If there is a God how should he/she be like ?

About 10 years back, I was on my way to a christian youth camp. I was on a bus travelling all night and there was a guy who was sitting next to me and he was surprised that young people like me are wasting our lives with religion and he asked how my religion is going to help us survive in the model. I was not able to give an answer then. But that got me thinking more and I spent researching the role of religion in our lives. Like a true software engineer I started building a requirements document for my religious choices.

So the first question I asked myself was, is religion supposed to help us make more money ? I realized that happiness does not necessarily come with more money. I realized that one of the most happiest people in the world are kids. The one thing that kids have is that they do not really worry that much about their future and also they have that beleif in their parents that they would take care of them. So money is supposed to just provide us with the sense of security in terms of our future. However, this is hardly acheived. Most of the time having more money makes some people more insecure. So we spend most of our time in pursuit of happiness than acheiving real happening. When I look at different religions in the world they all have different ways of getting eternal happines.

Since most religions have a God of some sorts the second question I wanted to tackle was that if there is a God how do we find him and what would be his role ? Most people seem to have the notion that God is like a vending machine. If you want something you pray and you will be provided with your needs and that is all that is required. Then there were other questions like If there is a God should I be really searching for him, should I not know him already. Then at some point in this thought process there were a couple of things that just stood in front of me. If there is an all powerful God and he ruled the world then shouldn't the world revolve around him and not around us. Then it is not upto me to choose a God it is for me to find Him and follow Him. The whole exercise of finding a religion for myself becomes a journey of finding the right God and follow him. Now when you look around there are different world view on who God is. It all involves certain amount of faith. That makes things lot more complicated.

To Be Continued ....

Worthy Living

Paul urges ephesians to live a life worthy of their calling. It made me think a bit. The question is what is my calling and how do I live my life worthy of it. In the book "Purpose driven life" Rick Warren states the way to find our calling is to see what we are good at or what we enjoy doing. The logic is that if we are created to do something then we should be good at it. I agree with that but then how many of us are able to pursue a career in something that we enjoy doing and we are good at. Most of us just follow the benjamins.

Donald trump in his book says that the secret ingredient to success is passion. Our CEO states that life is too short to spend in things that you are not passionate about. He also went on to add that if you are passionate about something even if it fails you would learn a lot from it. I kind of agree with that based on my life experience too.

Now if you find out you are called to be a computer engineer then what does it mean to live a worthy life. How can you be passionate about it and what should be your goal ? Should it be making more money or should it be for the love of it. One classic example of somebody who did just for the love of it and is now very influential is linus trovalds. Should we set our goals to enhance the value of the companies we work for or should we set it so that the consumers see value or should we set it so that we make a difference to humanity as a whole. I think this would mark the domain of influence that we would build.

Life is Fragile and God is Good

Last week end we were out camping in a near by lake. It was a nice place where nature could be enjoyed without much adulteration. The sheer number of stars visible at night is a sight to behold. Also the amount of time you have on your hand for reflection is high. You can easily see the effects of television and other entertainment media in our lives. Observing all this I was filled with a sense of gratitude on how God has created this world with everything we would need. I was watching God's must be crazy the other day and there in the introduction it summed up what I observed when they describe the pigmy tribe and how they were a satisfied lot.

Something interesting happened in the camp. One of my fellow campers almost drowned while trying to race in the lake. The way he was saved seemed like a perfect orchestration that all of us there felt the presence of God. It suddenly highlighted the fragility of our lives and how things can change upside down in a matter of seconds. This can happen to any one. After that I was talking to one of the boys who also swam in that race and he said that he never expected these kind of things to happen to people we know. Often times when we read about news like this on the web, we feel that things like this don't happen to regular people. But the person who almost drowned was no different than any of us.

It also showed us that God is watching us and he is there to protect us. So whenever I sit in my dream world and plotting for my future I keep reminding myself that things could change over night and all these planning is of no use. On the other hand I know that only Goodness comes from my God and I can be assured that he'll protect me. The unknown seems to be is my dreams in sync with his plans for me. In Ephesians 1 Paul says that God has lavished us with blessings from the spiritual realms. If our dreams are spiritual in nature then there should be no trouble reaching them. Paul also says that God reveals to us this mystery of his plans for us.

