• Calcutta is an exciting place but also has people living on the street
• How do you live with the burden of the massive need? - 1/1000 are Christians
• large numbers of poor
• Power - power is the potential to move reality…to make something happen
• “leaders manage power”
• “There is no such thing as leadership without power”
• Paradox - A concept/reality that combines contradictory features or qualities
• John 13:1-5 shows the power paradox - “A leader must be able to wield power, real power, in order to lead effectively. She must hat the same time be genuinely vilnerable…”
• Types of power paradoxes - knowledge power: can fill us with pride and enslave us, - “How am I stewarding my knowledge power as a leader?”
• scepter of power in one hand and a towel/basin in the other…are we holding both with equal strength?
• people power: wrongly used shows as manipulation - II Samuel 23: David dumping the water as offering to the Lord
• great leaders refuse to wrongly use influence, intimidation, control
• create the ultimate safe place from which followers can rise to achievement and fullfillment…
• ACT and use the kingdom power, invade the darkness, “We dare not do otherwise” James 4 – evil is knowing what to do and not doing it
• humility combined with fierce resolve
• we are not a single person who has to abolish all evil in the world like the terminator
• Like Paul, celebrate our weakness and - the true secret of a great leader’s power is that when you feel the weakest, that’s when you areally are the strongest!
• His strength is realized in our weakness
• The power lies in jars of clay
• lead well, finish well, leave a lasting legacy, understand that the power comes from God
• As Jesus said, we are meek inheritors of the earth

Categories: Leadership · Originally published on stephen.braunius.org