Dear Friends and Members of IBC,

Happy New Year! As we begin 2026, I would like to revisit a prayer and conviction that God has placed on my heart. One of my continual prayers is that God would raise up godly leaders at IBC, and I invite you to join me in praying this for our church throughout the coming year.

In this week’s Word for the Week, I would like to reflect again on what it means to be a leader and the qualities that define godly leadership.

Over 20 years ago, a game-changing book on leadership was published. It has since sold over four million copies and caused many in the business world to proclaim it as being the best book on management that they have ever read. It’s called Good to Great and is written by the American researcher and author Jim Collins.

In the book, Collins describes the five-year research project which he and his 22-person team undertook to find out how some good companies make the leap to become great companies and are then able to sustain such greatness. Collins whittles down the secret ingredients to seven core factors, with an essential reason being the kind of leaders that head up such companies. These great leaders are all marked by one defining character trait which sets them apart.

Now, what would you say that is? Vision? Collaboration? Communication? Well, they are all important. But the character trait the project found that set leaders apart was their humility. Humility is what made the difference. Great leaders are driven to succeed, they have ambition, but not for themselves. They actually want to make the company great; they genuinely desire for others to be recognized.

Very often nowadays, in all kinds of leadership environments, we see leaders who have been forced to step down due to inappropriate conduct or a bullying management style. Think about it, when was the last time a country had a really humble leader? Willing to put others before themselves? And this character trait is also essential for all Christians, including Christian leaders, which is certainly convicting and challenging.

We know that Jesus of Nazareth, who oversaw the greatest human movement of all time, humbled Himself by giving up His divine privileges by becoming human, showed humility to his 12 disciples when he suddenly started washing their foul-smelling feet, and then hours later, demonstrated it again when he willingly died for the world’s sins. He is the ultimate humble, great leader.

God bless you James