Are you a leader? Of course! You, as a living person, are leading. Someone is watching. Someone is following. Every decision you make is a leadership decision. That’s a bit frightening, at times. Living a life of leadership means you will be critiqued, but instead of allowing that to frighten you, consider improving how you make leadership decisions.

Some leaders make decisions based upon emotions. Others decide based upon experience or education. Some leaders are reactive, rather than proactive, making quick or rash decisions. Other leaders cringe and close their eyes when making decisions, simply hoping for the best.

How do you make important decisions? The best leaders decide by analyzing and interpreting critical information and receiving input from wise counselors. A prideful leader makes uniformed decisions without input. He is often too confident in himself to consider a deeper process. Perhaps he is too insecure to allow another process. Pride kills. Self-sufficiency is pride.

You lead others. Wouldn’t it be best to lead wisely? Even Jesus, while on earth, sought counsel. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” (John 5:19 ESV). Jesus spent time praying. He sought to find direction before he took action. He wanted to do what God the Father would do. He taught the disciples to pray. He emphasized the importance of prayer.

You, as a leader, shoud strive to be close to God daily. You should spend time knowing His character by studying the Bible, thus understanding how He would have you reflect that character in your decisions. You should seek His guidance in your decision-making on a daily basis. In his book, How to Pray, Ronnie Floyd writes. “No prayer, no power. No prayer, no courage. No prayer, no victory.” While I completely agree with Dr. Floyd, I would add, “No prayer, no action.”

Every decision is worth praying over. Remember, leader, someone is watching. Someone is following.

Dr. Kevin Garrett has served for over thirty years in the areas of music ministry, student ministry, recreation ministry, education ministry, and as a pastor. He has written curricula for youth and adult ministries for LifeWay Christian Resources. Kevin’s passion is to help individuals become spiritually healthy and lead healthy churches. He has a keen interest in helping leaders and churches find vision and engage with all generations within the challenges of the twenty-first century. He holds a BS in Education and an MA in Music from Jacksonville State University. He also hold an MDiv, DMin from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, with specializations in church health and next generation ministries. He and his wife, Tina, joyfully serve as pastor of First Baptist Church of Atmore, AL. They have two sons, Geoffrey and Nelson, and one daughter-in-love, Brooke, all of whom are active and serving in their churches in north Alabama. To read more about David, visit: https://kevingarrett.org/

Feature Phot by Joshua Woroniecki on Pexels