The Bible is an excellent leadership textbook!

As I continue to work through my leadership course, one of the assignments was to write a personal Theology of Leadership. A key component of that assignment was to explain what Christian Leadership is.

As I discussed with my mentor this week, and as you may have guessed from my blog, I firmly believe the greatest leadership principles can be found within the pages of a Bible. And my conviction is that Christian Leadership has to be Biblical Leadership.

And here’s why.

1. Christian Leadership Is Centred On Christ

A Christ-ian is someone who follows Jesus Christ. The whole idea of Christianity is to become more like Christ. The 4 Gospel accounts found in the Bible, give us clear evidence of who Jesus was and what He expects from His followers.

It should be no surprise that Christ-ian Leadership is to look at the leadership of Jesus Christ and live it out as best possible. At some point, the Christian Leader should look to Matthew, Mark, Luke or John to study how Jesus led people.

In turn, after reading thesis texts, the Christian Leader should work at applying Jesus’ skills and behaviours into his or her own leadership. A few examples might look like the following:

• Finding value in the people who society has disregarded.
• Focusing more time on those that are willing than those that are popular.
• Calling out injustice and hypocrisy when faced with it.

The Christian Leader needs the Bible to become a leader that resembles Christ.

2. Christ Pointed Back To Scripture

Once a Christian Leader starts unpacking the leadership lessons straight from Christ’s life and teaching, they soon realize that Jesus points back to the Old Testament quite often.

Jesus highlights people of old, who were called by God to embark on a variety of leadership journeys. Jesus read and mentioned the Writings of great authors like Moses, David and Isaiah (to name a few).

Once the Christian Leader reads the cross-reference from Jesus’ words about the ancient texts, they must accept that there is great value in reading backwards from the Gospel accounts.

The Old Testament can greatly add to the Christian Leader’s toolbox.

3. Christ Pointed Forward To His Church

In the Gospel of Matthew, the Christian Leader will encounter a very unique call to leadership; when Jesus calls Peter to lead His church.

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Mt. 16:13-19)

Once a Christian Leader has had their fill of the Gospels, they soon realize that although Christ has ascended, He left the leadership of His church in the hands of mankind. The story continues.

The rest of the New Testament proves to have a cornucopia of leadership lessons, as mere men struggle to pull together what would become Christianity. Soon we see the entrance of new leadership greats like Paul, and his apprentice Timothy.

The Christian Leader will find themselves soaking up these small Biblical texts, writing notes feverishly, wondering how they could possibly remember so many principles, never mind implement them!

Christian Leadership is Biblical Leadership

The Christ-ian Leader is forced to consider Biblical texts as foundational sources for leadership growth, maintenance and forward motion. Without the Bible, the Christian Leader can only be referred to as a simple, Leader.

Christian Leadership can not exist without Biblical Leadership.