Leader Development: Alignment that results in spiritual authority
Leader Development: Alignment that results in spiritual authority
As a leader, what drives your decisions? Who pushes your buttons and pulls your strings? Tom McGehee helped me identify three basic types of leadership styles.
The leader who reacts to circumstances uses a self-focused approach and lives as an anxious leader. Urgency drives the anxious leader who seldom reflects on why things are the way they are. As a result, personal impact and approval from others turns out to be the basis of their decisions.
Goal-focused or ambitious leaders concentrate on an objective, a program, an event, or a task – often leaving God out of the leadership equation. A ambitious leader tends to believe he is one ‘something’ away from a breakthrough so he travels from one program or event to another, looking for the answer. Research becomes the basis for decisions, often spending hours on the internet looking for answers.
Finally, God-focused or aligned leaders lead by following, following the Leader. This leader concerns himself less with where he is going, and more with his total dependency on the Father’s leading. Decisions begin with surrender and discovery of how the Father is at work. Jesus calls us with these words: “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges write in Lead Like Jesus, “God is not looking for leaders but for servants who will let Him be the leader.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 describes this way of living: “Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track.” (The Message)
Jesus illustrated God-focused leading when He called the disciples in Mark 3:13–15. Can you imagine the excitement of hearing He “called those He wanted?” Jesus made His decision not based those needing a new assignment or those who showed the most leadership potential. Jesus chose those He wanted. Jesus’ three-fold call to the disciples remains the same for us today: [1] the call to intimacy (“to be with Him,” 3:12) [2] the call to mission (“to send them out,” 3:12) and [3] the call to spiritual authority (“to have authority.” 3:15) His calling was not to a spiritual “to-do” list – but to a “be-list.” In sequence, Jesus wanted His disciples walking in intimacy with Him, on mission with Him, and serving in His authority. Leaders often want to reverse the sequence and place activity over intimacy, and then wonder why they do not know His authority. The relationship is inseparable from the mission; and the mission is done in the authority created by following Him.
When His disciples met challenges, they offered Jesus. “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have, I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” (Acts 3:6) They did not offer magic tricks, fancy moves, slick curriculum, or five spiritual laws – they offered Jesus! Leaders meet people every day facing tremendous needs. We are not the answer to people’s needs – Christ is. We offer Jesus by inviting them into our journey with Him.
Too often, we treat leadership as a skill to master. Leaders attend workshops seeking new tools for their tool belt, wanting to become “Tim-the-Tool-Man-Taylor” of leadership. Like the character, we try to fix things, causing more harm than good. We compare our tool belt to someone else’s to see if we measure-up. Skills are important, but must never be the primary focus. Tools influence the kingdom only when in the hands of the Master. David led “. . . them with a pure heart and guided them with his skillful hands” (Psalm 78:72).
A leader develops in an ongoing process of responding to the Father’s work and adjusting to His activity. The God-focused leader discovers first God’s movement and then aligns with Him. J. Robert Clinton points to Hebrews 13:7–8 as the “leadership mandate.” According to Clinton, we observe carefully those leaders who have gone before us, and imitate their faith, because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Leaders develop as they learn to recognize the activity of Christ in others, so we can better recognize His activity in us. “The same Jesus who enabled those leaders to live lives of faith will enable me to live a life of faith today.” Note we “imitate their faith,” not their results. Results depend on the Father; the leader’s responsibility is to follow Him faithfully.
Jesus modeled this style of leadership. In John 5:19–20, He replied to those questioning Him with “. . . The Son is not able to do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing.” (See also John 4:34; 7:16–17; 8:28–29; 14:10) During all those times when the Scriptures record Jesus as praying, He was doing more than checking off “devotions” on his to-do list. He was aligning Himself with the work of the Father. (Matthew 14:23; 26:36–42; Mark 1:35; 6:46–47; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:18, 28; Hebrews 5:7)
Alignment, then, is the leader development issue. The business world refers to the principle: “All organizations are perfectly aligned to get the results they get.” If we do not like the results, we must examine the alignment that produces those results. When in alignment with the Father, there is a new power, a spiritual authority not based on natural ability or giftedness. Jesus described this alignment with terms like “take up My yoke and learn from Me” and “abide in Me” (Matthew 11:25–30; John 15). When leadership is about the Father and His work, it is not about the leader. God-focused leaders live for the Audience of One rather than the applause of the crowd. We focus on His name, not our own.
This intentional alignment has huge implications in the way we lead others. The anxious leader needs a counselor, the ambitious leader needs a consultant, and the aligned leader needs a coach. The coach watches for the activity of the Father in the lives of others, and then helps them learn to recognize His work and respond to Him. Within this process, those we lead become followers of the Leader, not us. The result: their faith rests not on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power (1 Corinthians 2:5; see also 1 Corinthians 11:1).
First Peter 5:5–10
records an amazing promise for the God-focused, following leader: “And all of
you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the
proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the
mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you in due time… Now the God of all
grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will personally
restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a
little.” (Italics added) People will
follow a leader who is personally restored, established, strengthened and
supported by the God of all grace. How well aligned are you today? Where is
your focus? As you seek to lead others, first align yourself with the Leader.
Please see attached article for references and bibliography
