C 10 - Leadership
LEADERSHIP
10. At this point the writer wishes to emphasize specially as one of the attractions of the ministry the fact of its leadership. Leadership is one of the most powerful magnets that attract men in all fields. In science, literature, and art, and especially in business, government, and war, men aspire to rise to positions where they are intrusted with great responsibilities and command or lead others. In every city and village men are measured by public opinion very much by the degree of prominence and leadership which they attain; and as a rough, external standard the measurement is approximately correct. It is also a true, human instinct which prompts men to aspire to and to appreciate and rejoice in such leadership, provided it is not unworthily gained and used. The minister steps almost at once into such a position, and if he proves competent and worthy he grows in it until very often he be comes the most influential man in his community or even in a large city. He is a leader of his people in thought, as he molds them into his way of thinking and often guides them to his own conclusions. He is a leader in planning and carrying out all the activities of his church. He is a leader in the life of his community, as he holds up civic and ethical and religious ideals and builds them into its social structure. He is a leader in great crises of thought and life when momentous questions of faith or government or national affairs or war come up for practical decision. And he is a leader in the broad field of the nation and the world, as he shapes pro grams and pushes campaigns in home and foreign missionary work. No business man or lawyer or civic officer or statesman is handling plans and programs of more far reaching scope and influence, no other man in the ordinary places of life has such lines of leadership committed to his hands. The minister comes to feel the dignity and honor and the magnitude and significance of the interests he is guiding, and this position of responsibility and leadership is a worthy at traction of his calling.