The constant Change

The other day I was reading my daily devotion and there was a passage on change. It was very similar to what one of my colleagues stated some time back. What he claims is that there is nothing that is good or bad about change. But as a human being we all do not want change or want to be surprised. It is my beleif that my 6 month old is under going constant change every day is constantly surprised and that is the one that brings her happiness. It is a phase where she is in complete acceptance of her selflessness. Where as my older one likes to control the events. I think as we grow older we like to control everything, we want everything to be deterministic. If we look at the characters in the Bible and their lives, they are in constant change. Amidst these changes the master potter shapes us into the vessels he envisions. But it is extremely hard to let go and take life as it comes. It is very easy to talk about but very difficult to internalize and follow. There are lots of hurdles to it. In my life the biggest hurdle is the doubt that if my dreams and ambitions are in conflict with what God has chosen me for. For e.g the world likes to pigeon hole our lives into the happily ever after stories. The happily ever after stories do not mention the issue of constant change. You don't live happily ever after if you have a good family a big house, car and lots of money. Problems just crop up at different levels, but there will be changes and it will be constant. It is fascinating to see the kind of problems they run into.

So be still and know that he is God.

Case for Christianity

The other day I was watching a program on the History channel about the church history. It was about the books that were left out of the Bible. I was a little intrigued by it. I started wondering what would be the state of the millions of Christians if the whole Bible was written by man with his own prejudices. What if the books that were missed out of the Bible painted a different picture of God? I started meditating on it. Then some interesting things popped into my mind.

First and foremost our God is a living God. He is not the one that was there 2000 years back and everything he wanted to talk is all over. Our Christian life is a constant walk with God. The Bible just works as an aid. Like all other aspects in my life, the answers are again in the Bible. When I look at the lives of Noah, Abraham, Isaac and others, they did not have the Bible. They all walked closer to God than most people. Bible is a faith based document, when we read the Bible our living God talks to us through it. So even though the things in the Bible might thought to be inaccurate it is how it relates to our current situation and how it talks to us that is more important. If Bible is the only way to God then what about the people who cannot read the Bible - are they all doomed? What about the people who cannot see?

He finds you and not the other way round.

Tell me a biblical character who compared all the existing religions and then felt that they agree with the teachings of Jesus or Judaism and decided to follow that religion. There is none, every character in the Bible is called by God to do His purpose. In the same way God still calls each person to do His will and we are not the one doing the choosing. It is not a phillosophy or a set of steps to get to heaven. If a real God were to create this world this is how it would be. How can you who does not know where you come from (before birth) and where you are going (after death) find the path for how you will live after you die. There is no way for human minds to comprehend it or for them to choose a path of living now.

The only way you can live a sinless life is to let his spirit live in you.

There is no way you can justify your passage to heaven. This is because we all have sinned and all sins are abominable in his sight. The only way is if you let the spirit of Jesus live in you. The calling and your acceptance initiates this process. It is a process where God takes over every part of your life as you surrender each one of them. It is in this surrender where there is tremendous struggle. The proud, the rich will fail here as this comes easy for people who hate their lives but hard for people who love theirs.

If you want to walk on water you need to step on it

I am always filled with ideas on different things that can be done to make the world better or my life better. I would think about it and analyze it and once I see the potential pitfalls will never do it. The other day I was reading a story in the Bible and I found something which was very interesting and it made an impression. It is the story about the widow and Elisha. The story unfolds in 2 kings 4:1-7. The widow and her sons did not have money to pay their debt. They go to Elisha and tell him about their situation. He asks her what do you have in your house. It is a very interesting question to ask. If some one comes to me and asks me for help I will never ask him what he/she has in their house. I was thinking about it and remembered the story of Jesus feeding the multitude with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. There was a striking similarity. Then I started combing the Bible for similar things and I noticed that God wants to build on top of what we already have. He wants us to make the initial begining.

Then I came across a book with a title "If you want to walk on water you need to step on water first". I realized that if we want to see God's glory there has to be opportunity for that to happen in your life. In morden day world where we are able to control every aspect of our lives it is very difficult for us to take that first step. Trusting that God can build on it. It is a leap of faith that you need to take.

The good news is that God is very happy to provide us with support along the way when we stumble after we take the first step. He is right behind you like father watching his kids learning to ride a bike. It is depicted very well in the story of Mary. Mary finds that she is pregnant and it is a very scary situation. If anybody finds out she will be stoned to death. It is very unrealistic for anyone to accept her story. I am sure she would have been scared to death and probably considering aborting the baby. She tells her fiance and her fiance is not that happy. He is thinking of divorcing her. Then an amazing thing happens he has a change of heart and accepts her version of the story. That is the first sign that she is on the right path. The next thing happens when she is about 6 months pregnant. She visits her cousin and she says that this is the son of God and also the sign that the angel gave could be verified. This is further confirmation that it is from God. These signs strengthen her and probably helped her go through the whole ordeal. If you look at other stories there are many places God provides signs as re-assurance as we stumble along to show that we are in the right path. It happens in the life of Gideon, David, Daniel and others.

