The leader of character (Part 1)

Brothers, welcome, it's a pleasure to see you this morning and I'm glad to have you here on a slightly cold morning, we know. I know that some of us would have wanted to stay at home, but it is good that we are here and by doing so you are entering into the leadership dynamic, because leaders have to be hard-working and courageous. I see the Lord over and over again using those words for his leaders. Gideon told him, the Lord is with you, a sleepy man and a eater... no, he told him, a strong and brave man.

And what was Gideon doing when the Lord found him? I was working, I was threshing the wheat to prepare it to make food or to sell it, whatever. I was being diligent.

Joshua told him, see that I command you to make an effort and be brave. Do not be afraid or dismayed because I will be with you wherever you go. The idea of work and effort is so important and we leaders have to be like that.

I believe that leaders have to be in a perpetual state of development. We have to live by an ethic of personal development, continually investing in ourselves. Not because of ego, but because we know that God wants to use us and that the more material he has in us, the more benefit he can get from us. So we must always be reading, inquiring, searching, taking advantage of growth opportunities.

That is why you are here this morning because you want to make the most of your time. And some of you might come along and say, wow, it's really going to be worth the time that I'm going to spend. Of course, the word of the Lord never returns to him empty, he says himself. So what you learn on this day will be a blessing to you.

And I also know that they are listening to us and seeing us through the Internet. We have started recording these teachings so I know this will reach many other people as well. So right now by faith we see many more people here, they are here with us, through the Internet they are or will be in the coming weeks and months seeing these teachings and they are going to be blessed too. So remember that you have a great cloud of witnesses around you. There are many invisible people sitting next to you and around you this time as well.

We have more teaching sheets, if you don't have one of those sheets, please raise your hand so Pastor Omar can distribute them so they can receive the teachings. We are also going to be, as we always do, exchanging ideas, conversing, exchanging comments and this will greatly enrich our dialogue. So I encourage you in the process, if you feel you want to say something, if you want to say something please don't hesitate, if you can say it... you can only say it in English, say it in English, and we will translate. We speak in language here also Pentecostal, so don't worry about that. But the idea is that we participate and that is why we have put this microphone here because we want to record it as clearly as possible so that the brothers who are going to see us can also participate in this process.

So remember this too and then when you go to make a comment, if you do me a favor, you can take the microphone, you can even sit with the microphone where you want or stand and then I think it would be better if you could face the camera if remember, towards that or come here and ask a short, quick question, as concise as possible and that way then we can record it and interact in a more effective way.

Let me read you a passage as an introduction to today's study that will serve as a background and strengthen. Remember that we are talking about the leader of character, what are the qualities of a leader of character, what are the qualities that make a person, a leader, effective and what attribute, what qualities in his personality, his performance, his behavior ensure success. success. And not just any success but long-term success, which also ensures your influence with the people over whom you have authority and leadership.

So those are the things that we are going to be talking about, but look at Titus, Chapter 1, with verse 5 we see that the concerns of the Holy Spirit for the qualities of its leaders have been there since the very beginning of the church and if we go back In the Old Testament we still find that God is very interested in the qualities of the people who are to serve in his kingdom. It's not just a matter of, oh, the person who has the most knowledge, or the best academic background, or who is the most flashy person, or who speaks the best, or who speaks the best, or who motivates people the most, or who is the most physically impressive. Those are not qualities that really interest God so much because he can replace those things at any time, he can compensate for those things.

Remember that, for example, at the beginning of the Gospel, as the Apostle Paul says in First Corinthians, that there were not many who were great or influential or important or who had money or social influence, rather it says that God chose the humble, the disposable in the world, which was not really important to embarrass those who were great, or who had a lot, because God always likes to use clay vessels, humble people, simple people and by infusing his spirit in us that is more that makes up for whatever is lacking in us.

What God often cannot compensate is pride, arrogance, hardness of heart, believing ourselves to be better than others, selfishness, resentment, lack of humility. Those are the things that it is very difficult for the Holy Spirit to penetrate and through which it is very difficult for him to work and that is why the heart, the character is so important in the leader. Because God can supply the rest, but the qualities of the heart, what we call character today, that is more difficult.

But look, for example, here in Titus, Chapter 1, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul tells Titus; "...for this reason I left you in Crete so that you could correct what was lacking and establish elders in each city just as I commanded you...."

Those elders were the leaders, the main leaders of those congregations that he was establishing and he says, "... whoever is the blameless husband of one wife, has believing children who are not accused of dissolution and rebellion...."

Look at the next verse, it says, "... because it is necessary that the bishop...", that is, he was talking about the same thing, the elder, the bishop, the leader, we could say today, broadening the scope a little, "... it is necessary that the bishop be blameless, as an administrator of God, not arrogant, not angry, not given to wine, not quarrelsome, not greedy for dishonest gains….”

Note all the allusions and references to character here, “…but hospitable, loving what is good, sober, just, holy, self-possessed, retainer of the faithful word as it has been taught, so that he may also exhort with sound teaching and convince those who contradict…”

Wow, there is material for a whole separate teaching I can think of. If we were to dismantle those terms and those expressions we could be here for many hours. But for now, simply note the emphasis, the importance that the Holy Spirit gives through the Apostle Paul to the qualities of the leader, of the elder. Those are very important attributes that we have to understand, man or woman, if we are going to serve the Lord in the long term, if we want to be used by God in the kingdom, it is so important that there is that element of attention to ourselves because we are the instrument that God uses to spread his word and spread his influence.

