BRILLIANT ANSWERS ONLY

1

What Is Leadership? Christian Perspectives

The evolution of leadership ideas in the church is about 10 years behind culture. The North American business world began to discover leadership in the 1980s when they were losing business to Japan so they adopted Japanese management theory. In the 1990s the church began to discover leadership when losing to the secular business world so they adopted successful management theory (i.e., the church went shopping in the business world for a solution to a spiritual problem).

1940s

“Administration is working with and through people to get things done. . . The administrator must plan, organize, find and train leaders and workers, offer some guidance, and encourage discipline.” (Arthur Adams, 1947)

1950s

“Leadership, then, in the local church is the noble art of cooperatively planning and unitedly achieving the goals God has set for mankind in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. . . In essence, a leader is a Christ-like personality, whose wisdom, self-sacrifice, and labor cooperate with others in finding and doing God‟s will.” (Weldon Crossland, 1955)

1960s

“Leadership is taking responsibilities and performing certain functions in relationship with other persons to advance a group or organization toward its objectives.” (Willard Claassen, 1963)

“Carefully appointed leaders are essential to the spiritual well-being of the people of God. . . As workers, although not leaders, we need to know what to expect of leaders and how best to assist them.” (Derek Prime, 1964)

1970s

“Leaders in the church engage in behaviors along five dimensions: group achievement and order, personal interaction, dynamic-achievement, personal enhancement, secure and easy going.” (Kilinski and Wofford, 1973)

“Leadership is an act or behavior that is required by a group to meet its goals, rather than a condition. It is an act by either word or deed to influence behavior toward a desired end.” (Ted Engstrom, 1976)

“Leadership is a process of facilitating the goal achievement of an individual or of a group in a particular situation.” (Keating, 1978)

“Leadership can be described as a set of functional tasks that must be performed if a group is to do its task and maintain itself as an organism. Broadly speaking, leadership can be regarded as the capacity to bring people together in the accomplishment of common goals.” (Anderson and Jones, 1978)

“Leadership is a process—a relationship between two or more persons who depend on each other for the achievement of common goals. Ideally, leadership carries satisfaction for both followers and leader.” (Wiseman, 1979)

1980s

“Leadership is influence, the ability of one person to influence others. . . The spiritual leader, however, influences others not by the power of his own personality alone but by the personality irradiated, interpenetrated, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.” (J. Oswald Sanders, 1980)

“Leadership is a complex influence process in which leaders and followers interact in a context or series of contexts over time.” (Edgar Elliston, 1982)

“Leadership is the exercise by a member of a group of certain qualities, character, and ability which at any given time will result in his changing group behavior in the direction of mutually acceptable goals.” (Kenneth Gangel, 1981)

“Every Christian has received a spiritual gift—and each Christian is asked to use his or her gift of leadership to share God‟s love and care with people and institutions.” (Rusbuldt, 1982)

2

“Leadership is the function that fosters and maintains a congregation‟s focus on divine purpose, promotes rational efforts to achieve it, and keeps counterproductive processes in abeyance.” (Joe Ellis, 1982)

“Leadership has to do with all the things that are done in a group or organization to move it in a certain direction.” (Jan Chartier, 1985)

“Leadership is a dynamic process over an extended period of time in various situations in which a leader utilizing leadership resources and by specific leadership behaviors influences the thoughts and activity of followers toward accomplishment of person/task aims mutually beneficient for leaders, followers, and the macro context of which they are a part.” (J. Robert Clinton, 1986)

“Leadership is an action-oriented, interpersonal influencing process. Pastoral leaders see visions of ministry, communicate our dreams clearly, gain consensus and commitment to common objectives, take initiative by setting the pace in ministry actions, and multiply our influence by transforming followers into new leaders.” (Robert Dale, 86)

“A leader is one who recruits people to follow his example and guides them along the way while he is training them to do what he does.” (Myron Rush, 1987)

“Jesus has established once for all the foundation for spiritual leadership. The essence of leadership is service. Spiritual leaders are called to serve God and his people. This is non- negotiable.” (Chua Wee Hian, 1987)

“Leadership is at least a dynamic relationship between the goals of leaders and followers.” (Bruce Jones, 1988)

"Leadership is a dynamic process in which a person with a God-given capacity and a God-given responsibility influences a specific group of God's people toward God's purposes for the group.” (J. Robert Clinton, 1989)

1990s

“Servant leadership is an attitude that blends the characteristics of servant and leader into one. Servant leadership for Jesus meant a responsible commitment to the divine purpose in redeeming and calling a community of persons out of the world and establishing them as His own body—the church of Christ.” (Henry Hildebrand, 1990)

“A prospective leader must have some leadership potential. Not everyone is destined to be a leader, and that‟s perfectly all right. God needs many more followers than He does leaders. But if you aspire to be a leader, you need to ask yourself, „Does anyone follow me when I lead?‟ If you can answer, „Yes,” you may have leadership potential.” (Robert Anderson, 1991)

