Qualities of a Spiritual Movement leader
What are the qualities to look for in a Spiritual movement leader? How can one be a movement leader and what does it mean to be an MSLVI student leader? Well these might be the questions that linger in your mind as you hear the acronym MSLVI.
Being a movement leader or MSLVI student leader is the Journey that we want every disciple to embark on. This is the standard that will enable a disciple to be truly called as a movement or student leader in CCC. Leadership is simply defined as “influence”. It is not a position, or power or a title. And “influence” is the ability to attract someone to follow us. Each one of us wield influence some way or the other but true leadership is influencing people to take positive action that will change lives and transform society for the greater good and only the Gospel has the power to do this. Bible says it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. (Rom 1:16).
Well let us look at each of the letters that MSLVI stands for and try and understand it better. The first letter “M” stands for Multiplier. Mathew the gospel writer records powerfully the last few words of our master before He ascended into heaven. In Mathew chapter 28: 19 -20 Jesus commands us to “Go and make disciples of all nations”. A command that is resonating with God’s love for the whole world that no one should perish but He wants everyone to be saved, this command to make disciples is known as the Great commission. God loves each one of us immensely and He wants us to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength and then He commands us to love our neighbor as our self. (Mark 12:30-31) Because we love God and love people we are motivated to get involved in fulfilling the great commission which entails making disciples who make disciples. This is called spiritual multiplication.
A multiplier is a person who is involved in winning people to Christ as a way of life and building deeply those who come to faith and then sending them to win, build and send others. As one studies the word ‘GO’ in Matt 28:19, it is clearly interpreted as Jesus telling His disciples “as you go, make disciples” that just means as we go about our daily activities, as we spend our time in college, as we chat with our friends, as we play cricket or be it any situation, as we go we are called to make disciples. Making disciples should be a way of life for us, not a program or an organized formal activity or event. It becomes a normal part of our ever day activity when we intentionally and prayerfully take a faith step of initiating conversation as we meet students and in a very relational environment share the gospel to them through our personal testimony or through the four spiritual laws. As they respond to the gospel we help them to know more about Christ by teaching them from the word and helping the new believer to grow and mature. This is called building, once the disciple is growing and ready to multiply we equip him to go and win others with the gospel. Friends the question that is confronting us now is, ‘Are we multipliers?’, ‘As we go are we sharing our faith and making disciples?’ God expects each of His children to bear fruit, fruits that will last and because we love Him and love the millions of people who live in darkness around us, let us shine forth with the light of the gospel and make disciples for our master and king.
The second letter in the acronym is “S” which stands for ‘Spirit Filled’. Let's imagine that you want to learn to dance. Being the rational, cerebral person you are, you go to a bookstore and buy a book on dancing. You take the book home and get to work. You do everything it says. The book says sway; you sway. The book says shuffle; you shuffle. The book says spin; you spin. Finally, you think you've got it, and you invite your friends to come in and watch. You hold the book open and follow the instructions step by step. You continue to read, then dance, read, then dance, until the dance is completed. You plop exhausted on the couch, look at your friends, and proclaim, "I executed it perfectly." "You executed it, all right," they sigh. "You killed it." "What?"
"You forgot the most important part. Where is the music?" Music? We Christians are prone to follow the book while ignoring the music. We master the doctrine, outline the chapters, memorize the dispensations, debate the rules, and stiffly step down the dance floor of life with no music in our hearts. We measure each step, calibrate each turn, and flop into bed each night exhausted from another day of dancing by the book. Dancing with no music is tough stuff.
Jesus knew that. For that reason, on the night before his death he introduced the disciples to the song maker of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. (John 16:7-9). Of the three persons of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit is the one we understand the least. Perhaps the most common mistake made regarding the Spirit is perceiving him as a power but not a person, a force with no identity. Such is not true. The Holy Spirit is not an "it." He is a person. He has knowledge (1 Cor. 2:11). He has a will (1 Cor. 12:11). He has a mind (Rom. 8:27). He has affections (Rom. 15:30). You can lie to him (Acts 5:3-4). You can insult him (Heb. 10:29). You can grieve him (Eph. 4:30). The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. He is not Popeye's spinach or the surfer's wave. He is God within you to help you. In fact John calls him the Helper.
Envision a father helping his son learn to ride a bicycle, and you will have a partial picture of the Holy Spirit. The father stays at the son's side. He pushes the bike and steadies it if the boy starts to tumble. The Spirit does that for us; he stays our step and strengthens our stride. Unlike the father, however, he never leaves. He is with us to the end of the age. (The above portion is taken from ‘A Gentle Thunder’ by Max Lucado)
Being Spirit filled is the key to enjoying successful Christian life. Spirit filled is the second letter in the acronym of MSLVI. Jesus said’ “Abide in me because apart from me you can do nothing”. John 15:5 and before He ascended into heaven He said, “But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won't draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honour me; he will take from me and deliver it to you”. John 16:13. The friend that Jesus is talking about is the Holy Spirit. He is the best friend we can ever have in our daily faith walk. Have you made Him your best friend?
