other and seemed inspired.” Ortberg says, “By the time my number was called, I was so excited to serve that when the judge asked me whether I could pronounce someone guilty, I told him I was a pastor and that, according to the Bible, everybody was guilty. I said, ‘I could even pronounce you guilty!’”
Ortberg says, “I wasn't selected to serve on a jury that time, but the point is that a room full of sullen, silent, phone-checking, self-important draftees had been transformed into a community of joyful patriots in a matter of minutes. When people left the courthouse that day, they were talking and laughing like old friends.” (John Ortberg, I'd Like You More If You Were More Like Me, Tyndale Momentum, 2017, pages 93-94; www.Preaching Today.com)
Larry was a real leader that day, getting people excited about doing what they did not want to do. And you can be a real leader too! Just lay out the vision before people. Show them how they can be a part of something much bigger than themselves.
Parents and grandparents, show your children the big picture of God’s Kingdom! Tell them the stories of men and women who lived for Christ. Start with the great stories of the Bible, and get yourself some video biographies of great Christians.
Inspire people to greatness by giving them a vision of how God can use them for His glory. The Bible says, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint” (Proverbs 29:18), or the people are discouraged.
On the other hand, people are inspired when they see God’s vision for their future. So if you want to inspire people to greatness, show them that vision. Define the vision. Then…
DELEGATE THE WORK.
Enlist others in the task and don’t micromanage them. Empower people with the responsibility AND the authority to get the job done. That’s what Joshua does.
Joshua 18:4-6 Provide three men from each tribe, and I will send them out that they may set out and go up and down the land. They shall write a description of it with a view to their inheritances, and then come to me. They shall divide it into seven portions. Judah shall continue in his territory on the south, and the house of Joseph shall continue in their territory on the north. And you shall describe the land in seven divisions and bring the description here to me. And I will cast lots for you here before the Lord our God. (ESV)
Skip down to verse 8.
Joshua 18:8-10 So the men arose and went, and Joshua charged those who went to write the description of the land, saying, “Go up and down in the land and write a description and return to me. And I will cast lots for you here before the Lord in Shiloh.” So the men went and passed up and down in the land and wrote in a book a description of it by towns in seven divisions. Then they came to Joshua to the camp at Shiloh, and Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord. And there Joshua apportioned the land to the people of Israel, to each his portion.
Notice, Joshua didn’t describe the land. Joshua didn’t divide the land. No! He let each tribe pick three representatives to do that. Then they came back to Joshua, who distributed the land by lot according to THEIR designations.
Joshua not only assigned tasks to people; he gave them the authority to carry out those tasks without having to get his permission. And that’s what you must do if you want to inspire people to greatness. Don’t do all the work yourself. Instead, empower others to take on some responsibility and authority.
I think of Joshua’s mentor, Moses, in Exodus 18, judging the people who stood around him from morning to evening. When his father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for all the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you? What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out.”
Then he says to Moses, “Look for able men… Let THEM judge the people… THEY will bear the burden with you… [then] you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”
When a leader does all the work, nobody wins! But when a leader delegates the work to qualified people, both he AND the people benefit.
When you cast a vision well, people want to get on board. They just need to know what to do. Please, don’t deny them the privilege of involvement. Instead, show them what to do, and then empower them to do it. Give them the responsibility AND the authority to carry out their assigned tasks without you looking over their shoulder all the time.
In Acts 6, the needs of a young church are mushrooming. The church is growing and the inevitable happens. A group of people get left out. In the daily distribution of food, the Grecian widows are overlooked, and complaints arise.
What do the leaders do? Do they say, “Alright, we’ll get right on it”? No! They say to the church members, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore… pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The leaders delegate the work to qualified men.
What’s the result? Acts 6 says, “The word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly…”
When a leader delegates the work, the vision is realized, the mission is accomplished, and everyone benefits!
This summer, we’ll celebrate the 50th Anniversary of three men walking on the moon for the first time and returning safely home. After NASA Apollo 11's incredible feat in July of 1969, astronaut Michael Collins said, “All this is possible only through the blood, sweat, and tears of thousands of people… All you see are the three of us, but underneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others.” According to author Catherine Thimmesh there were about 400,000 others who helped with the Apollo 11 mission.
In her book Team Moon, Thimmesh shares stories of these hidden heroes—spacesuit seamstresses, radio telescope operators, parachute designers and others who made it possible to get men to the moon, get them home, and let the rest of the world watch while it happened.
At Kennedy Space Center, some 17,000 engineers, mechanics, soldiers, contractors and other workers set up the enormous missile for the launch.
Then there were the “Two Bobs”—the guys in Houston monitoring just how little fuel was left in the lunar module during its descent to the surface.
Team Moon also included a 24-year-old computer whiz kid Jack Garman, who helped work through worrisome computer glitches during the Eagle 's landing. The computer code that ran all the systems was developed by a team of software engineers at MIT' led by Margaret Hamilton.
Roughly 500 people worked on the space suit, including one seamstress who commented, “We didn't worry too much until the guys on the moon started jumping up and down. And that gave us a little bit of an eyebrow twitch.”
