Leadership requires following three principles of courage found in the Bible, the Rev. John Lindell told hundreds of listeners gathered at the annual Governor's Prayer Breakfast on a bitterly cold Thursday morning.
Temperatures hovered in low single digits as people filed into the lobby at the Capitol Plaza Hotel.
After breakfast, Lindell described concepts of courage involving vision, communication and action.
Lindell, the event's keynote speaker, said a true leader sees what others can't.
"We can say that courage is vision," he said.
He said gathering for prayer opens people's eyes.
Courage is also saying what other people can't, he added. A leader must sometimes demonstrate courage by pointing people in a different direction than they are already headed.
"What keeps leaders from speaking words of courage is the fear and the uncertainty of the future," Lindell explained. "Fear in leadership is usually connected to uncertainty regarding the future."
Lindell, the pastor at James River Church in the Springfield area, said how a person handles questions about the future demonstrates what kind of leader he or she is.
And, he said, courage is having faith in your beliefs and doing what others won't.
"Almost always," he said, "courage requires sacrifice. A lot of people are simply too comfortable to be courageous."
After the ceremony, Lindell said Gov. Eric Greitens' invitation to speak at the prayer breakfast came as a surprise. He met Greitens and other gubernatorial candidates when they came to his church during the 2016 election.
Lindell said he believes in the value of prayer and is grateful for any event that celebrates praying for elected officials.
During the ceremony, Greitens said prayer is important to government leaders.
He spoke of the Old Testament conflict between twins Esau and Jacob. As Esau bore down on Jacob, Jacob was afraid and first tried to appease him. He then prepared for battle. Finally, he prayed, Greitens said. Jacob's faith conquered his fear, the governor explained.
"We pray, in part, to remind ourselves that God is with us," he said.
He said the prayer breakfast should give courage to each person in attendance.
Established in the 1950s, Missouri governors hold the breakfast annually to welcome members of the General Assembly to the Legislature's opening. Money raised by the breakfast is used to support the Governor's Student Leadership Forum on Faith and Values. Missouri college students in the forum spend three days each year studying faith and leadership and how faith is used in business, sports and government.
Avra Mukherjee is a 19-year-old sophomore at Southeast Missouri State University. She is a senator in the school's College of Liberal Arts and, being from India, attends the school as an international student.
Mukherjee said many other members of the university's student government wanted to attend and she was humbled to be chosen. It was important to students to improve their leadership skills, she said. The forum gave her a chance to understand the importance of being selfless and to learn multiple leadership styles. As part of her improvement, Mukherjee wanted to enhance her communications skills, she said.
"Now, I'm more open," she said, "and feel like I can talk to anyone."