Youth: Leaders of Tomorrow! Why South Sudanese referred to Youth as Leaders of tomorrow? (Part 3)
By David Matiop Gai, Juba, South Sudan
March 7, 2017 (SSB) — This part three will discuss what define leadership secularly, and divinity. What are scriptures terms for leadership and how do these term indicate the expectations of leaders, but as I wrote about youths as leaders of tomorrow, and why their leadership referred to young people as leaders of tomorrow? It is meant for future youth leadership development.
And in part one I wrote about leadership definition and in part two discussed identification of leaders comparing to how Dr. John Garang de Mabior, the chairman and commander in chief of SPLA/SPLM developed youths leaders in SPLA/SPLM leadership during his ruling era, and the importance of transitional leadership to youths after proper preparation of youth leadership development.
In Roman 12: 4ff, Apostle Paul requested leaders for their gifts of leadership and how to exercise this gift with diligence. With this request from Apostle Paul, it is a gift of that kind what possessed a heart of every leader and Paul himself had experienced both in secular and divinity because he was a lawyer by profession, and later on converted to Christianity and he became oriented servant leader to serve humanity.
And when Christian leaders and government leaders evolved in the faced one of evolution, the governments in the ancient days learnt from the Theocracy leadership and transformation in leadership occurred over and over for so centuries until today of modern world of technology.
The scripture term and Greek word for leader means to be, “set above”, that’s in a place of leadership. According to 1 Cor 12:28, translated, “forms of leadership”, and is also expressed by the Greek word for, “Helmsman”, or “sailing master”. The book of 1 Tim 3: 1-7, and Titus 1: 7-9 say qualities for leaders or leadership; and oversee desire for a noble task, but he/she must be a qualified person with thirteen, (13) qualities of leadership.
- He must be above approach,
- Husband of but one wife,
- He must not be temperate,
- He/she must be a self-controlled,
- He must be a respectable,
- He must be a man of hospitality,
- He will be able to teach others,
- He will not be a drunkenness,
- He is not violent but gentle,
- He will be quarrelsome,
- He is not a lover of money,
- He must manage his own family,
- And he must have a good reputation with outsiders.
And the book of Titus said, oversee must not overbearing, not quick-temper, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest, but he must be blameless, hospitable, loves what is good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined, trustworthy and courage others. From these long qualifications for and about leadership and leadership positions, it’s concluded that what defines leadership taught of leadership activities as the will of God to prepare youths for upright leadership in human society like in the Republic of South Sudan.
In 2 Cor 11:28, Apostle Paul narrated and expressed his concern for his position about leadership, and in the leadership, “that beyond his hardship and suffering”, he said, “I faced daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches”. Another most important scripture about leadership is expressed in fullness of serving people, and significant point of leadership position either in the church or in the government is a leadership style which was described by the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 22: 24-27 that the, “greatest among you is the one who serves”, because according to Jesus Christ, leaders or leadership position is just to serve others, simply like that!
Why is leadership an opportunity? My point of leadership definition gives the position of leadership as an opportunity because it is to do good things for people, Kingdom of God, to multiple vision, to serve others, and to guide toward better future. When we go back to leadership qualifications, Paul enlisted the oversee qualifications by saying that “whoever aspires to the office of oversee desires a good task”, and in secular perspective, top leadership like President desires a good task, (1 Tim 1:1-7), because accent is not on personal ambition but rather on worthiness of leadership itself for those who fit the qualifications above.
According to J. Oswald Sander’s says something in spiritual leadership that, “to aspire to leadership in God’s Kingdom requires us to be willing to pay a price higher than others are willing to pay. The task of true leadership is heavy and the more effective the leadership, the higher it goes”.
This gives my personal experiences on the effective definition of leadership because leadership is both natural, and spiritual or secular and divinity an influence or ability to let others do what you want them to do and readiness to lead your followers in humility, gentleness, and self-sacrifice. Therefore I always advised leaders and people that a leader is an authoritative, spiritual, and sacrificial with great wisdom along few kilometres from his followers because a leader look beyond everyone with dependence of privileges, empathy, optimism, and approval to identified himself/herself with sinful nature and infirmities of humanity because we are all human beings, we can be wrong any time if not always and a leader is also not carrying perfect characters, and that’s why a leader is not above the law which is a secular school of discipline for disobedient. A true leader is a spiritual leader who is always full of seeking God’s will to rule others with equality of privelges.
In the book of Act chapter 6: 3, A leader must be a person who is full of spirit or should be a man/woman of integrity, good reputation, capacity, full of wisdom, and riches in personality. A person with clear criteria of leadership can be a leader social qualifications, moral qualifications, mental qualifications, personality qualifications, domestic qualifications, and mature qualifications to fulfil a strong desires and different needs of God and humankinds when God reigns through the person he chooses to lead people.
The author is a co-founder of South Sudan Mental Health care Organization, (SSMHCO). He holds Bachelor degree in Social Work and Social Administration from SSCUST, Bachelor of Theology from CLT, Bungoma, Kenya/Kalispell, USA, and a fellow researcher. He can be reach at david.matiopgai@gmail.com.
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