Template for Leadership

The Biblical Perspective

William Chauke

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781725273771
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Ministerio cristiano

This book draws from the examples of God, that of Jesus Christ and of others like Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and Paul, who had been called into leadership, as recorded in the Bible, in order to show good leadership approaches, styles, best leadership practices, and the underlying guiding principles that today's leaders need to embrace in order to become more effective in their leadership roles.The author proves through the citation of relevant biblical passages that good leadership was initiated by God, modeled by Jesus Christ, and replicated over the ages by God's anointed leaders. In this book, the author uses the above-cited case studies to show that anyone seeking to learn about good leadership practices should look no further than the word of God because it is the manual for acceptable conduct. This book will therefore serve as a useful resource for church-related leaders and leaders in all fields of human endeavor, as well as students.

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Jesus Christ

The Model of Leadership

Jesus Christ was the perfect example and model of humility and servant leadership, which every leader should emulate. See the Scriptures cited below for further details on his humility and servant leadership style:

Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used to his own advantage; rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on the cross. (Phil 2:6−8, NIV)

All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14). (Matt 1:22−23, NIV)

The lessons for today’s leaders from Jesus’ example of humility and servant leadership are as follows:

1. Leaders should be humble.
2. Leaders should first and foremost be prepared to serve others before considering their own interests.

The leadership principles implicit in Jesus’ example cited above are the following:

• Humility.
• Service.

Humility and service can earn the leader both the admiration and loyalty of their followers, who also become more favourably disposed to following the former in future endeavours. The reason why Christianity is the biggest religion in the world today is because of Jesus’ humility and selfless service to humanity, when he laid down his life for the redemption of the world.

Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet is another compelling demonstration of the fact that he was the perfect model of servant leadership. This incident also served as a teachable moment for Jesus to impart the same virtue to his disciples. See the Scripture below for further details:

After that he poured out water into a basin, and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel wrapped around him . . .”You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” (John 15:5, 13−14, NIV)

The lessons for today’s leaders from Jesus’ example of servant leadership through the washing of his disciples’ feet are as follows:

1. Leaders should humble themselves before being exalted.
2. Leaders should be prepared to serve others and not expect to always being served.

The leadership principles implicit in Jesus’ display of servant leadership in the above-mentioned incident are the following:

• Humility.
• Service.

Humility and service serve to make leaders more acceptable to their followers. This in turn elicits the cooperation of followers in future endeavours.

When James and John, sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus asking for places of honor in his kingdom, he also took this as another teachable moment for imparting the tenets of servant leadership, of which he was the perfect example. See the Scripture below for further details:

No so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:43−45, NIV)

The lessons that today’s leaders can learn from the story of the sons of Zebedee are as follows:

1. Leaders should be humble.
2. Leadership positions should be used for the purpose of serving others.
3. Leadership is earned through hard work.
4. Leaders should be the greatest workers (servants), and should be prepared to put in long hours in order to inspire their followers to diligence.
5. Leaders should accept lowliness before ‘loftiness’.
6. To be a great leader, one should have great humility.
7. Top leaders should teach complementary leaders good leadership styles and principles by-among other things-being able to identify relevant teachable moments for them.

The leadership principles emanating from the above-mentioned story are the following:

• Diligence.
• Service.
• Humility.
• Discipleship.

Church or ministry leaders today should be prepared to get their hands dirty (diligence) and do even menial tasks (serving) if this is what it takes to inspire diligence among their followers. Leaders who are humble embrace everyone, thereby gaining the acceptability and loyalty of everyone. Moreover, good leaders are those that mentor or disciple their followers.

Diligence and humility are therefore important pillars of leadership, because humble and diligent leaders, gain the respect and loyalty of their followers; resulting in their leadership clout increasing.

Indeed Jesus’ example of servant leadership shows that ‘the way up is through going down’, because:

Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor. (Prov 29:23, NIV)

. . . Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. (Matt 23:12b, NIV)

All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. Proverbs 3:34. (1 Pet 5:5b−6, NIV)

Having endured humiliation, Jesus, once glorified; was greatly exalted:

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at t...