By the way, I love seeing representatives of the young adult generation here, I always love that because one of the things that I feel our church has to improve more every day is in its ministry to young adults, because I believe that these young adults Adults are the leaders. They're already playing very important leadership roles in the church, but they're also going to in 5 years, 7 years, hey, they're going to have an even more prominent role in things of the Gospel and that English-dominant generation, for example, who speak more English than Spanish, who have grown up here, I love that generation because they have so much to give and they could be elsewhere, but they are here in a Latino church. That gives me great joy and I hope that the Lord helps us to develop more ways to address these second generation people and that we can be more effective in developing their leadership, because you have a lot to give to your generation and your culture, to that culture that speaks more English than Spanish, who are more comfortable in the North American environment than Hispanic, but who also want to retain their Hispanic identity and who also like to eat rice with beans, and tortilla, and they want to retain that part but who are there as in a struggle between two cultures and you can be the bridge that God uses to get closer.

That is also part of leadership, the church has to be contextualized, we have to be churches that contextualize the Gospel, we have to be people who can communicate the Gospel in the language that people can understand.

So just let that be settled. That word for me is simply to substantiate the fact that as you see the Scripture, it is very concerned with the character, the attributes, the qualities of the leader or the leader. So that's very important.

So we have discussed that character is the inherent qualities that define our relationship with ourselves and with others. I already developed that, I don't want to waste too much time on that matter. But we are talking about those inherent qualities, which are in us, which determine our relationship with ourselves and also with others.

So, we have talked about that there are 6 areas that I have divided this teaching and there is so much material in this, listen to me, we have been stuck there for hours in only one of them, but there are many, many qualities. But I have divided with into 6 categories of the character of the leader.

I have been talking about personal virtues, that is, they are those qualities, attributes in ourselves that if we were on a deserted island, there even if there was no one around us, would impact our behavior and our success in that isolated environment because they have to do with things that are in ourselves.

Now, the other side of the issue is also, one area of character is how we relate to other people, are we picky, critical, ultra-sensitive, resentful, etc. , everything we have, if we do not communicate well, if we are easily offended, all these things have to do with our relationships with others. Many leaders fail in that category, perhaps they are people of prayer, people of fasting, the Lord's anointed, workers, but many times their Achilles heel is in terms of interpersonal relationships and they often fall there and that limits their leadership.

So we also have the area of what I call the area of self-control, there is a series of categories there, it is also a family of qualities. This has to do with mastery of emotions, mastery of impulses, mastery of fears, mastery of wounds that are often the things that govern us and control us without us realizing it, like they are automatic. and we try to control them and they have their own life inside of us and before we even know, say anything or act, where that came from. It came out of the subconscious, from those things that are there inside of you. So, gaining control of yourself is very important and that can only be done through the Holy Spirit, and it is the task of a lifetime.

Says the writer of Proverbs, I think it is, he who gains control over his own person is more powerful than he who controls a city. He who conquers himself is stronger than he who conquers a city. And it is true. Sometimes to conquer a city you just need a number of soldiers, weapons, and this and that and bam, one is there. But wow, conquering yourself and mastering yourself, mastering your emotional impulses, that's really heavy. And you are never going to get to that one hundred percent, it is the work of a lifetime, but if you identify that category and you know that this is an area of work, you have to continually bring it to the Lord. Father, those attitudes, those impulses, those wounds from the past that distort my personality, those fears, those inferiority or superiority complexes that I have, please help me control them. It can be sensuality, it can be many things, we fight with all kinds of internal enemies, brothers, we all have them mixed up there and a good part of the battle of the servant, the servant of God is to win gradually with the help of the Holy Spirit, with the influence of the word, with the experiences that we are always analyzing and learning from them, gain control over those monsters and dominate them in the name of Jesus, and with the power of the Holy Spirit. That's long term. That's for the long term for sure.

So, we have the area that I call the area of ego control, the key word there is ego. And by that I mean that part of us that is easily inflated and there are many things in that area of pride, excessive care of ourselves, how we see ourselves, and that often leads us to make mistakes, for example, not admitting when we don't know what to do, or not admitting when we made a mistake, because we think oh, if I admit that I made a mistake, what are people going to think of me and we kind of want to have an image of ourselves. And that often distorts the person who serves the Lord.

So we have to learn how to control pride and submit that also to the Lord, the ego, in many ways it's a whole area, it's different from self-control. This is the domain of pride, of that little animal that is in there and always wants to inflate itself and become bigger and more powerful. There is a whole family of qualities that have to do with that area of ego control.

Another family that is important is teamwork. Again, many people can have great virtues, get along with others, even have a lot of self-control, but they don't know how to work as a team, working with people is one of the most difficult things in the world. What's happening? If you are a person who has great virtues, you get along well with others, to a certain extent, you have self-control, ego control, do you know what happens? You are a spiritual giant and so it is very difficult for you to deal with those spiritual dwarves who are still beginning on the path of faith and when you start working with them, what you want is to hang them, because when they do something that you He doesn't like it, but how dare you, that's so basic, so fundamental. Then you can fill yourself with anger and we will see that there are qualities, for example, to work in a team you have to be a person who knows how to tolerate.

I say you have to have a grandfather mentality. You know what grandparents are like, right? The little grandson broke the painting of his great-great-grandfather that was there, which had been kept and passed on from generation to generation, he tore it into pieces. and grandfather, ah, poor little boy, golly, don't worry. Is the dad or mom is having a stroke, they're going to have a heart attack and grandpa says, no, but don't worry, we'll pick it up and buy another frame, that's fine. That can be fixed with anything, don't worry, it sticks with Crazy glue, or whatever, and he has that mentality that he's seen so much and been through so much that he doesn't flinch. So, many times I think that when working with people you have to have qualities like that, grandfather mentality, tolerance, you have to have a very long fuse before exploding, because otherwise you'll tear people's heads off.

And there are other teamwork qualities as well that are important. Many people fail in the area of teamwork and that is why they can work alone. Release them alone, put them in an office to crunch numbers, no problem, but put them to work with people and they are a disaster because that is an area that they have not been able to master.

