Leadership Practices

A Global and Biblical Perspective

Dr. Widza Bryant, Cedric Bryant

• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781098060008
• eBook ISBN: 9781098060015
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Leadership (the ability to bring people together to accomplish shared goals), be it in an organization or a church, was instituted by God from the beginning. In the context of the church, God commissioned church leadership to "go and make disciples of all nations, " to win souls for His kingdom throughout the world instead of standing behind a pulpit in a conventional four walls edifice that we come to know as "church" or donning themselves with ostentatious titles, like "bishop, apostles, prophet or prophetess, " to cite a few. The derailment of God's perspective for church leadership has left billions of people worldwide, unreached and disenfranchised from God's words, thereby, invoking rampant suffering, not only from the ravages of wars, hunger, abject poverty, or disease, but also the transforming power of the Gospel.

In the Leadership Practices: A Global and Biblical Perspective, Drs. Cedric and Widza Bryant underscore GodaEUR(tm)s directives, His original intent of authentic biblical leadership designed to reach all people throughout the worldaEUR"all of which are encapsulated in Genesis 1: 26 to Adam and Eve, to Noah in Genesis 9: 1, and in Mathew 28: 19aEUR"20, Jesus's mandates to the twelve disciples: "Go and make disciples of all nations."

Leadership Practices: A Global and Biblical Perspective illuminates our understanding of the biblical inerrancy of leadership by probing on scholars' relentless pursuit to further their knowledge of leadership definition and to expose different interpretations that provide a clear picture of what leadership is and how to apply it to reach excellence.

"Could the inexorable pursuits to define leadership and align its practices be the cause of manaEUR(tm)s biased predispositions from GodaEUR(tm)s intended purpose? A trend that commenced before humanity even existedaEUR|" The book accentuates the notion that leadership practices, according to God's design, was to be "global and accessible"aEUR"a Christ-centered mandate with tangible and pervasive biblical root that compels leaders to be open to change and to submit to GodaEUR(tm)s original practices.The manuscript provides the reader with a biblically based model of leadership, using numerous scriptural case-studies that illustrate the differences between what it means to operate as a leader 'of this world' and what it means to be a Christian leader 'in this world.' By following a Christ-centered model, leaders learn how 'success begins with change' and she emphasizes how leaders must first be willing to submit to change themselves before they can guide the process in others. The manuscript is filled with extensive research blending scholarly works with scriptural illustrations which collectively produce an insightful repository for leaders to draw upon as they aspire to become a global Christian leader. The book has wide applications for church leaders at the local, national, and global levels.

aEUR"Dr. Richardson, Regent University

Chapter 1

In the Beginning God Created Leaders for Good Works

The concept of leadership birthed in the Garden according to Genesis succeeding creation of all things and sufficient resources. In Genesis 2:1–18, we glean that humanity was given leadership over creation and was intended to thrive under man’s leadership (Phillips 2016):

The heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array…The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you earth from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:1–18)

The biblical definition of the term leadership was established in the sixth day of creation when God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over all creatures” (Phillips 2016). So God created man in His image; in the image of God, He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over [every living creature].” Male and female are created in the image of God and given the task of ruling. Bearing the image of God is to represent the authority of God. We serve as vice-regents over creation.

Man was created to do “good” work and to rule in the image of God, using established principles as fundamental elements of leadership. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). It is essential to understand the applicability of “good works” in this context, unlike the views of many denominations about “good works” as inherent to salvation. The concept “good works” in this context is with the fulfillment of a person’s accomplishment concerning his/her career performance. For example, in Genesis 1, we see the expression of satisfaction by God following the completion of the sixth day of work. Those same principles are not only fundamental to the concept of leadership, but they also encompass a globalized and inclusive facet of God’s purpose for leaders as captured in Revelation 7:9:

After this, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.

John’s vision of the many assemblies around the heavenly throne depicts an omni-ethnic gathering—one from which no people group on the earth is missing. And one that Jesus demands His church (in Matthew 28) actualize by strategically relocating from among her ranks to proclaim the Gospel (Wells 2018): “go and make disciples of all nations.” The last message of Jesus was not just an intentional global charge that required the leaders’ strategic movement from one location to another to make disciples among all people. It also necessitated proactive actions to reach those who are shunned by society due to various factors, such as accessibility and other impairments.

The command for leadership from God is to be interactive, inclusive, and accessible to all people and nations. Such is only possible through full obedience to the original intent of the mandate and unblemished leadership characteristics (garden principles) that accelerate the capacity for leaders to be a positive force so to withstand the challenges that come with leading others successfully and productively.

There is also the need for leaders to build consensus through trust and interdependent relationships. Such is glaring throughout the Bible—in particular in Genesis—and is evident in the interactions between God and Adam pre-fall. From the biblical account, one can conclude that God was in a close relationship with Adam and Eve. It wasn’t unusual for God to visit the first family “in the garden in the cool of the day…” (Genesis 3:8). God’s desire to commune with His humankind, despite the sin Adam and Eve committed, was in the prime display when He pronounced judgment against them and the serpent for their disobedience. He, at the same token, extended grace for redemption to restore His relationship with man: “…and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

Ever since the fall, God continues to utilize different approaches with man in a quest to maintain a relationship that emphasizes His purpose to “be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birth in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Nevertheless, man’s inability to obey often leads to disappointments that necessitate the need for intervention beginning with the Great Flood. God intervened as a result of man’s behaviors, which He described as “wickedness that was great in the earth …that the imagination of the thoughts of man was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5–6). He consequently began anew and destroyed the entire human race as He “grieved in His heart and regretted ever made man on the earth.” Further, God would confront the disobedience of man at Babel, which caused Him to “come down and confounded their language,” to hinder their creativities: “that they may not understand one another’s speech …and scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:7–8).

