Theology of Credible Leadership - Lesson 9

Dr. John Johnson
Theology of Credible Leadership
How Do You Become a Leader?
Lesson Transcription

Up to now, we have been talking about leadership in terms of more, its, its foundations, getting a reference point. We talked about the importance of having a solid foundation. And that foundation I believe certainly goes back to God goes back to his theology, and it's on building that then we begin to move towards how we actually do leadership itself. Leaders, will always face, defining moments, leadership moments in which, they realize they have to step up and be a leader.  

I was thinking about this, with my second church, where we decided to, establish this capital campaign. We were building a new sanctuary. I remember I was in Israel leading a study tour, and I got a, a phone call, alerting me to the fact that, and was when the economy was really growing really quite rapidly, almost beyond control, and the costs were escalating to the point where what we had started out with an assumption would be somewhere between maybe 10 and 12 million.  

Turned out to be a cost of nearly 24 million. And I remember thinking, “Okay, John, you've got to make a decision here. People are looking to you to lead.”   

And I remember thinking to myself, I don't want to be the first pastor that bankrupted, this church. But it was a hard decision. Do we pull the plug? Do we, do we keep pressing forward and trust God for the monies? But obviously 24 million for us anyway, that was a huge amount of money. And so I started thinking, okay, what does a leader do? What kind of decisions must I make? But the point of this course and the point of that moment, was this. Here I had to go back to theological reference points again.  

What defines a leader? Who am I to be in this moment? And as we saw in previous lectures, it's important that I come as a servant. How do I serve God in this? What is God saying?  I had to think through who God is. And certainly God is without limits. God can do anything.  

So do I become reckless? God certainly wouldn't call me to that. But what does it mean to make a decision? And where's the place of collaboration? How much is this decision on me? And how much is it bringing, the team together? And thinking theologically about my own propensities, my own fallenness, my own tendencies to make misjudgments if I'm not careful?   

All of these theological foundations, if you will, played a role in how we made a decision, one that was very difficult. Since we'd already committed and spent to over a million dollars towards this project, in the end, we realized it would be foolish to, to move forward. So, we scaled back and we stopped, and we prayed. And of course, that gets back to, again, in thinking about leadership and a theology of leadership.  

And a theology tells us, for example, as a board, when we gather together to then weigh a decision like this, theology would teach us that our primary role is to be discerners, is discern the mind and will of God. Ultimately. It's not our decision. It's God's and what God is showing us. So, to review and go back for a moment, we're establishing this, that to be a really effective leader, a leader has to have a reference point, something to go back to something that's far bigger than himself or herself.  

And my point is, one goes back to one's theology, where we see that God has revealed himself and his will and gives us illustrations of leadership all through Scripture to guide us in making good decisions. Now, what I'd like to do, in this, lecture is talk about an essential question that begins to emerge also.  

And that is, how does one become a leader? I mean, how does that happen? And, and we begin to again, think about possibilities. Is it, is it something that's reserved for a few? Is it something that anyone, if they have the desire to be, can be a leader?   

Is it something, purchased, something acquired? Is it something created? How does one become a leader? So what I want to do in, and this into this question, how is to start with looking at common assumptions? And do you remember that we sort of used this image of all of these books on leadership here, particularly more in the secular world, that teach us a lot about leadership, that give us common assumptions about questions like, how does one become a leader?   

And then thinking it through from a theological side, how does theology guide us? So, what I want to do here is talk about common assumptions and then move to talk about, again, how theology informs us.  

When we think about common assumptions about how one becomes a leader, I want to talk about five, assumptions that are not earth shattering or anything really new. But I think these are, assumptions that when we look at leadership we see, ourselves and at least one of those answers.  

So, the first, assumption here is that, how does one become a leader? You have to have ambition. There has to be a desire. The reality is, when you think about leadership in general, leaders want to lead. That’s what I've observed, most who are leaders are there because it's been their ambition, it's been their desire. In fact, Barbara Kellerman, who I've mentioned, I often quote from, who teaches leadership at Harvard, has written a book entitled Leaders Who Lust.  

It's an interesting, title for a book. But, and, and her thesis is that the leaders who really are there at the top levels, who have distinguished established themselves, are largely there because of an intense desire of passionate ambition if you will.  

So how does one become a leader? Well, some would say, you can't become a leader if, first of all, there isn't ambition. Determination might be another word here, and, and almost obsessive single tracked mind that says, this is what I want to be. This is what I want to do. And so, how does one become a leader?   

Yet? You have to want it. You have to be ambitious for it. And some leaders are the result of this deep drive, this inner compulsion. She gives, the illustration, for example, of Tom Brady, the Tom Brady, who, had this great, amazing career with the NFL was actually not a hugely gifted athlete, but he had something that distinguished him from a lot of others. He had this ambition, this desire.  