And by the way, I tell you that leadership is very important, in fact, yesterday I saw an interview on MBC, I think it was very interesting. There's a book, Malcolm Gladwell, he's a very original writer and the guy looks original, he has a huge afro. He is white but he has an afro that seems to dance in the wind, thin, with long arms and long legs, a very peculiar face. Brilliant fellow, Malcolm Gladwell. He wrote a book a long time ago called The tipping point, which is very interesting, I don't know how to translate it exactly, El punto de palanqueo or something like that. But now, he's just come out with a new book called Out Liers, and it's about leaders, leaders, and this book seems to have caused quite a stir. And in the interview they asked him about Obama and he talked about Obama's ability to work with people and get people to do what he thinks. And that is a very important quality. He said about that that many times there are people... he says that he had the privilege of working with the man, here in the United States, who has the highest intelligence quotient in the world. He was able to interview this person. In other words, he is supposedly the most intelligent person in the world, he has been measured for his intellectual capacity and iq plus something in the world, however this person has not been as successful as he should be given high intelligence. And so one of the problems is that intelligence alone does not determine your success in leadership.

Mayor Menino here in Boston is one of the most ordinary people I know, in terms of his intellect, his ability to speak. He's talking and you think you're listening to a truck driver taking a break from work. However, Mayor Menino ran unopposed in the last elections, because no one dared to oppose him. He's been so successful and I think it's the second time he's run unopposed, he's already been mayor for several terms here in Boston. But he is a man who has the ability to deal with people, he has a strong character, he knows how to apply the lever to people when they don't do what he wants, but he also knows when to let go. And he knows how to deal with African Americans, with Latinos, with whites, with homosexuals. The guy is a Machiavellian genius, I would say, in terms of the way he works with people and that ensures his success. He has Harvard doctors working for him although he is a man of very basic intellect because he has skills in the area of working with people.

You see, intellect doesn't define everything, any more than godliness necessarily defines success or intellect. One would think, wow, the holier and more praying a person is and the more upright they are, the better leader they are going to be. You know what? I'm sorry to say that even if this seems heretical, it's not necessarily, because being a leader is one thing. Now, to be pious, to be holy, to be a man of God or a person who prays, that's very important and a leader can't really become a great Christian leader if he doesn't have that spiritual foundation, but it is possible to have that spiritual foundation and not necessarily be a great leader because the leader, in addition to that spiritual foundation, needs other qualities that allow him to effectively influence others and carry out his agenda that God has given him. For that, skills are needed to negotiate, communicate, reconcile, express, organize, strategize, think systemically, all these qualities are important to make a great leader.

So this area of teamwork and working with people is very important. It's not just intelligence or ability in other areas. This area is very important.

And finally the other great family of qualities I put under the area of being teachable or accepting criticism. That has to do with the ability when you are criticized, when there is even something of that too, teamwork, being able to work with people who don't think the same as you, people who are going to question you, who are often going to have a different perspective. to yours and how you deal with differences, how you deal when someone criticizes you even if they criticize you unfairly. And you are also learning from the experiences you are having, from your failures, from your mistakes, as well as from your triumphs too, because all of that is part of being teachable.

There are many people who make the same mistakes all the time, all the time, but they don't get the intuition and the teaching from those experiences that they need because it's not teachable, they don't know how to deal with that negative aspect of teaching. So, there are leaders who only like to be told what they want to hear and what is in accordance with their perception of things. And I say that the great leader, the good leader is a person who is willing to work with people who are even a thorn in his flesh, but who push him to be better, to reach another level. Because when people tell you what you want to hear and everyone approves and praises you, where is the growth. You have always been listening to yourself, it is an echo of yourself. You need diversity.

That is why I like a diverse church, where there are people of all nationalities, socioeconomic levels, educational backgrounds, denominational backgrounds, because I believe that as the Bible says, iron sharpens iron, as the sword sharpens to another sword, so the friend sharpens his partner, in the touch of ideas and perceptions there is wisdom too. And the leader, the leader must learn to appreciate the qualities of diversity and many times that diversity will take the form of conflict and criticism and disappointment and we have to understand that too.

Yes, Fanny has an observation. Yes, go ahead.

F.: ……………….. legalistic so that …… he was coming, and he confronted him and there the Bible really shows us that sometimes we have to grow and in reality it helps us a lot when we are confronted…

Absolutely, and it's important to know how to deal with it. Nobody likes to be criticized. I don't like it, I assure you and it bothers me many times, but there is something inside me that later tells me, no, you know you need that. And many times I have gone after thinking about what a person has told me and I have to admit that he is right and that enriches my perspective and helps me to be a more diversified person.

So it's 6 o'clock, only then you have a lot to think about. Always think of those 6 character areas and work on them and name different categories within that.

So, and I'm not going to go into it because I would return… We were talking about one of the areas within the virtues being the area of integrity. It is one of the first. So, I have said that integrity, among other things, is the consistency between speaking and living. Another thing I have said is that it is the passion to close the gap between these two dimensions, between what I say and what I live, and there is like a passion every day to close the gap more because there will always be an open gap.

I have also talked about how integrity does not imply perfection, but it does imply consistency. Consistency is a little more humble than perfection. No one can be perfect, but consistency for me is something a little more relative, less perfect. There must be consistency in us.

I have also said that in the area of integrity one of the things that defines the person of integrity is that when he fails he gracefully admits his mistake, immediately rectifies his error and then returns again to the position of integrity and unity with what he preaches, teaches, adopts as his life ethic.

I have also said that the importance, that there is great importance in unifying our ethics with our spirituality. And remember that this is a very complex thing, but we don't have time right now to develop it too much. And it is the idea that ethics has to do with simple behavior, sometimes, that it is moral, that it has to do with our relationships and everything else and sometimes spirituality… what I mean is that, there are people who are very spiritual , filled with the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues, pray 17 hours a day, fast 7 times a week. Wow, but you see that at work they go into the bathroom and stay there for 2 hours marmoting, looking to see if the supervisor is passing by to work as little as possible. And when someone in the parking lot tells them something, well, brother, you could move the car a little further, or change it. Uff, they come out like a lion and they want to eat the poor parking attendant alive. Or when an usher says to them, brother, they could move a little to the side for another brother to sit, they throw knives right into his heart before moving and they catch the conch and throw it to the other side and then they sit down and move 27 times so that he knows that he has upset them. That is the ethical part of life.

