DB Post

Leadership Storytelling in the Bible This week, we will look at storytelling in the Bible and what leaders can learn from a leadership perspective. The Bible provides a wonderful example of leadership storytelling for us today as contemporary leaders. It is a text that includes highs and lows, heroes and villains, horrible falls from grace and triumphant stories of redemption alike. The leaders within the Bible are at once both heroic and yet also sinful; they are by no means a perfect lot, but this is part of what makes the Biblical narrative so compelling. It is not just a text about perfect people who do perfect things; instead, it is a believable story about imperfect men and women who are used by God in extraordinary ways. Even 2000+ years later, we can identify with these stories because they remind us of ourselves and how God can use even sinful people like us. So let's look together at some of the key strengths of the Biblical narrative. We will be looking at these primarily from a leadership perspective rather than a theological perspective, but nonetheless, we can see God's masterful plan in the art of storytelling that He inspired His writers to use when crafting this text. Characters, Setting, Conflict, Plot, and Themes As we have discussed, a great way to assess any leadership "story" is to look at the basic elements of the story: the characters, setting, conflict, plot, and themes. While the Bible is much more than a collection of stories, this can be a helpful exercise for leadership scholars in identifying the strengths of the basic narrative. As with all great epics (and this is the greatest epic of them all), there must be a hero and a villain. In this case, the main hero is the triune God of the universe, Creator of everything. Opposite him is the villain of the story, the evil tempter and power-hungry fallen angel, Satan. In the middle of the struggle between God and Satan stands God's most treasured created beings: humans. Bartholemew and Goheen (2014) discuss the storyline of the Bible in their book The Drama of Scripture. In it, they describe the narrative as if it was a 6-Act play. Act 1 is God establishing His Kingdom through Creation. Act 2 is about the Fall, what they term "rebellion in the Kingdom." Act 3 is about God initiating his redemptive design through hand-selecting a particular people-group, the Israelites, to live set apart and worship Him as a way to show the whole world what it looks like to be redeemed and live in communion with Him. Act 4 is about the "coming of the King," Jesus Christ. Act 5 is about the spreading of the Gospel after Jesus' death and resurrection, and Act 6 finishes with prophecies about the "return of the King." The book does an excellent job of presenting the Biblical narrative as one cohesive whole, something that many readers miss when they try to understand such a lengthy text. Other writers have tried to simplify the narrative down to three key elements: Creation, Fall, and Redemption. Within this paradigm, Genesis records the Creation of the world, the Fall of Man, and the remainder of that book and the rest of the Bible is about God's redemption of first His chosen people, the Israelites, and then all of humanity through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on

the cross. In essence, the Bible can be seen as the story of a loving God constantly working to redeem the people He loves. Another writer that I love, Sally-Lloyd Jones, does an excellent job in her children's book, The Jesus Storybook Bible, of showing how the entirety of the Biblical narrative points to Jesus. While other writers have written works arguing that the whole of the Bible points to Jesus (Duguid, 2013; Guthrie, 2010; Wright, 2014), Jones drills this concept down so that even a child can understand that every story and every book of the Bible points to Jesus and his redemptive death and resurrection. As the subtitle for her book states, "Every story whispers His name." From all of these angles, we see that the Bible was divinely inspired to present a cohesive whole. It is a story which has a great conflict between God's perfection on the one side and the fallenness of both Satan and human beings on the other. But it is also a grand narrative of love and redemption; as with all good stories, there is a happy ending for those who put their faith in Christ Jesus. As leaders, we can learn a great deal about how the themes of our story should speak to our listeners. The Bible is a book that is so complex that it has been studied for thousands of years and written about more than any other text in history, and yet it is also simple enough for even a child to understand. It tells of a great beginning, a horrible failure, and a dramatic rescue; who could not understand such a compelling narrative? As leaders, we, too, must present the story of our organization as a story that compels people. We must share about where our organizations came from, the great challenges that were overcome, the storm clouds that loom on the horizon, and how heroes throughout the organization can unite to overcome all foes. The Story Defines Success for the Listener Likewise, as leaders, we can learn from how the Bible creates a roadmap for positive change for its readers. As Kotter (1996) argued in his seminal work, Leading Change, all good change initiatives must first establish a sense of urgency and then communicate a compelling vision for change that everyone in the organization can understand. While the Bible was not written as an organizational leadership manual, it does exhibit many of the qualities Kotter discussed. Throughout the text of the Bible, one can see the fallenness of man and the need for a Savior. Texts such as Psalm 1 remind us that the wicked are like "chaff that the wind blows away" (v. 4), while Romans 3:23 reminds us that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Throughout the Old Testament, the prophets remind God's people of their sinfulness and need for repentance. Likewise, they point to the need for a Messiah who will save humanity once and for all. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John recount the coming of that Messiah, Jesus, and show how he created a sense of urgency by telling his followers that the "kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matthew 10:7).

Yet the Biblical narrative does not stop there; instead, it provides a compelling vision of what change looks like in the heart of man. John 3:16-17 tells us: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." Thus, once someone accepts God's free gift of salvation, he/she becomes a new creation in Christ. As 2 Corinthian 5:17 says: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" What a compelling narrative of a changed life for those who follow Christ! As leaders, we, too, must present a compelling narrative of hope to our people. Most people in organizations realize that the organization they work for is imperfect. No matter how grand the company, there are always cracks in the façade, things that need to be improved, or major areas of weakness. By creating a sense of urgency around those deficiencies, the leader can present a counter picture of a better tomorrow—one where the group, as a team, becomes a new type of organization and constantly improves on even its weaknesses. A Story of Something Bigger Than Oneself Another key element that makes the Biblical narrative so compelling is that it discusses something that is bigger than just the reader's own life. The Biblical narrative is not about any one man or woman, but instead, is about God and His Kingdom. God invites his people to join in His work of building His Kingdom, and ultimately, Jesus leaves the church as the vehicle for spreading God's Kingdom here on the earth. Throughout the book of Acts, Paul's letters, and the remainder of the New Testament thereafter, we see the story of God's church fighting against forces of evil to spread the Good News of Jesus. I Corinthians 12 relates that the church is akin to a body, diverse in its members and the individual functions of those people, yet forming a cohesive whole that works beautifully together. The New Testament is filled with stories of this "body of believers" doing great things and also falling into failure. Yet throughout the narrative, we see that God is with His people, continuing to refine them individually and as a whole, and using them to spread His message to the ends of the earth. From the rest of Christian history, we know of the great spread of this church to far flung places all over the world. As leaders, we must also try to paint a picture of significance for our people. They must be drawn to a story of something bigger than themselves that will make a positive change in their community. Simply encouraging people to work hard to maximize profits is not enough; instead, leaders must raise their followers to new moral heights and show them how they can, as a group, make a big difference in their society (Burns, 1978). Just as Paul showed the Corinthian church how they were a "body" that had to work together, so, too, should leaders imbue their followers with a sense of their collective power when working as a team and pulling in the same direction.

Conclusion While the Biblical narrative obviously has much more to commend for us as leaders, I wanted to at least point out some of these elements of leadership storytelling that are most striking from the Biblical text. During the discussion time that follows, let's focus on how these lessons apply practically to each of our vocational callings.