Next to George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln is consistently ranked by scholars and the public as one of the top three greatest presidents. So obviously, Abraham Lincoln has much to teach us on leadership. He was born in a log cabin, lost his mother at an early age, and unschooled, he was encouraged by his step-mother to learn to read...yet this unlikely man became president during the most difficult time in our country's history. Without his leadership, the country as we know it could have become an infinite number of smaller pieces. Lincoln's very genius as a leader and his success as president made him into a myth, obscuring the fact that his life before becoming president was unspectacular, and that whatever he knew about leading he had learned from those around him.

Let's take some time to look at the life of this intuitive, self-taught leader. He has much to teach us that applies to all forms of leadership, including to those of us in youth ministry.

Lovingly,