Leadership: Loyalty

This is the first of a series of posts about leadership. For the introduction (so you won't wonder what I'm doing) see this introductory post.

The L in leadership, according to Gilbert and Zoller, is for loyalty.

Have you ever been working in a church, and just gotten so frustrated that you have wanted to throw up your hands and say, "I quit!" Then, you pick yourself up, and you keep on working -- you keep on leading. If you have, then you have demonstrated the leadership characteristic of loyalty.

I have a feeling that when God works through His spirit to give us with the gift of patience (it's one of the fruits of the spirit, remember?), he is striving to enable us to show loyalty. I have a feeling that patience and loyalty walk hand in hand. It could be that self-control is the glue that holds loyalty and patience together.

In order to demonstrate loyalty, I believe that we must have a real sense of hope -- a belief that even when we doubt it, even when we feel like we are shoving against an immovable object, even when no one else could believe it to be possible, we believe that what we are doing is making a difference. Sometimes God doesn't give us the gift of seeing the difference that the work we are doing is making, but every once and a while, we see a glimpse. That small view of the kingdom of God -- the effects of God's touch upon his children through us -- makes all the difference, and gives us hope.

I want to tell you about Linda. Linda is our youth Sunday school teacher. I don't know how long Linda has been teaching the youth -- I don't know, because I have lost count of the years. I believe that Linda is a living example of the leadership quality of loyalty. I have no idea if she has ever wanted to throw up her hands and say, "I quit," but I do know that she has impacted the lives of countless young members of our church. I know she loves them. I know in them she sees the body of Christ, and I know that they realize it.

Consider for a moment what it is like to be young and to know, within your heart, that you are seen as a member of the body of Christ? It can be transforming.

I've heard people tell her that she should think more of herself, and pass the teacher's "baton" onto someone else -- that she has "done her time." I heard that years ago, and yet Linda keeps on teaching. I've never asked her why she does it, but, knowing Linda, she does it because she loves them. She loves the youth that God has placed in her care. She believes in them, she hopes in them, and she loves them.

She leads them toward Christ, and she is a living example to me, to them, and to our church of loyalty.

I thank God for Linda.