GOD’S PURPOSE FOR LEADERSHIP

“Everything rises and falls on leadership” John Maxwell

The greatest crisis facing the world today is the lack of genuine leaders because it is effective leadership that will ensure that there is progress in our communities, nations and the world as a whole. Despite this fact, many people today do not desire to be leaders. I, for one, did not want to be a leader in any way despite the fact that many people saw that I have a call to leadership.

The funny thing is that while many of us do not desire to be leaders, we are not happy with a lot of the things that are going on around us as a result of the current leadership. We criticize those in leadership, yet we ourselves do not want to take up that position and responsibility. But as John Maxwell said, everything rises and falls on leadership. Unless we have effective leadership, a lot of the problems we see in our land and the world will remain unsolved.

So let me start this post by quoting 2 great authors in the area of leadership.

“Everyone is a leader” John C. Maxwell

“Hidden within every follower is a leader” Myles Munroe

What I would like to stress to you, and if anything, the one thing I want you to get from reading this post, is this, your leadership is closely linked to your unique assignment on earth. The majority of the time, if not all the time, we ascribe the topic of leadership as being relevant to those who are specifically called to leadership as Paul states in Romans 12:8. This is because we consider ourselves to be ordinary people and have resigned ourselves to a “normal” life as followers.

But today, I want you to know that everyone is a leader and hidden within every follower is a leader. Basically, what I am saying is, you are a leader whether you have the title or not. Regardless of your position in life or where you currently find yourself, you are a leader. You could be a student in college or high school, you could be just starting off in your career, you could be unemployed, the last born in your family, a mere member of an organization, or you could consider yourself to be  from the lowest segment of your society. Whatever your position, you are a leader.

Why do I say this? The simplest definition of leadership as given by John C. Maxwell, is this “Leadership is influence”. Now you can expand that definition, as I will later on, but however you will want to define it, the issue of influence will in one way or another always come up.

It is from this definition that John Maxwell goes on to make that bold statement that everyone is a leader. Why? Simply because, each one of us, in one way or another, wields some influence over those around us, regardless of whether it is bad or good influence. You may not recognize this to be true but think about it. Think about the way you relate with your friends, siblings, classmates, workmates, generally all the people you relate with. You will discover that in one way or another you wield some influence over someone. Now, if we have influence then we are leaders or have the capacity to lead because influence is the most basic ingredient of leadership.

Let me also say that leadership is not merely a position or a title. Stanley Huffty says "It's not the position that makes the leader; it's the leader that makes the position" People can lose their title and position but that doesn't mean they've lost their leadership, for example, consider David. Saul was commander of the army but David was more popular and influential especially on the battlefield. When he was removed from the army, he still managed to get 300 men around him and with these he won battles and his influence over them was such that they were willing to risk their lives for him (see Chronicles. Jesus is another example, He did not have a title but he was able to pull together 12 people as his followers before he had even made a name for himself. 

Leadership is not merely a position, rather it is a disposition, it is an attitude. When we begin to see it as such, we will start to harness that ability to lead. Sam Adeyemi wrote “Everyone is a leader. The big issue now is; to what extent are you developing that leadership ability.”

If you still do not agree that everyone is a leader, let me draw you to an argument Myles Munroe uses. He argues that man was created for leadership and I agree with him. If you look at the creation account in Genesis 1:26, you will find that God wanted someone on earth who was in His image and would dominate the earth. As a result, man was uniquely designed for this particular purpose and was therefore endowed with everything necessary for him to dominate the earth. Dominating the earth means you have to be able to wield some influence and if this is the case then each one of us was created with that ability to influence. You see, any manufacturer will first consider the purpose of the thing he is building and will then choose the rightful material for that thing to carry out its purpose. In other words, purpose determines design.

Looking at King David’s words in Psalm 8 we also get an insight into the purpose of man. Here David says, man was made a little lower than God. (Other versions like the NIV say a little lower than the angels/heavenly beings but have a footnote to say it can also be translated a little lower than God. However, the Hebrew word there is actually elohim, the word translated God.) Bible commentaries actually agree that the statement can actually be read as “with a little bit of God missing.” Now we can go through the scriptures to argue this out, but that is not the purpose of this post. The point is, man in the original design was created with just a little bit of God missing in him.

Now, God has dominion over all of creation, He is a ruler and reigns over all creation. Therefore, in making man God gave him dominion over all of creation. This is inherent in every human being and was not lost at the fall, otherwise David would have written differently. Dominion is not limited to Adam, for the word used for man in Genesis 1:26 is plural and not singular. Based on this, we can conclude that all of mankind was created to have dominion over the earth. 

