Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. | Romans 13:1
My last post was an intro to a blog series on leadership, outlining 5 actions that leaders should strive for and that we should pray for in those in authority over us.
This first action is both an identifier and something to pursue; this helps us to set a definition for leadership. Many identify authority with position: the role that you have gives you authority. While there is some truth to this, I don’t think that it helps to create healthy leaders.
The Bible tells us that we should honor those in authority, and there is a certain amount of: ‘salute the uniform’ to this. If you are unfamiliar with that term, this is an idea built out of military terminology, that you show respect to those in positional authority in spite of how you may feel about them. You salute the uniform, not the person in it. While we should show respect to our authority in this way, it is not a great ideal for leaders to take on. Pulling rank and using the positional trump card is not the posture of healthy leadership.
Instead, leaders must work to build trust and model a life that makes people want to follow them. We should see in our leaders, traits that we want to cultivate. People who lead should be thinking about how to be an ethical person more than how to be an effective leader. This is where, I believe, a good portion of the leadership training books/conferences/seminars go wrong: they divorce who you are from what you do. They focus on how to do leader things, rather than how to be someone worth following. They are mainly concerned with how things work out. It is character, not outcomes that make a leader. Martyn Lloyd-Jones points this out when he contrasts reputation and character, saying:
Your reputation is who people perceive you to be. Your character is who you really are. God is far more concerned about your character than your reputation.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The problem, is that as sinful people, our character has issues. We need a means to overcome our internal selfishness and desire to use power to our own ends. Paul gives us the answer when he tells the Corinthian church:
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. | 1 Corinthians 11.1
What he is pointing the church to is a form of leadership that begins with submission. Paul is not casting his own vision (from a sinful heart) and wielding his own power to accomplish it, he is acting as a steward of the one who has given him his role. Leading begins with following Christ. It is worth following because it is striving for an ultimate good and will accomplish what God intends. As we see in the preceding verses, this changes the leader, from being one who calls people to follow, into one who serves by example:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. | 1 Corinthians 10:31-33
People will follow a leader like that. All of the energy that is put into trying to convince people to stay in line, know their role, and follow the chain of command, becomes secondary. When leaders give people a model to follow, rather than a command to obey, they will follow because it is good for them, not just for the vision or those at the top. Do as I say, not as I do works on a bumper sticker, but in the trenches of life, imitate me as I imitate Christ is someone worthy to follow.