The Distinctives of a Leader

Reaching Homosexuals with Christ’s Love

By Tim Wilkins

I pulled the following from a sermon I preached years ago -modifying these nine “distinctives” for a leader in outreach to those with same-sex attractions.

President Dwight David Eisenhower, when he was serving as a General, used to demonstrate the art of leadership with a simple piece of string.  He would place it on a table and say, “pull it and it will follow you wherever you wish, push it and it will go nowhere.”

1. A leader is an uncompromising individualist who cannot be bound by public opinion nor restrained by the sometimes over-cautious local church.  He or she knows “uncompromising” does not mean “mean-spirited” or “rude.”

1. A leader is conscious of a divine call that holds him to the task set by God.  Thus, he knows that “if he is easily swayed by men’s opinions, he should do anything but preach.” He also knows that calling homosexuality a sin is insufficient; he must proclaim the God who separates us from our sin “as far as the east is from the west.”

1. A leader is conscious of the privilege of access to the inner counsel of God, but a leader never “struts” into God’s presence.  He does not speak FOR God; rather, God speaks THROUGH him.

1. A leader is usually a person of action with a certain ruggedness of body and character that commands attention in any gathering.  But he understands that action never takes the place of unction and any attention he draws is simply Christ radiating through him - though God will surely depart from him if he happens to think “I am being righteous.”

1. A leader is conscious of God’s authority and backing in all emergencies.  A leader stands alone against practically all his contemporaries.  Consequently, he may be widely ridiculed or politely patronized by the very persons he hopes to lead to Christ.

1. A leader is definitely a man of prayer and communion with God - consecrated in life and character.  He knows that if “the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective”; he also knows the prayers of an Unrighteous man are powerLESS and INeffective.

1. A  leader is an outspoken critic of specific evils in the social order AND within the church.  He knows that ranting about “what’s wrong among the world’s people” must be balanced with “what’s wrong among God’s people.”

1. A leader is God’s agent to reveal the future to the people.  He is given peculiar insight into the will of God for the generations yet unborn.  And no amount of “political correctness” or “uncomfortableness” with certain sins will deter him from the task. He knows there are no “clean sins.”

A leader knows “Consensus is the death of leadership.”