The third letter is ‘L’ which stands for “Leadership” and as we all know and affirm leadership is influence i.e influencing people to take action. Spiritual leadership is moving people to God’s agenda for them. As we make disciples of students we want them to grow to be a spiritual leaders who are leading others and not just being a follower. Our vision is to see every disciple becoming a leader in his or her God given area of influence. It can be their friends, their class their campus or neighboring campuses, their families and even the city in which they live. Taking responsibility for their area of influence and initiating spiritual action to lead others to Jesus is what is expected of them. Everyone has in them the God given capacity to lead, here we are not talking about positional leadership or a title. We are talking about influencing others for Christ by faith, this is possible by anyone who is filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus picked up ordinary, uneducated fishermen as his disciples but these ordinary men when they were filled with the Holy Spirit they went on to change the world upside down, Gospel spread to all parts of the then known world rapidly. We are looking for people who are available to be used by God any way, who are teachable to be molded by God anyhow and who are faithful to be entrusted by God his riches of the kingdom. This can be in winning others to Christ, in organizing a core group, in planning for your campus, in putting up a program whatever be the way you are taking action to lead people.
The next letter is ‘V’ for being “Vision Driven”. Our vision is to see “spiritual movements everywhere so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus Christ”. In order to launch these spiritual movements we need to win, build and send Christ - centered multiplying disciples. When we say that our movement leader has to be vision driven we are expecting them to continuously initiate, plan and mobilize people and resources to move towards accomplishing this vision in his target area. He does not have to be pushed or prodded by the staff to be involved in evangelism and discipleship; he/she is motivated by the vision of seeing the Great commission being fulfilled. They lives out the Mathew 28:18-20 verses and has the end picture of seeing ‘movements everywhere’ constantly on their radar. He is constantly praying & thinking about creative ways and means of reaching his target audience and making disciples of them.
The last letter of the acronym is ‘i’ which stands for being ‘identified with the movement”. This basically means that he/she is in agreement with the CCC movement principles and carries the DNA of multiplication wherever he/she goes. This does not mean that they should be a hardcore CCC loyalist or die hard fan of Campus Crusade. This requires the movement leader to be part of the student leadership and taking active part in leading and participating in all the movement activities and he/she is proud to declare his affiliation with the local movement. He continues to be associated with the movement where ever he goes and continues to live out the DNA of multiplication whether he is in workplace or some other mission. In short he/she loves the movement.
Being a movement leader or MSLVI student leader is the Journey that we want every disciple to embark on. This is the standard that will enable a disciple to be truly called as a movement or student leader in CCC. Leadership is simply defined as “influence”. It is not a position, or power or a title. And “influence” is the ability to attract someone to follow us. Each one of us wield influence some way or the other but true leadership is influencing people to take positive action that will change lives and transform society for the greater good and only the Gospel has the power to do this. Bible says it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. (Rom 1:16).
Well let us look at each of the letters that MSLVI stands for and try and understand it better. The first letter “M” stands for Multiplier. Mathew the gospel writer records powerfully the last few words of our master before He ascended into heaven. In Mathew chapter 28: 19 -20 Jesus commands us to “Go and make disciples of all nations”. A command that is resonating with God’s love for the whole world that no one should perish but He wants everyone to be saved, this command to make disciples is known as the Great commission. God loves each one of us immensely and He wants us to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength and then He commands us to love our neighbor as our self. (Mark 12:30-31) Because we love God and love people we are motivated to get involved in fulfilling the great commission which entails making disciples who make disciples. This is called spiritual multiplication.
A multiplier is a person who is involved in winning people to Christ as a way of life and building deeply those who come to faith and then sending them to win, build and send others. As one studies the word ‘GO’ in Matt 28:19, it is clearly interpreted as Jesus telling His disciples “as you go, make disciples” that just means as we go about our daily activities, as we spend our time in college, as we chat with our friends, as we play cricket or be it any situation, as we go we are called to make disciples. Making disciples should be a way of life for us, not a program or an organized formal activity or event. It becomes a normal part of our ever day activity when we intentionally and prayerfully take a faith step of initiating conversation as we meet students and in a very relational environment share the gospel to them through our personal testimony or through the four spiritual laws. As they respond to the gospel we help them to know more about Christ by teaching them from the word and helping the new believer to grow and mature. This is called building, once the disciple is growing and ready to multiply we equip him to go and win others with the gospel. Friends the question that is confronting us now is, ‘Are we multipliers?’, ‘As we go are we sharing our faith and making disciples?’ God expects each of His children to bear fruit, fruits that will last and because we love Him and love the millions of people who live in darkness around us, let us shine forth with the light of the gospel and make disciples for our master and king.
