Theology of Credible Leadership - Lesson 10

Dr. John Johnson
Theology of Credible Leadership
How Does God Make a Leader?
Lesson Transcription

Let's come back to, again, this question of how, and we've looked at, various common assumptions, but I want to think through it from a theological site. What does theology show us? What we're going to find that is that theology, and, and in a certain sense underscores all of the things we've just discovered, though there are some, some differences.   

So let's start with this word, ambition. I think sometimes people, in the church, leaders, even sometimes in the church, are suspicious of this word. I remember a title of an article years ago that maybe put it in perspective, and I, as I recall, the title was wholly ambitious or holy ambitious.   

There is a place for ambition. And in the right way, there has to be some ambition to, to leadership, in the church or any ministry for that matter.   

We see ambition in, in people like Jabez and Jabez's. Prayer made famous, years ago. But you remember Jabez's prayer Jabez is saying, Lord, may you bless to bless me. He uses this Hebrew hebraism that, that al almost to reinforce using an infinitive and an imperative.   

Lord, don't just bless me, bless to bless me. Here’s a man, I think, who's caught up with ambition, who wants God to pour his favor on him, who somehow looks at God, who he believes is a God of blessing, and says, if that's true, then Lord just give it all to me. And so he prays his prayer, may you bless to bless me, and may you enlarge my boundaries. So here's, here's a man with the ambition to say, I picture it something like this.   

Here's Jabez's life within, these boundaries. But he is looking at life, with a certain ambitious heart to say, Lord, may you stretch them out wisely. He also prays, and may your hand beyond me, and may it come without pain. What I find striking about his prayer, of course, is it says, and God answered his prayer.   

And which seems to be an affirmation that when it comes to ambition, I think you could make a point that God at times says, sure, yes, well, let's go for it. So, for, for some like Jabez it can be a good thing, but we know ambition can also be a bad thing if it's not holy but it's W-H-O-L-L-Y.   

It's all about stroking one's ego, about getting to the top leaders, like, I have listed here at Adonijah or Jereboam or Basha or Jezebel or Athalaya, who all maneuvered to get their names on the door, that were, desirous of something that wasn't reflecting the desire of God. So in some places, we see, people who chased after leadership or accused others of doing that.   

There were some in Moses's leadership in numbers, chapter eight or chapter 16, who accused, Moses of having a wrong ambition, who were in it just for himself. Again, the point is that when we look at these various examples, we see that ambition can be good, can also be bad, that not all ambition is wrong.   

God doesn't commend those who are without ambition. He seems, at least in my judgment to say that those who play it safe, who, who take what God has given and they hide it, don't necessarily carry out the will of God. There has to be a certain ambition to go and take what God has given us and, and go for it. In fact, think about this in first Timothy when, Paul lays out for Timothy the qualities of a leader.   

You remember the very first, it seems the very first character quality he starts with is if anyone aspires to be a, a leader. So right there in one Timothy three, he seems to be saying that if there's not a certain ambition to be a leader, you're already disqualified. So let's take it to a practical level.   

When it comes to ambition and leadership. I think, let's say a pastor looking for leaders to lead in this church should be looking for people who have a certain ambition. If I find myself, seeking to persuade or twist a person's arm to be a leader, because there's not the evident ambition, Paul would say, well, he's already disqualified. Why do you keep trying to, to persuade someone who doesn't want to do it?   

Now, I balance that with the other side is, is I've also been sensitive as a pastor to those who it is their driving ambition. In fact, they'll do anything to be a leader in the church. And often that's a red flag for me. I think it's something we aspire to, but, but some want it maybe in a way that's not HOLY, but W-H-O-L-L-Y.   

That is, I think there's some leaders who want to be some who want to be leaders, who are ambitious to be leaders because maybe they want the control. They want almost, in a sense, the autocracy that they have in their minds to lead. So ambition, is it the one way to leadership theology would say yes, but just make sure it's, it's holy HOLY ambition.   

But the second is, it's gifts. Now, how does one become a leader? It's clear when you look in Scripture that, that some are gifted to be, leaders and, and leadership is a spiritual gift. We see this, and, and Scripture in key texts.   

Romans 12:6, 1 Corinthians 12:28, makes leadership a its own particular gift, and, and it's identified therefore, as something it would seem, a leader should have. If, if leadership is a spiritual gift, then how does one become a leader? I think it's fair to ask a person, is this your gift? When you look at the fact that God has gifted all of us for ministry, it's important to sort out what your gift is.   