Many times spiritual people, in quotes, do not unite their small and sometimes insignificant behavior with their spirituality, they are very, in quotes, spiritual but they have not unified their spiritual professions with the simple things in life. And I say, Lord, help us always to be spiritual people but also to be ethical people.

Ultimately, the two things are closely linked, but I differentiate them so that you can see that I believe that many Christians fail to point to that dimension of life, the ethical dimension, of daily behavior, we could say, and unite it with sublime spirituality. , eternal, biblical, all these kinds of things that sometimes we kind of oversimplify.

Do I make myself understood in the difference to which I am pointing? It would take me a long time to place that, but that's where I want to be.

So, I also say that the public and the intimate must be in essential harmony. Integrity is that your public and visible life is as much as possible equal or in the same moral category as your intimate life and where you are not seen, where there is no public vision of yourself.

Also the whole person is a person who is of one piece. Integrity means whole, that's where the word comes from, whole, a single piece. There are no divisions, there are no compartments, it is all one thing and that is what we aim for. There are no compartments, there is no compartmentalization where we do not separate one thing from the other. We have to try that our life is always consistent, that all areas of my life are connected.

There are people who think that well, their moral life, their professional life, their life in the church, their life in the ministry, their relationship with their children, like we are schizophrenic. In the church a paragon of virtues, in the house a terror, then there is no consistency. In the church wow, tremendous servant of God, at work we are deceiving people, we are selling things that are not of good quality, we are paying our workers less than what they deserve, we are today with this whole question of what has happened in the finances of the United States, there is a great lack of compartmentalization, because many of those people who have been robbing the people are Christians, they are church members and they go to church and they do not have any problem because they have compartmentalized They have put up a firewall, a wall between one aspect of their life and the other, and there is no connection. Then your conscience doesn't bother you because you have compartmentalized.

The whites who whipped the slaves and separated them from their wives and children and even killed them and then went to church on Sunday to sing hymns of the love of Christ and of God's love for humanity, that Christ died for all men and they didn't flinch and they didn't think there was a difference in those two dimensions of their life, because they compartmentalized life.

The whole person does not make that mistake. So all of that in the area of integrity. Very important.

Another area within the area of virtues is sobriety. Sobriety, who can quickly tell me what you mean by sobriety? In the passage that I read, Titus spoke of one of the things that the elderly must be sober. What do you understand by the word sobriety? We'll see. Someone raise your hand quick. Juan, over there, speak loudly so that I can take the microphone from you.

Juan: … when we are sober our minds are on something else

Ok, you talk about being focused. Can someone else add something else, in English or in Spanish. I see a little bit of glimmer of intelligence there through your glasses.

?: ……..

Yeah, ok common sense, it has something to do with common sense, with wisdom. One more observation about it.

¿: ……..

Ok, right, yes it is lucid, an ability to be lucid and be aware of the different things that are around you, not to be so lost in yourself that you don't realize what you are experiencing at the moment. One last comment, there, Patricia.

Patricia: Very much aware of your actions or what you are saying

Ok, be aware of your actions or what you are saying. I think that all this, you are pointing to the dimension that I want to analyze and for me, for example, it is partly, for example, balance, like the sober person is a balanced person. He's a person who doesn't shoot up quickly, and he doesn't get upset very easily but first he kind of thinks and weighs different alternatives and possibilities and weighs things up and then he goes forwards or backwards, says yes or says no. It has to do with not embracing or accepting or endorsing things or people too quickly.

The sober person doesn't commit too quickly but kind of does a little bit of thinking first before marrying a prospect or a person or whatever. Before committing one hundred percent you have to be sure that it is the right step to take and you take time to weigh things up. Think before you speak, meditate before you act. He's not talking all the time.

He knows that there are people who talk, talk, talk and are the first to say what they think and their opinion on everything and they kind of don't take time to let me think before…. And you're there looking at what others say first, and listening to different options, and then you advance your opinion because you've taken the time to do so.

I also believe that the sober person loves silence more than talking. The sober person's room is more in the area of silence and reflection than in the area of action and words because he knows that action is cultivated in silence and when he moves, he moves safely because he has taken time to think things through.

And how can that apply to leadership? How is that quality of sobriety valuable to effective leadership? Someone raise their hand who hasn't done it before. Edwin.

Edwin: ……….. person in conflict….. side of one or the other

Right, yes, when there is a conflict in leadership and there are two people who have different opinions you don't jump in too quickly to assume he is right or she is right, but you listen first. Brothers, I can tell you that in pastoral counseling this has happened to me so many times.

The other days I don't know if I shared that with you or with another group, but a person came with a version of what someone in the church had done to him. And I reacted like David, almost inside me when they told him the story of Nathan, he told him the story of this man who had many sheep who killed the only sheep of the other, and he said, where is that person to cut off his head and kick her out of the church. Because what he had done seemed horrible, but I said, with the experience that I have and I have heard so much from the husband who comes, who says that his wife is a monster and then when she comes, I say the woman must Send her to heaven with everything and shoes, she is a hero.

