Bishop Eddie L. Long
...ers of Metro Atlanta; and he received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Urban League. He is the founder and CEO of Faith Academy, New Birth's school of excellence, and he serves as the Vice Chair of the Morehouse School of Religion Board of Directors. Bishop Long and his wife Vanessa are the proud parents of four children: Eric, Edward, Jared and Taylor. The couple has also served as surrogate parents for many other children in the church and community. Charismatic Leadership Charisma comes from the greek word meaning “gift,” suggesting that leaders have special gifts to distribute. Their gifts are necessarily physical; they’re more likely to be social. In fact, it’s commonly thought that the pleasing personality of a charismatic person is his or her greatest gift. So, by definition, charismatics sway people and shape the future by their sheer presence and personality. Bishop Eddie L. Long is considered a charismatic leader. He is thought to differ from mere mortal leaders by his ability to formulate and articulate an inspirational vision, as well as by actions that foster the impression that he is an extraordinary person. As a member of New Birth in Lithonia, Georgia, I have experienced Bishop Long’s leadership style. Every week Bishop Long addresses the crowd with an amazing and astonishing message. Many times I could be dealing with something and Bishop Long will speak about it the next time I see him. After experiencing this for a while, you have no choice but to believe that he honestly hears from God. This also gives him a sense of credibility with his followers. The quality of his charisma is most definitely appreciated by his followers and the community. Often he emerges within the community as it faces some level of physic distress. Distress occurs when people are unable to understand the direction in which the surrounding environment might be changing and what the potential impact of those changes on the organization might be. Spiritual Leadership Bishop Long is a perfect example of good spiritual leadership. Half of the task of spiritual leadership is a training program to call on God that we might see things we have not seen. The spiritual disciplines in this training program are tried and true. Spiritual leaders see to it that the church is experiencing powerful worship, studying the Bible, praying earnestly, partaking of communion, and tithing. And then, spiritual leadership helps us all call on God and begin to see a vision, the big vision of what God dreams for the world. Without it, we think small and act small. The Christian faith is about mountains that we've turned into speed bumps, it's an opera we have been singing like a nursery rhyme, it is a march to Zion that we have treated like a trip to the mall. Our vitality depends upon a recovery of the big vision. As a spiritual leader Bishop Long must focus on the mission and ask: what would success look like to God? The disciples asked Jesus about results, they asked, "what will the signs be?" And he began again to teach again about the Kingdom. And he told a story of those who would ...