And if it's leadership, then, then we ought to be putting on our boards, on our staff, those who lead the church, those who are gifted to lead. And, and, and so how does one know, however, that's your gift? That's, that's a huge question. So when I try to help people in seeking to discern their their giftedness, I generally ask three questions.   

And I think this gets it to the heart of then, how a person is gifted. Number one, I like to ask the question. So what is your passion? what would you say as you know yourself is your sweet spot? What is it that you, when you look at your skills and who you are, what is it you believe that you were made to do? And that's a question that one should ponder and answer with a lot of great thought.   

The second question that I think we have to answer is, what is it people affirm? What is it that when you do this, people say, you're so good at that, it just seems to be so natural. You seem to do it with, with just without a whole lot of effort, it just comes out of you.   

That's a good indicator of giftedness. The third question I like to ask is, what is it God seems to, he just seems to bless that when you do it, you just sense something of the hand of God on you. You, you sense the spirit of God within you as saying, this is what pleases me. This is what I made you to do. When those three things are, are aligned, at least it's been my experience, not only in my own life, but in my observation of others.   

That gets pretty close to how a person's gifted. So if a, if a man or a woman is gifted to lead, it's because they're passionate. It's because it's affirmed by others. It's because that's where God seems to be, blessing their lives, which then says, how does one become a leader? We should look for those who are therefore gifted to do it just as if we're going to put together a search committee to look at a candidate.   

Let's say to be a pastor. I want to look for someone who has the gift of discernment. Why does God give the church the gift of discernment to put on committees like that? Who can discern? Of course, a lot of times we forget this or we ignore this. We look for people who represent certain interests in the church and make sure that everybody's represented.   

And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but the, at the end of the day, we need someone who knows how to discern, can't see, see through, can properly vet. I think a lot of bad decisions are made when it comes to selecting future leaders, because those with the gift of discernment, haven't been called to serve, in that process any more than say someone with the gift of mercy.  

Those are those who I want on the front lines. When it comes to people who are in the hospital or going through great physical difficulty, that's what the church should be about, is putting people in their rightful places. And that's especially true of leadership. So, again, when we, would have our annual nominating of elders, so to speak, I would ask, this question, so tell me about these character qualifications in one Timothy three.   

Is it your desire? Do these character qualities describe your life? But instead of ending it there, I would move to the second question, is leadership your gift? And if you believe it is, then convince us. Tell us how you know, it's your, your gift.   

Because I've served on a lot of boards with men of Godly character, but they're not leaders. So we, we have to ask this question. And I believe in terms of how does one become a leader? This is an important answer to the question. And, as I mentioned, it's affirmed by the, the gift itself mentioned in Romans 12:6, 1 Corinthians 12:28, in which actually we see, we see, two different words that are used, there to describe leaders.   

And sometimes we make, I think, a false, dichotomy between those two words, prohistemi and kubernesis to say, well, one is more management and one is more leadership. But if you look at the nature of the terms themselves, they both are largely leadership terms. And, and so I believe they're just looking at leadership from a little bit of a different angle, but they're both about leadership, gifting.   

So to this question of ambition and gifts, we also see that God speaks to the idea of, of learning. That is how does one become, a leader? Well, is it your aspiration, your ambition?   

Is it your giftedness? But also we can say Scripture affirm that training learning also comes into play in terms of how one becomes a leader. There are, numerous examples, and stories in Scripture, which we, we find where God is, is, is training people to be leaders. In fact, everyone, it seems that God has brought into leadership, he puts them then through a school of, of leadership.   

So David is anointed, but David doesn't become king. In the next verse, he is in the desert for years. And all the way through we see these, illustrations, where God is teaching leadership, and people are learning, leadership. Moses is 40 years in the desert. Paul is in the Arabian desert.   

The disciples are in a sense, in their desert, in their leadership school with Jesus. So is leadership, how does one become a leader? Is leadership learned? Well, yes. Almost everyone in Scripture went through a certain learning, to become, a leader. And God is always teaching, and we should always be listening to his words, follow me. Because leadership is as a lifelong learning.   