Having already learned that, and vice versa just in case, he said, no, let me listen to the other side, and I called the person and he gave me a version but you know what?, diametrically opposed to the other and then I could understand what he was saying. had happened, and I understood that the other person, among other things, was lying, there were problems in their marriage that were hidden, there was a secret agenda, there was a lot of dissimulation, duplicity, immaturity and things like that and the other person was not, the other person was standing in its integrity in reality. It was like, for me it was a great revelation. Look, I've seen situations like this but this was like wow, definitely from now on I promise myself right there, never to jump too quickly into things but to take time to measure the issues well because it seemed to me that it was not possible for them to present me a different version than the first person. However, when they presented it to me, it made perfect sense to me and totally changed the landscape of the thing. And it allowed me then as a pastor to avoid a serious mistake. If I had called that other person right away, sister, I've been told this and that, and I can't believe a Christian would do that. Sometimes that frees one from many things.

What other way too? It is true, in counseling it is very important and in resolving conflicts. omar?

Omar: ………….. he doesn't have good vision…. and comprehensive. Sobriety helps one to know how to see things in perspective,…. Ok, we can do this, now maybe we can do this later so I'm taking people in stages, like this step by step, so... they're going to overload themselves too much...

Very sure. Many times the pastoral mentality measures many things and sometimes leaders only measure what concerns or has to do with their area of ministry, but the pastor or the leader of a ministry has to do with all the interests and the different factors that they have. to do with the area where it is involved. So, the wise person, the wise leader, for example, let's say in worship, an area where if everyone was from a young generation in the church well look, blast that horn until it explodes and blows your brains out. . No problem, because young people love the volume and if that horn isn't going off while you're playing, well, they're not happy, are they?

But the shepherd, the wise shepherdess has to see that there are old ladies there too and there are old men that a mouse walks and its little feet are already making too much noise for the ears of that poor person. And there are people who come from different backgrounds who are in the process of getting into God's move and who also have to be handled with care. There are people who have just come to the Gospel and who come from a Catholic background where everything is there……. May God be with you, etc. and they come... I am a frustrated priest, in another life. Sometimes I run away and if they go to a Catholic church they find me there also giving mass without realizing it.

But they get to the church and they find there, the Pentecostals jumping and going around the building and twenty thousand things, and throwing oil in the air and scolding demons and everything and say, hey, I'm in a madhouse here. So a church that wants to be a church that appeals and ministers to a diversity of people, at different stages of growth, life, career and spiritual journey, has to be a church that takes all of those things into account and then one You have to look at the whole and not marry only one side, but see all the other interests. And that's what Omar is saying.

And so it also happens many times that sometimes, ok, wow, I'm always thinking about 17 things that can be done and yet the leaders get tired and people have their limitations in their marriages, in their family life, they work, they live far away , so you also have to be careful not to overburden people and not say, oh, just because this is good and awesome and you have to do it. Leaders are often sanguine or choleric and the sanguine and choleric person is a person who is impulsive and who always has a thousand crossing his mind and if he is not careful he can tire and exhaust his congregation because he is always on the next impulse, the next thing, he goes to a church growth seminar and he comes out of there fierce, set on fire to change all the church leaders and the music program and change everything because he received the latest revelation from the Holy Spirit on how the church it is going to grow. And two months later you see him looking for a job because he was kicked out of the church because he didn't think carefully. First, okay, how are my people, you know, things like that, it's important to think carefully before acting.

And I believe that sobriety is what gives you that ability to weigh, measure things, not marry someone too quickly. Sometimes people come to the church who promise, they are the next Martin Luther of the church, people who you say, wow, this person is a spiritual giant. Give it six months for the ants and little mice to start coming out of the dress and you find out that it's not as perfect or as promising as you thought and thank God you took the time to weigh things up before you jump in and jump.

And sometimes people will criticize it. He is going to tell you, pastor, 'but that person, how can you have him sitting there? Brother, one has already seen too much and suffered too much from jumping into something too fast. So you have to take your time and thus make fewer mistakes.

Now, one also has to know when, because sometimes one waits too long to act and that is also bad. There comes a time when after you have thought about things, you have measured them, look, throw yourself in the name of the Lord, do not wait, because many times the fruit ripens and passes and rots on the tree. There is time to measure and think and time to act.

Sobriety is an ability to balance things. If you can say in your heart right now, look, you know that I am guilty of that. I can sometimes be an impulsive person, sometimes one can also get discouraged too quickly. Think about it, examine that dimension of your character and pray about it, make that a part of your spiritual agenda. Lord, help me to be a balanced person, not to jump into things too quickly.

How many little sisters here can say amen to this? You go by the store and see a sweater or a tremendous accessory and wow, you are dazzled, you buy it and since you got home you realized that you made a serious mistake and there the blessed thing stays to remind you of your impulsiveness for the next six years of your life in the closet. You never use it. Now, they don't dare to throw it away either, it's something else, they don't even give it to anyone, but there it is contaminating the closet. Give it away, sister, give it away because otherwise your closet is going to fill up with things and you won't know where to put them. Admit your mistake, move on, and ask God for forgiveness. Sobriety, that quality is very important.

Another quality that is key in the area of virtues is humility. Define someone for me quickly, what do you understand by a humble person, a humble leader, someone who has not spoken. Another person out there who can give me an idea, it can be an idea, an illustration of a biblical character, a verse, whatever, a thought that helps you understand what humility is in a leader.

¿. ….. Being humble is also accepting one's mistakes when they come to tell you about them.

Ok, very good, that is related to what we were saying before, in the area of the ego, ego domain, etc., yes, accepting one's mistakes when they are pointed out and one admitting, ok, I was wrong. That is definitely related to humility. Ok, one more thought.

Ana: He who is not looking for his own benefit

Do not seek your own benefit but the benefit of others, servant leadership, servant leadership. One more idea.

Gloria: humility for me is having the conscious clarity of knowing that one is, what one knows ……mercy…..

Very good, very good. I don't want you to fall asleep on me, you guys are so happy there. No, but I think the camera could use a little better light, on you. Ask the expert, Sister Esmeralda, she could tell about it.