Life following God is not going to be a bed of roses. It will be tough but we will be supported along the way with assurances that we are on the right path. David had to run for his life for 40 years after he was anointed as king.


So if you want to walk on water like jesus you need to step on water first.

Look at Samson's life

The other day I was reading about Samson. It is a story that I have read many times. I have always thought of Samson as a guy who messed up. But when I read it the other day I came to know about certain things which made me look at the whole thing in a different view.

1. Nazarite does not mean just long hair

Samson was raised as a Nazarite. The Nazarite vow if you read Deuteronomy is time bound and it involves being separated for God. There are 3 important things a Nazarite needs to do: 1. Never use a razor 2. Never go near a dead body 3. Never drink wine. If you look at Samson's story he broke rules 2 and 3 long before he broke rule 1. But it is touted as the main reason for his strength and we often equate his hair being cut to him losing his Strength. We in our day to day life make a lot of small sins and disobey God's commandments. Inspite of this God continues to be with us. When God decides to leave that is when we would realize that all our Glory is through him. In the case of Samson, he never took his Nazarite vow seriously, I beleive that at some point he beleived that his power is not because of God. It is at this point God decides to teach him a lesson and leaves him.

It is now not fashionable to talk about God's wrath or about the need to Fear God. I was talking to one of my friends and he made the statement that most Christians don't fear God. We spend a lot of time talking about God's love, his blessing, etc. we do not spend equal time talking about his punishment. This causes us to compromise on our commitments (me inclusive). When I look at Samson's story it felt like the same way. He just goes with the flow always thinking that God will understand and his relationship with God will not change no matter what he does. After all God was with him when he violated the other rules. We need to watch out our inclination to take God for granted.

2. Phillistines were more sophisticated and cultured than the Israelites.

When I did some reading about the Phillistines outside the Bible it is obvious that they had more sophisticated weaponry than the Israelites. It seems that they had the ability to make iron chariots whereas the Israelites did not know how to use iron. They had a thriving economy as they controlled the seas and knew how to sail. Israelites were immigrants in the land of Phillistines. Samson's lifetime is one of the timeframes where there is no mention that Phillistines persecuted Israelites. The issue at hand does not seem one of persecution but more of losing their identity. Samson struggled with preserving his identity. He sought to be with the Phillistines all the time. As we live among non-beleivers we will often be among people who would seem culturally more sophisticated and would look down upon us for our religious beliefs. We will have to watch our way and avoid the pitfalls that caused Samson to Fall.

3. Samson the Hero

Inspite of all his failings. Samson judged Israel for 20 years. He is mentioned along with Gideon and others by Paul in the New Testament. It just shows that inspite of our weaknesses God is compassionate and continues to use us for his Glory. So lets not get bogged down by our weaknesses and we pray to God to help us bring Glory to His name. God can use us inspite of our weaknesses. As paul says the only way humans are capable of living a sinless life is for us to die and let Jesus's spirit live in us. For Samson as he was in the auditorium, his life had ended he let God's spirit live in his body and do his will. Our whole life ends up being a journey in letting go of every aspect of our life. Samson found it in his final days. That is the reason he is mentioned as one of the heroes.

Money Money Money

In the book the world is flat Thomas Friedman states that the flattening process started with the fall of the Berlin wall. It started when communism/socialism as a concept failed. All over the world every one has accepted that capitalism is the only way for countries/nations/communities to function. One of the more common pitfalls of a capitalistic society is materialism. Money and material things take control of your life. We as christians need to develop the right attitude towards money otherwise we will be forever chasing the wind. Here are some perspectives that you need to have to develop the right attitude towards money.

God is the provider of everything.

We need to convince ourselves that the money that we own and what we will own in the future is provided to us by God. God is the ultimate provider of all things we own. This is the big picture view that we often forget when we are dealing with money.

The story of Job is a good example of what God can do and also the attitude you need to have towards money. Any time you can loose all your money if God wills (Its not a bad thing ). It could be a natural calamity, just plain inflation or an investment gone wrong. The right attitude to have is reflected in Job 1:21. He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."

