Luke 12: 12 “Brothers, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.”  I once heard a Christian speaker say, “No church will rise above the spiritual level of its pastor.”  Over the years of my life, I have observed how true this statement is as it applies to leadership in church, work and family.  It is just as applicable to the competency and achievement level in business, sports and other areas of life.  Look at America’s best corporations and sports’ teams.  Those who achieve the most are those who have strong leaders who set the example.  The NFL draft was held this past week and the grades are now being assigned.  It seems that the best keep on getting better and the worse keep on getting worse.  Why?  It is because of the leadership and coach at the top and their level of competency and core values to include character over performance. 

Now, turn this to your spiritual leadership with your family, work and church.  Your followers will not usually rise higher than your spiritual level.  As the leader, you should set the pattern or example by how you walk, by your character and integrity and by your personal interactions with the followers.  They actually look to you for this kind of strong kind of leadership.  It must be your goal to produce other leaders from you followers and to make them strong for the future.  Show them the way so that they can learn to go the way.  We live in a world today that is lacking true leaders of character, integrity and spiritual values.  Why?  Most all of them did not have strong parental spiritual leaders to give them the example and pattern to follow.  Never minimize the importance and call of God for your responsibility to become a spiritual giant in the lives of those whom you lead.