lOMoARcPSD|22671317
Leadership Audit Assignment
LEAD510
Biblical Foundation of Christian Leadership (Liberty
University)
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Leadership Audit Analysis
Submitted to Dr. Jerry Sutton
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
LEAD 510 – D12
Biblical Foundations of Christian Leadership
by
Seth Williams
November 29, 2018
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
Introduction
One of the greatest questions posed about leadership is, “Are people born leaders or do
they develop into leaders?” The answer is both. Every leader that has ever been a leader was at
some point born, but they weren’t born as leaders. Leadership is developmental. It is something
that is learned. According to John Maxwell, if you were to boil leadership down to a one-word
definition it would be, influence. Leadership is temporary. Time will eventually run out on your
influence. Our influence on others will either be taken away from us, in death, or we will give it
away (stepping down from position, retiring, moral failure or disappointment). The reason that
influence is temporary is because we are temporary physical beings on earth. Yes, we will live
forever in eternity either in Heaven or in Hell, but our influence on earth and with others will die
when we die.
“According to a recent survey, there are more than 15,000 books on leadership in print.
Articles on leadership number in the thousands each year.”1 With so many different types of
books on leadership and articles in print about leadership; there are vastly different types of
leadership modalities. For example: There is servant leadership, Relational leadership, Spiritual
leadership, Ethical leadership, Business leadership, Parental leadership and the list goes on and
on. In this paper, we will break down 14 different audits of leadership. All of these audits have to
do with leadership in one form or another. A good leader has to have these types of ideologies,
mentalities, qualities, ethics and so on to be a good leader in this present time. I mentioned
earlier that leadership is developmental. It is something that must be developed over a period of
time before it is placed into someone’s hands. Another way to say this would be that leadership
is devotional before it is ever practical. Leadership and influence are devotional, but it is also
able
1 Shinagel, Michael. Harvard Division of Continuing Education. The Paradox of Leadership. Published on July 3,
2003. Accessed November 29, 2020. <https://blog.dce.harvard.edu/professional-development/paradox-leadership>
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
to be lost, it is temporary, and this is why it is important to cherish the influence and leadership
that you presently have; one day, no matter what, you will lose your influence.
Christian Leader
While leadership is not exclusive to Christianity, it can be argued that many of the traits
we find in leadership were found in the leaders of the Bible. Malphurs writes this about Christian
leadership, “A Christian leader is a Christian from core to crust.”2 Christian leaders are leaders
inside of the Christian community and outside of the Christian community. Their personality,
demeanor, abilities and leadership does not change with the tide or the people they are
surrounded by; they are unwavering. The ultimate trait of a Christian leader is salvation. The
tell- tale sign of a Christian leader is a life of dedication to the saving grace that Jesus Christ
offered mankind through his death and resurrection through the cross. The attributes of a
Christian leader are surrender. Surrender to Christ. Surrender to God. Surrender to the Holy
Spirit and surrender to Jesus’ lifestyle and being a follower of Christ. I scored an eight in this
audit. While it is not vital for a leader to be Christian, it is vital for a Christian to choose to be a
leader. Leaders develop leaders. Christians are supposed to develop Christians. They go hand in
hand.
Christians recognize that the Bible is the source of all truth, and that the truth is found in
the person of Jesus Christ. The Christian leader also recognizes that Jesus is the only source of
salvation for mankind. That if the Christian leader is to follow Jesus properly, he will be a
disciple of Jesus and bring disciples to Jesus. He/she will strive to save those that don’t know
Jesus, because Jesus is the only one that saves. They will serve as Jesus served.
Servant Leader
2 Malphurs, Aubrey. Being Leaders: The Nature of Authentic Christian Leadership. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker
Books. 2003. Page 14.
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
While a Christian leader is many things, the greatest thing that he/she is, is a servant
leader. If we are to strive to be like Christ; then we must attempt to model how Christ lived on
earth. “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…” (Matthew 20:28, NIV).
