LEADERSHIP
Nothing happens without leadership and everything in life starts and ends with leadership .At Nurture Africa through Destiny and Purpose Discovery Mentorship Academy (DAPDMA) we believe that the strategy for changing the world is not large meeting but is small groups of people committed to intensive transformation, passionate for the great commission, deep hunger for righteousness and service.
Leadership is the capacity to intentionally influence people through your purpose and platform to solve problems in the society through their own life purpose and influence. Leadership is not a position or a title. It is about one’s life influencing another.
Leadership is important in all aspects of life, social conducts and consciences have been influenced by reformers such as Martin Luther King. The fates of Nations have been determined by military figures such as Alexander the great and civil activist like Nelson Mandela. Civilization has been shaped by philosophers such as Socrates and Aristotle. The fate of the less privileged in India was reversed from negative to positive by Mother Teresa.
The Lord Almighty would say “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none,” said the Lord (Ezek 22:30). In this city, there were surely Mayors, Delegates, Governors, etc but they were not righteous leaders. God was looking for a leader to stand in the gap for the city but the city had only rulers. The lack of effective leaders in the world is the reason for all life’s deprivations. The biggest problem of the world today is not the lack of resources, not HIV and AIDS, it isn’t cancer and it’s the lack of leaders. The world is filled with managers, supervisors; bosses, rulers, and dictators, there are very few servant leaders.
The greatest leader of all ages who demonstrated this during His time on earth was Jesus Christ. “When He had washed their feet and put on His outer garments and resumed his place, He said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them,”(John 13:12-17). The core principles of servant leadership are service and humility. Leadership isn’t charisma, it isn’t having authority over people, it isn’t a talent, it’s intentional influence through service.
“You also ought to wash one another’s feet” That is, you should be ready to follow after my example, to condescend to all the weaknesses of your brethren; to be willing to do the nastiest services for them, and to prefer the least of them instead of yourself. What makes people valuable? Some people think it’s position, possession, academic qualification, etc. That’s how the world looks at leadership and greatness.
Jesus’ definition of leadership and greatness is different from the world’s. Jesus sees greatness in service, not in position, possessions and or academic qualifications.
Greatness is desired by almost everyone but it takes humility to be great. True humility comes from the heart, not from the outside. Jesus demonstrated humility by washing the feet of His disciples. He made it very clear that greatness isn’t lording over the people you are leading but serving them.
While others think that greatness comes from riches, academic qualification, position, and possession, God has buried this virtue in service. It’s what you do that matters not what you say. True success can’t be without service.
For you to be great, you need to have a servant’s heart. Jesus made it very clear; “I came to serve not to be served.” A servant does not lack work, position seekers do. A servant is most satisfied in the services he/she renders
There was a group of leaders, thinkers, and philosophers that came together in November 1999. They gathered top thinkers from around the world in a three-day conclave at the University of Southern California USA to discuss what would be the number one problem facing the world in the twenty-first century. The participants looked at, inter alia, HIV and AIDS, poverty, and climate change and at the end of the end of the meeting, these top thinkers concluded that the number one problem was not HIV and AIDS, climate change or poverty but that it will be leadership because it does not matter how difficult a problem is, someone has got to lead us out of it. It makes sense. You can never be a successful person if you aren’t a servant leader. The world is in so much chaos today because of bad leadership.
Leadership is inspiration and influence, not manipulation. Be a servant leader if you wish do things Jesus’ way and be a blessing to the world. What Africa lacks is servant’s leaders; most of the continent is in the hands of dictators, rulers, and tyrants. Their focus is on the next election not securing a better life for the next generation. May God deliver Africa from these egoistic men and women with no love for the people they pretend to be leading. David Chorell would say, “People quit a leader first before they quit an organization, you can’t succeed alone.” We need a new generation of leaders who will have a generational outlook in their thinking and desire to add value to lives not the types of leaders who embezzle money amounting to billions from the masses and stack in foreign banks while their subjects live in abject poverty. Let it be clear that everybody is a leader, leading at his own level for a given time. A leader without competence and integrity is a demagogue and a leader who has competence and lacks integrity is a technocrat. Be a servant leader!
You will never become a true leader unless you are introduced to yourself that is why at Nurture Africa, through our community interventions and mentorship training, we equip people to be pro-life, pro-family, pro-destiny pro -purpose and pro -service. We transform followers into leaders and leaders into agent of change.