Biblical Leadership

Why do you do what you do?
Why did you choose to follow through with the call you believe God has on your life?

These are questions that I, fortunately and unfortunately, ask myself quite often. I don't want to sound pessimistic, and I know that God has given me a great call on my life. The fact of the matter is that I struggle with my call, and I know that I am not alone. I assumed that I would come to seminary and be surrounded by people that are so sure of where they're going in life, but that is a highly romanticized view of life. Seminary is not supposed to be a place where everyone knows everything all the time. There are going to be days of doubt. There are going to be days when it is not certain why I am here. And I think that I'm okay with that. I just have to remember these questions of biblical leadership that John Wimber asked.

Biblical leadership means that we are devoting ourselves to lead others with the hope and faith in the leaders of the Bible, looking at prototypes and models of ways that it has worked and ways that it hasn't. Coming from a business background, this is probably my favorite thing to do: looking at the ways that people inspire and lead others. Looking at intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, autocratic management, democratic, persuasive, consultative, chaotic, laissez-faire, etc.

There is a huge difference between management and leadership, though.

What I have concluded, in just my limited knowledge of the Bible, is that the best leaders were not the most attractive, most charismatic, most enthusiastic, best speakers, best theologians, or even the best people. All in all, they were simply human beings responding to the call on their lives. They messed up plenty of times, killed some people, cut off people's ears, and lusted. They lied, cheated, and stole. They were just women and men who tried their best to listen to God.

Sometimes they got it right, but more often than not, they didn't, and then we have pages upon pages of lament and sadness of screwing things up. We've gotten some pretty awesome stuff from these people.

But the central focus of these people was to glorify God in all that they did. They were prone to wander, but they tried.

That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try.

I may not get it all done. I may not make a huge mark on this world, but as long as I am faithful to God then God will be faithful to me. I'm not trying to be known by my actions. I want to be known as a person who loved God with my whole heart and hopefully led others to do the same. I know that God will never leave me nor forsake me. I know that God is near to the brokenhearted. I know that God is God.

And that seems to be the best thing about it all. God is gracious and compassionate and loving and kind even when my humanity fails to live up to the call.

Biblical leadership is leading by example. It is the act of emptying myself so that I can be full of God. I must decrease so that God can increase. If I am supposed to lead, then I must be willing to surrender and let go. I have to remember that God is greater than me.

Biblical leadership is centering my life on the Incarnate Word, Jesus, and hoping that things will be okay. Because anything is possible to the one who believes! Why do I do what I do? Because I think that it's worth it. I've done things my own way, and it was not very fruitful. Why do I choose to follow through the call? Because God has shown me time and time again that God is faithful and that God has a plan for me. That should be enough for me to get me out of bed, to push me to be a better man, and to hopefully point others to God.