I read an article in Forbes magazine where they did a study on tithing. It was found that within the same economic strata people who tithed were less stressed out about their money, more capable of taking risks for good rewards, and generally content about their financial standing. The article concludes that they all beleived that God is the provider. Having this kind of an attitude also reduces our dependence on money and what money can provide to solve our problems.

Attitude of Contentment: Blessing is not equal to material blessing

In our lives we often forget to remind ourselves about the wonderful non-material things that God provides us. He would have provided us with an excellent church community, great friends, very good teacher for the kids, Great health for the family, a satisfying job, a meaningful ministry, etc. All of the above things are the ones that money is suppose to enable us to have. God might have provided us with all that for free but we might still be discontent because your bank balance is not as big as the other person.

In the movie bedazzled the hero is granted multiple wishes which could be granted except ask for happiness. So he goes about asking for different things that he feels might bring him happiness but all of them end up with something missing. This makes him not realize happiness through out the movie.

When I first heard about how to pray to God, we were told that we should praise him first. I got the feeling that why should God need to be praised all the time. Is God such a big narcissist ? Now I realize that the main reason is to enable us to count our blessings and to appreciate the things God has done for us.

When we read the story of israelites in the desert with Moses, most people's reaction is what an ungrateful people. We also do the same thing.

God owns it all and we are all just stewards.

If God provides all we have and we do not play a part in it. Then what makes us so special for God to shower us with wealth. Like we saw before in the article about career, each one of us is uniquely created for a purpose. So it is this purpose for which God is providing us with wealth and money. We need to remember that for everything that is provided to us we need to provide an account to God.

What does that mean. The wealth needs to be used in glorifying God. So can we buy luxury cars. Yes you can provided in your heart you realize that God in his grace blessed you with it and you are thankful to God for that. Now it is easy to say this with your lips. God looks at your heart. If you can feel that in your heart then I think it is okay. God approves of this kind of behavior with the woman who puts expensive perfume to glorify God.

Being Efficient.

I have been finding myself to be extremely busy. Busy to do any of my regular chores. My to-do list has become more than a couple of pages. I felt that I need to get more efficient in doing my day to day activities. At work whenever I find one of my engineers having trouble finishing assignments, it is invariably due to the following:
1. Priorities are wrong.
2. Not knowing when and whom to ask for help.
3. Indecisiveness or inability to take risk.

Priorities
In order for us to come up with a prioritized list often times we have to come up with a vision/mission statement. Put in normal terms we need to set an objective for our life. As Christians our objective in life should be to glorify God. Bible says in Colossians 3:17, 'Let every detail in your lives--words, actions, whatever--be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

So I was trying to see how I can build priorities in my life using this objective. I looked in the Bible for answers. I was surprised to find that Jesus has given a priority for our life. It is in Matthew 22:36Mt 22:36 “[Jesus], which is the great commandment in the law?” And he said to him, ’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”I looked at it and felt that it is too abstract. How am I going to use this to prioritize my day to day work? So it lays out as follows:

1. Relationship with God
This meant that I should prioritize my quite time with God ahead of all the other activities I do. This includes carrying out the responsibilities God entrusted me with. This includes playing the role of the leader of the family that God has blessed me with.

2. Relationship with your fellow people and yourself. This means I should be able to balance activities like spending time to take care of myself with spending time with others.A classic illustration of this prioritization in action can be found in the story of Martha and Mary. Jesus and his disciples came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!' 'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'Martha got so busy that she forgot the big picture! She was so worried about doing things that could have been put off that she missed out on listening to Jesus and spending intimate time with him. Don't let this happen to you!Martha prioritized providing for all the guests ahead of listening to Jesus.Knowing when and whom to ask for help.Often times we forget that we follow an all powerful God. A God who created the heaven and earth, a God without whose permission a hair on your head will not fall down. Now imagine if you were working for boss who is like this. What would you do when you hit a roadblock in your tasks? I am sure we would all like to talk to our boss about this problem and probably ask him if he knows anybody else in the organization is fighting similar problems. Or whether he could throw his weight around and get something done. In our lives many times we feel that we have to do it all alone and we struggle night and day trying to solve the problems on our own. Just escalate and be still. God says "Be still and know that I am God".IndecisivenessI used to have a boss who had the philosophy that if I make wrong decision I learn but if I don't make a decision I fail. At times when we are faced with a tough decision we want to push the decision making as far out as possible. We want to wait till all the variables get resolved. What we need is to make that leap of faith. Bible is filled with stories of people who took that leap of faith. David was anointed King but it took him 40 years before he became one. In the mean time he was hunted down but he never gave up. Abraham waited for his son and he was blessed with one at the age of 100 years. Bible also illustrates the pain they went through and the struggles they had in their mind. There were times of disbelief that they had to overcome. Taking firm decisions and laying it to God helps us save time and become more efficient.