It's not that we reach a point where we don't have to learn it, anymore. My experiences is that no matter how much leadership experience you've had, no matter how many books you've read, we're still on this huge learning curve to be effective leaders. Does leadership pass from one to another? So we then look at this word, inherit. And again, so to this question of how do I become a leader?   

You could build a theological argument that it's right there in Scripture as well, because many of the leaders inherited their leadership. There are examples of those who acquired it by birthright. We see it, whether it's Jacob or Samuel’s sons or Solomon or the kings. So what if we discovered up to this point, to a certain extent, we could say theology affirms these common assumptions, except for fate.   

Because in the theological world, we realize there is really no such thing as fate or chance, at all. But what Scripture does do is it points to, it points to something else. When it comes to this question of how, and it really, again, comes back to, to one key word.   

You remember when we talked about defining leadership, we talked about the fact that it really comes down from a theological side to this one word servant, which is the overarching definition, of a leader. I think we could do something also, we could say something also, about how with one overarching word, and that is the word summons.   

So what I'm saying here is that to the question, how does one become a leader? Yes, there's gift in this. Yes, there's ambition. Yes, there could be inheritance and there certainly is learning. But where theology distinguishes itself from these common assumptions is that it also points us to, to this, how does one become a leader?   

You become a leader because you have been summoned, to be a leader. And, in our next session, we'll talk about what it means to be summoned by God. You touched on something just in my own life, and maybe my comment is just to drive the point home that you made, but you may have something else to say about it.   

When I was pastoring, I was frantic to try to find board members, elders. That would actually show up and pray. I thought that'd be a good thing. Elders, should pray. I couldn't get 'em to show up to pray. So I went to the men's prayer meeting and I saw the people who were there, and I asked them if they would consider being elders, and some were okay. Some I had to really twist their arms to do it.   

Turns out it was the worst decision of my pastor I ever made. Hmm. Because what I had were good men. Who were prayers, who had no leadership skills at all. They had no courage to lead. I mean, it was, it was disastrous. So I don't anything to say about that, but it  really is an important point I think that you made that they really have to feel called to come. I think that's why, a really healthy church creates a leadership culture.   

What I mean by that is, I wish I had done this in my earlier ministries. I kind of caught on to the reality, I need to do this in my later, time of leading a church, but creating an ongoing leadership class, if you will, in which here are the core things that leaders need to know, about leadership.   

What defines a leader? What is that leaders do, et cetera, et cetera, and provide this training. And to say, then therefore, anyone who's going to lead the church, a has to demonstrate giftedness. And then B, those who demonstrate giftedness have to go through this course, be before they can even be considered to, let's say, be an elder.   

And the church, you know, churches would be so much healthier if they did that, but it, so, I mean, churches should by nature be environments of leadership, right? I mean, they should be creating a culture that it seems like a, a, a great compliment to a church is to say, you know, this is our church, and wow, they do such a great job training leaders.   

Those are the churches I think that are going to going to have great leadership. But yeah, I couldn't agree more. I, in my earliest experiences I had, I can still visualize them, some wonderful men, they were great heart. They just weren't leaders. Mm-Hmm. So you would talk about, a vision or, talk about a strategy or talk about our mission and what we need to be doing. And, sometimes you just have blank stares, because they didn't really know how to make decisions.   

Didn't you just have these unhealthy relationships because people didn't understand, their role or, or pastors who, that's a whole nother subject, right? Is what is my leadership role on a board with elders? Do I have a different leadership role than they have or are we all on the same level, so to speak?   

So it, it all goes back to creating a leadership culture. I, I would just add this, that it, it is so critical to have the right leaders, around you, those you serve with on the board. It really is going to make a huge difference in terms of the church's health, and it's going to make a key difference in your long-term, this, or short-term, this in the church.   

If you're not working with, with godly leaders who are godly, who are leaders, you can really stunt the growth of the church and keep the church from moving forward. It's just been my experience. It's also been my, my observation. So let's, let's look at this last word here, because I believe this is where theology in a sense distinguishes itself from all the other common answers as to how one becomes a leader.   

When you look in Scripture, it seems from back to Noah, Genesis, Abraham on leaders become leaders because God summons them to leadership. That one comes to leadership, because God has called one to leadership.   

It goes back to Genesis 1:28. It is this history all the way through that just as God summons the stars and the moon, and he summons creation, everything is this divine call, if you will. It applies especially to leadership. Humanity is called and ordained, to rule right from the beginning. Genesis 1:26 through 28. It’s to say that leaders do not derive their legitimacy, from the consent of the govern, nor do they derive their power from their own self-determination.   

