Should we be disillusioned about leadership?
In a recent conversation with several respected Latin American theological educators I innocently stated that leadership development is a central aspect of theological education. While they conceded this assertion must be true, they were quick to express their distress and disillusionment with the way ministry leadership is understood and practiced throughout their region. Many observers of North American Christianity likewise register marked ambivalence if not cynical antagonism about ministry leaders and leadership.
Potential is proportional
Leadership has enormous potential for good but, alas, colossal potential for harm. Perhaps that explains the Bible’s apparent ambivalence about leadership. On the one hand, you can scarcely turn to a book of the Bible and fail to encounter a significant leader through whom God has chosen to work. The biblical narrative has a disproportional focus upon leaders—by leadership emergence expert Robert Clinton’s count, the Bible mentions more than 14,000 leaders, 1100 by name! I think it fair to say that, when God wants something done, he raises up a leader.
A wholly different kind of leadership
You must not, however, let it escape your notice that the Bible goes out of its way to distinguish the sort of leaders God has in mind for His people from conventional pagan terms and notions. This distinction seems to me to be at the root of God’s disgust with Israel’s insistence upon having a king. Clearly, God intended for Israel to be led. Beginning with Moses, continuing with Joshua and a 300-year succession of judges up to the time of Samuel, the Lord designates and uses leaders to govern His people.
Imitation is folly, not flattery
Judges dispensed justice, arbitrated disputes, ensured citizen welfare and security, led the community in spiritual inquiry and renewal of worship, sought and followed Divine direction toward Israel’s promised destiny. In so doing, they wielded no intrinsic authority. Rather, judges mediated the rule of Jehovah himself, Israel’s covenant King (see I Sam. 8:7; Isa. 33:22). But that wasn’t good enough for Israel. Instead of embracing and exulting in their distinctiveness from other nations, incorrigible Israel insisted, “appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have” (I Sam. 8:5) [emphasis added].
Such as all the other peoples
What was so repugnant about the notion of a king such as all the other nations have? First, Scripture informs us that insistence on keeping up with the pagans was a rejection of the rule of God. The LORD says to Samuel, “it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king” (I Sam. 8:7). Second, Scripture makes it clear from cover to cover that God intends for leadership exercised in His name to be radically different from that which is normative throughout human civilization. What typifies the “kings” of all the other nations? Self-authenticating, self-perpetuating, self-aggrandizing exploitation. Worldly leaders express, sometimes subtly, sometimes shamelessly, the sentiments of Nebuchanezzar: “Is this not the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Dan. 4:30) Ironically, Nebuchadnezzar’s own testimony, recorded in Scripture, tells us, “the words were still on his lips” when he received his comeuppance from the King of Heaven.
Leadership in biblical terms
So what terms does the Bible employ by which to describe leaders? I’ll take up that question in a half-dozen future posts. Stay tuned!
Fresh gleanings to fuel your leadership awareness, reflection, and conversations …
Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God? The experts weigh in …
You may recall my post last month about the still-unresolved controversy surrounding Advent-season solidarity gestures and assertions made in December 2015 by a tenured Wheaton College (IL) professor that Christians and Muslims have in common that they are people of the book. Hawkins also asserted that Christians and Muslims “worship the same God.” My friend and former colleague, Evangelical Missiology Society President, Robert Priest, has done us a great service by coordinating the publication of an Occasional Bulletin to which more than a dozen EMS-member missiologists have contributed thoughtful, nuanced, irenic perspectives regarding this claim. I think you will find it personally useful and should want to commend it as an instructional resource for your faculty who are teaching on related subjects.
Is God Cleaning House in His Church?
Not only is the answer to this question “yes,” it should give us confidence, perseverance, and hope as we engage cross-ethnically and cross-culturally with fellow Christ-followers. So says pastor-theologian Michael Horton. Intellectual equipping, interpersonal engagement, and interdependent endurance are the keys to recognizing and participating in God’s housekeeping. His assertions are well worth a read.