Episode Ten

Summary of Biblical Leadership

In Episode Nine of this series on leadership entitled LEAD the WAY, I talked about the Shepherd-Leader’s tasks, and some examples of shepherd-leadership, followed by describing the third metaphor of a leader as a steward, the essential qualities for a Steward-Leader, his tasks, and some examples of steward-leadership. In this Episode Ten, I will talk about the negative examples of Ineffective Leadership, and an Inadequate Leadership, after which I will suggest a new paradigm of Leadership, which I call Impactful Leadership. Let us begin.

Summary

Biblical leadership is about getting God’s people to discern a God-given direction and commit their lives to accomplish this purpose. The Bible contains several core principles of biblical leadership, whether it is for the purpose of building a temple, opposing unjust or unbiblical laws, or organizing and discipling a growing body of new believers. As flawed and imperfect people are, God consistently chooses to use men and women to motivate and mobilize his people to accomplish his divine plans and purposes. When leaders fall, doubts arise whether there is a need for human leaders, but God has sovereignly chosen this way. Until Christ returns, the church will continue to be God’s instrument for carrying out the Great Commission and people will be called on to provide leadership.

Christian leadership is distinctive basically in its motivation. When everything extraneous is pared away, Christian leadership is motivated by love for Jesus and given over to service for him. It is leadership that has been subjected to the control of our Lord and his example. When surveying the Bible on leadership, a few observations can be made.

One, biblical leaders were prophets, priests, kings, apostles, or church leaders. They came from different backgrounds.

Two, there were good and bad leaders.

Three, there were leaders who failed and leaders who succeeded.

Four, not all leaders finished well and strong. These include Gideon (Judg. 7:23–8:32), Samson (Judges 16), King Asa (2 Chron. 14:1–12), and King Uzziah (2 Chron. 26:5–16).

Five, leaders possessed both character and competence.

Six, all biblical leaders have some common hallmarks such as calling from God, commitment to and dependence on God, humility, faithfulness, and being sacrificial and selfless. Finally, biblical leadership was not led by a committee but by God.  

Leaders in the Bible fit a wide variety of profiles that reflect their specific contexts and unique personalities. The only absolute is that biblical leadership is obedient to God and brings glory to him. It is all about God. We should be cautious before pronouncing any model or style of leadership as the one and only biblical model. Rather, a proposed model was chosen because it is appropriate to a particular context. 

There is a strong correlation between leadership practices and growth of the church in the Book of Acts. The call of God, human partnership in trust and obedience to the divine call, strict adherence to the Word of God, and an unwavering heeding of the Spirit’s leading are hallmarks of the early church leaders described in the Book of Acts. The same can be found in many of the leaders of the contemporary churches. There is no marked difference. Yet, the corresponding results of growth in today’s churches does not match that of the early church.

There are two issues that warrant further consideration, namely, Ineffective Leadership and Inadequate Leadership.

Ineffective Leadership

There are several reasons why some church leaders failed to rise up to the challenge of providing biblical leadership. Pastoring requires being a leader, but not every pastor is a strong leader.

Several reasons are given for ineffective leadership. First, some pastors have never seen strong leadership modeled. Thus, many are learning leadership on their own because they did not have the opportunity to learn from a strong, godly leader. Second, some may have been affected by bad models. When they see a poor pastoral leader, some pastors spend as much time trying not to become involved in leadership that resulted in a failure to develop positive leadership traits. Third, their seminary training failed to emphasize the importance of leadership in ministry. Fourth, some may have been wounded in past ministries. Some pastors who were once strong leaders have scars from previous ministries; and leading has simply become difficult. Fifth, some are on maintenance mode. Some may be weary; some may not want to tackle the challenge of change, while some others are more focused on retirement.

To overcome ineffective leadership requires church leaders to adopt a fundamental shift in mindset, acknowledging the need to step into a leading, rather than a managing role. This effort will call for adopting a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. A growth mindset embraces change while a fixed mindset prefers stability. Rick Ezell, in Strengthening the Pastor’s Soul, wrote: “The only constant in this world is change. That is true for the Christian. Change is at the heart of the gospel.

Inadequate Leadership

A majority of the contemporary churches failed to see that church leadership is neither random nor “pick-and-choose.” The leadership practices of the early church are not independent but interwoven. Church leadership is not based on human practice but divine prescription. To adequately apply the leadership practices requires a clear understanding of how the leadership practices together, contribute to the growth of the church. The practice of biblical leadership characteristics is only one-half of the answer to the growth of a church. The other half is to meld the various characteristics to form a coherent, strong, sustainable and balanced model of biblical leadership.

Impactful Biblical Leadership Model

There is a strong consideration for churches to evaluate their growth and one of the key starting points is to adopt a leadership model that closely reflects the leadership of the first century church. The examples, events, and execution of leadership decisions and directions provide the foundation for a proposed leadership model that is balanced vertically and horizontally, God-ward and human-ward. The biblical leader is characterized by a call from God to fulfill a divine assignment. Such a person is a composite of a servant (of God), a shepherd (of God’s flock), and a steward (of God’s resources). Finally, this person stands on a biblical foundation and soars in submission to the Spirit’s leading.

