Hey all you REAL Group peeps. Here’s a rule of thumb for all of us. If you want to be a great leader, you have to be a reader. Leaders are people who are well read.
First of all, the Word of God is a must read. You and I should love to read the Bible. The Bible gives us plans for life by revealing to us the character of God. How can we lead if we don’t know what God says or how He thinks about issues? After all, He is the Creator so He knows what’s best for us. So we should schedule in times everyday when we read the Word of God.
Secondly, take time to read books that will build you in your walk with God and in your life. Does that mean we only read Christian books? No, however the books we read should build our lives. Leaders read books on business and leadership. They also read strategy and coaching books. All of these improve our leadership skills.
And finally, keep abreast of what is going on in the world around us. I’m not talking about Hollywood or the latest gossip tabloids, but we should know about world issues so that we can inform our groups on how these line up with what the Word tells us. I would not take as much time on these as on the first but it’s good to be aware of issues.
You might be saying right about now, “What about those novels I like to read or the sports stuff or whatever”. Well does that equip you to be a leader? I think if we would allot a little more of our reading time to the right stuff, we would become much more effective in our leadership.
So become a reader, it is a trait of a leader.
