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Prayer: Leader’s Most Important Attribute

by BryanOctober 10, 20202 min read

A recent Sunday School class I was visiting engaged in a discussion about desirable characteristics of Christian leadership. Each class member was asked to rate five characteristics in order from least important to most important. The leader then tallied the totals and the class discussed the differences revealed in the exercise.

The five characteristics were prayerful, persuasive, pastoral, passionate, and perceptive. (I’m unclear as to the need for alliteration in the list, but, nonetheless…). On the whole, the class identified prayerfulness as the most important characteristic, but this also became the focus of a great deal of discussion. Several felt that passion was a better choice. One member of the class contended that only if you were passionate about something and perceptive enough to see a related need could you be able to pray.

For the Christian, none is more vitally central to the others than a leader’s habits and practices of prayer.

After a bit, another spoke to the contrary and asked where passion and perceptivity came from. Unless one’s passion and perceptivity (or anything else) is not given by God, then life is being lived out of one’s own strength and effort. This can hardly be called Christian leadership. All other characteristics flow from this act of fellowship and communicating with God.

This insightful class member was right. Leader traits such as passion, pastoral skills, persuasiveness, or perceptivity may indeed be important for leadership, but, for the Christian, none is more vitally central to the others than a leader’s habits and practices of prayer.

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