Well, we have done some good thinking here. I read in a book that there are more than 350 different published definitions of the word leadership out there. Yet, somehow we all have a good idea of what a leader is, we can usually spot them, but when it comes to defining the word, we come up with a variety of definitions.
From your responses, I think we all agree that a leader needs followers to actually be a leader. It is someone who people follow in some way or another. It may be personally (meaning that this person influences your life) or corporately (meaning they influence a variety of people in a similar way). Several of you rightly noted that it is a gift or trait, something not everyone has. Imagine walking into a room at school where a club you belong to meets and everyone sits in a chair, the adult sponsor of the club then tells you all to look under your seat. One person has a gold star stuck to the underside of the seat and that person will be the club’s next president. Most of you recognize that sort of situation might not work out well because not everyone is a leader and leadership is not a job or position. What if the person did not have the respect of others? What if they could not make any decisions?
I also noticed that some of you were defining a ‘good leader’ or a specifically Christian leader, which is helpful but I want to draw your attention to the broadest way to look at this first. Adolf Hitler was a very effective leader. He had a clear vision and achieved much. He mobilized people with his vision and took over most of Europe. Bin Laden is also a leader with a specific purpose – to destroy America. That tells me that leadership is about vision, influence, purpose, etc and does not require the same moral standards that we have.
Now a good Christian leader is something else. George Barna, in his research and writing, has named three ingredients needed for spiritual leadership. He identifies Calling, Character, and Competencies as what makes a leader. The calling is what identifies the gift of leadership. Calling is both an internal and external thing. What I mean by that is that if I think I am a leader and others tell me that they see leadership traits in me, the calling is confirmed both internally and externally. If others do not see it within us, we probably are not leaders. Keep in mind that God gives us gifts when he needs us to have them. Some folks don’t rise to leadership early in life, others do. Character is what many of you identified in terms of being worth following, leading in the right direction, having the respect of others, etc. Competencies are the skills needed to lead others. Several of you identified that leaders need to be listeners. Not because they have to find out where people want to go in order to lead them there, but in order to know where people are at in order to lead them to a better place. Competency also includes skills in decision making, discerning, teaching or communicating vision, etc.
Now, the assignment. Give me a passage in scripture that defines or describes leadership. I am looking for specific verses rather than a book or character. For example, Nehemiah was a great leader but there is not instruction there on how to lead or what leaders need. So that is not what I am looking for. Your best bet is to start by looking in the epistles. When we have a bunch, we will look more closely at a few to see what they teach us.
