Forward

7 Distinguishing Marks for Future Leaders

Ronnie Floyd

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781433685194
• eBook ISBN: 9781433685200
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Forward leaders are missing in action.

Where are they today? Leaders in the future must rise and lead people forward. They have to lead so high above the fray they will not stoop to littleness in their thinking and conduct. They have to lead so big, they will not settle for just leading a few. They have to lead so deep; they will not be tossed and turned as they ride the tumultuous waters of leadership. Author Ronnie Floyd is calling for a different kind of leader to rise up for the future.

Forward is about seven distinguishing marks for future leaders. Who are these future leaders? Anyone who leads anything in the future.

Forward is a call. Forward is a process. Forward is a direction. Forward is a change.

Chapter 1

Forward Truth

Leaders drift. We can be ready to tie our boat to the dock, become distracted by the noise around us, and look up to find ourselves away from the dock, again. Our need was real. Our intention was good. Yet, our carelessness was costly.

Each one of us has experienced something like this in leadership. Even under the best conditions, leadership is hard. People pull at us continually. Social media screams at us. The noise is distracting. We can drift easily.

Peter Greer and Chris Horst spent two years studying organizations, including businesses, educational institutions, parachurch ministries, and churches. The result of their work is Mission Drift, which analyzes stories of organizations who have undergone mission drift and those who have remained mission true. Examples are given where organizations were founded originally by a Christian and for Christian purposes. Today, a few are now secular.1

At times, I drift. Years ago, I had a tendency to do it more than I do today. Oftentimes in the past, I have let my passion outrun my priorities. By the way, the need was real. My intentions were good. My carelessness was costly. When this happened, I found myself in a ditch.

There were times where my passion for relevance became so important to me, I did not think through the possible long-term ramifications. This led others to misunderstand some of what I was trying to accomplish. Looking back, I ended up in this ditch because I unintentionally permitted results to become seemingly more important than forward truth. While God used this to mature me and grow my leadership, much of it was completely avoidable. This is what happens when we drift.

Through the years, God has built within me a strong commitment to discipline. My schedule is disciplined. My commitment to exercise is disciplined. Now, my leadership is disciplined.

I believe it is because of one reason: I am anchored to forward truth.

It is forward truth that has kept me out of most of the potential ditches in my life and leadership.

If you are going to rise up as a future leader, then you had better anchor yourself to forward truth. You can only lead someone to a better future if you consistently stay out of the ditches. Quite honestly, I know nothing that can lessen this threat in your life other than fastening your life to forward truth. When you do, you will set yourself apart from other leaders.

Moses Led Forward

Few leaders have ever had a more difficult assignment in leadership than Moses. People can become somewhat critical of Moses. From my perspective, Moses was the man!

Just imagine: he leaves luxury to embrace leadership. He did not know God’s future plan for him was to rise up and lead people to a better future. Right out of the gate, he ended up in a ditch! This led him to run from Pharaoh, but he could not outrun God and His plan for Moses to lead.

As God does with all future leaders, he set Moses apart with a special calling in his life. And yes, God also prepares his future leaders in all kinds of ways. God put Moses in the desert for forty years. In that setting, God prepared him to become a forward leader. Moses was certainly not perfect. No leader is perfect. I know that I am not perfect.

Moses now understood his gigantic calling in life, and even though God taught him to anchor his life and leadership to forward truth, there were moments he drifted. When he did, his carelessness cost him greatly. In fact, it cost leading the people into their Promised Land.

Yet, with intentionality, Moses led forward. His heart was set because of what God had said to him through the years. He would not let anyone move him away from his goal of leading the people forward. So many times, Moses could have ended up in ditches filled with golden calves, whining, complaining, rebellion, and the praise of his people. Because Moses knew what God had said to him repeatedly, he developed enough balance to not end up in the same ditches as the other leaders around him. He just kept leading forward.

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It was not Moses’ leadership team that distinguished him among the others; it was the presence of God.

