(Part
2 on LeaderSHIP that we need in Christian Radio)
(Integrity and Servanthood were the first 2 Characteristics Jack
talked about, here’s the third and final ones he mentions.)
The third characteristic I see in the four individuals I chose to
model my life after early on is wisdom. I heard someone say
early on in my ministry that knowledge is knowing how to take things
apart, but wisdom is knowing how to put them back together again.
I
think inherent in the word wisdom is an implication of time
spent doing something. Wisdom is not something that can be learned
quickly. Wisdom comes under the pressure of carrying out a task or
assignment. Wisdom is insight. All of the leaders I chose to talk
about displayed wisdom. Theodore Levitt from Harvard Business
School says “Experience comes from what we have done. Wisdom comes
from what we have done badly.”
Automaker Henry Ford asked electrical genius Charlie Steinmetz to
build the generators for his factory. One day the generators ground
to a halt, and the repairmen couldn't find the problem. So Ford
called Steinmetz, who tinkered with the machines for a few hours and
then threw the switch. The generators whirred to life--but Ford got
a bill for $10,000 from Steinmetz. Flabbergasted, the rather
tightfisted car maker inquired why the bill was so high.
Steinmetz's reply: For tinkering with the generators, $10. For
knowing where to tinker, $9,990. Ford paid the bill.
The
final characteristic I see in these four individuals is passion.
All of us as believers should have a passion to be used by God. We
all desire to impact His Kingdom for His Glory.
Ferdinand Foch, commander and chief of the allied armies in France
during WWI said, "The most powerful weapon on earth is the human
soul on fire."
Passion is very important in leadership. There is a tale told of
that great English actor Macready. An eminent preacher once said to
him:
"I
wish you would explain to me something."
"Well, what is it?
“I
don't know that I can explain anything to a preacher."
"What
is the reason for the difference between you and me? You are
appearing before crowds night after night with fiction, and the
crowds come wherever you go. I am preaching the essential and
unchangeable truth, and I am not getting any crowd at all."
Macready's answer was this: "This is quite simple. I can tell you
the difference between us. I present my fiction as though it were
truth; you present your truth as though it were fiction."
And
yet in contrast to the some I have observed, I have seen some
leaders who seem to lack passion. Why do they lack it? Did they
never have it? Or has their passion somehow been quenched?
When
I ask these questions, it causes me to ask another: How do the
people I observed stay filled with that passion to do God’s work?
What are they doing that helps them maintain their passion?
Maybe
it’s something that Dr. Chris Pollard says: “Leadership is not about
affirming us and making people dependent on us as the ‘experts’;
it’s about building up and affirming those around us to do the
ministry that God has called them to.”
We
throw away the lessons we have learned when we don’t share them with
those growing up around us and that is an incredible waste that I
believe is sinful. We must be mentors to the younger generation.
How’s your LeaderSHIP going today?
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Jack Eason is
a partner and consultant with The Heart Share Group. He and Tom
Lewis (co-founders of Heart Share) are dedicated to equipping
ministries to be all that God has called them to be. They work with
Christian radio in the areas of fundraising, non-traditional
revenue, programming, underwriting, and more.
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