Who is God? 1
Who is God?
Ingrid C. Gardner
School of Christian Leadership Doctoral Program, Liberty University
Author Note
Ingrid C. Gardner
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ingrid C. Gardner.
Email: igardner5@liberty.edu
Who is God? 2
Who is God?
I was a leader for sixteen years of my career with a retail establishment. Throughout
those years, I encountered several different leaders. Some were top-notch, and others not so
much. Looking back now, I can only imagine how my experience would have been had all of
those leaders led like God. During that time, the number one goal and priority was increased
sales and profit. That was the bottom line. The means to an end did not matter. As a department
manager, I remember being called into the store manager's office at seven a.m. to discuss how I
would turn my numbers around. I had to explain my plan for increasing the bottom line and
achieving success in credit applications and extended warranties. Nowhere in the conversation
did we discuss God or Christian principles. We did not discuss how employees should be treated
with love and compassion. We did not talk about leading with a servant's heart, but we continued
to discuss writing the employees up on a performance plan for improvement because they had
not met the required standards. We talked about firing those that had not met the standard in
several months.
God's Sovereignty
Leadership in the secular world differs from God's example throughout the Bible. In the
Old Testament, God is the ultimate leader. His leadership is established in the opening verse of
Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning, God" (Doukhan, 2018, p.29). He is the Creator of everything.
"God is the only Leader, not simply because He is Creator, because of His creating power, but
more importantly because He is the One who preceded everything and everyone else" (Doukhan,
2018, p.29).1 Throughout the Bible, God is the leader of all of His creation. Everything and
everyone was subject to Him.
1 Ibid., 29
Who is God? 3
He is the one that is in control and takes charge of leading the Israelites. God is the
greatest delegator of all time. He delegates to those like Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and the
prophets to guide His people throughout their journey to the promised land even when the
Israelites did not follow directions, even when the Israelites turned their backs on God and
started worshipping other gods. Men's hands created gods from metals and wood. God's that
could not talk back to them or bless them. Gods that did not show up for them and protect them
from Pharoah or rescue them from captivity. Yet, the Creator, the one and only Holy God,
continued to lead His people because He promised He would. God is not a man that He should
lie to, but He always keeps His Word. No matter what His creation does, God will do just what
God said He would do. He does not change or shift back and forth. However, the Israelites did
not get it. So, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to walk among His creations
and lead and guide them.
God's Servitude
Jesus's example was to lead with love and compassion in our hearts. He preached love for
God first and then everyone else second. The most defining moment other than Jesus paying the
ultimate sacrifice on the cross was on the way to the cross when Peter cut the Roman soldier's ear
off, and immediately Jesus drew it back. He told Peter this was not the way. He continued to lead
His disciples in love and humility even when He was being led to the cross. Christian leadership,
as defined by God's and later Jesus's example in the Bible, is to lead with love. Love the ones
you lead, and treat them like you want to be treated. Be humble, serve them. Show them
compassion.
Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 20:26-28, "Whoever wishes to become great
among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;
Who is God? 4
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for
many."
A Christian leader must be willing to serve those that they lead. In Philippians 2:5-8, Paul
uses Jesus as an example. Jesus humbled himself, obeyed His Father in Heaven, and made the
greatest sacrifice. If you want to be a leader, you must first serve. The higher you want to go, the
lower you must start. For many, this may seem unrealistic and inconceivable. We live in a self-
centered nation where everyone thinks about themselves before thinking about others. The
United States of America is one of the most individualistic countries in the world, if not the most.
Americans learn this very early in life. With that comes stress, anxiety, depression, oppression,
and despair. These are conditions that we should not have to endure according to scripture,
namely Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV), "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of
God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
God is the ultimate leader; all leaders should look to Him for direction and
guidance. Jesus told His disciples, "I Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son
can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing because whatever the
Father does, the Son also does. (John 5:19, NIV)" If Jesus did act without hearing from God,
then Christian leaders should follow suit. Like Jesus emptying Himself to come to earth in
human form, Christin leaders should lead with "deep selflessness and self-emptying" (Mdngi,
2020, p. 6). The Gospel of John details how Jesus giving up his authority and coming to earth as
a man influenced others to follow Him. "As a result, He physically, mentally, emotionally,
culturally, and socially condescended to all people" (Sierra, 2020, p. 60). Jesus, like His Father,
Who is God? 5
God was a good delegator as well. Jesus instructed His disciples to go out into the world and
make more disciples as He did (Sierra, 2020).
God's Creation
Moreover, Doukhan highlights different characteristics that God and all Christian
leaders should have. First, God relates to His creation. Establishing a relationship with His
creation is what God desires. From the beginning, with Adam and Eve in the garden, God sought
to have a relationship with humankind. God even made man (woman) in His image. Then, he
breathes His spirit into Adam to bring Him to life (Genesis 1:26-27). God breathing life into
Adam shows the intimacy of the relationship (Doukhan, 2018). Second, God communicates with
His creation (Doukhan, 2018). Again, if we look back to the beginning in the Garden of Eden,
God spoke with Adam to tell him which tree he was free to eat from, and again when Adam and
Eve were deceived by the serpent and found hiding from God.
God continues to communicate to those He appoints as leaders. While many people
worshiped idol gods, those gods did not speak back to the people. There were not capable of
doing so like the true and living God. Third, "God shared His creative power with others"
(Doukhan, 2018, p.34). Doukhan gives procreation as an example of God allowing others to
share in His power by creating life (Doukhan, 2018, p.35). Finally, Doukhan discusses the
creation story and the last characteristic of a leader, being creative. "Just as God created as a
manifestation of leadership, humans are now invited to create: to produce what has not yet
existed,"(Doukhan, 2018, p.37)
Conclusion
God sets the standard for leadership. It is more than just a believer being a leader. The
principles and practices read in the scriptures establish the average for all leaders, especially
Who is God? 6
Christian leaders. God constantly displays the correct way to lead others and demonstrates these
skills through Jesus. The sovereignty of God, the servitude of God, and the creation of God are
three ways in which the nature and Person of God relate to leadership studies.
Who is God? 7
References
Doukhan, J. (2018). Leadership in the Creation Narrative. Journal of Applied Christian
Leadership, 12(1). https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/jacl/vol12/iss1/1
Hofstede, G. (n.d.). The 6 Dimensions Model of National Culture.
https://geerthofstede.com/culture-geert-hofstede-gert-jan-hofstede/6d-model-of-national-
culture/
Kessler, Volker (2020). The beauty of spiritual leadership: A theological-aesthetical approach to
leadership. HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies, 76 (2), 1-7.
https://di.org/10.4102/hts.v7612.5898
Mdingi, H. (2020). Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with
God: Kenosis of leadership. HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies, 76(2), 1-8.
https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v7612.5844
Sierra, L. (2021). The God who Condescends: Leadership in the Gospel of John. Christian
Education Journal: Research on Education Ministry, 18(1), 58-73.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0739891320930234
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