Surviving the rat race

After working in a company for about 12 years I decided to change companies. It became one of the most stressful decision that I ever made. I used all the decision making tools that I knew and it got me thinking a lot about my career. I went back to looking at the different assignments in my job that made me happy or make me feel satisfied. There was something that was common to all these tasks: they played to my strengths, there was an underlying mission bigger than the job (more like a calling), I was doing it because I wanted to glorify God. At that time I was not able to articulate this so clearly but today when I was sitting to prepare to discuss about careers the three points just stood out clearly.

Believe that we are uniquely created for our career

Ephesians 2:10 - “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

A while back I was browsing the web and I came upon an interesting article. It talked about how every one in the world is getting specialized to the extent that we will be incompetent more things than the things they are competent in. When I look at my life it became obvious that the only thing that I am competent in is at doing my work and everything else I outsource. I outsource the building the house I live in, teaching my kids, etc. I have also noticed that because of the fact that each person is unique each of them have unique needs and some one else is able to meet those needs. For e.g when I was looking for a school for my daughter I realised that there are cars that offer the differing trade offs: More studious schools, More religious schools, Focus on well rounded educaiton, etc. The same kind of thing can be observed in cars, routers (:-)), etc. That brings me back to the verse above, that is each one of us is uniquely created for a purpose. Because of the nature of the dependencies and the need for specialization there could easily be a special purpose for the 6 billion people in the world. So each of us are uniquely created for a special purposes. This is done by the place we are born in, the experience that we are exposed, the kind of education, etc. We are in the arms of the master craftsman being molded for the special purpose. In spiritual life there is always God's plan and then there is the counter strategy from Satan. It is very interesting to watch the interplay. If God designs you to be unique with your own special skills, etc. Satan's game plan is to build stereotypes and make you beleive that you are destined to do something because everybody else does it. Often times we end up trying to do that and we end up resisting God's plan and over all ending up frustrated.

Treat your career as a calling
Colossians 3:23 - “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men".

I was watching a movie called 3:10 to Yuma and there is this guy who is a cook in the army during the civil war. He gets injured in a kitchen accident and has a permanent limp in his leg. He however feels ashamed of it and feels that he needs to do something heroic to impress his kid. Often times we do not think that our career choices are God's plan or calling. We just equate calling to only certain types of professions like a minister, missionary, probably a doctor. Just like in an army, God's kingdom needs people with all sorts of skills. If it was in God's plan that when he comes the second time that the whole world will see him at the same time. Then there needs to be engineers, etc. who need build networks through which it can be broadcast to the whole world. An army is a classic example of the kind of support staff that is necessary to support the front line. This is the world view that is going to liberate us from the curse of the Garden of Eden. Lets now look at the kind of behavior this kind of an world view is going to provide:
1. Its no more just a job, it is a calling. So there is no key milestones in your career that you need to hit. It is a place where you are learning the skills to fullfill your calling. So the measurement is in the skills you pick up and not the level or the title you reach.
2. The goals are at the level of God. Often times there comes a guy who is on a mission to do something beyond the regular job. For e.g. there was a guy who was on a mission to solve the IP address shortage problem, or the problem of secure software, etc. These are the guys who are passionate and talk with conviction and are willing to do anything to get to the goals. It enables you to set goals beyond your company, etc.
3. Now that it is a calling you can tap into the infinite wisdom of God for answers to issues at work. It is no more your problem. This would reduce your stress a lot.

Do your job to Glorify God

Matthew 5:16 - “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven.”

It is often felt that the job is done primarily to pay the bills. The primary motivation for most people is making money. This is what causes us to get stereotyped. You are always looking for the career that pays the most. You are not looking for the job that God has wired you for. So why do we then do it. We do it to glorify God. We will never be able to be a testimony for God at work unless we do our work sincerely. For e.g a cop who takes bribe will never be able to talk to his colleagues about God. This is because our beleif in God has not made us differrent. When Joseph was in prison, every body else noticed the difference. When Daniel was working for the persian king every body noticed the difference. If you are doing it for the right reasons people will notice it and that will give you the opportunity to minister to them.