No wonder astronaut Neil Armstrong would later say that as he took his first step on the moon, he immediately thought about all those 400,000 people who had given him the opportunity to make that first step. (Catherine Thimmesh, Team Moon, HMH Books for Young Readers, 2015; www.PreachingToday.com)
You can’t go it alone and get anything of significance done! Enlist the help of others and empower them to do the work with you. If you want to inspire people to greatness, define the vision; delegate the work; but most importantly…
DENY YOURSELF.
Lay aside the perks and privileges of leadership and put the interests of others above those of yourself. Be the first to serve and the last to benefit.
That’s what Joshua did. The rest of chapter 18 and most of chapter 19 describes the distribution of the land among the various tribes. Then, only after all the other tribes have received their allotment does Joshua receive his. Look at Joshua 19, starting at verse 49
Joshua 19:49-50 When they had finished distributing the several territories of the land as inheritances, the people of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun. By command of the Lord they gave him the city that he asked, Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim. And he rebuilt the city and settled in it. (ESV)
As the leader of God’s people, Joshua could have demanded and received the best part of the land. Instead, he asks for and receives a little city in the rugged, infertile, mountainous region that his own tribe complained about in chapter 17 (vs.14-16). Joshua, a real leader, chose last and he chose least.
He humbled himself, and that’s what you must do if you want to inspire people to real greatness.
Just this last week, February 20, 2019, The Wall Street Journal featured an article by Sue Shellenbarger, entitled “The Best Bosses Are Humble Bosses.” She says many corporate employers are realizing they’ve missed one of the most important traits of leadership: humility. According to several recent studies, humble leaders inspire close teamwork, rapid learning, and high performance in their teams.
The article defines a humble leader as someone who tends “to be aware of their own weaknesses, eager to improve themselves, appreciative of others’ strengths, and focused on goals beyond their own self-interest.” They can be highly competitive and ambitious. “But they tend to avoid the spotlight and give credit to their teams… They also ask for help and listen to feedback from others, setting an example that causes subordinates to do the same.”
Studies show that humble leaders experience lower turnover and absenteeism among their employees. Their teams also perform better and do higher-quality work than teams whose leaders exhibit less humility.
The article describes one company in particular that values humble leaders—the apparel company Patagonia. They start scrutinizing job applicants for humility as soon as they walk through the door for interviews. Managers screening new recruits follow up by asking receptionists, “How did they engage at the front desk?” If staff members report disrespectful or self-absorbed behavior, “that can be a deal killer,” he says. (Sue Shellenbarger, “The Best Bosses Are Humble Bosses”, Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2019; www.PreachingToday.com)
Real leaders are not self-absorbed. Instead, they deny themselves. It’s what Jesus Himself did!
Philippians 2 says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:3-8, ESV).
Jesus, as the Sovereign Lord of the universe, could have clung to all the perks and privileges of that position. Instead, He chose to let His honor go to become one of us, and to be treated as the worst us. He could have clung to His crown, but He gave it up for a cross, so He could die for your sins and mine. Jesus was enjoying all the glory of heaven, but He gave it all up so you could share that glory with Him.
All you need to do is trust Him with your life. Trust in the One who put your interests above His own.
“Therefore,” the Bible says, “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11, ESV)
True respect does not come from demanding it. It comes from denying yourself like Jesus did. If you want to be a real leader, inspiring people to real greatness, don’t hang on to all your rights and privileges; let them go to serve others.
In his book Immeasurable, Skye Jethani writes: Compare two leaders. Leader A lifted an entire nation in a time of despair. He mobilized his people against unimaginable odds with a clear vision and inspiring passion. He launched a movement that has impacted literally everyone alive today. He set in motion an industrial and scientific revolution that produced the first computer, the first jet airplane, began human exploration of space, and unlocked the mystery of nuclear energy. Almost every aspect of the modern world has, in one way or another, been influenced by this man. By the time he died at the age of only 56, everyone on the planet knew his name. Without a doubt, Leader A changed the world.
Leader B lived during the same era. In fact, he died just 21 days before Leader A, but his life was very different. At the height of his influence, Leader B ran a school with just 100 students. He wrote a few books but was not widely regarded. He was beloved by his friends and family and had a reputation for being both intelligent and faithful, but at the time of his death almost no one knew his name, and most considered his life's work unfulfilled—including Leader B himself.
So given the choice, which leader's strategies would you rather study? Which leadership conference would you rather attend—the one featuring a keynote address by Leader A or the one with the small workshop in a back hall led by Leader B? If you are inspired by the world changing effectiveness of Leader A, congratulations! You've chosen Adolf Hitler. Leader B was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was executed by the Nazis for his relentless opposition to Hitler. (Skye Jethani, Immeasurable: Reflections on the Soul of Ministry in the Age of Church, Inc., Moody Press, 2017, pages 21-22; www.Preaching Today.com)
Today, Bonhoeffer’s commitment and sacrifice inspires millions of people. On the other hand, millions of people despise Hitler’s self-serving grab for power. In the long run, who was the real leader?
If you want to be a real leader that inspires people to real greatness, define the vision, to be sure. Delegate the work; but most important, deny yourself just like Jesus did. That’s because real leaders are real servants.
Let these words by Kelly Willard be your prayer today:
Make me a servant humble and meek.
Lord, let me lift up those who are weak,
And may the prayer of my heart always be,
Make me a servant, make me a servant,
Make me a servant today (Kelly Willard).