It was just planted in him. It led to him, giving himself incessantly to practice. He thought in his mind, he pursued what was his ambition. In fact, she describes it as, an ambition that knew no bounds. He was, completely, as she put it, hell bent on becoming, who he became.  

It was a relentless quest. Some would say that, how does one become a leader? Well, this is where it starts. You have to have, you have to have the passion, the desire, that burning in your bone, so to speak. Some would say, here's another answer to that question. There has to be giftedness. So, to these common assumptions, one would be ambition. Second would be giftedness.  

So, to the answer of how some would say, this is how you become a leader. You become a leader. If it's in your DNA, if it's in your bones, it's if this is how you were created, how you're born. It's part of your DNA, that's demonstrated in your talents. And, there's this genetic evidence, if you will, that says, “I'm a leader because I'm made for this.”   

It's in my bones. It's innate within me that is revealed through my, my intelligence, my confidence, my charisma, my determination that is planted somehow there. But on the other hand, there's a third school of thought that would say, “How does one become a leader?”   

You become a leader because you train for it. This notion that you are gifted is not necessarily true. You don't have to be gifted. You can be a leader if you decide to learn how to be a leader. It's not too much of a surprise, really, because leadership books are based a lot on this premise that you can become a leader if you read our books. And so there's a, a lot of, there's a lot of strong voice that speaks to the idea of being trained, of being learned, that leaders are, are made not born.  

That leadership is more about, nurture than nature. So, leadership comes by learning, by observing, by reading great books. And those who believe, believe leadership, only comes through some endowment personally, they would say is a myth.  

It’s a learnable set of skills that can lead to effective leadership. It's through the study of great books. I sat down last night. I was thinking, what, what are some of the books that I have read that have at least helped inform, especially from this selection of books over here? And I began to make a list.  

And perhaps one of the most formative books at the beginning for me was Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis. That almost was foundational. Something happened inside of me. When I read that book, I, for the first time, I actually read something about leadership. I was introduced to leadership. And Warren Bennis himself, as he writes the book, makes the point that the whole notion that you have to be gifted is, is a myth. So what he does is he takes the, the reader step by step through the process of how one becomes a leader.  

Some of the other books I have listed here is, Canoeing the Mountain, by Bolsinger. Others are, Leadership, by Burns. James McGregor Burns wrote the classic book on leadership years ago. David Gan wrote Eyewitness to Power in which he looks at the presidents he worked with when he was a communications director.  

I've mentioned Barbara Kellerman and her book leadership, or, and Posner who've written The Leadership Challenge, which has been a classic textbook, through the years. Or Patrick Lencioni, who's written a series of books. They're all placed in the form of fables, but they're all about leadership from leading committees, to, just overall discerning what leads to the health of an organization.  

He's been a very helpful read for me, to even generals by like Mattis, who wrote Call Sign, that is a fascinating book on strategy. Or McChrystal who, Stanley McChrystal, who, was a leader in Afghanistan and who was at the highest ranks in the military, who has this deep fascination for leadership. And he's really a good writer. And he gives 13 stories of 13 different leaders. And what he does in this book in particular, is he both talks about leadership in a realistic way, but then he also draws out a lot of the myths that we tend to have about leadership. Northouse, Peter Northouse has written, if you think of an academic book just on theory of leadership, his book, Introduction to Leadership. Or Pfeiffer, at Stanford, has written, a book by an interesting title, Leadership BS, in which he looks at leadership and a lot of its failure, even though he teaches leadership at Stanford.

Or Rumelt who wrote the book. And he's really a great writer when it comes to strategy, has written Good Strategy, Bad Strategy, and has just recently come out with a book that is all about strategy, which again, is a really helpful read in learning how do I lead an organization strategically? Noel Tichy Leadership Engine, in which he talks about the fact that all great institutions, organizations, corporations, that survive and continue on, have to have a leadership engine, something that continues to give energy and direction.  

And that leadership engine is the development of future leaders. So, it's all about how you develop future leaders, or just a few more. As an example, Michael Useem's book Leadership Moment, a book that I have used in leadership courses as a textbook, if you will, for many years. Because what I like about what Useem does is he looks at these different leaders who had their leadership moment, men who were at mission control with Apollo 13, and its damage and the leadership he had to exhibit and demonstrate to bring everyone together to get that spacecraft back.

Or, Wagner Dodge when, he was leading a group of men in one of the great fires in Montana and his leadership failure at that leadership moment, which cost the lives of, of many men. 

