by Richard Blackaby
Today’s bookstores are brimming with books on leadership. CEOs of prosperous companies, winning coaches, prominent government leaders, in fact almost anyone whom the public perceives as “successful” is writing books or leading seminars claiming to know the key principles and philosophies that will enhance the life and career of the general populace. Particularly since 9/11, leadership has been on center stage. Government leaders confidently proclaim that they, alone, are qualified to lead society out of its current morass. Businesses are desperately casting about for leaders who can steer them through the turbulent waters of the future. Numerous churches and denominations are vying for “market share” in a society that is increasingly secularized and disinterested in organized religion.
In such an atmosphere, a crucial question is: are there various kinds of leadership? Can the brand of leadership used in the military also be effective in business? Can practices that make a football coach successful also be applied to church volunteers? Likewise, can biblical principles followed by ecclesiastical leaders be equally effective with Christian leaders in the marketplace? In other words, are the reams of materials on leadership and management that line the bookstore shelves today all essentially addressing the same thing, but merely using different vocabulary? Or are leadership styles as diverse as ice cream flavors?
I believe you can narrow down the current multiplicity of leadership theories into two major categories: secular and spiritual.
Secular leadership is based on human reasoning, values, resources, and power. Leaders develop a vision of what they want to accomplish. This can originate from the leader’s ego or greed, or out of a genuine desire to strengthen and expand an organization. No matter what the motive, the vision emanates from the best thinking of a leader. Burt Nanus asks, “So where does a leader’s vision come from? Vision is composed of one part foresight, one part insight, plenty of imagination and judgment, and often, a healthy dose of chutzpah.”[1] Seth Godin describes the secular process this way, “The secret of leadership is simple. Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.”[2]
Once leaders who are practicing secular leadership determine what they want to accomplish, they use whatever methods they have at their disposal to get people to comply. Some leaders unashamedly use force. Mao Tse-Tung claimed “power comes out of the barrel of a gun.” Others employ manipulation. Great secular leaders such as Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill used masterful oratory to inspire people to follow. The only limit to how much secular leadership can accomplish is the extent of available personal and corporate resources. With enough soldiers, money, oratorical skills, charisma or creative genius, secular leaders can dramatically impact their world. The leaders’ effectiveness is directly correlated to their skills, abilities and resources.
Spiritual leadership is fundamentally different than its secular counterpart because it is based not on the leader, but on the active presence of the Holy Spirit.[3] When a government leader was seeking to rebuild the devastated city of Jerusalem, God told him the secret to spiritual leadership: “’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). The active guidance and equipping of the Holy Spirit makes an enormous difference in a leader’s life. For one, leaders’ effectiveness is no longer based primarily on the leader but on God, who calls and equips them. Numerous biblical examples, including Moses, Gideon and the twelve disciples demonstrate that the key to effective spiritual leadership is not the leader’s ability but the Holy Spirit’s power. When leaders ask God to set their vision, they are protected from their own bias and sinful tendencies. Likewise when the Holy Spirit determines an organization’s vision, He actively works to convince others of the worthiness of the venture. Moreover, God provides the resources required to fulfill the vision.
Two important qualifiers must be made. First, just because you are a Christian that does not necessarily mean you are behaving like a spiritual leader. Many Christians default to the world’s methodology and rely upon themselves to cast vision and get their people to buy in to it. One of the greatest dangers to the modern church is that it has been seduced into applying secular methods to accomplish divine work. Second, spiritual leadership can occur in secular companies, the military, medical practices, educational institutions, and in government just as much as in churches or Christian organizations. I work with Christian businesspeople who have discovered that God has an agenda for their publicly traded company just as He has a plan for their local church. God can guide and equip a government leader or a CEO of a secular company as easily as He can lead a pastor.
Today’s great need is for Christians to beseech God to elevate their secular leadership style so they begin to function as spiritual leaders in the arena in which God has placed them. Pastors who have been determining their ministry’s vision and then browbeating their people to buy in to it must surrender their goals and God-dishonoring methodology and let God demonstrate how He intends to do exceedingly, abundantly beyond what they could have ever asked or imagined (Ephesians 3:20). Likewise, Christian professionals, politicians, educators and parents must recognize that God is just as involved in their secular environment as He is inside the church walls. In fact, some of the greatest movements of God today are occurring not in the church but in the marketplace.
Secular and spiritual leadership are not just two sides of the same coin. They are fundamentally different. The former is people-centered; the latter is God-centered. One honors people; the other glorifies God.
In the coming months we’ll be examining various aspects of spiritual leadership and what makes it distinct from secular leadership. In the meantime, I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to help you see your present leadership for what it is and to be prepared to make whatever adjustments are necessary for God to use your life to dramatically impact your world for Him. If ever the world needed spiritual leaders, now is the time.
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1Burt Nanus, Visionary Leadership (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992), 34.
2Seth Godin, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (New York: Penguin Books, 2008), 108.
3 For an extensive discussion on this, see Henry and Richard Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership: Moving People on to God’s Agenda (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2001).