“At the risk of being thought overly simplistic, one can say, therefore, that a consideration of leadership must pay attention to the position which the leader holds, the person that the leader is, and the process which the leader employs.” (Leighton Ford, 1991)

“Leadership is a calling which is exacting both in its demands on the leaders and on those who attempt to fulfill the leaders‟ expectations.” (Hudson Armerding, 1992)

“Leaders act; followers react; the situation changes. That‟s what leaders do—that‟s leadership in its simplest form.” (Robert Dale, 1992)

“Leadership is influence. That‟s it. Nothing more; nothing less.” (John Maxwell, 1993)

“Leadership behavior stems from role definition. Central to the role definition of any spiritual leader is the concept of service to Christ and to the church. Servant-leaders are examples to the church, stewards for the church, and shepherds in the church.” (James Means, 1994)

“Christ‟s true leaders are really His followers to use the levers of God and fulcrums of their insecure [sic] selfhood to move the world.” (Calvin Miller, 1995)

“An effective leader is one who inspires people to follow him toward a goal.” (Eugene Seals and Matthew Parker, 1995)

“Leaders are those persons who believe they can and must make a difference in their organizations, their families, and their communities, and do so by following Biblical principles.” (Eugene Habecker, 1996)

“Strategic leadership is the formation, implementation, and evaluation of action that enables an organization to achieve its objectives.” (Philip Lewis, 1996)

3

“The Christian community is beginning to discover the Biblical design for spiritual leadership. Briefly summarized, these models are shepherding, mentoring, and equipping.” (Lynn Anderson, 1997)

“Leading is something we all do. Everyone of us has some kind of leadership role, although the scope of influence and the number of observer-followers varies widely. None of us ought to ever consider ourselves insulated from the responsibility to cultivate principles that will assure the daily pursuit of Christlike character which marks our leadership.” (Jack Hayford, 1997)

“A Leader is someone who effectively motivates, mobilizes resources, and directs people toward fulfillment of a jointly embraced vision. A Christian leader is someone called by God to lead and possess virtuous character and effectively motivates, mobilizes resources, and directs people toward fulfillment of a jointly embraced vision from God.” (George Barna, 1998)

“The basic definition of leadership is influencing others, and every action we take has an influence on other people.” (David Cottrell, 1998)

“Leaders are people who influence others to think, feel, or act in certain ways.” (Hans Finzel, 1998)

“Jesus taught and embodied leadership as service.” (Gene Wilkes, 1998)

“Leaders now function more as champions for the cause than as master managers of a hierarchy. Consequently, an entirely different leadership paradigm is arising. Leaders now make sense rather than making things. More accurately, leaders make meaning.” (Robert Dale, 1998)

“The leader steps up and does what needs to be done. Leadership is figuring out what needs to be done and then doing it.” (Leith Anderson, 1999)

2000s

“Leadership is perceiving and articulating the vision of the Kingdom of God, and effectively defining and communicating its incarnation, following Christ‟s example of service.” (Benjamin Williams, 2000)

“Leadership is a relationship in which one person seeks to influence the thoughts, behaviors, beliefs, or values of another person.” (Walter Wright, 2000)

“Spiritual leadership is moving people on to God‟s agenda.” (Henry Blackaby, 2001)

“To lead people means that you motivate, mobilize, direct, and resource them so that they are able to fulfill a vision that they have agreed is appropriate and worthy of their pursuit.” (George Barna, 2001)

“Christian leadership is the ability and credibility to influence people in a particular context to pursue their God-given direction.” (Aubrey Malphurs, 2001)

“Leadership is the social process in which people confer influence to individuals, so they can organize and assist people in achieving what could not otherwise be accomplished. . . A leader is the person with the most influence in a group.” (Alan Nelson, 2002)

“Leadership is enabling a group to engage together in the process of developing, sharing, and moving into vision, and then living it out.” (Teal Trust, 2003)

“Leadership is an exercise of stewardship where everyone shoulders the trust given to the organization.” (David Stark, 2005)

“How we talk about leadership reinforces our understanding of leadership. We have specialized language to describe the actions of a leader, words such as „directs,‟ „coaches,‟ „guides,‟ or „pilots.‟ We use metaphors to convey the image of leader such as „commander,‟ „captain,‟ „shepherd,‟ helmsman,‟ „father,‟ or „commander.‟ Leaders are said to „take charge,‟ to „take the bull by the horns,‟ or to „rally the troops.‟ For many people to lead means „to direct,‟ or „to authorize,‟ „to give orders,‟ to command,‟ to maneuver,‟ „to manipulate.‟ The very terms „leader, leading, and leadership‟ are traditionally packed with male images and ideas, with the leaders always seeming to be doing something to others, rarely doing things with others.” (Jeanne Porter, 2000)

Look again at “A Taxonomy of Leadership Definitions”:

Where do secular perspectives and a Kingdom perspective of leadership intersect?

How are they similar?

How are they different?