Though he gives these great stories of leadership moments. That, and his thesis in a sense is that every leader has a moment when they face leadership. Roy Vagelos as an example, who led this, Merck, this huge pharmaceutical, company, and face this crisis, this health crisis. And he had to determine if we do something in that crisis to alleviate it, it will cost the corporation a lot of money.  

It, this will be something that will not, it will not satisfy the shareholders because it won't bring a profit. And so, he had to step back and ask himself the question, “What do I do in this moment? Do I lead the organization forward to try to satisfy the stockholders and find the best way to earn money or to actually meet, an actual need in Africa?”  

And this is, again, a leadership moment. These are the kind of things that Aseem talks about. Or Walker, who wrote the book Captain Class in which he, he looked at all of these different athletic teams, in all kinds of sports, and he looked at, what they all had in common, the ones that got to the championship level, what was common, what were the common threads that made them championship caliber?   

It went back to leadership. So, he draws out the leadership principles that he finds there. Or maybe one more I'll mention here is Gary Wills, who wrote the book, Certain Trumpets, in which what he does there is he looks leadership in all of these, I think, 13 contexts to say what leadership looks like in an athletic, context or military context, or corporate context.  

So, what's my point? My point is to say that, that we'll come back here to assumptions. How does one become a leader? Well, some would say, this is how you become a leader. You, you train, you learn, you read really great books. And out of all of this, whether you're gifted or not, but one can become, a leader.  

By the way, these books that I have just, discussed will be found, on the class page. You will see these listed. If you look at my book Rooted Leadership as well in the index. These and many other resources are, are listed as well. Now, let's move to, another common assumption. Some would say that, how does one become a leader?   

Well, it's a matter of inheritance. And of course, we see this, when we look at various, leaders today who are leaders, how did they become leaders? They became leaders because they had the right bloodlines. They were in the right family. They were born in the right place at the right time.  

So that leads to the kings and queens, to the leaders like Kim and others in Korea who are there because of their family roots. They have, a certain birthright. How do you become a leader? You just have to be born in the right family. And finally, if we, if there's one more we might mention here, it would be some would just say, how do you become a leader?   

Just a matter of fate. Again, you're just in the right place at the right time. How did John F. Kennedy become a leader? He happened to be at the right place at the right time with PT 1 0 9, and it moved him into, the sphere of, of at least people noticing. And being in a heroic place in the right moment was a key step to becoming a leader. Some would say the same thing with Churchill, who in the war, wars that he fought, he just happened to be the right place, right time.  

So, it’s really largely about chance in terms of how one becomes a leader. It's just your destiny. It's just that you are in the right situation. So, what we're going to do in just a moment as we move to the next lecture, we'll move from these common assumptions.  

We'll look to see what theology has to show in terms of answering this question of how one becomes a leader. Let's see. Only has written so many good books. Yeah. Is there one that stands out that every pastor should read? I'd say the advantage, when I, did, a series of, messages, at a church I was helping that had really, lost their way, especially in terms of leadership.  

I sat down with the leadership team, and I took them through Lencioni's the Advantage. I was just with the, the board chairman, a week ago for lunch. And he still says, I read from that, all the time. I'd read for it, I'd read through it with respect to his own business where he, where he leads. And, and, and what is really good about the Advantage Lencioni gets really to the, to, to this question, what leads to the health of an organization?   

Because he believes that the healthier an organization is the obviously the greater the organization's going to impact the industry or whatever it does. So, it all goes back to leadership health. So, he unpacks in that book, the, the key, characteristics of Health, and it starts with a healthy leader.  

So, but I love that book. I also, his Five Dysfunctions, I think every team, yeah, every team should read that book regularly. But I think the other that stands out that I've sometimes used in a course, particularly in pastoral courses, is I think the title is Death by Meeting. And I really like that book because he, on the surface, you'll look at that title and you go, wow, that's, you know, that’s not going to be a big seller. But again, it's a fable. It takes you through this story. And I believe every leader, every pastor especially should read that book because it guides you in terms of how to lead committees, how to, how to make board meetings really, really effective. Cause reality is most board meetings are ineffective.  

In fact, if I could add to it, I'll add one more thing that  in, one of my course assignments, I would tell students, I want you to go, especially when we were talking about team building, I would say, okay, you can choose a staff meeting or an elder board, and I want you to sit on it. I want you to come back with your observations. I have to tell you, it was one of the most depressing assignments, you know, I gave, because they just come back with such bizarre reports.  

In most meetings, especially, I know I'm sounding pretty critical, but most meetings, church meetings, especially elder meetings and staff meetings are highly dysfunctional. And that's because I believe people are not equipped to know how to lead meetings, and they become just sometimes not only ineffective and worthless, they actually can be where some of the greatest relational damage happens.  

