A PHILOSOPHY OF LEADERSHIP ___________________

A Paper Presented to Dr. Andy Seidel Dallas Theological Seminary

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In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course SL305: Dynamic of Leadership

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by Samer Suhail Massad July 2013 Box #902

PHILOSOPHY OF LEADERSHIP There is no shortage of leadership definitions and philosophies- for good reason. Leaders change the world. Things happen because there are leaders who initiate movements. George Washington led the United States to revolution leading to its freedom. Abraham Lincoln led the end to one of the greatest injustices this world has ever seen. Martin Luther King led a civil rights movement that would fight racisms. Albert Einstein in science and physics. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in the computer industry. This list of great leaders could on and on and on. But the list of leaders who used their influence for terror are long as well with the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and the late Fidel Castro. Learning from these leaders the good and the bad is crucial- especially for those leaders in the church world. Thankfully the Bible is full of great leaders: Moses, Joshua, King David, Paul, and Jesus Christ. Paul writes, Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task (1 Tim. 3:1, NIV). It is an honorable ambition to aspire to lead others that carries with it a great responsibility. A book could be filled with different definitions of leadership. This one by J. Robert Clinton, "A Christian leader is a person with a God-given capacity and the God-given responsibility to influence a specific group of God's people toward God's purpose for the group."1 Bottom line a leader leads people towards a specific purpose. Specially a Christian leader is one who is marked by character that is above reproach, a heart that seeks to serve others before self, and is captivated by a vision that looks at what is and see what could be. The following will work through a philosophy of leadership that takes a look at what makes a leader worth following.

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1 2 3

Gibbs, Leadership Next, 25. Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, 27. Stanley, The Next Generation Leader, 159. Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership, 162.

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Leadership Marked by Character Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose, and the character which inspires confidence (emphasis mine).2 The second half of this quote stands just as tall in truth as the first half, but is also the half that gets overlooked. Character, as it pertains to leadership, is usually an ideal accepted on paper but often fails to leave the paper in the form of practical application. Why? Many factors give reason. Leading with character and high moral standards is more difficult. Short cuts are easier and faster. In a world driven by success, a leader becomes willing to do anything necessary in order to even be perceived as successful in the eyes of man. This is true for leaders in the business world and in the church world. This struggle is a reality for CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and pastors of churches big and small. However, character is what leads to success and less regret. Character is what makes you a leader worth following. God looks with delight upon a leader with high character, He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those who are blameless (Prov. 2:7, NIV). The reality is that a great responsibility comes with being entrusted to lead people. Being a leader of character is foundational to making much of that responsibility in a way that is honoring to God and beneficial to those entrusted to your care. At Passion Conference in 2011 to a group of 18-25 year olds, Andy Stanley spoke the following, Your talents, skills, and abilities have the potential to carry you past the capacity of your character. Even the most talented and skilled leader in the world must first develop an uncompromising character. This is why David was chosen over Saul. While Saul was the more capable leader, the LORD looks at the heart. (1 Sam. 16:7, NIV) Integrity Former Enron CEO continually rallied men and women of Enron to invest their income into Enron stock because of how bright the future was for Enron. In late 2001, this bright future was a !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, 27.

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product of creative, dishonest, and the biggest (at the time) accounting fraud in US history. The missing component in the CEOs arsenal? Integrity. The result? Ruined lives and a former leader serving a jail sentence that will outlast the remainder of his life. What do we learn here? Integrity is not essential to being a leader. A high level of naivety would lead one to believe that Enron is an exception and that the majority of leaders in the business world work all their dealings with integrity. The CEO of Enron is not an exception. He is just one that got caught. Character is not essential to being a leader in the sense that there are tons of leaders who are currently leading and lack integrity. However, integrity, or character, is an essential ingredient to being a leader worth following.3 As a leader, if what you say does not line up with what you do, you will not be a leader for long. Leaders can hide behind their words for only so long. Solomons wisdom tells us, Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out (Prov. 10:9, NIV). Eventually what is on the inside will come out. If we what believe and what we say are antithetical to what we do, our beliefs and words will be in vain. Max De Pree correctly observes, behavior is the highest form of expression.4 Thus the old adage is true, actions really are louder than words. This is true for everyone but for a leader who is trying to gain and maintain influence, the importance of this truth is heightened. In a study done by Kouzes and Posner, they discovered that the number one quality that employees most valued in their leaders, above vision, competence, and achievements, was honesty.5 Integrity makes you a leader worth following because people will be able to trust you. And building trust is the bridge to influence. And influence maximizes a leaders impact. Influence Without influence, a leader accomplishes nothing. Influence is what gives a leader the ability to draw people to follow him or her. A leader with influence need not force the issue. He does not push !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Stanley, The Next Generation Leader, 159. Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership, 162. Ibid., 164.

