10 Principles of Success I Learned From Christian Preachers
After all, success and failure know no religion
By age 18, my life was in a free fall. Everything that shouldn’t go wrong was broken beyond remedy.
One day, after an evening football training session, I noticed that the playground was being prepared for a gospel crusade. For reasons I can’t remember, I went back to that playground. That night, I had a life-changing encounter with God.
In my personal spiritual journey, I have been spiritually inspired by many great preachers from both my home country of Nigeria and elsewhere. Unfortunately, for a long time, I restricted my learning experiences to the spiritual aspects. But there is so much more.
There are some very important life lessons I am beginning to learn by paying closer attention to the lives of some of the very successful Christian leaders.
1. It’s okay to start small
If you look at any large Christian congregation and go back twenty or thirty years, you will notice something. They were not always that big. In fact, most of them started really small. The largest Christian congregation in Nigeria and probably the world right now started from a dingy corner of Lagos. Today, you can find them in almost every street in Nigeria’s major cities and in major cities across the world.
2. Investment in personal development is key
You can’t give what you don’t have. The most successful Nigerian Christian leaders are the ones who aggressively invested in developing their gifts and talents. Stories abound of how some of those men used to travel to the United States in the ‘80s and ‘90s to attend courses and conferences. These days, people all over the world gather in Nigeria to attend similar events.
3. Learning is a continuous process
You would expect a Christian leader with a large congregation to be satisfied with what he already knows. Not so. Recently, I heard about a senior pastor of a leading Nigerian church who decided to learn how to play the saxophone. He didn’t fly in a celebrity musician. He sat down with the church musicians to learn. Look at that passion for learning and the humility that goes with it.
I know another leader of a large congregation who over the last 10 years has acquired both master's and Ph.D. degrees from universities outside Nigeria. He achieved all of that while presiding over a phase of exponential growth in the church.
4. Thinkers rule the world
The quality of your thought can determine how far you go in life. Another Nigerian Christian leader I know has a thinking room in his house. Just to be clear — this is different from his prayer room. The thinking room is where he dedicates time to think and strategize. No wonder the man keeps growing in impact and influence.
5. If you need an audience, offer value
Whether you like it or not, when you offer value, you will have followers. It’s been that way throughout history. People gather every week in certain places of worship because of the value they get. This is why all congregations are not equal.
6. Leverage the power of gifts and talents
Most famous Christian leaders are also prolific writers. They develop and deploy their gifts and talents. Imagine you have 100 books in the world. And then imagine 100,000 people gather every week to hear you speak. I bet a large number of people will walk away with one or two books — every week. Deploying gifts and talents to serve an audience like this automatically unlocks great potentials.
7. Build bridges
Today, Nigerian Christian leaders are adept at cultivating and maintaining vital partnership relationships. Until recently, partnership as a concept applied within the context of individual organizations. The split along denominational lines was deep.
But that is changing. The fault lines are closing up and Christian leaders are actively collaborating and investing in building the next generation leaders. The older leaders are beginning to mentor the younger ones across denominational lines.
8. Empower people
The church has been a great pipeline for talent and leadership development. Many people become exposed to leadership and responsibility in a church or campus fellowship setting before getting to the work environment. This way, many young people already had 2–4 years of leadership and project management experience before leaving college.
Most Christian leaders don’t just play spiritual roles. They often leverage their secular experiences to inspire and influence their followers for business and career success.
9. Create an ecosystem for others to thrive
Without any doubt, the big Nigerian Christian churches have created platforms for economic empowerment on a large scale. The economic impact of some of these Christian organizations is life-changing. Local communities have been completely transformed by the advent of some of these churches. Cities have been created from previously dormant communities. The activities of some of the Christian organizations have directly facilitated economic growth and development on micro and macro levels.
10. Give back
Most Christian leaders are conservative with publicizing their charitable acts. This is in the spirit of not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing. The reality is that the church in Nigeria has become a huge refuge for the poor and needy.
There you have it.
In the end, life is all about principles. If it worked for one, it can as well work for others.
