Are you a life-long learner? (187-1)

When leaders stop learning their leadership becomes less effective. Read Zechariah 1:2-6.

Like Haggai, his older contemporary, Zechariah was a post exilic prophet who led the people from 520-480 B.C. Zechariah gave the people many visions but he had only one priority and that was for the people to finish the temple. Concerned about the exiles’ apathetic response to finishing the temple, Zechariah shared his visions to encourage the people in their rebuilding project and give them hope in a future King and His eternal kingdom.

Four times in the first six verses Zechariah mentions the people’s forefathers. These leaders had refused to listen to God’s instruction and now their descendents were suffering the consequences. The essence of the Lord’s message was, “Return to me, and I will return to you.” Zechariah urged the people to learn from their predecessors’ mistakes so they would not repeat the mistakes. Good leaders are continual learners. Leaders must keep learning or they will stop leading effectively.

Revelation demands a response. When Christian leaders fail to learn from and apply new information and ideas they lose their personal effectiveness and stop growing. As the history of Israel makes clear, leaders can regress, forget spiritual truths, and return to leading from errant principles and ungodly character. This truth of “unlearning” leadership principles that spring from God-honoring character can happen to an individual, group, organization, or nation.

Some qualities of a life-long learning leader:

• They must learn how to apply God-honoring principles even in a changing external environment.
• They will continually change/adapt to meet current conditions without changing their operational core truths.
• They surround themselves with other godly Christian leaders to sharpen their thinking, for support and accountability.

Is there an area of your leadership where you seem to be reverting to inappropriate methods? Do your actions indicate that you may have “unlearned” some of the God-honoring principles you had learned from respected leaders and God’s Word? Have you committed this area of your leadership to God and sought His wisdom on how to turn this around? Wise leaders learn from their predecessors and the unchanging Word of God to keep from repeating mistakes from their personal history or their organization’s history.