FOLLOW THE LEADERPrinciple:
“A leader must speak prophetically and live
prophetically. He must practically incarnate his
message.”As we have already seen, prophetic thinking and living often cause a
leader to be out-of-step with the people. It puts him ahead-of-his-time
in his thinking; and out-in-front of the pack in his living and leadership.
That’s why a prophetic leader “marches to a different drummer” – and
the cadence of the music beckons from the future rather than echoes out
of the past. This bucking of the tide swimming against the current...
standing against the prevailing wind is often socially, relationally and
emotionally painful.
Many times it requires the leader to stand alone and go it alone. As a result,
he may lose respect...lose friends...lose business associates...lose his
job...lose his finances...lose his security – even lose his life. But if he
loses his vision, he loses his reason to live! Until his prophetic paradigm
is validated and accepted, his message is not popular. For a time – and
sometimes a long time – he is not seen as politically or socially correct.
His vision of the future radically
threatens the present...the accepted
wisdom...the status quo...business
as usual...normal procedure...the
popular way of doing things...the
party line – whether in business,
economics, education, science, politics, or religion. Virtually every great
leader in history has had to go through periods of ridicule, rejection,
character assassination, vilification, suffering. Thus the pain of prophetic
leadership!
Principle:
“Th ere is always pain in prophetic leadership –
both for the leader and for the follower.”It is the reality of sacrifice that causes many to shirk away from prophetic
leader-ship. That’s why many so-called “leaders” would rather submit to
“A leader must have
3 qualities: head,
heart, and guts.”^5
(President Richard Nixon)