Every leader, even those with great teams, will be alone and feel lonely in leadership. Read Luke 22:39-46.

Jesus has finished His final meal with His disciples and has crossed the valley to the Mount of Olives where He and His team will spend the night. When they arrive Jesus separates Himself “about a stone’s throw” from His team and begins to pray. It was during His time of prayer that Jesus faced some of the loneliest moments of His entire life. He knew it was just hours before He would be tried, convicted, tortured, and crucified. He also knew everyone on His team would desert Him and that He would spend hours on the cross where God would not look on Him as He took on the sin of all mankind in order to serve as the once-for-all sacrifice for the human sin condition.

Leaders may have great power at their disposal but are still expected to act as servants to those on their team. Read Luke 22:24-30.

Jesus was having His final meal with His disciples just prior to His arrest, mock trial and execution. The Bible tells us He was eager to eat this meal with His friends so He could enjoy some close fellowship and help them understand His immediate future and some of what was in store for them over the next few days. But, during the meal “…a dispute arose among them to which of them was considered to be the greatest” (v. 24). Jesus used this discussion to shape their perspective. He helped them to understand that the power structure in the kingdom of God is radically different from what the world perceives as power.

Effective leaders handle conflicts personally, privately and with the spirit of forgiveness. Read Luke 17:3-10.

Jesus, knowing His disciples would soon have major leadership roles, continually taught principles that would make them more effective leaders. When He told them they should forgive a person who had wronged them, even if they wronged them seven times, as long as that person returned and ask for forgiveness, His disciples’ first thought was this may be too much and they would need more faith to accomplish the task. Jesus simply told His team their faith was sufficient and conflict resolution and forgiveness was part of a leader’s everyday job. Jesus was clear that a leader should not expect praise for doing what was an expected part of their leadership role.

Understanding leaders know that real change comes at a price. Read Luke 8:26-39.

During the three years of Jesus’ public ministry He often brought significant changes into people’s lives in an instant. He would heal them from a life-long disease or cast out a demon and all at once, the truths they knew about themselves were no longer true. As would obviously be the case these changes not only affected the life of the individual who experienced the miracle, they also affected the lives of everyone who knew that individual and sometimes everyone living in an area felt the effect. Such was the case when Jesus cast out a demon from a man who for years had terrorized an entire farming region near the Sea of Galilee known as Gerasenes.

The wise leader understands the power of attitude? Read Luke 6:17-42.

One of Jesus very first acts after selecting His team of 12 disciples was to instruct them about attitude. The common thinking of the day was that the poor had done something wrong or they would not be poor, those suffering or hungry or mourning were somehow crossways with God or they would not be in their situation and that visa versa the rich has somehow pleased God and received special favor. Jesus was quick to instruct them not judge or you will be judged and examine their own personal shortcomings before they examined the shortcomings of others. The attitude of Jesus’ closest followers would be critical if they were to adopt His core truths concerning the people He was sent to rescue from Satan’s grip.