Yes, that pointing to God, knowing that what we have. I like that, I think that is one of the most important things about humility. Humility points to the good outside of yourself, I would say. In the things that can be praised in us we always have our finger pointing up or to the sides. Humility for me is a finger pointing to the sides or upwards regarding the virtues and achievements of life, because humility recognizes that what I am, what I have, what I do, is not the product of myself alone. but of what others have invested in my life, and of what above all God has put in me. Always ultimately we give glory to the Lord.

But you know what? than the leader, the leader also gives praise to others. How does that, humility, relate to acknowledging others? Sister, I saw that there was a glimmer of intelligence on your face a little while ago, tell me…. A finger or an eye and immediately I realize, in what sense is humility related to others and recognizing others important.

¿: Well, ………… share with him, for example, who teaches me I share the good work that…. with me

Exactly, yes, yes. There is a very good book that I always get confused if it is Good to great or Built to last, no, it is Good to great, another great book on leadership and I highly recommend it. One of the classics, classics. Good to great, from good to great, and talks about how good companies in America have become not just good companies but great companies. And one of the qualities that leaders of what is called, leaders of the sixth level have, and I think it is fifth or sixth level. I don't remember right now if it's five levels or six, I think it's five, that this man identifies. That those Companies that have reached a very high level of greatness in America generally depend on leaders who have certain very important qualities and one of the qualities of the pinnacle of leadership that this man, Collins, identifies is that he says that in the achievements that type of maximum leader, in the achievements of his Companies, always points towards his team and others as if giving them credits and in the faults he points towards himself. In the achievements of his Company it is a window that he sees through the window to others, and in the failures he is a mirror that he sees himself. And that is very nice.

The effective leader should always give credit to the people they work with and acknowledge the contribution and input they have made to their leadership. And that is very important. Iris, you have an observation or a question, go ahead.

Iris: …..can identify as a humble person

I would say yes, yes, Pablo has a dimension, because Pablo was also what a leader should have, Pablo had a healthy self-esteem. It is interesting how humility and self-esteem that would seem contrary need to be balanced in leadership. A leader should not have low self-esteem, rather by definition a leader is a person who thinks they have something to give, yes or no? Because if he thought he had nothing to give, he would rather be at home, in a dark room doing nothing. But the fact that he is in leadership means that he thinks that I can contribute, contribute something and generally a good leader needs a healthy self-esteem, he needs to know, hey, God has given me this, God has given me that but there it is. the difference, God has me, instead of saying, I am.

So, Paul many times what happens in his writings is that he knows who he is and is not falsely humble. And I believe that a leader needs to have a healthy ego. That is important and not to be there with false admissions, no, I am worthless, I am a worm, etc. no, no, no, that's not good either. Paul knew, so many times there are statements that Paul makes that may seem grandiloquent and that he is bombing himself, but no, Paul on the other hand also speaks, look, for example, at Chapter 6 in Romans, where he speaks , wretched me, who will free me from this body of death and talks about what I want to do I don't do and what I don't want to do that I do. And on other occasions he also speaks that he did not deserve to be an Apostle because he is the worst of sinners, etc.

All those things, so Paul balanced one thing with the other and also gave thanks to those who had…. Look, his epistles generally at the end he has a part where he talks about the people who have blessed him, helped him and all this, so it was a balance. Pablo is a very interesting balance, his psychology is very interesting and we could talk about it in the long term.

But I believe he is a leader who exemplifies a healthy balance of personality. Knowing what he has, what God has done through him, what God has given him, but also knowing that he needs God's grace and mercy. Look also at Second Corinthians, Chapter 12, where he talks about his thorn in the flesh and when he is weak then he is strong, etc.

Omar, you had something to observe too.

Omar: ….. many ways…. You can tell it was his ego…. So much…. The thorn in the flesh that not even for me not to glory in these revelations because a thorn in the flesh came to me..... to keep me... the highest. That's the other thing they say...

Yes, and there we can, there is a lot of fabric to cut through because many times success in leadership implies that, I will talk about that later, lucidity and self-awareness, our limitations, dangers, what are the areas of weakness in my personality, what are the resident sins. I have to remember that, the resident sins, not to mention the familiar demons that we have inside. We all have resident sin within us. They are those areas of our life that are there like goads to keep us walking as carefully as possible because if we don't take care of ourselves we will fall apart.

So, many times God allows those things to stay there and we are asking him, Lord, break the devil's neck, free me from this Father, we fast, we pray and there continues that blessed failure. And God says, look, son, daughter, that is there to keep you disciplined, so that you remember that you are nothing more than a tadpole that needs my grace and without me you would destroy yourself and so that when you treat others who have similar things , do not magnify yourself or lord it over them, that you can pray for them, that you can have a pastoral heart. All is things, God sometimes allows these struggles to be in us to balance us. And it's good to recognize them.

Here comes humility. Paul knew that perhaps there was a tendency toward pride in him but he understood that struggle within him and was in tune with it and he knew why the struggle was within him and where it came from and what God was keeping it for. So that's important.

There is a humility, because he recognizes. Interestingly, the humble person can get to the point of recognizing that they are proud. Humility can be recognizing that there is ego and pride in you and that you have to keep that monster tied up with 7 chains. And that is humility in a sense, it is paradoxical but it is so. Jonathan one last comment on this.

Jonathan: for example, Paul always describes himself, despite presenting himself as an Apostle, he uses the language of servants, he is a servant of Jesus Christ and I think that the terminology of humble leader is sometimes like it is in conflict…. Because he says I am a leader, I have authority, but then humility may take away my authority, but I think that being a humble leader is seen as a great servant, a person who stands out for his service to people, and so it is that I I see Paul.

…you want, I'm going to leave that to you. The study that I gave when I went to Africa asked me to talk about servant leadership. I have looked for twenty thousand ways to express it and finally I have been left with servant leadership, although it is not the same. Servant leadership has a connotation in English that is very... but servant leadership, leadership that serves, serves others and does not dominate others, is a very interesting teaching that I believe can be beneficial.