They leaders receive their authority to lead, from the sanction of God. God is the one who's the sovereign O overall, and it's God who determines who will be his leaders.   

And you look in Scripture, just I look at some of these that are, are worth quoting, one Samuel three, four, then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel. How did he become a leader? He became a leader because he received this call in the night I took you from the pastor, two Samuel seven, verse eight. How did David become a leader? Well, in lots of ways, but he became a leader because God somewhere said to Samuel, this is the man.   

You’ve made me head of the nations people I did not know, are subject to me. Psalm 18, verse 43. That's David's own testimony. Or I think of Jeremiah just reading Jeremiah this morning, and Jeremiah one, Jeremiah reflects back, how did I get to where I am as this prophetic leader? You go back to Jeremiah one, four, before you were born, I set you apart, or Paul himself as he reflects back on, how did I get to this place of leadership?   

He, in Galatians 1:15, says, God, who set me apart from birth, Ashley, almost quoting from Jeremiah. So these numerous examples tell us that along the way, how does one become a leader? Well, there are these, these words.   

God establishes. God calls. God raises. God appoints God's sins. God places God ordains. There is this divine summons, every leader, ultimately, in terms of how one became a leader, it goes back to God's summoning. Every leader has a story of how they were summoned to leadership. And I'm guessing if you are taking this course and you are assessing your own life, thinking about your own leadership, and you see yourself as a leader, I think a really fair and a and important question is ask yourself.   

So how was I summit? Was I summoned? Can I point to moment when I was summoned to lead? And in this process, when we're summoned to lead, it's more than summoned to lead theologically. If I look at this question through the frame of theology, I see that God not only summons, he summons us to partner with him.   

Because you see, ultimately, that's what leadership is. It is a summons from God to partner with God, to carry out his will. That in a summary statement gets to the very heart of how one becomes a leader. How did I become a leader? I became a leader because at some point there was this summons. I may not have noticed it or recognized it in the moment, but then it becomes clear over time, just a short little personal story.   

When I was in high school, I had come to Christ, I'd given my life to the Lord. I was really immature, still growing, still learning. And I had this passion. My passion was to go to the Air Force Academy. So I trained, I prepared, I was sent to military school for a year to get my appointment, and everything was moving just fine except for one problem.   

Just before I graduated from high school, my spiritual godfather, came to the place where I worked one night. There were a lot of people in this, this shop where I was working, and he just reached over the window and he said, you need to go into the ministry. And all that year in military school, I couldn't shake. It was like a seed that was planted. It. Now I look back, it was a summons.  

How did I become a ministry leader? It's, was there ambition? Maybe some, is there giftedness? I believe there is giftedness. It is a passion of mine. I have learned, leadership for, for many years, and I keep learning and I keep studying it. But at the very heart of it all, it's this word right here. I look back to a moment I was summoned that, as I mentioned, I didn't realize in the moment.   

But over time, I look back and I see that there was this call and my, my encouragement to you is you consider how you've become a leader. Ask yourself again, the question, has there been this calling, this summons? It is a, if I could put it this way, it is a fatal call because it is a dying to self.  

This is what happens. So how does one become a leader? Well, ask yourself, is it, is it something of a passion? Is it something in your, in your bones, that you can see is how you were made? Is it, is it something you've been trained to do? And part of what I mean by that is when you pick up a leadership book do you find yourself going, man, I just can't get enough.   

How do I know I'm a leader? In part, it's because I'm also, I just tend to gravitate to any book on leadership or books about leaders. It’s just like a magnet that, that somehow tells me, that's who I am. That's what I do. So how, how do you become a leader?   

You, you, you not only learn, learn it, but you also realize it. It's who you are because it's what you want to learn. It's what you're passionate to read. Every day when I look at the news, I find myself almost intuitively, instinctively, I'm looking at leadership lessons. So why did he do this? What kind of decision did he make and how did he make that decision?   

Why is he so foolish? Behind all of this, I want to know what makes leaders tick. So if it's your giftedness, if it's your training, if it's your ambition, which are all really good, it's also important to ask yourself, is it also something you've been summoned to do? Because that gets to the heart of how one becomes a leader.