I enjoy reading and listening to seminars on leadership. The strange thing is…I don’t consider myself a strong leader nor do I really pursue leadership positions. I simply find it very interesting to study what makes up a good leader. My favorite leader would likely be Martin Luther King Jr. He was leading people in the right direction and his intentions were pure. He was a charismatic leader that made a positive impact. People love charismatic leaders and will follow them to the ends of the earth. Unfortunately, there are many charismatic leaders who take people in the wrong direction.
In the church world, where I have spent much of the last 10 years of my life, I have met a lot of charismatic leaders who were wrong. In other words, they were moving in the wrong direction with the wrong intentions, but they had many good people following right behind them. People who would later feel like the fell off the end of the earth! I heard a man say, “there is nothing more dangerous than a charismatic leader who is wrong.” I have honestly seen people stand behind a charismatic leader that they knew deep within their hearts was a liar, and had purposefully misLEAD them. Why are we so easily lead by those who are charismatic? Maybe it is because most of us are starving for direction and excitement in our lives? Maybe we are so desperate to find a cause that we will jump at anything?
I may not know much, but I do know this…we have to open our eyes and begin choosing to follow leaders that truly care about us and the well being of our country, organization, or community. We, meaning ME TOO, can’t continue to be manipulated by the leaders who know how to spike our emotions and get us excited about what could very easily be empty promises. And isn’t that how they get us? They make those huge promises or paint a beautiful picture of the place they want to take us. The pastor tells us that we need to give our money to support building HIS…uh, God’s Kingdom, and the politician says he must raise our taxes to build better schools, roads, and court houses. After all, if you build it they will come!