And it has to do precisely with that balance of serving others while being a leader and again that idea of knowing who I am and what I have, but also knowing where it comes from and to whom I owe it. And also to know that what I have is to give it to others and not to myself. That is a very nice balance between those three things that define effective leadership in the area of humility, service, looking towards others, that is very important. Miguel.

Miguel: …… we have for example when Christ washed the feet of others and showed them that he, despite being…. His humility was great for them, to teach them that we have to be like leaders….. humility and be servants

…….. of that attribute. And notice here what is interesting, he once said, you call me Lord and you do well because I am. Notice that he doesn't say, and you call me Lord and let me tell you that I am nobody, I am just a leader. No, he knew that he was the Son of God, he knew that he was God himself. He allowed them to adore him, he allowed... the angels do not allow them to kneel before him, but the Lord allowed them to adore him and when Thomas saw his wounds he said, my Lord and my God, and the Lord did not say, Thomas, no say that, there is only one God, etc. no, he stayed calm, received his adoration. Jesus knew who he was, but when he said you call me Lord and you do well because I am, but then he said, but if I, being Lord, wash your feet, you have to do the same with others.

So his act of humility was born out of an awareness of who he was. There was a paradox there because his humility was born of power, not impotence. His service to others was born not out of servility, or being subservient, but out of generosity. And the person, many times the humble person is not the person who has no attributes, because if you have nothing to give, then you cannot be humble because why are you going to be humble. Yes or no? To be humble you have to have something that could lead you to pride and yet you choose humility. Is that logical, yes or no? So the humble person recognizes their attributes but knows their origin and they know what they exist for, so that qualifies the tendency towards pride and towards looking at oneself. That is humility, that is tension, a paradox.

And many of the qualities of the Christian life and Christian leadership are paradoxes, they are tensions between opposites or between extremes and one maintains a balance, a tension there, always. Every day one is like oscillating between one trend or the other, between one inclination or the other and one maintains the balance. Leadership is a particle moving at the speed of light between two extreme points, so much so that it seems to be stopped, but no, it is moving like the wings of a hummingbird. Very deep that, think about that later. It is important, sometimes the accelerated motion seems somewhat static. But no, there is movement.

Wow, this is generating a lot of ideas. Ok, okay, we're going to finish at 10:45, is this clock okay? We have 12 minutes, so we're going to take a break and then we can…have a coffee or something and then we can continue. Fanny, quick and loud so we can hear you.

Fanny: …….. for example, …….. the cells….. admiration or something but aim…. Actually, it is that the team that is working with me is doing a good job and I recognize it, … acknowledgment to them and ……. The ministry will prosper with the leader…..if it is not for the work of the people who are…..at the same time, if the cell has problems, something is wrong with my leadership. People are not coming, ………. Something is happening in me, because it is not easy to say, you are not doing your job and what is happening...... and in reality, I think that humility is there...... cell. No, people are not working, I am definitely failing to follow up,…. And there …….. when the positive thing happens is to recognize that thanks to the team that works with you and it is true that the Lord gives you wisdom to organize and all that, but it is the team that is …… contrary …… perhaps it is failing when bringing and how to handle leadership….

It is very true and I would say that again, going back to the image of… I would say that humble leadership is the leadership of the window and the mirror. Sometimes you have to use the window and look through the window at others around you and give them praise and recognition and sometimes you have to then put the mirror in front of you and look at yourself and see what you need there.

So humble leadership is window and mirror leadership and knowing when to use one and the other. This is very important.

One more observation, Sister Cecilia, and then we are going to continue because there is a lot of material here. We have two new entrants, Gregory Bishop and Noe Bishop here as well. I probably scared him already. Ok Cecilia, this way.

Cecilia: I was waiting to speak because I don't know when…everything, everything…..is directed towards my ministry that God allows me to exercise. Because humility......transparency for me is the sincerity that God taught me to have because it is important God teaches to be sincere, first to recognize my mistakes in order to know that just as God loved me and forgave me, all people have the same right and that has allowed me to work in the team that God put in my hands, being able to speak face to face with people and that is something we call sincerity, I think, but you learn because God gives it, not because of merit, that only I have it, no, and thanks to the Lord I have been able to speak with hundreds of people who work in the ministry of ushers, it has been for almost 10 years and it has been wonderful and I am still happy in it. But, as Sister Fanny also said, the team, the people that God places, but how we all relate to each other is important. Each one does their best and that is to be honest and always speak the truth. I love talking with my group or with the leaders, who is the one I interact with the most, but also with the other ushers because it's nice to see them face to face and tell them what we're up to, …….. but it's nice…… but upfront always speak the truth. …….the Lord gives wisdom and he gives it…….. always trying to……… ourselves, but ………….. we achieved……… an army but….. in which I do not consider myself the great leader, no, I am a member just like…. But it has been nice what God ………….

No, it has marked many different qualities there. Not only humility but other attributes that are very important. But this idea of being able to work with your team, giving recognition to those who have done something, those who have contributed something to your life, being able to relate to them in a harmonious way, all of this is born, there is an element, one of the roots. It is humility, very important.

We have 10 minutes left. Thank you, sister Cecilia, very good, very important. One last quality that I want to point out here because look, humility... you see everything that it has generated, we could only be here at that point because it is so profound and it is the very essence of the Gospel, humility, obviously, many qualities.

But another quality that is related, and Sister Cecilia already alluded to it in her comment in anticipation. But one would think that the two are the same thing, but they are not the same things, you have to cut a fine line, you have to separate them, humility and transparency. Transparency is something else and transparency is very important for leadership because transparency for me has to do with... there are a series of qualities that are associated with transparency: sincerity, admitting limitations and weaknesses, not manipulating others, not having a hidden agenda many times when we do things, and not be calculating.

