Leadership – Candy's Blog

John Wesley’s 12 Rules for Leaders

John Wesley believed in empowering lay people for leadership. He empowered those with leadership gifts and preaching abilities to help him in ministry. These are his 12 requirements he expected from his lay preachers:

Be diligent. Never be unemployed a moment. Never be triflingly employed. Never while away time; neither spend any more time at any place than is strictly necessary.
Be serious. Let your motto be, “Holiness to the Lord.” Avoid all lightness, jesting, and foolish talking.
Converse sparingly and cautiously with women; particularly, with young women.
Take no step toward marriage, without first consulting with your brethren.
Believe evil of no one; unless you see it done, take heed how you credit it. Put the best construction on everything. You know the Judge is always supposed to be on the prisoner’s side.
Speak evil of no one; else your word especially would eat as doth a canker. Keep your thoughts within your own breast, till you come to the person concerned.
Tell every one what you think wrong in him, and that plainly, as soon as may be; else it will fester in your heart. Make all haste to cast the fire out of your bosom.
Do not affect the gentleman. You have no more to do with this character than with that of a dancing-master. A Preacher of the gospel is the servant of all.
Be ashamed of nothing but sin: Not of fetching wood (if time permit) or drawing water; not of cleaning your own shoes, or your neighbour’s.
Be punctual. Do everything exactly at the time. And in general, do not mend our Rules, but keep them; not for wrath, but for conscience’ sake.
You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go always, not only to those that want you, but to those that want you most.
Act in all things, not according to your own will, but as a son in the Gospel. As such, it is your part to employ your time in the manner which we direct; partly, in preaching and visiting from house to house; partly, in reading, meditation, and prayer. Above all, if you labour with us in our Lord’s vineyard, it is needful that you should do that part of the work which we advise, at those times and places which we judge most for his glory.

You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go always, not only to those who want you, but to those who want you most.

(Minutes of Conference, 29 June 1744, revised 1745)

These 12 rules are about our behaviours, habits and conducts. We are to be mindful that whatever we do, we don’t waste time, we keep watch over our finances as much as we watch over our tongues. We are to be pure in our thoughts and actions so that we glorify God in all that we do, be the big or small things in our daily life.

Jesus as the Centre of our lives

The most important thing as a Christian leader.

There is a saying that goes, “God does not call the equipped; God equips the called”. Equipping of God’s servant comes from God Himself. He will give what is needed to the people He has called. Our past experiences, our present life circumstances, our education, talents and personalities, all these are given by God to mould and shape us so that He can use us for His purpose as He sees fit.

Though being equipped is necessary, we too need to have an intimate relationship with the Lord. Christians have been battling false teachings and persecutions since the first century. When Jesus is in the centre of our life, we are able to discern false teachings and to teach others the truth. When we are walking with Jesus, persecutions will lead us to the joy and hope which is eternal.

In our ministry, nothing is as important as walking closely with the Lord and hearing His voice.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28, KJV)

A Lesson on Management?

I was walking past a cleaner who had just mopped the floor. I have never seen him before but he was friendly. He said I was leaving tracks behind me and he had just mopped the floor. However, he said that it was OK.

He went on to say that the management would check on him from time to time to make sure that he was doing his duties instead of loitering in the compound. His face was downcast as we chatted. It seemed that he was disheartened that his supervisors did not trust him enough to do a good job.

Now, I personally did not know this cleaner. I had never seen him before. I did not know his name. I did not know about his track record as a cleaner for that company. May be he was lazy, which might be why the management needed to resort to implementing this strategy.

I don’t know what you think about this but I think as leaders, we should first learn to trust and respect the people under our care. If we go the extra mile to build a happy, supportive, safe and respectful environment for people to work in, they would be happy coming in to work everyday. There would be smiles on their faces.

If we have the mindset that a company is one big family, and those working under us is part of our family instead of our servants to boss around, they will enjoy this sense of belonging and will thrive in their work regardless of their positions.

A few days ago, I sent my parents’ car to the workshop. The mechanic had junior mechanics under him. This mechanic knew how to be a good boss. As he was chatting with my dad, he said that the workers were from different ethnicities and different races but he cared for them like his own sons. They had come to work for him and so he realised he had the responsibility to care for them. He gave them food and he taught them skills. He said that he hoped that these boys would grow up to be useful people in the society. No wonder these junior mechanics were happy working there. They gave us excellent service because they had been given excellent treatments from the boss. They felt that they belonged there. They knew that they were a family. That was why they went the extra mile for their boss and for the customers. The atmosphere was so different.

Now, if you compare these two bosses, you would see how it would affect the customers. The first boss doubted his worker and so the worker was not happy. He gossiped, grumbled and complained about the management to whoever was willing to listen, even just a passerby.

The second one might not be a wealthy man, but he loved his workers and treated them like his sons. He hoped to provide values for his workers. It was not so much what his workers could do for him, but what he could provide for them. He was training them to be good mechanics and responsible citizens of the society.

I admire the leadership of the mechanic. Let us do good and spread love and kindness when we have the opportunity. Let us lift people up, regardless of what they do for a living. Let us show love and respect to the people around us.