If there’s one thing anybody in charge of anything has in common with each other it’s that leaders of any kind need to know where they’re going.  So what do we do when we don’t know where we are going?  The situation can even be harder for Christian leaders who are trying to become instruments of God.  How do we do something that is entirely beyond our power?  St. Paul gives an example of how to walk in the fog.  His life was full of unknowing and yet he moved forward bravely and God used him as he went.

Vision is certainly one of the greatest challenges to leadership.  In many ways leaders are called to stare into the void where nothing seems possible and find a path forward.  Already this is a terrific blessing for our world, because it allows for innovation and success.  But God wants to do something even more with vision.  He wants His leaders to accomplish His will and to work His plan.  St. Paul teaches us just how to cooperate with God to make this happen.

Christian leadership like anything else is an art and a science.  Of course, there are many things we can do to increase our influence and to use it at the service of God.  But foundationally there is something out of control in Christian leadership.  Namely, the fact that God will use us as He desires.  This requires that we learn a secret, the secret St. Paul knew so well and that he tells us about in 2 Corinthians 12.  I’d like to help you learn that secret today.

When we follow Jesus in our daily life we are faced with many challenges.  Rising up to meet those challenges in accordance with his grace means that we will be making an impact changing the world around us.  Instead of letting the world take its own course we are leading it in His name.  Rising up to meet these challenges gives us a great opportunity to depend more on Jesus.  This is something St. Paul definitely understood and embodied in his life.  This is Part 2 in our series “In The Pattern Of Paul – Insights Into Leadership”.

The life of St. Paul provides Christians with a wonderful example of what it means to lead in Jesus Christ.  In fact St. Paul had to face many of the same challenges we do.  In my book, Coached by Paul the Apostle, I try to lay out many of these insights into leadership and in this series of podcasts I try and develop those insights in greater depth starting with this particular session where I develop the link between authority and freedom.  This follows Chapter 1 of my book.

As we bring this series of letters from St. Francis to a close I thought it fitting to finish with some letters in which the Saint references his own soul.  What were the spiritual lessons that he himself learned on his journey as a Christian engaged in the affairs of the world?  By looking at the themes that he evokes in letters about himself we can find lessons that we can apply to ourselves in our situations as leaders today.  We can learn from him something of the love of God.

One thing a Christian leader can be sure of is that they will be asked to carry the cross with Jesus.  But carrying a cross isn’t easy for anybody and few of us embrace it as we should.  St. Francis de Sales, and early master of the 1600’s, knew this very well and he wrote to the leaders of this world with encouragement to carry the cross that God gave them with Jesus.  But what does this mean for us today?  By reading letters that he wrote to persons of the world we can discover some of what he meant.

The letters written by St. Francis de Sales to persons in the world represent wonderful examples of the application of true spirituality to those living amidst the cares of this world.  All of us who carry the mantle of leadership in our families or in our businesses have to find ways to keep our spirituality alive and at the same time deal with the constant pressing needs around us.  In this third segment of our series we pass on the advice of St. Francis:  Love purifies all things.

In his letter to Persons In The World, St. Francis de Sales writes admirable advice for those whose vocation it is to live in the world but not be of it.  For some Christians involving ourselves in the world is a distraction and others disparage the vocation of business as a temptation that could threaten one’s salvation.  But it was not so for St. Francis de Sales.  On the contrary, he encourages those who are called to engage in the world but gives them great advice about avoiding vanity and ambition.

St. Francis de Sales was the Bishop of Geneva in the early 1600’s.  He wrote many wonderful texts of spirituality and is considered a Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church.  He also wrote many letters, especially to people who were in the world, that is, lay faithful who were entrusted with the charges of family, business, and politics.  These letters are treasures of wisdom and spirituality, and we begin the first of our series with a letter on inner peace.