The second letter in the acronym is “S” which stands for ‘Spirit Filled’. Let's imagine that you want to learn to dance. Being the rational, cerebral person you are, you go to a bookstore and buy a book on dancing. You take the book home and get to work. You do everything it says. The book says sway; you sway. The book says shuffle; you shuffle. The book says spin; you spin. Finally, you think you've got it, and you invite your friends to come in and watch. You hold the book open and follow the instructions step by step. You continue to read, then dance, read, then dance, until the dance is completed. You plop exhausted on the couch, look at your friends, and proclaim, "I executed it perfectly." "You executed it, all right," they sigh. "You killed it." "What?"
"You forgot the most important part. Where is the music?" Music? We Christians are prone to follow the book while ignoring the music. We master the doctrine, outline the chapters, memorize the dispensations, debate the rules, and stiffly step down the dance floor of life with no music in our hearts. We measure each step, calibrate each turn, and flop into bed each night exhausted from another day of dancing by the book. Dancing with no music is tough stuff.
Jesus knew that. For that reason, on the night before his death he introduced the disciples to the song maker of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. (John 16:7-9). Of the three persons of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit is the one we understand the least. Perhaps the most common mistake made regarding the Spirit is perceiving him as a power but not a person, a force with no identity. Such is not true. The Holy Spirit is not an "it." He is a person. He has knowledge (1 Cor. 2:11). He has a will (1 Cor. 12:11). He has a mind (Rom. 8:27). He has affections (Rom. 15:30). You can lie to him (Acts 5:3-4). You can insult him (Heb. 10:29). You can grieve him (Eph. 4:30). The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. He is not Popeye's spinach or the surfer's wave. He is God within you to help you. In fact John calls him the Helper.
Envision a father helping his son learn to ride a bicycle, and you will have a partial picture of the Holy Spirit. The father stays at the son's side. He pushes the bike and steadies it if the boy starts to tumble. The Spirit does that for us; he stays our step and strengthens our stride. Unlike the father, however, he never leaves. He is with us to the end of the age. (The above portion is taken from ‘A Gentle Thunder’ by Max Lucado)
Being Spirit filled is the key to enjoying successful Christian life. Spirit filled is the second letter in the acronym of MSLVI. Jesus said’ “Abide in me because apart from me you can do nothing”. John 15:5 and before He ascended into heaven He said, “But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won't draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honour me; he will take from me and deliver it to you”. John 16:13. The friend that Jesus is talking about is the Holy Spirit. He is the best friend we can ever have in our daily faith walk. Have you made Him your best friend?
The third letter is ‘L’ which stands for “Leadership” and as we all know and affirm leadership is influence i.e influencing people to take action. Spiritual leadership is moving people to God’s agenda for them. As we make disciples of students we want them to grow to be a spiritual leaders who are leading others and not just being a follower. Our vision is to see every disciple becoming a leader in his or her God given area of influence. It can be their friends, their class their campus or neighboring campuses, their families and even the city in which they live. Taking responsibility for their area of influence and initiating spiritual action to lead others to Jesus is what is expected of them. Everyone has in them the God given capacity to lead, here we are not talking about positional leadership or a title. We are talking about influencing others for Christ by faith, this is possible by anyone who is filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus picked up ordinary, uneducated fishermen as his disciples but these ordinary men when they were filled with the Holy Spirit they went on to change the world upside down, Gospel spread to all parts of the then known world rapidly. We are looking for people who are available to be used by God any way, who are teachable to be molded by God anyhow and who are faithful to be entrusted by God his riches of the kingdom. This can be in winning others to Christ, in organizing a core group, in planning for your campus, in putting up a program whatever be the way you are taking action to lead people.
The next letter is ‘V’ for being “Vision Driven”. Our vision is to see “spiritual movements everywhere so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus Christ”. In order to launch these spiritual movements we need to win, build and send Christ - centered multiplying disciples. When we say that our movement leader has to be vision driven we are expecting them to continuously initiate, plan and mobilize people and resources to move towards accomplishing this vision in his target area. He does not have to be pushed or prodded by the staff to be involved in evangelism and discipleship; he/she is motivated by the vision of seeing the Great commission being fulfilled. They lives out the Mathew 28:18-20 verses and has the end picture of seeing ‘movements everywhere’ constantly on their radar. He is constantly praying & thinking about creative ways and means of reaching his target audience and making disciples of them.
The last letter of the acronym is ‘i’ which stands for being ‘identified with the movement”. This basically means that he/she is in agreement with the CCC movement principles and carries the DNA of multiplication wherever he/she goes. This does not mean that they should be a hardcore CCC loyalist or die hard fan of Campus Crusade. This requires the movement leader to be part of the student leadership and taking active part in leading and participating in all the movement activities and he/she is proud to declare his affiliation with the local movement. He continues to be associated with the movement where ever he goes and continues to live out the DNA of multiplication whether he is in workplace or some other mission. In short he/she loves the movement.
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