Dominion means to reign and rule, meaning everyone of us here has the capacity and natural ability to lead. That is the purpose for which each one of us was created.

If you take a close look at man over the years, you will see that what distinguishes him from the rest of creation is his ability to dominate and tame his environment and create for himself an environment in which he is comfortable. I minored in history during my undergraduate studies and we were taught that man began to make progress and distinguish himself from the rest of creation when he started to make tools which he used to tame his environment. While I do not agree with the evolution theory, I find it fascinating that, historians and scientists agree on this, man’s ability to tame his environment distinguishes him from all the animals. This ability comes from the very manner in which he was created and the purpose for his creation.

You see most of the inventions throughout history have been made to allow man to dominate the earth and to remove the restrictions that his environment places on him. Look at electricity, for example, one of its uses is to provide light so that even when there is darkness outside and we can no longer rely on the light supplied by nature, we have light to continue with our work. We have come up with piped water to make it convenient for us to access clean water which is critical for our survival. We have made clothes to keep us warm, cars to ease our mobility, microphones to supplement the inability of our voices to go far. All of these inventions have resulted in man dominating his environment and making his life easy and comfortable. That is the inherent capacity that God gave man.

Further to this and perhaps more in line with the topic, man does not want to be oppressed. History is replete with accounts of how man has removed the yoke of oppression over him. You do not want to be oppressed by fellow man, why, because you have that leadership capacity within you. Unfortunately many of us have not taken time to harness this capacity and use it.

Notice, all I have been saying so far applies to man in general. This is not restricted to the Christian. And so every living person was created to dominate their world, not just the Christian. Let’s now turn to the Christian then.

I will begin by making this statement; Christianity is a call to leadership. Why? The Christian in Matthew 5:13-16 is called to be the salt and light of the earth and this speaks of influence and therefore leadership. A little salt is able to “influence” the food on which it is added and thus brings about a change to its taste. So God’s intention is that the Christian will be a positive influence on the earth. Notice the use of the word earth, that means this influence is not restricted to just church or friends or family. It is broader and includes your class, your job, or in other words the environment around you. Furthermore, in Matthew 28:18-20 every Christian is called to make disciples and a disciple in the simplest definition is a follower/student. This validates what I have said, the Christian is called to leadership because you need to be a leader in order to have followers or students.

In addition to the scriptures in Matthew, Revelation 1:6 and 5:7 also support this argument as does Romans 5:17. In these verses we are told that as Christians we are now a kingdom of kings and priests. What do kings do? They rule. And priests also have a lot of influence. Consider Malachi 2:7 where we are told that the lips of the priest hold knowledge, which means he is able to influence because of that knowledge. Plus the role of the priest is not only to stand before God on behalf of the people but also to teach the people the ways of God.

One time we were preparing topics for a Students Retreat and one of the suggested topics was “A Youth With Christian Influence”. This seemed like a good topic to us but one the priests we were working with told us that the wording is redundant. Why? Because, he said, a Christian by definition is supposed to have influence, if not then you are not a Christian.

I write all this just for you to know that you are a leader regardless of whether you consider yourself as a leader or not. You not only have the capacity to do so but in some ways you are already leading someone. With this knowledge what remains is for you to harness that leadership capacity so that you become an effective leader. This is critical because as I said in my opening statement, everything rises and falls on leadership and in our generation, the critical problem we face is one of leadership. At the turn of the century, some leading thinkers in the world sat down to discuss what would be the major challenge for this century. At the end of their discussions they agreed that the major challenge for this century is not Aids, or poverty, or terrorism, or hunger rather it is leadership. My challenge to you reading this post today is to rise up to meet this particular crisis of leadership.

So what is the key to effective leadership? Again, I will go to Myles Munroe and begin by giving his definition of leadership.

“Leadership is the capacity to influence others through inspiration motivated by a passion, generated by a vision, produced by a conviction, ignited by purpose.” 

The diagram below highlights the necessary ingredients for genuine leadership and the order in which they are to be found based on the definition. The key for effective leadership is the discovery of purpose and one's pursuit of it. Purpose will bring about conviction, vision, and a passion. Passion will inspire others and thus influence them and this will make you their leader. I will go into depth on each one of these in a later post.

 

 

The greatest example we have of a leader is Jesus Christ who was a man of purpose and inspired many, and continues to inspire many today. An account found in the gospels according to Matthew 20:20-28, and Mark 10:35-45 reveals to us what He gave as being the secret to effective leadership and, by virtue of His deity, God’s original purpose for leadership. (Please read through these scriptures before proceeding). 

