Chapter 13

True Leaders Are Initiators

By Dr. Lester Hutson

II Timothy 2:4

"No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."

One of the hardest things in life to teach others is initiative, but all good leaders have it. It's especially important to pastors since they do not have an earthly boss to dictate their activities. If they do not have the personal initiative to order and structure their lives effectively and stay on track, they will surely fail.

Vital Initiative

Initiative is the ability to get things started or done without needing to be told what to do. Initiators not only see what needs doing, they do it. They are the "doers" whom James discusses in chapter 2, and they are doing because they chose to do it out of their own free wills, not because somebody commanded or provoked them into doing it.

Synonyms of initiative are inaugurate, begin, launch, set in motion and take the first step. Most people just sit around and wait for something to happen. True leaders initiate the causes that make good things happen. They've learned that there's an inseparable connection between cause and effect, and that there'll be no good effects unless right causes are initiated. They do not just preach Galatians 6:7 which says, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," they practice sowing.

They know God works according to divine principles, and that no one can expect the benefit of the principle until he initiates it. There can be no souls saved until the gospel is presented. (Romans 10:14-17) There can be no economic freedom apart from economic responsibility. (Luke 6:38) Godly children cannot be expected unless there is Godly training. (Proverbs 22:6)

So, true leaders make it their business to embark in the direction that leads to victory. They do not just sit around waiting for and hoping victory will come. They're up looking for opportunities. They do without having to be told. They're the Isaiahs who say, "Here am I, send me." (Isaiah 6:8) They're the volunteers, the ones who already have the job done when the boss gets there.

Oh, lots of people do pretty well as long as somebody tells them what to do, and when to do it, but, when it comes to rising up on their own to get the job done, they're "dead in the water." They're the people who'll stay status quo until somebody comes along and says "move." They're the Sunday school teachers whose rooms look the same month after month, and who do almost nothing to reach any new people. There's little class life and activity, and even the lessons lack freshness. They're the pastors who get in a rut, and it reflects in their preaching, in the programs of their churches and even in the appearance of the properties. There's no initiative, nothing moveable or creative. It's satisfaction with the "same old six and seven." They're the superintendents and ministry directors who just rock along, and whose areas of responsibility seldom show any creativity, newness, freshness or substantial effort to improve and do a better job.

Initiators launch out. They try new things. They don't have to be told to do it; they do it on their own. They search for better ways. They try new ideas. They tackle problems. They're not passive. They go after people; they don't wait for them to come. If something needs done, they feel a personal responsibility to do it. Others may be just as willing to work hard and just as able, but they don't have the spark to start action on their own.

II Timothy 2:3-4 calls us spiritual soldiers. Good soldiers don't just sit around waiting to be attacked. No. They attack. They're known for offense, not just defense.

Ephesians 6:10-18 tells soldiers of the cross how to dress for battle, and you will see that even the defensive parts of the armor are for a soldier of initiative. The armor is not designed to protect a soldier in retreat or who is just passive. The armor is for a soldier intent on the defeat of his enemies.

Scriptural illustrations

Though the word initiative is never once mentioned in the Bible, the concept of initiative is well illustrated in scripture as a Godly characteristic of successful people.

Joshua

Can you imagine Joshua apart from initiative? The whole conquest of Canaan was an initiative. He'd have never succeeded if he had waited. Canaan would never have belonged to Israel if there hadn't been the courage and will to get up and take it. God had said in Deuteronomy 1:21, "Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged." He had promised in Joshua 1:3, "Every place that the sole of your feet shall tread upon, that have I given unto you." Yet, it took initiative to get it into their hands.

That's still how it is. It takes initiative to build churches. It takes initiative to win people to Christ. It takes initiative to get up early in the morning to study and pray when no one is there to tell you to do it. It takes initiative to tackle thorny problems and to get things going when everybody around you is settled into a comfortable rut.

Ruth

You talk about initiative, Ruth was full of it, and she's one of the great people of the Bible. When her husband died, and her mother-in-law started to leave, Ruth got up and went with her. The mother-in-law, Naomi, said go back. (Ruth 1:15) Goodness! Ruth was a Moabitess. What place would she have as a widow woman in Judah? Why not stay in Moab? Why not go back to her family? Why not settle where she was? Yet, Ruth wanted something better!

Praise God for a spirit of initiative which says, "I don't intend to live and die in Moab!" Ruth said to Naomi,

"Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me," in Ruth 1:16-17.

They came to Bethlehem. Ruth didn't sit down and wait for someone to care for her. She had enough initiative to get up and find a job. She didn't expect somebody to tell her what to do, or hand it to her on a silver platter. In Ruth 2:2 "Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, 'Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.'" Naomi said, "Go my daughter." The next verse says of Ruth that, "She went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers." A touch of that spirit would make successful leaders out of a lot more of God's people.

