5 Basic Principles of Christian Leadership
| . Context Christians should be leaders. In fact one of the prime reasons for being a Christian is to realize and express the leadership purpose of God in creating man in the first place. God created man to be a "god" - yes that's right - a co-worker with Him in the ongoing creative process. For more on this read the narrative "The Kingdom of God" available on this web site ministry. In point of fact the sanctified Christian should already realize this because of several things. First, if one has"turned away from sin" and despises it and hates it and wishes no part of it then they are becoming like Jesus Christ - God Incarnate. Jesus Christ met sin "head on", as he was gentle but firm with the sinner while 100% committed to destroying the sinful behavior and sinful intent. Jesus who was without sin is the first of many whom are to follow his example by being transformed into the likeness of his mind and his character and that partially means destroyers of sin and its consequences and showing leadership to others in this regard. Second. Concurrent to a believer hating sin is the spiritual union between the believer and God enabled by the mediation of Jesus Christ. The true believer not only repents or turns away from the sinful carnal reality of the flesh but turns toward the New Reality, the God based reality of "oneness" with God. Jesus Christ enables this oneness by sending the Holy Spirit into the believers soul. So endowed, the believer is to consider their body the temple of the living God. This is God incarnate in the believer. It is nothing less. This is the making of a small "g" god. For by the hand of God in each believers life, the Holy Spirit begins to regenerate the believer. A transformation occurs from the sinful fleshly reality of this physical dimension in which we are born, into the righteous Divine Reality - the New Reality - that sees everything from the perspective of God. This New Reality incorporates leadership roles in the way of leading others into this New Reality and in the way of each believer having a specific role in the body of Christ - a role in which they provide leadership to support other roles in the Body of Christ. T If this New Reality is not forming in your life then you do not know God through Jesus Christ and your prayers and other actions will be wasted. The Bible teaches that many will call him Lord but he will not know them. For only Jesus Christ can enable this New Reality in your life - it cannot be done with the carnal mind which is enmity to God. If you just have an opinion that God Incarnated in Jesus Christ and Jesus did all the work necessary for you to have eternal life and all that was required of you was that you went forward in some church service and/or professed a belief in what he did - but are not developing in the New Reality, then you may be deceiving yourself. You may neither be commited, saved,nor born again and your prayers may be in vain and you will have no victory in your life. Jesus Christ fully expects that you completely surrender yourself to the will of God as conveyed to you moment by moment by the in dwelling Holy Spirit. Salvation is freely available to all but it is only achieved by trading your slavery to sin for your slavery to the Will of God towards his plan and purpose in your life. You have to give up sin and turn your life completely over to God - that is the trade and the only way to gain eternal life. There is no in-between, you either commit to hating sin and seeking the oneness of God or you will experience eternal death. Life is not a free ride, nor is salvation and redemption. It is oneness with God through the Holy Spirit that is Eternal Life. Eternal Life is only obtained through "oneness", not through the professing of a creed. It Oneness with God does not promise you the gift - up the road - of eternal life. Oneness with God is Eternal Life and with it comes the New Reality. You either experience God's Love directly through the mediation of Jesus Christ and partake of eternal life and undergo the transformation process of the New Reality or you reject this mediation and live with your decision. I As Jesus was obedient in all things to the Father in Heaven, so should all believers become obedient to the Father in Heaven. This is made possible as the New Reality forms in our souls as fashioned by the Holy Spirit. This work with the believers soul is a "merger" or "joining" or "oneness" between our spirit and the Holy Spirit. This oneness gradually reshapes all our willing processes responsible for how we feel, think, and behave until all that we are has the likeness of Jesus Christ, his mind and his character. The expression of the New Reality is a form of leadership as it demonstrates the life and love of God towards mankind. So, a true believer is - as was Jesus Christ - God Incarnate. There of course is a difference. Jesus was the fullness of this incarnation and the believer begins the long haul of being transformed into his likeness. But this is the great miracle of redemption - God reconciling us to Himself through the person of Jesus Christ. So we become as he already is and with Jesus as our leader we gradually become leaders of the new order. . Jesus spent a lot of time and effort showing his followers how to lead and demonstrated the true character of leadership. Jesus taught the only true leadership of any value and importance, the leadership principles of bringing mankind into the New Reality. e ... |
| The below color abstract
represents the purpose of God in Jesus Christ. The red part of the cross represents the blood of Christ shed in atonement for the sins of mankind. The blue part of the cross represents the resurrection of Christ and his ascension into Heaven as well as his return to rule over the Kingdom of God on this earth. The yellow figure in the centre represents his transition from a crown of thorns prior to his death to his crown of glory and power at the right hand of God Almighty. This transition starts as son of man into the darkness and agony of separation from God and on to his victory over this spiritual separation where as son of God he bridges that darkness and separation and with the power of God creates a place in Heaven that where he is we may be also. Thus it is that God has reconciled us to himself through his only begotten son Jesus Christ being both son of man and son of God. |
| J Jesus - the "Word" of God Heb 4:12 (YLT) for the reckoning of God is living, and working, and sharp above every two-edged sword, and piercing unto the dividing asunder both of soul and spirit, of joints also and marrow, and a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart; Heb 4:12 (KJ21) For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Heb 4:12 (RSV) For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Heb 4:13 (KJ21) Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Heb 4:14 (KJ21) Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed into the Heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our profession. Heb 4:15 (RSV) For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Heb 5:5 (RSV) So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, "Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee"; |
| (RSV) And
from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.