Christians should carry on the lifestyle of service to others. Jesus was a servant leader; and we
must emulate Christ’s personality and leadership qualities. In the audit a 24 out of 80, marking
me a strong servant leader. While you can be a Christian leader and not have disciples, or
witness, or give testimony or various other things that the Christian church seems to fail at
regularly in the 21st century; you cannot be a Christian leader and not be a servant to others.
Servant leaders care more about other successes than they do their own. They are about the big
picture of the kingdom of God, not the temporary success of one event. It is about the whole
kingdom, not the outcome of one jousting match. Servant leadership is about the whole of the
people, and the health of those around the leader, not the success of the leader alone, the success
of the body of Christ.
Credibility
Credibility is important in leadership. Without creditability you don’t have followers,
therefore you can’t effectively be a leader. Rick Warren says this about credibility, “The most
essential quality of leadership is not perfection but credibility. People must be able to trust you,
or they won’t follow you.”3 In the audit for this I scored a 13 out of 40, stating that I have high
leadership credibility. I would agree and disagree with this. I served in the Florida Army
National Guard for eight years. I served a few tours overseas and lead several teams for my MOS
(job specialty), 13Foxtrot (Fire Support Specialist), over time I developed a rapport in the unit
for being trustworthy and credible. If I said my team and I could get it done, it got done. While I
3 Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Zondervan Publishing. 2012. Page 277.
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
don’t feel like I have developed enough credibility in ministry to score this high yet, I still have
that same servant mentality I had in the military, if I say it can be done, it will be done.
Spiritual Gifts
The next audit completed was spiritual gifts. While this audit was more extensive and
time consuming, it yielded the most fruit out of the other audits. I believe it was accurate in my
understanding of my spiritual gifts. The highest I scored was 44 which was in Faith and Teacher.
The lowest scored was Helps at a score of 32. I have known for years that I am a gifted teacher
and derive my greatest joy from studying something and then presenting it to students or a
congregation. I also know that I have great faith. My family says I have ‘too much’ faith at times.
I trust God in most things that occur. I continually say, “I wonder how God is going to fix this
one.” Or “wonder how God is going to show off in this one.” My family says that I never worry,
and it’s not that I don’t worry, I just trust God to take care of all of my needs and desires. He
always has taken care of me and I just trust Him to do so.
Below are the remaining scores; Evangelism and Pastor was both equal at 42.
Encouragement was a 41. Giving and Leadership was scored at 39. Administration and Mercy
was both scored at 38. Apostleship was a 37 and Helps was a lowly 32. I suppose I need to pray
for the Lord to put a spirit of wanting to help others in me.
Natural Gifts
Matthew 5:45 says, “God gives natural gifts to unbelievers as well as believers, based on
his common grace.” I have known my natural gifts for a long time. I am great in front of an
audience, as an entertainer, comedian, public speaker and teacher. I am driven and guided
towards ministry. I have always been fascinated with the things of God and sharing what God
has done in my life and throughout history. I love teaching and professing God’s goodness
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
throughout history. I also love writing. Being a successful Christian writer isn’t necessarily my
goal, but it is a dream. I would love to become a successful writer and have that be my
primary source of income and work for free for the church that I am pastoring.
Here is how I fared in the natural giftings audit. For most passionate interest I got
minister, policeman, professor and coach. For ‘strong interest’ I got writer, artist, counselor and
entertainer. For ‘least interest’ I got actor, politician, schoolteacher and chef. The most passionate
interests lined up with my current track. I am hoping to be a pastor in a local church, but I
haven’t ruled out being a professor at a local college or online for a theology department in
seminary.
