5 Leadership Convictions

This past summer I had the privilege of sitting in on a Satellite Branch for the Willow Creek Leadership Summit.  Yet again there were many great speakers and every year it just seems to get better and better.  One in particular that stuck out to me was Oscar Muriu who I had never heard of before, but came to find out he is the Senior Pastor of the Nairobi Chapel a mega-church in Kenya Africa.  I wanted to share 5 leadership convictions I found extremely helpful that he has had over his years of experience in developing other leaders.



1.  The size of your harvest depends on how many leaders you have.  He simply made the point that the more harvesters you have the larger your harvest will be.  The harvest fields are plentiful according to scripture.  There are no shortage of harvest fields, but there is a shortage of harvesters.  Therefore our capacity is met by the number of other leaders we are able to raise up and send back out.   Matthew 9:37-38

2.  Live for the next generation.  Oscar challenged that the gospel has spread to our time and place because those that have gone before us made a specific intent to reach down to the generation behind them.  He therefore challenges all his staff to at least bring 5 other people with them for at least a year, but hopefully 2 years.  He challenges them that some of these 5 need to be the generation coming up behind us.  I can look back on my own life and the best schooling I had in scripture and what it meant to lead and follow Christ was because the men that went before me found a vested interest in bringing me along with them.   Psalm 71:18

3.  Identify the budding leaders around you and take them to the Lord in prayer.  Oscar told of his conviction while he pleaded out to God to bring some of the sharpest and brightest potential leaders into his church.  I can say I've had some of the same eager prayers to the Lord.  God convicted Oscar, of which I can identify, to look around and see that they were already there; they were just untapped.  So now he keeps a long list of possible future leaders of which he prays that God will show them their leadership potential and give them the hunger to grow.  He calls this his HIT LIST.  Who do you have on your HIT LIST?   Numbers 11:10-17

4.  Instill the 5 loves into your budding leaders.   Mark 12:30-33

• Heart = Character
• Soul = Conviction
• Mind = Comprehension
• Strength = Competence
• Neighbor as Self = Compassion

5.  Never do ministry alone.  Acts 4:13
The last thing that Oscar pointed out from his years of experience is to always have budding leaders around you.  As I write this I can't help but think not of the books that I read or the lectures that I've heard (and all these are helpful in developing leaders), but the people that I have had the privilege of spending valuable time with.  Some of the best things I learned were not taught, but caught.  As I learn to develop leaders I am striving to always bring people with me.