Tag: Application

Teach, Encourage, Admonish, Equip

Jesus taught, encouraged, admonished, and equipped twelve men to go and make disciples.

Think about how Jesus individualized each word.

Teach: People will only do what they are taught to do, and our teaching must include application. When provided, everyone learns how to fulfill the task.

Encourage:
Encouraging others motivates them to work harder than before. When criticism is tempered with encouragement, people change.

Admonish: Warning, advising, or even reprimanding others is needed to prevent harm. The attitude behind admonition determines the reception.

Equip: Providing tools to fulfill each task and responsibility are vital to the success of followers, especially as we prepare them to lead.

Practice Makes Perfect

Regardless of the application, the idea is to do something over and over again, until perfect.

Olympic athletes are trained from a young age. Drills, routines, and exercises are perfected through hours of practice every day. Their life is dedicated to one purpose: perform perfectly without yielding to pressure.

Doing, action, application, and preparation are all terms associated with practice. This is no longer about theory, but method. Details are worked out for implementation.

Developing the ability to lead is a work in progress.

We need to be focused, dedicated, diligent, and steadfast to the one purpose we are called to do, and lead others in that cause.

Assessing Leadership Growth

How can leadership be accurately assessed for growth?

It is hard to determine a more difficult question to answer, but here are a few possible suggestions.

First, consider the activity of those who follow. If there is no activity, then our leadership may not be growing. Growth can be measured by application.

Second, examine carefully responses given in feedback. Positive and negative feedback have a powerful place when assessing our development.

Third, find a mentor. The value of having someone examine the growth and advancement of leadership is immeasurable.

Leadership development is critical to the growth of any organization.

Applied Leadership

What is the significance of the word – apply?

Biblically, it’s about acting, doing, or making something happen. Jesus claimed that wisdom is based both on hearing His words and applying them (Mt. 7:24-27). James warns of being self-deluded if we hear without application (Jas. 1:21).

What good does it accomplish to hear something that will improve our walk with God, help us mature in faith, or strengthen our relationships with others but do nothing?

Leadership requires us to provide an example of application if we ever hope to lead others.

The Heart and Mind of Leadership…

Continuing education is beneficial for personal growth and development. The drive behind the educational process is to dig a little deeper into the storehouse of knowledge to gain a better understanding of the wisdom others have gained.

The challenge is learning how to balance knowledge with application.

The thought of application should move us to dig deeper in order to understand the implications of what we have learned.

The information we gain will increase our ability to lead and help others reach our heavenly home.

The heart of leadership must be connected to the mind of leadership.

Involved = Learning…

One of the greatest lessons for learning comes from Ben Franklin, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

No matter what age group, this thought has application.

Leadership in the home means we must involve children so they learn.

Educational leaders must involve students if they are to learn.

As spiritual leaders within the church, we must know the value of this thought if we are to help the church move from complacency and apathy to learning.

When it comes to an application of biblical principles, involve people in ways that result in learning.