Passion
Passion is the driving force behind most people’s desires, dreams and aspirations. They
don’t usually do things based on their need to do it or requirement to do it. If they are interested
in it, it is usually based on passion. I am a very passionate person. Passion drives me and my
ministry life. Malphurs said this about passion, “Passion is a God-given capacity to commit
oneself fervently over an extended period of time to meeting an objective.”4
One of the questions in the audit asked, “What cause, ideas, people group, or area of
ministry do you feel strongly about and care deeply about?” my response is orphans. My wife
and I are fascinated by the number of orphans in the world who are in need of a family. In 2019,
there is an estimated 10 million children living in institutions and more than 60 million children
living on the streets in America. In the world it is estimated that there are over 140 million
orphans. According to UNICEF, almost 10,000 children become orphans daily. That is
staggering. It is heartbreaking. It is unacceptable and it needs to be fixed. In 2019, it is estimated
4 Malphurs, Aubrey. Being Leaders: The Nature of Authentic Christian Leadership. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker
Books. 2003. Page 78.
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
that there are 2.3 billion Christians living in the world. You know what that means? If 6% of the
Christian population were to decide to adopt one child, the world population of orphans would
drop to zero overnight.
It is my goal as a pastor to help people find their passions and use their passions to
change the world that they live in. Find a way to change things. What can be done? How can we
fix it? What would change the ratio? What would flip the scales and tables? These are questions
I like asking and encourage people to ask in their lives. They are able to change the world when
they answer these questions and put a plan of action in place with the answers to these questions.
Character (Men)
How do you define character? Most leadership experts would define character as having
the traits and qualities of integrity, diligence, honesty, humility, patience, self-discipline,
perseverance, faith, fairness, tolerance, compassion, unselfishness rationality, dignity, loyalty,
responsibility and there are so much more, but that’s the gist of it. Charles Swindoll said this
about character, “Great character, like massive roots, grow deep when water is sparse, and
winds are strong.”
For this character audit I scored a 29 out of 88. If you were between 22-40 it says this of
your character, “You are a leader of strong character who will prove very creditable to your
people. However, don’t let your guard down and weaken in any of these areas.”5 In my character
audit I found that I need to work on a few things. I am stubborn, I don’t avoid quarrels or
confrontations, I need to be gentler with people and become more hospitable. I don’t like people
in my house, at all. Just my wife and me. As a pastor, I need to learn to be accepting of people
and welcome them into my home when the Lord calls me to it.
Relational Skills
5 Ibid. page 197.
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
In the relational skills audit I am very strong in the following; conflict resolution,
decision making, confronting, encouraging, trust building, inspiring/motivating, questioning,
mentoring, trusting, evaluating, leading, delegating and evangelizing. In the below average field
was the following; disagreeing, managing/administering, correcting, networking, team building,
consensus building, recruiting and conducting meetings.
It is clear that I need to work on the administration side of how things work in my
ministry. I am not very good when it comes to nearly any type of administration except
for vision-planning, organizing and encouraging staff.
Task Skills
Of the task skills in this audit I am very strong in the following areas; preaching,
teaching, researching, communicating, use of technology, writing, praying and organizing. What
I am below average at in this audit was; monitoring, advertising, mission development, mission
casting, strategizing and time management. I was weak on stress management.
Again, I believe this comes down to administration. I am not sure what steps I can take to
become better at administration. I suppose hiring a secretary who is successful and has high
marks with administration would be a start; but I believe I can become a better administrator
myself with some reading and development of certain skills.
Leadership Style
For this leadership audit I scored high with Inspirational/Director. “Inspirationals are
people-oriented leaders who bring this strength to ministries that need a more relational
orientation. Like Directors, Inspirationals often gravitate to lead positions, especially in church
contexts.”6 Directors however, “are task-oriented leaders. As such, they bring strength to
organizations that need more focus on accomplishing ministry. Directors often gravitate to
lead
6 Ibid. Page 96.
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
positions and make good primary leaders in church and parachurch contexts or leaders within
those ministries.”7
I believe I am a good Inspirational/Director in my leadership style. I am very relational to
people and how I interact with people and very intentional with people and relationships;
however, I am very task driven and good at accomplishing goals and demands that are set before
me. If I am challenged by something, I overcome the challenge. If I have an obstacle before me, I
climb it and overwhelm the obstacle.
