Many pastors and churches use the summertime to evaluate their ministries and plan for the coming fall. Often that includes recruiting and building new teams to spearhead various initiatives. What qualities are you looking for in your leaders? What traits are you trying to develop in your team?
After the resurrection of Jesus, the church was exploding with growth. Peter preached a powerful sermon that resulted in 3,000 spontaneous baptisms (Acts 2:41) and new people gave their lives to Jesus every single day (Acts 2:47).
When the disciples looked to expand their team, they chose a specific group of men headlined by a man named Stephen. What exactly were they looking for in this new leadership team? Acts 6 gives us a list of godly leadership traits.
“They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.” (Acts 6:5)
- Stephen was full of faith.
- Stephen was connected with other men.
- Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit.
“Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.” ~Acts 6:8 - Stephen was full of God’s grace and power.
“Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen.” ~Acts 6:9 - Stephen was resilient.
“But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.” ~Acts 6:10 - Stephen had wisdom.
“All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” ~Acts 6:15 - Stephen was a man of character.
“But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’” ~Acts 7:55-56 - Stephen was a man of focus.