How many times have you heard someone say “What we need are real leaders?” You’ve probably also heard sports commentators say “This player not only has tremendous athletic skills, he also provides great leadership.” It is often easy to sense a lack of leadership in a situation. At the same time, it becomes relatively easy to recognize real leaders when we see them. Yet, when we are asked to define “leadership” we often struggle. In many ways it seems that leadership is an intangible quality that we can sense, but can’t easily define.

Any conversation around leaders and leadership has to start with a good definition. Dr. J. Robert Clinton, the author of The Making Of A Leader defines a leader as “a man or woman with a God-given capacity who influences a specific group of people towards His purposes for the group”.

This definition isolates the key aspects of leadership in the Christian context. It is these aspects that I’ll be focusing on in upcoming blogs. God-given capacity refers to the natural abilities, acquired skills and spiritual gifts that God has invested in each of us. Influence is at the heart of leadership. A specific group of people refers to followers – after all, you aren’t a leader if you don’t have followers. His purposes for the group implies that as a group, you have been called by God to accomplish something for the Kingdom.

Join me in the coming weeks as I embark on a journey of exploring Kingdom leaders and the principles of leadership.

By Karl Mueller

Karl Mueller is the Senior Consultant for Church and Leadership Services for Development Associates International.

Original article: www.frontiersusa.org/blog/article/what-is-a-leader