(RSV) For the law was given through Moses;
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (KJ21) No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. |
Jesus the Word of God incarnated and our model of leadership
1. A Christian when resolving any problem should focus on the situation, issue, or behavior, not on the person in the form of judgments that resolve the problem by condemning the person. A Christian must therefore resolve from a position of love for the other person and with the hope of that person gaining victory over the perceived problem. Even if the problem is one with the character of involving many persons, the approach should be to focus on the situation, issue, or behaviors without recourse to assigning judgment that resolves the problem with a condemnation of the people involved. Now if you read the adjacent black panel you will read what appear to be judgements on some professing Christians. But the focus was on behavior and necessarily the behavior of people with regards to their relationship to God. The focus was on the issue of salvation and the follow through that God expects and the consequences of not following through.
There are real issues opened in this panel and they need to be clarified. A similar kind of explanation is taken by Paul where he is addressing sexual immorality among Christians that he helped in their conversion. When behavior is not in line with God's will then it has to be explained or clarified into those terms. Paul did not begin by pronouncing certain people as evil and lost forever but he certainly pointed out that to continue in such behavior could be the result and he questioned whether those so engaged in such activity were indeed saved and encouraged them to work out their salvation in fear and trembling lest they fall into apostacy.
Certainly, and many of us have experienced this, God is faithful to those that commit to Him even when their behavior is very much unlike what He expects. And He will continue to work with the committed in spite of this behavior simply because they are committed. But they may be in gross error and until they address their sin and start to obey Him in all things they will not have victory and their prayers will not be heard, only the prayer of repentance for a transformed soul will He answer. God will not reward disobedience, nor will he hear the prayer of the persistently disobedient soul, but if commitment is there He will work with that soul and so must we as Christians and leaders in the New Reality - the God based reality. See the narative on this web site regarding the Kingdom of God and the New Reality.
2. Maintain the self-confidence and self-esteem of others. Never give another Christian or any other person, the sense that the difficulties they are in are insurmountable simply because it involves them. Yes we are sinful wretches but salvation and consequent regeneration into the New Man according to the New Reality enabled by Jesus Christ is not impossible for any person. For they do not do the work of regeneration. The Holy Spirit does the work, all that is required is their commitment and continual focus on being obedient to the Will of God. And if they diligently persist in this commitment, seek the fellowship of those having the New Reality, pray and study the scriptures, they will most certainly, over time, experience that regeneration and know that God is Incarnate in them and they are developing in the New Reality - the God based reality where they begin to see all things from the perspective of God and His Love.