Servant, Shepherd, and Steward

Discerning one’s call to Christian leadership involves understanding the distinction between one’s primary and secondary calling. In The Call, Os Guiness asserts that all believers of Christ have both a primary and secondary call. The primary call is to be a follower of Jesus while the secondary call focuses on the tasks, functions, work, and activities that God assigns to believers. Rick Langer writes that the servant, shepherd, and steward leader is a consistently positive image found in biblical discussions of leaders, involving a divinely appointed purpose and a focus on the benefit of those who are led. Concomitantly, such a leader always answers to God for the way the task of leading is discharged. Thus, a biblical leader acknowledges his divine assignment and ensures that the people under his leadership are clear about it. John Hamm contends that “an organization may have a fixed, grand objective, such as to serve Christ, to serve humanity, or to care for the needy, but too often that purpose is not stated in terms of how to accomplish that purpose.” These three facets are inter-woven and complementary in providing a holistic leadership that is both strategic in focus and tactical in its implementation.

I. Scripture-Based Decision

An effective biblical leader is one whose decisions are based on Scriptural underpinnings. Leaders who make decision for the church should be reminded of Jesus who declared his subservience to the Father, “Not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42; Matt. 6:10). Leadership decision-making begins by discerning the will of God. God delights in revealing his will to those who are eager to follow his precepts (Pss. 33:18; 35:27; 147:11). God reveals his will to us primarily in two ways. First, through his Spirit: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13; see also 1 John 2:20, 27). Second, God reveals his will through his Word: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105; see also Ps. 19:7–9; 2 Pet. 1:19).

Making decisions often includes making a judgment about an attitude or action. Decisions are an act of the will and they are always influenced by the mind, the emotions, or both. One’s decisions reflect the desires of one’s heart (Ps. 119:30). Therefore, a key question before making a decision is whether to choose to please self or to please the Lord. Joshua set the standard: “If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. . . . But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15; cf. Rom. 12:2).

II. Spirit-Led Direction

An effective biblical leader is one who moves in the direction according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Book of Acts describes the early church apostles as leaders who were Spirit-led and Spirit-filled. There is a marked difference between the disciples before the crucifixion and after the Day of Pentecost. This transformation is clearly attributed to the Holy Spirit’s coming upon them. C. K. Barrett remarked in The Holy Spirit and the Gospel Tradition that the Synoptic Gospels depict the Holy Spirit as an active and independent personal being involved in Jesus’ ministry. Since the Day of Pentecost, all believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:2–5).

Leaders must learn to walk daily in the Spirit’s power, not in the flesh (Gal. 5:16–23). They strive to be clean vessels, fit for God’s use. They seek the Lord to fill them every day so that God can do his work through their leadership. A leader’s reliance on God for the outcome of plans is more often easier said than done. The reality for many leaders is that they are more accustomed to relying partly on God and partly on their plans. Spirit-led planning calls for leaders to be willing to pause when they feel they have not heard clearly from God. Mike Bonem wrote:

Spiritually attuned leaders may come into a meeting with an agenda for what needs to be accomplished, but they are willing to stop to spend time in prayer or otherwise seek God’s guidance. They know that investing an extra hour or two (or more) pays dramatic dividends if the result is sensing God’s direction more clearly.

The role that the Holy Spirit plays was elaborated by J. Oswald Sanders in Spiritual Leadership: While conversation does not normally make leaders of people who would never become otherwise, church history teaches that in the hour of full surrender the Holy Spirit sometimes releases gifts and qualities that have long remained latent and dormant. It is the prerogative of the Spirit to bestow spiritual gifts which greatly enhance the leadership potential of the recipient.

III. Scripture and Spirit in Unity

Scripture and Spirit are interwoven in its impact and influence. Without the working of the Spirit, attempts to understand Scripture are futile; where the Word is, the Spirit inevitably shows conformation. The Spirit does not operate independent of the Word and vice versa. In guiding, inspiring, sanctifying, and building God’s people, the Spirit’s instrument is Scripture and conversely, any claim to the Spirit’s presence which bypasses Scripture or minimizes its authority, is in conflict to the Spirit. 

In this Episode Ten, I talked about the negative examples of Ineffective Leadership, and an Inadequate Leadership, after which I will suggest a new paradigm of Leadership, which I call Impactful Leadership. To help us review what we have heard from this podcast, I invite you to reflect on the following questions. Please join me for the final Episode Eleven, which I will conclude the Leadership Series entitled LEAD the WAY, where I will talk about four types of Finishers or leaders who have ended their tenure of leadership. Good-bye, and have a great day!

Discussion Questions

1. Do you agree the three metaphors Servant, Shepherd, and Steward best describe what

  biblical leadership is all about?

2. Do you agree with this statement: “An effective biblical leader is one who moves in the

    direction according to the leading of the Holy Spirit”?

3. Why is the work of the Holy Spirit important in the life of an effective/impactful leader?