‘You are the head, not the tail’. Every Christian should be a leader nowadays. But what do we expect of a leader? Is it possible for everybody to be a leader?
In church we primarily lead people, not an organisation. The people together form a well organized organism, a body, and that involves a form of leadership, but that is not the topic here. This blog isn’t about making people do something, it is about bringing people closer to God. In this regard everybody can be a leader.
Everybody a leader equals everybody a shepherd, the biblical model for leadership. What kind of shepherd are we? The one from Psalm 23 or the one from Ezekiel 34? What is our priority? The things the other needs or the things we ourselves think are important?
It can be very difficult to give people space to figure out for themselves what is necessary or important. All our lives we hear what is good and evil, so we are inclined to think we know what is right or wrong for someone. With the best of intentions we sometimes behave like shepherd dogs. We run around 
people to get them in the right direction and sometimes you even hear barking. How many people get ‘bitten’ because they don’t go the way we want?
Only until we spend time with someone, we will get a picture of what the other needs. The basics of leadership are in relationship, in connection and solidarity. Everybody who has time for and pays attention to another person, will automatically become a leader, because in every relationship you are rubbing off on someone. You will influence your family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, classmates or sports-buddy’s. The most important question a leader can ask him or herself is, ‘What do I rub off in my relationships?’
“Set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”
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