3. Maintain constructive relationships with all people, your employees, your peers, your managers, your friends, and whoever you come in contact with in life. Jesus shut the door on some relationships where the other person or persons were committed to destroying both him and those that would seek the New Reality and become citizens of the Kingdom of God. Here, it was impossible to maintain a constructive relationship because the other party or parties were intent upon his destruction and their hypocritical behavior prevented others from coming to God. The relationship was broken before it started and life is that way. It is important to recognize these impossible situations and avoid interaction with them. But that does not means that one should not try to have and maintain constructive relationships. A leader is more credible if they have a constructive rather than a destructive relationship. If you look at the examples in the Bible; Jesus, Paul, and the many others maintained constructive relationships that helped them lead and teach each other as well as unbelievers. A constructive relationship does not means that discussions and resolution of issues will always be easy or that emotions won't get heated up. After all, we all carry "baggage" from our sinful life and even though we are being transformed, most of us have a long way to go before our attitudes and behavior are up to the standards of Jesus Christ. But a constructive relationship is one that contains trust as an essential ingredient. This is the kind of trust that you will not willfully hurt the other parties involved in the relationship, that you will not look down upon them in contempt but rather you reach out to generously help and understand and empathize. So, if nothing else, they know of a surety that you love them and seek only the very best for them. Read the section in the New Testament that explains the fruits of the spirit, like longsuffering, patience, and so on.
4. Take the initiative to make things better. Do not wait for others to make things better if they are reluctant to do so. Be there for your relationships and for people in general. And always try to inspire leadership in others by expecting leadership from them. Your expectation will feed their ability to lead in things for which they are qualified to do so. And as a result they will build self-confidence and learn humility and most of all learn to serve the Lord as a member of the Body of Christ. Even an unbeliever in certain circumstances can provide helpful leadership. For example, at a place of work there are probably more unbelievers than true Christians. By accepting their leadership in areas in which they are qualified you teach them humility and encourage them to rely upon you for support to their leadership. Even then, they begin to sort of understand what true service and responsibility is all about - and so will you as a Christian.
5. Lead by example. Ouch! This is the big one. Enter Jesus Christ. Just read the gospels and the various letters to the churches. Make sure you understand the context and the historical significance of speech, customs, and thinking. You will see a great many examples of real leadership. You are either a good example or a bad example. You have to work at being a good example by always practicing these principles in your daily conduct in all situations. You will know you are making progress when many respect you even though they know what you stand for but cannot make that commitment in their lives. They will respect you, not fear you.
Of course, depending upon your environment, if it is anti Christ in character, you may be despised and persecuted and even hated and in some cases murdered. But here your example is a testimony and you must act wisely in terms of how to still provide leadership and interact. For some Christians in such hostile environments it may be better to escape to places of safety, or seek other employment, and so on. We may suffer death in many situations but we are of more value to God alive and active as a Christian where our leadership can influence others towards the New Reality. So in anti Christian environments don't go looking to get killed just to prove a point for you are then wasting a life that God could use.
So now the big issues jumps up right in front of us. When, as Christians we see a trend towards social disintegration away from Christian values and towards an environment that can only be called anti Christ in character, how do we show leadership. First we must oppose anything that is anti Christ in character. But we must do so as skilful leaders so that we achieve success as opposed to failure. We must reverse such trends, especially when they occur in traditionally Christian space. A nation under God is just as important as an individual under God. It is a lie of the anti Christ to believe that church and government do not mix. Anyone acting in the best interests of another would be an ideal civil servant. Of course, the anti Christ elements within that society would try to build fear and foreboding around the idea that a person committed to Jesus Christ and developing in the New Reality would make a good civil servant. Why would one expect them to do otherwise? Anti Christ means anti Christ and as society disintegrates into deeper sin there will be more and more anti Christian individuals that will try to mold society according to their sinful perspective. Why would one expect them to do otherwise? Their real victory is when they convince Christians they are unworthy leaders. That would be the same thing as Satan convincing Jesus Christ that Jesus was an unworthy leader and that Satan could do the job right. And apparently that attempt was made in Heaven by the angel known as Lucifer. It is the ultimate atrocity to human well being when humans or angels worship themselves as the ultimate authority in life or worship themselves as God's representative. But the success of these types in our society is only possible because there are so many professing Christians that do not develop in the New Reality. They are powerless and lack victory and show no Christian leadership and by professing Christ and not obeying Him they prevent others from developing in the New Reality.
As this disintegration process continues, the Body of Christ is reduced in numbers and victory. Many of it's members are committed but not developing in the New Reality resulting in rampant disobedience. And the lines between church and sinful world grow blurred as many profess but only deceive themselves. And, of course, the "anti Christs" have all kinds of Christian examples of failure.
So leadership is a key ingredient in the New Reality. Victorious leadership that takes on change and transforms according to the purpose of God - this is what is needed.