You say you're sounding depressing, but for those of us that have had a sit-in meetings where the person in charge thought having a meeting was doing his job, and yet nothing was done, that's a, it's not a depressing thing to say. I mean, that it is a real issue, you know? Yeah but, and where I talk about it on the relational side is, when I was pastoring in Europe, I had a board chairman, who was just, well, I'll just say it bluntly, was a chairman from hell.  

And our meetings typically went from seven to midnight. And around 10 o’clock was when we moved through from our agenda to kind of an open agenda. It was an awful experience because first of all, in an open agenda, you haven't had time to prepare.  

Secondly, it's generally when people bring criticisms, to the table, often criticisms about the pastor. And thirdly, it's when you're emotionally worn out. And so, you tend to make really bad choices, have really poor reactions. And what does that go back to?   

It, to me, it goes back to a deep failure of leadership. So, Lencioni's book, I wish I had, had my board read that book years ago. It would've helped us a lot. In fact, I tell, I was just with, with this, board chairman who's new at this church, and he said, do you have any guidelines? And I said, guideline number one, have a clear agenda that was determined in advance, time it out, and don't go past 9:00pm under any circumstances.  

Yeah. The other question I had for you is, I think maybe something you're going to handle anyway, but raising the issue of inheritance is an interesting topic. I was just talking to two of my board members this morning. They both are in family businesses, highly, highly successful. Right? I mean, one of them, I gave you the name, everyone would know it. Right. And they've been able to hire their sons.

To follow them up. But there's, there's got to be horrible stories like of a, a pastor who his son takes over and doesn't have the same gifting and stuff. Are you going to address the issue of how to, how to deal with that? Or do you have any words of wisdom for what are the problems to look out for if someone thinks they deserve to be the pastor because their dad was a pastor? I don't plan to here, but, but just as I stopped to think about that question there, there is a lot of nepotism in, in ministry, and I think it would be unfair to say that's all bad or it's all good.  

Right? I mean, it, it depends upon the situation. I've seen it where it seems to have worked out quite well, but I've also seen it, in fact, I see it in a church I'm working with right now where the pastor had heavy control over the church and then handpicked his son to be his successor, so that things would remain under control.  

And sadly, his son, came down with cancer and died. So that dream for him, was not fulfilled. But to a certain extent, if I could put it this way, it's the grace of God because, the church needs to kind of set its course, without someone saying, this is where you're going to go next.  

So, it can be good. But I think I've sometimes asked myself the question, what if my son had a passion for ministry, went to seminary, was working with me at my church, let's say at village. There’d be part of me that would go well, I just, it would be great to hand off to him.  

But, you know, and of course, I don't know for sure if this is true. I don’t think I could ever do that, because I think it's a decision, I think the board should make, the church should make Mm- That the idea that a, a pastor should, in a sense, in a transition mandate, I think, is, I just think it can lead to dis certain dysfunctions.  

I had dinner with a big-name pastor years ago. He was my pastor in San Diego. And I remember, as we were walking out after dinner, he'd come and, and I had just graduated and I heard him say to another man who was a leader in the church, I'm looking for my successor, someone who will lead the church in the same direction.  

I've led it. And I remember even then, even though I was really naive and, and young, I thought to myself, wow, that's too bad. I think that that should be a church's decision, not, not yours. So, I don't know if I'm addressing it. No, it’s this kind of summary, right? There are advantages in, in inheritance because they, they know their dad's passion, for example.  

They're familiar with the church. They know how things are working, and they have developed relationships with people in the church. But at the end of the day, it's the church that has to decide whether the son in this case is the right successor. Right. And, and it can't be mandated. Is that a fair way to kind of Well, it, yes and no because it, it, when we talk about theological, guidance in how one becomes a leader, we certainly see inheritance sanctioned by God  like David, who says, no, it's  Solomon, who's going to be the king?   

And so, these kings are all inherited, and there doesn't seem to be an indication scripturally in the main leaders, let's say in the Old Testament, that God looked down upon inheritance. It is one way in terms of how one becomes a leader.  

But even in those examples, there are good examples and really poor examples, right? So, you know, Rehoboam becomes a, a tragic Yeah. Son of Solomon, afterwards is, but then Solomon himself was a pretty significant leader after David. So there, there's good and bad. So if, we were to say in the church, well, no, there's, no place for nepotism or inheritance.  

Again, theology is our reference point. We might say, well, that might be going a little bit too far. But I think that's where another piece comes in. And that's wisdom. And I think wisdom in general would say it should be the will and the decision of the church. And so, back to myself, if I had a son in that, I'd want him to be vetted like anyone else.  

And if he become, if he's the choice of the church, so be it.