Click to Download Auto-Generated Transcript Download Text File–Discussion & Applications Below

1. “Your character must be greater than any platform you ever stand on.” What do you think Crawford intended by this statement?
2. “A leader is not just a steward of processes. A leader is the portrait of the desired destination where others need to arrive.” When you think of other great leaders who have inspired you, do you see them as a steward of processes, or the personification of destination?    Please share your thoughts with the group.
3. Crawford’s journey on this topic led him to search the scriptures to discover commonalities among great leaders that God used. Share your short list of what great leaders have in common.

Crawford states: “What you’re doing, your assignment in the marketplace, God has placed, God has placed you there! God has called you to be there! God has called you to steward that assignment.”

1. Crawford connects the statement above with the vital importance of brokenness to build dependency on God, enabling effective stewardship. Do you see brokenness as foundational to effective stewardship? Why or why not?

2. Crawford says “You can be wounded without having been broken; but you cannot be broken without being wounded.” Share your thoughts on the distinctions between wounding and brokenness. 

3. Moses, Joseph, David, Paul and many other great leaders in the scriptures endured wounding by adversaries and self-infliction. God used both categories to humble them, help them escape self-reliance and bring them to a points of dependency on God.   Do you think God does the same today?

1. Were your proverbial quiver full of children, you would naturally be most inclined to impart privilege, authority and resources to the child who is most trustworthy. You would love them all the same; but trust built on obedience and performance over time are well proven qualifiers to empower your own child, as well as the team members you serve. How does obedience to God fit into leadership?
2. Crawford states: “Fulfillment is a byproduct of right purpose, obedience and finishing, finishing what God has called you to do.” Crawford goes on to illustrate that truth by referencing Acts 13:22 where God highlights His reason for calling, anointing and lifting up David as King. David started as one of the most flawed leaders of all time; but he ultimately repented, radically obeyed God and was bestowed a unique moniker as one after God’s own heart. Can you think of any leader in scriptures that is a stronger example of how God can take any leader at any time, redeem and raise up him or her for His glory?

Deeper Dive–Scripture for consideration, contemplation and leadership transformation:

• He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:3-6 ESV
• The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalms 51:17 ESV
• All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
  Isaiah 66:2 ESV