When Ruth found out her relationship to Boaz in Ruth 3:2 do you think she sat around hoping Boaz would find out about her and come seeking her out to be his wife? Not Ruth! She had initiative. Chapter 3 tells how she got up to the threshing floor and asked Boaz to be her kinsman redeemer. Oh, what a beautiful story of initiative and the success with God and man which it brought! How sad that today so few of God's people, even those who profess to be leaders, have it!

Apollos

Initiative was the chief quality of Apollos in Acts 18:24-28. His theology was not that sound, but he had a zeal and a will to know more. And sure enough he did learn, and his learning more didn't kill his zeal as it so often seems to do to Christians today. How refreshing it is to read of Apollos in Acts 18:28, "For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ." How good it is to hear Paul say in I Corinthians 3:6, "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase."

Initiative folks! It's a basic essence of spiritual success. Paul It would surely be hard to look with any depth at the life of Paul and fail to see that initiative was as much a part of him as his skin. He didn't wait for the Gentiles to come to him. He took the gospel to them. He took the initiative to win Timothy and Titus and Philemon and Onesimus and the Philippian jailer. He took the initiative to start churches in Corinth and Phillipi and Ephesus and Thessalonica and lots of other places.

Look at him in Acts 17. He was waiting in Athens for Silas and Timothy to catch up. Athens was a most sensuous, wicked city. Now, verse 16 captures the spirit of initiative that so thoroughly characterized Paul's life. It says, "Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." Yes, his spirit was moved within him. He wasn't the status quo type. There was a spirit in him that said, "Get up; seize the initiative here. Don't wait for something to happen. Do something to change this godless situation."

Jesus

Nobody embodied the spirit of initiative more than Jesus. Luke 19:10 says He came to "seek and to save that which was lost." Thank God, He took the initiative toward us. What a sad shape we'd be in if He'd had no initiative!

During His earthly ministry the scriptures repeatedly say He "was moved with compassion" toward needy people. You'll see it in Matthew 9:36, 14:14 and 18:27 and in many other places. There was a fallen woman at Jacob's well in Shechem. John 4 tells the story of how He took the initiative to reach her. I'm telling you that He didn't react to her; He took the first step. That's what initiative does. It leads the way, breaks new ground, inaugurates.

Look at Jesus with Nicodemus in John 3. Nicodemus came to Jesus and made a comment about who Jesus was. Jesus immediately seized the initiative, and from there on, Jesus led the way.

Other initiators

Look at the Good Samaritan, and you'll see initiative. Look at Moses dealing with Pharaoh and you'll see initiative. What a thrilling thing to see little David seize the initiative from Goliath in I Samuel 17! The scriptures are laced with it. Every true leader had it, and they still do.

Four characteristics of initiators

There are four clear-cut characteristics of initiators.

They are self-starters

Nobody has to get them up and going. Nobody has to hold their hands and always be telling them what to do. They see things for themselves and make it their business to do something about the needs within their realm of authority. They don't wait on somebody else to command, push or guide them into action.

They do not wait for others

Initiators get with it whether anybody else does or not. They figure if a job needs doing, improvements need to be made, then those things need to be done whether or not anybody else does them. Initiators have the courage to break away from the crowd and be different. They believe the scripture which says, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil," in Exodus 23:2.

A crowd of people were standing on a beach watching a boy drown. One man leaped forth and saved the boy. He was an initiator. He was a member of a rare breed, a leader instead of the wearer of an empty title. True church leaders with initiative challenge stagnate members. They ruffle up dead committees. They change things around the properties. They will not tolerate service in a rut.

In some ways, they're almost troublemakers, but it's trouble in a good way, the kind of trouble that cures trouble. They do not wait on others to do the things that need to be done. They do not measure themselves by others. They're not focusing on what others are doing; they're focusing on what needs to be done.

II Corinthians 10:12 declares, "For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves; but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." So, initiators are doing what needs to be done, not what others are doing.

Their standard is God

They do what needs to be done because it's right before God to do it, not because they have to, or because someone told them to or because others are. They're the ones II Timothy 2:4 is talking about. "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."

Initiators want to please the Lord, and so they take the actions which they believe will do it. The fact that others are, or are not, doing so too really has no bearing on what they're doing. They know from John 21:22 that their job is to do right whether anyone else does or not. Beloved, it is amazing how God can take the initiative of one to motivate others. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in II Corinthians 9:2, "For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many."

Brother, don't be content to sit back in the ranks. Be an initiator. Get up and start breaking new ground, and you will doubtless be surprised at how many will fall in behind you.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"