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But Moses did not lead alone. He had a team of drifters around him who had doctoral degrees in ditches. It was not Moses’ leadership team that distinguished him among the others; it was the presence of God. Not only did the presence of God guide him, the presence of God was all over him.

What Is Forward Truth?

All of this happened because over time God had mentored Moses in forward truth. And because of this, Moses just kept leading forward. Again and again, he rallied people to a better future. This is what forward leaders do.

The most important distinguishing mark for future leaders is forward truth. So what is forward truth? It is:

Biblically Based

Forward leaders are fastened to forward truth. There is no truth apart from God’s truth. God’s truth is eternal. It has always been true, is true, and will be true forever. Anything else is just not truth. It comes and goes. The Scripture says in Isaiah 40:8,

“The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.”

When Moses saw that burning bush and later met with God on the mountain, he encountered the One who is, who was, and who is to come. He met God and heard Him speak personally.

Forward truth is eternal truth. It was this kind of truth that kept Moses leading forward. It will be forward truth—eternal truth—that keeps you leading forward.

As a future leader, you will lead from some personal frame of reference or from some source of authority. It may be from your personal experience, your family heritage, your academic preparation, or something else. But if you lead from one of these, you are destined for a ditch.

I want to call upon you to embrace forward truth. Forward truth is the only truth that will lead you to the future successfully. Forward truth is not new truth but eternal truth. For Moses, it was God’s voice, His personal word. For us, it is the Bible, God’s Word for us personally.

Forward leaders are anchored to forward truth. The Scripture says this in 2 Timothy 3:16–17,

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

This means that each Scripture in the Bible is inspired. In other words, God Himself has breathed the Scriptures into reality. Just as He spoke to Moses, He speaks to us now through the Scripture.

When future leaders base their life and leadership on the Bible, it gives them an advantage. It will benefit you to be a man or woman of the Bible. Immerse yourself in what God instructs through the Scriptures. When He speaks, He is right. Always. There are times when the Bible convicts you of sin and wrongness. At other times, it corrects you, nurturing you to restoration and completeness. It always helps you to think purely and operate with integrity. Nothing, and I mean nothing, not one book, including the one you are reading, can get you ready for your future like the Bible.

My life and leadership is anchored to the Bible. I believe in biblical inerrancy. I believe God inspired the Scripture; therefore, it is entirely true, authoritative, and trustworthy. It is God’s Truth without error. As Albert Mohler writes:

The affirmation of biblical inerrancy means nothing more, and nothing less, than this: When the Bible speaks, God speaks.2

Each time I open the Scripture, God is speaking to me.

One of the great champions for biblical inerrancy is Paige Patterson. In an article about a message he preached to his students at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, on the inerrancy of Scripture, it is written:

Patterson said the Bible is inerrant, with no mistakes of any kind; infallible, leading not its readers to any error; plenary, being equally inspired of God in its totality; and verbal, having inspiration in every single word and syllable, not just the ideas.3

Herein, I stand.

Forward leaders base their life and leadership on the Bible. I promise you, it is more reliable than any book, blog, article, or conference you will ever attend on leadership or the future. What God says, He means. What God promises, He does.

Wall Street does not have the final word. Washington does not have the final word. Cancer does not have the final word. Death does not have the final word. God has the final word. This is why we must base our lives and leadership in the Bible.

Theologically Balanced

What resources do leaders have at their disposal? Capital. Broadly speaking, a leader has three kinds of capital to deploy to get things done. Economic capital is money. Social capital is who one knows; the number of people one knows matters some, but for getting things done, certain friends have more authority and influence than others. Cultural capital is a blend of achievement, credentials, experience, and ease in particular circles of people. Social and cultural capital depend on trust. All of these forms of capital can be acquired and deployed, but none are infinite and all can be depleted or destroyed.

It’s easy to underst...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Forward Truth
• Chapter 2: Cross-Generational
• Chapter 3: Futuristic Thinker
• Chapter 4: Culturally Sensitive
• Chapter 5: Growing Teachability
• Chapter 6: Compelled by Compassion
• Chapter 7: Driven by Something More
• Go Forward: A Final Appeal to Future Leaders