That's not to say that the leader isn't also cautious, sometimes you can't show all your cards right away. There is a time to talk, a time to keep quiet, there is a time to mature things, there are situations in which you better keep quiet and wait for the right moment to shoot and that might seem contrary, that is why I say that many of these qualities are like a balance between opposing qualities.

Transparency does not mean that you are always saying everything that comes to mind and saying... because Pablo says, everything is lawful for me but not everything suits me. There are times when the leader or leader has to keep quiet about things that they even know and there are times when they intend to do something but if they announce it prematurely, or in the wrong environment, everything collapses, then we came up with the idea of sobriety. also. You have to be sober, you also have to be, up to a certain point the leader has to be calculating, don't believe it, but in the positive sense of the word. I would say not so much calculating as cautious, precisely sober. Here comes the sobriety, you see why all these qualities are related to each other, they mix, they are nuanced, they complement each other, they enrich each other.

It is a whole universe where these different qualities are in dialogue with each other, it is not one or the other but one and the other. The leader, the effective leader, is a person who has these qualities in balance, always in dialogue with one another, nuanced by each other. But yes, this quality of transparency speaks to the importance of being something open, an open letter where you carry your heart in your hand, and people can look there. People know who you are, people can hear you speak and know that there is truth and integrity in what you say, that your word reflects who you are. They can turn their backs on you and they know that you are not going to be sticking the knife in, that if you give them a compliment it is because you believe it.

And also as much as possible to speak directly. Because sometimes people have accused me through the years of taking hints from the pulpit. I say, brothers, I don't throw hints, I shoot straight for the jugular, but what happens is that many times they feel alluded to, of course, by something that one says and sometimes one says things, they don't even know that the person is sitting there and God puts something, or the word just falls into a situation that they identify.

But I have always said that the pulpit is not a place for a pastor to throw hints at anyone. I must not abuse that privilege that God gives me, be here to whip someone, hide behind the pulpit so they don't hit me. That is an abuse of the dignity of the pulpit. I believe that the pastor, the pastor, yes, sometimes he will speak about things that will touch his congregation but he must do it, and the people must know that he is aware that there is that attention. And sometimes he will say things that are going to annoy his entire congregation, but he says them because he is transparent, but he does not use the pulpit to be throwing hints at people. Let's be careful brothers, with indirecting people with our words, that is not healthy, it is not good. Let's suppress that as much as possible. But yes, let's always speak the truth, let's say things in the right context, in the right way.

Now, beware of cruelty, beware of the always drawn sword that strikes people flat and leaves them backing down, because it hurt so much when you hit them. There are people who are like that, always with the big shot in hand to hit people on the head or on the back. No, transparency is something different. There are times when you look, you can say things to people and silence them with a single word if you want, but you have mercy, love, grace, sometimes the leader, the leader has all the ammunition in hand to scratch him the brains of someone with a word, who is criticizing him many times.

How many times have I been… And I can say two or three things to that person who shuts him up right away, but I say, be careful because I can win the battle but lose the war. The leader has to be very careful many times because sometimes when you speak in a certain way and you tell the truth, but the others say, look at that abuser, look what he said to that poor person. And then you lose to others.

Many times the leader has to remain silent and bite his tongue 15 times, being able to say things because it is not the time and you, your position as leader often forces you to let yourself be hit because you have the strength and can take it, but the other person may not have the strength to endure what you are going to say.

Sometimes I know that my words can weigh and hit hard and I think that I am wearing kid gloves and one has to know that one's position often has a weight that is beyond your words. Sometimes leaders do not understand that we are more than the weight of our leadership speaking and so it is difficult sometimes to understand it and then one says things. But all I said was the truth. No, you told the truth plus the 700-pound gorilla sticking to the truth and you hit the person with all that hulk of energy and authority that you have and the person is there on the floor bleeding, and you say, yeah All I did was just pass my hand. No, there is all that weight.

So, transparency is also that. Sometimes we come to our leaders and say, I want to say something, who was it that told me the other day? But sometimes we keep a person there for 3 years of things and one day we sit down with her and immediately unload the truck of bricks on top of her and everything we said was true, but there were also things that weren't proper, we didn't use the mercy, love, grace and then we hurt.

Transparency is not that. Transparency has more to do with being honest and admitting who you are to others, not walking around like a smoked mirror and speaking of mirrors and windows, a smoked window, those windows that allow you to see everything from the inside but no one can see from outside. And many of us are tinted windows, we have x-ray glasses, we see everyone but sunglasses, nobody can see our eyes. Beware of people who needlessly wear dark glasses, who don't want their eyes read. So, many times we are like that, we don't let people see inside of us.

I believe that leaders have to show the internal drama that we have. Parents, for example, we have to be, it's not that we announce everything, but I believe that our children should know our drama, they should know the struggles we have and our faults, and also talk and feel free to point out some of those things because in that there is growth and a great blessing. Our leaders need to know that we are not the super man and super woman that many times they want us to be or think we are, and I think it is very healthy for a congregation, for a ministry that sees the internal drama of its leaders. And it's not like you're going to pour out your entire subconscious in front of others because that's not healthy either, but yes, I think people like to know that their leader has feet of clay and is struggling with some of those resident sins. that they believe that this person is already sanctified and glorified and that he secretly walks on the sea. But no, they have flaws, they have struggles, that's why Pablo has been recorded there with that admission of that sting with which he struggled and he admitted that and that humanized him before our eyes.

And sometimes we think people will look down on us if we admit our mistakes, but guess what? people often appreciate us, unless one is a pervert people will appreciate that you are honest with them, instead of lowering their leadership you will increase it. So that's important. Sister Cecilia, when we return, I promise you that you will be the first person to… so hold your comment, but I want you to be faithful to the commitment I made, even though I've already spent three minutes.

We'll be back in 5 minutes.

See more presentations recorded November 22, 2008.