The Importance of Christian Leadership

Author: Rev. Dr. Corey D. Brown
July 23, 2019

An understanding of the word “Christian” is necessary to understand Christian leadership.  A Christian is a person who has, by faith, accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord.  He has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and has received a spiritual gift.  He is a citizen of the Kingdom of God and is a part of the Body of Christ (the church).

The Christian leader or spiritual leader will be controlled by Christ, and every act of leadership will be influenced by this relationship.  The Christian leader will accept the Bible as God’s infallible Word and as the supreme authority in his life.  He will search the scriptures to find principles, promises, and precepts to govern his life and his leadership role.  When he is exposed to teachings about leadership from other sources, he will examine them in the light of the Bible, and reject any teaching that is in opposition to the Bible.  The successful Christian leader will recognize that he is not a self-made man, but will acknowledge that he is successful because he has emptied himself of self and has been filled and empowered by God.  The successful Christian leader will be one who has voluntarily surrendered himself to God, and through faith has been mastered or controlled by the Holy Spirit.  Other factors are important, but this is indispensable.

To a large extent today Christians are learning leadership from secular authorities and sources.  This poses a real danger, as Rush has pointed out (Management: A Biblical Approach, p. 10):  “Unfortunately, the secular management philosophy is often both humanistic and materialistic.  Authority and power are seen as a means of manipulating, using, and controlling people.”  He shows how the leadership style dictated by Jesus for His followers was of servant-ship (Matthew 20:20–28).  The need for this was illustrated by the example of King Rehoboam in 1 Kings 12 when he refused to be a servant king and lost his people.  The Christian leader should serve those under him, meet their needs, and then help them to reach their maximum effectiveness.  The leader is to be totally at the service of those under him, like a slave to a master.  The higher up in an organization a Christian leader goes, the more people he has to serve.  This is very unlike the world concept of leadership. 

Every basic and honorable principle in leadership and management has its root and foundation in the Word of God.  What should be happening is that management experts should be coming to pastors and saying, “Teach me about leadership.”  Most believe that the church world is learning leadership from the secular world and then checking what they have learned against the Bible to be sure that it does not violate scripture.  Most Christian leaders in this process have experienced a moment of enlightenment while studying a secular authority on leadership when they have realized that this principle is a Biblical principle.  It is not wrong to study secular sources on leadership, because all truth is God’s truth, but the “truth” that is inspired is found in the Bible.  Some outstanding books have been written on Christian leadership and these can be valuable to the person who wants to learn to be a Christian leader. 

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