From 16 - 18 I attended a Bible college in the US - International Bible Institute and Seminary - where I came one semester shy of a BRE.
That BRE helped me get my first job in the church - a Christian Education Coordinator. For those who know anything about church - that meant I was in charge of the children's education program, all the volunteer programs (40 of them) which ranged from evangelism to marriage to singles to house church to sports etc., all the hospital visitations, suicide counsellings, supervising the office staff, youth group (both of them - junior and senior) and taking over the emcee of church services where the pastor was not present. Then after everyone else left the church, and you have the great opportunity of not only locking up, but counselling any poor soul who was found sitting on the church grounds that somehow no one else in the church saw - sometimes having to take them home with you.
If I didn't learn leadership then, I not sure what I would have learned. My learning curve was spiked and all done in the love and grace of God's love - my Bible Study days helped my incredibly and the seminars the church allowed me to attend built up my specific knowledge base adequately.
However, if all you have is Bible training and that is all you count on and you do not grow in other areas of your life, you will find yourself struggling. Understand, that the Bible has all the answers one needs in their journey, however, I am saying the learning of specifics that God has given us to help us build relationships with one another.
Here is my point - I start working with World Vision - the leadership team are all pastors. In the space of five years, the leadership team has been changed. The pastors are now business leaders with specific training in areas of expertise - the budget the team is raising climbs from 37 million to 77 million in those five years.
Why? The leader they brought in saw the need for expertise, however, the most successful of these leaders were business people who had Biblical training were even better then their counterparts with none - and that included the President.
How does a pastor think about leadership in the business world? I remember one former pastor who began working at the Canadian Bible Society. He mentioned that he would rather study under a professor from Harvard than under the leadership of a pastor when it came to learning about leadership. At the time I knew he did not know what he was talking about because Harvard was teaching principles that came out of the lifestyle of Jesus who they thought had the best leadership traits in the entire world because He changed that world in 31/2 years and has a following today that runs into the billions.
Your Biblical training will allow you to bring God into every area of your life - mentoring, discipling, discerning, growing, building, loving, leading, coaching your team. Bring God in, let Him lead through you, and your life will change because you will be learning something everyday and your staff will be excited to work with you because through you, their lives are being changed each day.
Nothing excites me more than to go downstairs and experience God in my devotions as He gives me instructions for the day - through His Word - then I give that away to others.
Know God, know what real leadership looks like.
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