In this account we are told of a request made by 2 brothers to Jesus. The 2 sought a position of leadership or rather let me say seats of leadership. From this account we learn several things.

1. Desiring to be a leader is not a bad thing (see also 1 Timothy 3:1)
2. Leadership is a prepared position (you are born for leadership in a specific area)
3. Leadership demands a price
4. Leadership is not for you, it’s for others (1 Peter 4:10, 1 Corinthians 12:7) 
• God receives glory not just when you praise and worship him on Sunday, but when you go out and function in your gifting, when you reveal your personal glory and thus display His virtues to the world.
5. Leadership is based on your gift

The area of your gifting is your area of leadership because this where you draw your purpose from. And from the definition we see that the first crucial ingredient for true leadership is the discovery of purpose. Remember also that one of the first statements I made was that leadership is closely linked to your personal assignment on earth. You find your specific assignment on earth where your gifting lies.

Once you start functioning in that area of your gifting and you serve it to the world, you begin to gain influence and become significant and sought after. Michael Jordan did not set out to be a leader, he did not go to leadership school and what not. Rather he determined to sharpen his skill and become the best in the area of his gift. Right now he speaks to people worldwide and wields a lot of influence because of his gift.

Myles Munroe says “The shortest distance to leadership is service”. From the lesson Jesus gave we learn that as you serve your gift to the world and serve others around you by meeting their need, you become a genuine leader. Genuine leadership is not measured by how many people serve you, but by how many people you serve.

Myles Munroe goes on further to say. “If you find your unique gift or special talent and commit to serving it to the world of mankind, then your significance will cause people to seek you out. You will become an influence through exercising your gift rather than through manipulation. The more you become a person whose gift is valued, the greater your influence will be.”

That is why the Master’s command to us through Luke 19:18 is to “Occupy till I come”. He has called us to do business, to work the gifts that He has given us. In doing so we become the salt and the light and we reign in this life.

You must therefore take time to discover your gift, your specific assignment on earth and begin to harness it. Your purpose in life is unique to you and because of this you become the only reference point for people once you hone the skill and become very good at what you do. The world is looking for people who are the best in their area of gifting, and as long as you work at it, sharpening the skill, the world will soon recognize you. You do not even need to advertise yourself. Like John the Baptist, people will come to where you are, you will not seek them, they will seek you out. But this is not so that you lord it over them as the leaders of this world do, the aim is for you to serve them.

My mum is an expert in the area of gender. In 2002 she quit her regular job and began a consultancy service majoring in the areas of gender and HIV and AIDS. After a few assignments which she applied for, she became known among those who seek the service she offers and she has not applied for a consultancy since then. In fact she sometimes has to turn some down because she is already working on something else. If you look at her background, however, she was trained as an English and History teacher. But she discovered her area of gifting and is now much sought after. So be the best at what you do, people will come to you. Now with her being a Christian, it means that she has the opportunity to positively influence policy in all that she does. She has been involved in some very significant assignments in our country and in the region, but all that is because she has sharpened her skill and gift.

Jesus the greatest leader of all time, told His followers that He came to serve and not to serve, and Paul tells us to have the same mind as Jesus (Philippians 2:5). As He served his followers, His influence grew such that His “organization” now has a global impact and continues to grow even today. Servant leadership is the best form of leadership and will ensure that you escape the snares and entanglements that today’s leaders face.

Paul Drucker says that effective leaders are “the kind of person that they wanted to be, respect and believe in. In this way, they fortified themselves against the leader’s greatest temptation- to do things that are popular rather than right and to do petty, mean and sleazy things.” You and I can agree that the majority of the leaders today have fallen to this great temptation and that is perhaps why we are faced with such crises in our times. This can change with you and me.

So today through this post, I am giving you a foundation on which to build. Every other lesson in leadership will not bear fruit if you do not have this foundation. If you have the basic understanding of the following then you have a good foundation on which to build.

• Know that you are a leader because you have an inherent capacity to lead;
• It is not wrong for you to desire to lead;
• Your leadership potential lies in your purpose;
•  As you serve your gift, you become significant;
•  The shortest distance to leadership is service;
• Genuine leadership is servant leadership; and
• God's purpose for leadership is for service to his people and his creation in general.

As you understand these, you can begin to build effectively as a leader and influence the world around you. I hope to build on this foundation in future posts, but in the meantime I would recommend that you get books by Myles Munroe and John Maxwell on the topic of leadership and purpose. These books will be of great help to you as you develop your leadership potential.

Grace and peace