Leadership Launch NO. 1

For this and all following Leadership Launch blog posts, I will be responding to questions in the book.   If it is greatly necessary to get anything from the answer to include the question, I will do so.
1.  Four people read the definition of leadership that our class came up with: Leadership is having influence over followers.
1) Seems to make sense.  Questioned the word “over” as sounding oppressive.  Leaders have responsibility to tell followers what to do, but followers may disobey.  This is surely the case with God and us.

2)  Leadership is less having influence over followers and more loving them enough to direct them in God’s paths with God-given authority.

3)  Sort of agrees, not really sure how to define leadership.

4)  Agrees, citing examples of a band and a pastor.  Says also that sometimes leaders deflect influence to allow for individuality.

2.  My favorite among the definitions of leadership is Peter Drucker’s, “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.”  I like this because it is straightforward.  I dislike the anonymous quote, “Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination.”  This quote is vague and doesn’t really describe leadership, but more accurately describes excellence.  Even at that it does a poor job because it is so vague.

3. Ready for class.

4.  Jehoiada was a priest in the land of Judah who was probably born during the reign of Rehoboam, being at least ninety at the beginning of the reign of Joash.  When Joash was an infant, Jehosheba, his aunt, took him away from the king’s house because Athaliah, his grandmother, was killing all the male heirs to the throne.  Jehoiada took care of Joash in the house of God.  When Joash was seven, Jehoiada got all the leaders of Judah together and made a plan with them to crown and anoint Joash in the temple, and to kill Athaliah, because she was a wicked queen.  After they do this, he makes a covenant with the people of Judah that they will be Jehovah’s people, and that they will serve Him.  He then proceeds to destroy the Baal worship in the city.  The land rejoiced in righteousness all his days.  At the command of Joash, years later, he repairs the temple using the money from a piggy-bank style offering.  His only two blunders mentioned are that he neglected the utensils in the temple, and he gave Joash two wives.  It also appears that he did not fully instruct Joash to follow Jehovah, because after his death at 130, Joash became wicked.  Jehoiada did, however, properly raise his own son, Zechariah, though.  Zechariah spoke out against Joash’s wickedness, even though it cost him his life.  The thing that amazes me most about Jehoiada is that he was ninety at his first mention in the Bible.  He was born in the reign of Rehoboam, and lived through the reigns of Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah before he does anything. God’s plan for Jehoiada waited until he was ninety.  Wow.