Christian Leadership

Leadership simply means a person who can take a lead on something. It could be anything in your life. It could be just taking the lead in having fun in a group. So lets take a look at what are the ingredients of leadership.

We can look at essential leadership skills by looking at the life of Jesus.

Clarity of vision.

The clarity of vision is the ability to understand and internalize the vision/goals and the ability to communicate them. If the person leading does not understand the goals then it is like the blind leading the blind. Jesus understood his goals very clearly. He was one with his father. He did not let the circumstances haze his vision. It is the number one jobs of the leader to keep all the followers focussed on the vision. This would sometimes means making the tough or unpopular calls. When jesus had to go to Jerusalem to complete his goal in this world, his disciples did not want to go. Jesus still made the unpopular decision to go and he found support from Thomas and the rest of the group followed.

Often times you might be taking the lead in a small area and the overall goal/mission might be much larger. In this case the leader needs to be in constant touch with the larger view and be in perfect sync/alignment with the person leading the bigger mission. Jesus did this by being one with the father. He spent every day praying and clarifying his mission. His disciples also did the same thing. You can also see this in the lives of Peter and Paul.

Communicating and ensuring that every one has understood it the way you intended it to be is a very difficult job. This becomes even more complicated when the goal or vision is too grand. In the case of jesus, the disciples were not even able to fathom the concepts. They struggled with the notion that the kind has to be crucified for the kingdom to be established. This was against all that they understood so far. Jesus recognized this issue and Jesus constantly corrected them when they strayed from the vision, clarified their doubts and explained to them the vision at their levels. He even appoints the holy spirit to keep them honest. When they understand the vision the result is unbelievable.


Influence Skills

A leader has to have followers and you should have the ability to influence the people following you. Leadership is always taken it is never granted. Most successful leaders have the ability to earn the trust respect and commitment of the followers. This skill is developed by the following attribute or character of the leader

a. Commitment to the vision: Jesus was committed to the goal. He was willing to lay his life for the sake of the goal. He was willing to go to Jerusalem, even though his disciples were not willing to do it. When the leader is not committed to the vision the whole group falls apart.
b. Integrity: Jesus lived a sinless life. He always walked the talk. He was not the person who only preaches for the masses. Unlike leaders of today where the preaching is only for other (For e.g. Elliot Spitzer). The leader also keeps all his commitments. Jesus kept all his promises.
c. Leading from the Front : Jesus was not the guy sitting in a palace and ordering his disciples to go around preaching. He was there doing all the work with them. He easily pulled his own weight.
d. Selfless Attitude. A good leader does not delegate all the dirty work to his/her followers all the time. This is one of the areas where a lot of leaders lose respect of the followers. Jesus did all the grunt work. He also backs the disciples when they need the support. He makes sure they are comfortable.

Training and Empowering the Followers

Jesus understood the strengths and weaknesses of his disciples. He provided feedback to them on their strength and weaknesses and helped them improve their execution and understanding. The prime example that comes to mind is Jesus exposing Peter’s weaknesses and teaches some valuable lessons. He does that in a way that he also highlights his strengths and the role he plays in the over all mission.

He constantly mentored them sent them on their own missions and empowered them. He kept them focused on the mission whenever they wavered.

The biggest testament of his training and coaching was that he had the second rung leadership in place when he was crucified.

Illustration
Now lets take this and apply it for something like a music ministry. What is the leader expected to do? -

1. Clarity of Vision
a. Understand the goals for the ministry.
- To Glorify God.
- To enhance the message in the service through worship
b. To be in constant touch with the pastor and be of one mind with respect to the needs.
c. Communicate the goals to the team and keep them focused on this. (Often times something else might take the front seat, but the team needs to be focused).
2. Influence
a. The leader should be committed to the goals. The songs picked should align with it, the music played, etc. should align with it.
b. The leader should be on time, should practice and keep his commitments.
c. The leader should make sure all the participants are comfortable and be willing to do the grunt work (like creating copies of the music, etc.). Should be willing to share the limelight and give credit where it is due.
d. The leader should have sufficient music skill or be able to bring in that value.
e. The leader should be flexible and accommodative of the group’s needs (like practice schedules, etc.)
3. Training & Empowerment
a. Identify and train second rung leadership
b. Understand people strength/weaknesses (Lack of timing, Inability to adjust on stage or showing off and forgetting that it is done for God, etc.) Talk to them about their weaknesses and help them out on those.