Fire Starter Ministries

Authority and Power Leadership Series pt. 4

Authority~ The skill of getting someone (or a group of people) to do something towards a common goal with enthusiasm and camaraderie.
Power~ The ability to get someone (or a group of people) to do something towards a common goal because of your entitlement.

Gary Chapman stated there are five love languages: Quality Time, Words of Encouragement, Touch, Acts of Service, and Gift Giving. Now, how can knowing love languages help me as an Authoritative leader at my job or in a church setting?

We have all been created to respond to some form of compliment and it can come in many different forms. Investing in someone's life, will bring back 30, 60, or 100 fold. Understanding Love Languages can help define how a leader can best do this action. You just need to find good soil.

Everyone has a primary language they function out of and have a secondary that they dip into from time to time. Beloved, knowing these Love Languages is not the magic formula to getting people to do something. It’s just another tool you can add to your tool box. I’m going to give you a few scenarios that might help us see the value in knowing how to use love languages in everyday life, as a authoritative leader.

Let’s say you have an event at your church or at your job. To show your appreciation, you have a plaque made with some nice words about the person that headed the event. You hand the plaque to the person. He reads it. He smiles. He gives you a side “church hug” and goes home and throws it in a box in the garage. Where, another person receives the exact same plaque and he reads it, he smiles, and he gives you a side “church hug”. Now he goes home and mounts the plaque on the wall or sets it on his mantle for display. What happen? Same plaque, different responses. The first person’s love language was not gift giving. The second person’s love language was gift giving.

Let’s say you take a youth leader from church or a team player from your job out for a coffee. You ask her about her day, sports, TV shows, family, friends; just talking about life. The first five minutes go by quickly and when you look over, she is constantly looking off in the distance. She’s looking at her phone like she would rather be anywhere but here. But, you take another person to the same place and ask her the same questions and you look up and its 2 hours later. Great conversation! What happened? Same place, same talk, different responses. The first person’s love language was not quality time. The second person’s love language was quality time.

Let’s say you come home early from work and clean the house, do laundry, and have dinner ready for your wife when she gets home. She comes through the door and sees what you’ve done and says thank you and goes off doing whatever in the house. But, you take another wife and do the same thing and she comes into the house practically shouting hallelujah for the miracle. What happened? Same tasks done, different responses. The first wife’s love language was not acts of service. The second wife’s love language was acts of service.

By knowing how these languages work in the church, in the workplace, and at home, you can be more effective in your Authoritative leadership! Here are a few books you can check out for a more in-depth study.
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace by Gary Chapman & Paul White

Authority and Power Leadership Series pt. 1

What comes to your mind when you think about Authority Leadership and Power Leadership? I would like for you to take a moment and write down what you feel is the difference between Power and Authority according to your world view. Then continue this study.
Authority~ ____________________________________________________________________

Power~ _______________________________________________________________________

One has a Father’s heart towards leading and the other has an Orphan's heart towards dominating and controlling. Here are the definitions that we will be focusing on, so that we are all on the same page…

Authority~ The skill of getting someone (or a group of people) to do something towards a common goal with enthusiasm and camaraderie.

Power~ The ability to get someone (or a group of people) to do something towards a common goal because of your entitlement.

There are two key words that separate the definitions: the word skill and the word ability.

The word skill in the dictionary means~ to work upon. Watch how this works. As we walk in Authority, we skillfully work upon each individual to MOVE them towards the common goal. We want to move them towards the common goal, not PUSH them.

Moving people skillfully is hands on. This is the Father’s mentality: to help people to move others in the direction of His will. Being right beside them, moving them towards the goal and when the time is right, we release them to accomplish the goal through their gifts, talents, and anointing.

The word ability in the dictionary means~ possession of the means …. to do something. Power is the ability to push people towards the common goal. Just because you’ve been given the entitlement of a Mother, or the entitlement of a Husband, or the entitlement of a Pastor or the entitlement of a Boss on your job, does not give you the right to push people around. This is the Orphan mentality...“My way or the high way”. It is not hands on like the Father’s mentality, but rather it’s pushing them towards the goal and leaving them out to fend for themselves. Walking dominantly in the power of your entitlement really can turn people off. That kind of attitude pushes people into getting the job done, but it can cause strife and disharmony. Unfortunately, the gifts, talents, and anointing to do the job, gets stifled.

The FATHER'S mentality moves and the ORPHAN mentality pushes.

“Authority” is skillfully working upon each individual and “Power” is forcing your ability of entitlement .

Authority moves, Power pushes.

The Father’s mentality moves people with a hands on approach. The Orphan mentality pushes people away and its hands off with no real guidance. Real Authority is guidance with freedom; where Power is abandonment with chains of restrictions. We need to walk in Authoritative Leadership so that we can utilize all the gifts, talents, and anointing a person carries for the Kingdom sake.

Our next study will bring us to a breakdown of even a greater proportion of the definition of Authority.