Sadly, integrity is a vanishing virtue in our world today” Integrity is when your words and your deeds match up” It is when your internal and external behaviors and beliefs are consistent with each other” It is what you do when no one is watching” It is a virtue that anyone who wants to be an effective and respected leader must possess” According to Proverbs 11:3,”the integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them”You notice from this scripture verse that God places value on people who walk in integrity”
As a leader in your home, on your job, at your church or elsewhere, it is important that you cultivate this good quality of integrity in you because it is what will give you the moral authority to lead others and to make them submissive to your leadership” Let me discuss with you some reasons why integrity is so crucial to anyone who wants to be in leadership”
Firstly, integrity has the ability to build trust” It was Dwight Eisenhower who said:”in order to be a leader a man must have followers” And to have followers, a man must have their confidence”Without integrity, it will be difficult if not impossible to win the trust and confidence of those you lead” People of integrity don’t only tell you to do what they say but to also do what they do” Leadership is by example, and if you will be an example in your home, on your job and at church, everyone else you lead, whether they are your children, subordinates or friends will voluntarily submit to you” You cannot lead anyone further than you have led yourself” Integrity means living it myself before leading others”
The second reason why integrity is so important in the life of the leader is because integrity results in a solid reputation” Great leaders understand that they can never have solid reputation without having character” It was Billy Graham who said:”when wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost”According to Thomas Babington,”the measure of a man’s character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out”Character, for the most part is measured by what we do in private and not what we do in public” It is living a life of high moral standards than your followers”
As a church, God has called us into the Washington D”C” Metropolis and around the globe with a mandate”to raise leaders, shape destinies and influence society through Christ”We have a responsibility to turn every follower into a leader and not just to maintain followers” You cannot be an effective leader if you are not a person of integrity and if you do not possess character” A leader’s success is not measured by his or her skills or abilities” His success is measured by his or her character” You see, ability and skill may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you up there” Every child of God must be more concerned with their character than with their reputation” Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think of you” Therefore, I urge you to place more emphasis on your character than on your reputation” Paul advised along this same line in Ephesians 4:1:”I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received”Leadership, more so church leadership calls for high moral standards, and I pray that in this church, everyone will distinguish themselves as men and women of integrity”