Leaders are called to enjoy work. The enjoyment of work, according to Genesis, is what would cause “creation” to thrive, resulting in the expansion of resources. Such a concept requires the ongoing need for leaders to align with God’s purpose in the course of leading and choosing a vocation, leading others, either in secular or spiritual settings, imitating the attributes on display during creation.

Leadership and Trust

As a role model, a leader can only be successful in a culture that builds on trust, honesty, and role-modeling. It is commonly understood that trust is the foundation of effective relationships that leads to business results (Reina et al. 2017). Trust in the values every day, and in every action, leaders take to create open communication that begins from what leaders say, to how they listen, and how they act on what they learn (Stephenson 2004). Teamwork and collaboration can only happen when people can trust one another. The ability to create shared values that consequently lead to the creation of trust in the leadership’s capabilities is not to be ignored. Many times, leaders tend to assume that people will accept their values and do what they say automatically. However, leaders must “lay the foundation of trust before people can individually do their best. Trust is built when we make ourselves vulnerable to other people whose subsequent behavior we cannot control” (Kouzes and Posner et al. 2004). Successively, “leaders will never be able to develop teams to their full potential unless they create an environment of trust.” A study by Hay (2002) found that “trust between team members was fundamental to the functioning of the team and saliently promoted cooperative behavior; and that effective team performance is dependent on the formation of trust (Hakanen et al. 2015).

Trust Defined

Rousseau et al. (1998) define trust as a complex phenomenon that enables cooperative behavior, reduces harmful conflict, decreases transaction costs, and promotes effective responses to the crisis. Accordingly, Kadefors (2004), Rousseau et al. (1998) reference three primary forms of trust:

1. Calculus-based trust is when the trustor (the trusting party) perceives that an action that is going to be performed is beneficial to him or her. In this kind of trust, individuals are motivated primarily by economic self-interest;
2. Relational trust appears between individuals who repeatedly interact over time; and
3. In institution-based trust, trust refers to the role of the institution in shaping the conditions necessary to create trust.

Trust is developed when leaders adhere to the truth no matter the consequence. He or she not only tells the truth but also demands that others do the same through sound, fair, and consistent accountability. Ephesians 4:25 teaches, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one body.” The Bible goes even more profound, referring to truth-tellers as “children of light, and not of the devil,” therefore, is considered an abomination to God (Proverbs 6:16–19). Trust is so vital that companies invest a considerable amount of funds on client satisfaction surveys to gather feedback. Most importantly, feedback typically around clients’ level of trust in their products or services. For example, the US automaker that suppliers scored lowest in trust spend roughly 50 percent of face-to-face time negotiating price or assigning blame for problems, as opposed to the automaker scoring highest in trust, where only 25 percent of the time spent was on these relatively unproductive activities (Hart and Johnson 1999).

Leaders who tell the truth demonstrate great courage to take a stand and to model the way in typifying their beliefs and their values—upholding policy guidelines regardless of personal interests at a time when it isn’t straightforward to do so. In the words of Kouzes and Posner (2012), those leaders generally articulate their beliefs by (a) clarifying values and (b) set an example by aligning actions with shared values. “They stand up for their beliefs. They practice what they preach. They show others by their actions that they live by the values they profess. They also ensure that others adhere to the values that have been agreed on.”

Trust also takes time to develop. It does not happen overnight. It requires a personal commitment to learning from others to inspire those who come from other sets of values and traditions to participate with you in building a community of trust (Lingenfelter 2008). One that transcends all odds and challenges. When trust is present, people step forward and do their best to work together efficiently. They align around a common purpose, take risks, think out of the box, and communicate openly and honestly. Conversely, when trust is compromised, people become withdrawn and disengaged. Their confidence in themselves and others erodes, along with their commitment to their work (Reina et al. 2017).

Trust is difficult to build and easy to lose. Because of its complexity, leaders may find it at times difficult to apply a consistent approach to their day-to-day actions. The Center for Creative Leadership suggests that outcomes (in three areas) can be used to measure team effectiveness around trust. The center refers to such as the “Reina Dimensions of Trust, or The Three Cs with three dimensions and sixteen behaviors that provide a practical, behavioral-based framework that helps people raise their awareness of trust” (Reina et al. 2017).

Leadership as a Reciprocal Relationship

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is referred to as the “Golden Rule.” It is a command based on the words of Jesus in the Sermon of the Mount. The sermon is parallel to what leaders must do to gain consensus. A leader-follower relationship that is reciprocal has the propensity to bear much “fruit,” as opposed to one that is not. A reciprocal link is a follower-centered leadership theory associated with Robert Greenleaf, who became one of the most prominent scholars for introducing the servant leadership theory, which emphasizes that leaders must be attentive to the concerns of their followers and must nurture them. He inferred that servant leaders must put followers first, empower them, and help them develop their full personal capacities (Northouse 2013).

During the last decades, there have been many books and articles on leadership dedicated to the concept of followership. However, the most talked-about work on followership is that of Ke...

Table of contents

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7