The pastor shares his insights on leadership excellence.
Contributed by Joshua Chang
Founder and senior pastor of Family Harvest Church, Dr. Robb Thompson is an expert in the area of organization, relationship and leadership. Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading teachers on personal excellence and character development, he has trained and coached business executives and mentored government leaders, heads of state, cabinet members, and royalties in over 40 countries around the world. No stranger to City Harvest Church, Thompson began his elective session on CGI-Asia Conference Day One as the crowd listened intently to his every word.
Thompson began by explaining that leadership is essentially discipleship. To lead, one has to first learn how to follow. He elucidated that this concept has been clearly echoed through Scripture—everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher; the Corinthians were told to imitate the apostle Paul as he imitated Christ.
The goal of leadership is not just to see a change in our lives but most importantly, to have an inward transformation. He further elaborated that the problem was not bringing people into the House of God, but rather ensuring that they receive a special touch to change their lives. There may have been meetings with a million people in attendance, but in such meetings it is very difficult to ascertain whether all will have experienced an authentic inward change.
Thompson then began to share seven traits that true spiritual leaders should have. Firstly, they need to embody courage. Courage, as he defined, is the willingness to stand for what is right in the face of wrong—it is not the same as bravery.
Secondly, leaders need to have a committed life-team around them, as a person’s life is determined by those whom he calls friends; to those whom he grants access to.
Self control is another essential trait. He highlighted how characters in the Bible such as Adam and Samson flirted with the temptation of the forbidden, and as a result, disappointed God.
Leaders also need integrity—the inner strength to choose the rejection of men rather than to disappoint God. People often fail in life because of a fault in character, and a lack of integrity often underlies that problem.
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Thompson stated that diligence is a quality that all leaders should strive to have, and that it is the mother of promotion. Quoting from Proverbs, Thompson clearly showed that the scriptures highlight the necessity of hard work for greater success and excellence in life.
The sixth attribute is possessing a successful attitude. This is the different spirit which Joshua and Caleb had that enabled them to enter the Promised Land. It is not the negative circumstances that will determine a person’s future but rather how he responds that will decide his destiny.
Finally, a leader must be a good finisher—to endure to the end regardless of the trials and tribulations that he faces. Dr. Thompson followed by sharing three laws of leadership: Never delay a decision which has to be made eventually; be specific when one has to get something done and to make one’s expectations clear of his followers. He further elaborated on four qualifications to be a leader and ended the message with an altar call for those who had fallen short of certain standards to ask God to make them better leaders.
Thompson ended the session with a short time of Q&A. Financial consultant Mary Tan, 43, asked Thompson how he handles betrayal personally. He answered that no one likes betrayal, that even Jesus was hurt by Judas’ act of disloyalty, but that time is the factor which will cause all evil to eventually reveal itself.
National serviceman Jireh Chew, 20, felt that the session was very ‘enlightening’ and was inspired to be the person that God has called him to be.
CHC member Louis Ling, 51, was deeply impacted by Dr. Thompson’s teaching and was encouraged by a greater understanding of leadership principles.
The session truly left the delegates hungry for more of the truth of God’s word.
