Every great leader will develop the ability to embrace change. Read John 1:1-18.

Jesus understood what it takes to lead while embracing change. In the beginning He was with God and was God and was treated as the sovereign of the universe. He left heaven where He led as God and experienced the change of becoming a leader in the form of a human infant, child, adolescent, young adult, and mature man. Jesus went from all creation knowing He was the sovereign ruler where He led with absolute power at His disposal to leading others that only saw Him as an uneducated carpenter from northern Israel with no authority and no power.

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.

Excellent leaders understand how to prepare their team and organization for change. Read Mark 1:1-8.

All human history was about to change as Jesus, God’s promised Messiah, prepared to start His public ministry in Israel. God assigned John the Baptist the task of preparing the way for this unprecedented change. As we know today, Jesus was very different than anyone expected and John had a major task to get the people ready for this radical shift in expectations.

Effective Christian leaders are not paralyzed by change. They seek to analyze situations so they can make changes that actually fix the problem. Read Jeremiah 9:1-12.

In verses 1-11 God uses His prophet Jeremiah to point out how the people of Judah had rebelled against Him and to foretell of the terrible results of their actions. In verse 12 He asks the question “What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross? Defining what needs to change is often the toughest part of the change process.

It is dangerous for a leader to rush into a situation with no thought to the potential outcomes from their actions. Read Proverbs 19:2.

Zeal is a great attribute for any leader but it is not good to push forward with zeal when you are lacking the knowledge necessary to make good decisions. It is not wise to be in such a rush to implement a strategy that you do not take the time to think through the potential ramifications of your actions.