Values (Leader)
In my audit of the values of a leader or my leadership values; I scored high (4) with the
following; community, fairness, giving, excellence, evangelism, team ministry, creativity,
worship, the lost, obedience. What I scored as most important (5) was the following; prayer,
family, Biblical knowledge, relationships and leadership.
I believe I was correct in calling these the highest priorities of my leadership values.
Prayer is first and foremost. You must season everything you do with prayer; marinate it with
prayer. Before you start cooking a good steak; you must marinate it. I believe that Family must
be a priority in ministry. Too often, family is placed on a backburner in ministry and because of
it; we have devastated families and churches fail because of the past not having a successful
family at home.
Ideal Circumstances Audit
For me the ideal circumstances are that I would like to be with a church organization, I
would do well with a church that is in its decline or plateaued. I like bringing life and breathing
life into new things that are broken or not doing well. I would like the church to be already
established and medium sized, between 101-400 peoples in congregation. I believe the
7 Ibid. Page 95.
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
combination of adults is most ideal for successful ministry and the age of the organization should
be between 11-30 years old.
I would prefer to be a point person in the decision making and leadership of the
organization. Ideally the health of the organization should be healthy and not dysfunctional. The
locale should be urban and diverse with the ethnicity of the church congregation. There should
also be a combination of generations within the church and a good mix of both male and female
with a strong focus on small groups within the church body; the church should change with the
times and the times presently permit for a more contemporary style worship service.
Fit Audit
Presently where I am serving as a volunteer and associate/executive pastor type role, I
scored a 12 out of 36 making me a good match for my present church. While it is just a volunteer
position at present, the church is new and has only been established for 11 months. These states I
should be an effective leader for Christ in this situation of the church presently. I would agree,
that while the church is new; I am an effective leader and the leadership team that I am working
with is doing their job to create an environment that is welcoming and accepted by the average
person visiting.
Conclusion
I believe that the audits presented in this book were phenomenal in regard to
understanding leadership roles, ministry roles, positions of leadership within the church, family
involvement and job training for pastoral staff and volunteer staff. It is important to have
understanding of where your organization is as a whole and whether or not you are doing
ministry successfully. It is also vital to look at yourself as a leader and continue to evaluate and
reevaluate your leadership potential, qualities, traits and character as a leader. You should
always
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
be reevaluating and relearning what makes you an efficient leader and what makes you a
poor leader. When you find that you are a poor leader, you must find a way to turn those poor
traits into good traits of leadership.
The first action step I have decided upon is that I am not very hospitable at this present
time when it comes to welcoming people into my home and wanting them to spend time with me
and my wife. When people come over, it is almost as if I am looking at the clock to see how
much longer we have their company for. However, if I am to strive to be a leader like Jesus, I
need to be open to having people in my home and this only changes by changing my attitude and
perceptions of my home. It can’t be just a place where I find solitude and solidarity; it has to be a
solace for everyone. A welcome place to enjoy warm, comfortable and most important where
people can find peace.
The second action step I am taking from understanding my leadership audit in this book
is that I need to become a better administrator. One of the ways that I will work at becoming a
better administrator is by reading and understanding administration and why I am not fond of it.
One of the first books I will purchase is: Management Essentials for Christian Ministries written
by Michael Anthony and James R. Estep. As well as Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative
Collaboration by Warren Bennis. I will strive to find more books, seminars, webinars and such
to become a more equipped and efficient administrator in my church.
In conclusion, I will strive to take what I have learned from this leadership audit and not
allow it to simply be an assignment, but an assignment of change. Something that sparks a
difference in my life and ministry. Something that will create change in others and start where
the buck stops, me. As well as carry on into my present and future ministries.
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
Bibliography
Aubrey Malphurs. Being Leaders: The Nature of Authentic Christian Leadership. Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Baker Books. 2003.
Michael Shinagel. Harvard Division of Continuing Education. The Paradox of Leadership.
Published on July 3, 2003. Accessed November 29, 2020.
<https://blog.dce.harvard.edu/professional-development/paradox-leadership>
lOMoARcPSD|22671317
Rick Warren. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Zondervan Publishing. 2012.