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nor pull. A leader with influence has the ability to attract followers all built on a foundation of trust as a result of the integrity of a leader. For this reason, Dr. Howard Hendricks called influence the greatest component of leadership. A leader will work hard to gain influence. Influence takes times to develop. It takes dedication, hard work, commitment, and sacrifice to those whom you are leading. Influence is what tears down any walls of resistance that may have stood between a leader and potential follower. A leader with influence is a leader with the respect, confidence, and trust of those who follow him. With influence, a leader can challenge his followers more comfortably. With influence, a leader can more effectively cast vision, teach, shepherd, encourage, and equip those under his care. The interesting thing about influence is that it is much easier to lose than it is to gain and maintain. Although influence may take years to truly gain from someone or a group of people, it can be lost in a moment. Influence that took years to build up could be thrown away due to one bad decision. And sometimes, once influence is lost, it can be nearly impossible to get back. So we find that influence is again linked to integrity. Not only does integrity lead to the gaining of influence, it also leads to the maintaining of influence. With every decision a leader makes, there is always more at stake than he or she thinks. Learning Leadership is a gift given to a leader from God. Paul, in Romans 12, writes, We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of useif it [your gift] is to lead, do it diligently (vv. 6, 8,
NIV).

Why were we given these gifts? In Ephesians 4:14 Paul gives us the answer, to equip his people

for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (NIV). So leading people is a gift given to us by grace in order that others may be built up. Therefore we should steward our gift well by developing our gift to lead so that others may be lead well and built up. Seeking to develop, be coached, and learn is essential to stewarding the gift of leadership well so that others may benefit. Thus,

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being coached and learning as a leader is a matter of character. Leaders must take charge of their own development. As a leader, you can always grow, learn and get better. It is your responsibility to learn about yourself and about the world around you. A lack of learning will lead to the slow death of your leadership. Eddie Gibbs notes, Leaders are constantly growing and making course corrections as they incorporate their new insights. If they stop learning, they eventually stop leading.6 Improving our leadership is a must. We must learn about ourselves: weaknesses, strengths, and tendencies. Sometimes this will require outside criticism. No matter how much you know yourself, having someone else telling what he or she sees in you is critical. Learning about the gift of leadership, the people you are leading, and the current trends of mainstream culture are your responsibility as a leader! This is why Oswald Sanders believes that leaders should commit at least half and hour each day to read things that are spiritually enriching and stimulating to the mind.7 The best leaders are the best learners.

Leadership Marked by Service You want to be a great leader? Jesus gives us the formula for greatness in Matthew 20:26, Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant (NIV). The idea of servant-based leadership is so antithetical to our culture where the leader is the one who is suppose to be served. In our culture, the leader, the most powerful person in the room is the one who is served. Jesus teaches that the opposite should occur. In John 13:1-17, Jesus is in a room with all his disciples. What does the most powerful person in the room do? Rather than asking someone to wash his feet, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. This is such a powerful idea. A leader becoming a servant does not mean he or she should ignore his influence, authority, responsibility, power, or position but rather leverage all of that

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Gibbs, Leadership Next, 37. Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, 102.

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for the good of those he or she is leading. This is service. Being a servant does not neglect or put aside leadership; it enhances leadership. Love A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34-35,
NIV).

There were some of the last words that Jesus shared with his disciples before his crucifixion.

Living a life of love is to characterize the life of a believer. This should be doubly true for the life of a leader. A leader who genuinely loves and serves will be a leader who stands out, attracts a following, and grows his or her influence. CS Lewis once described love as willing the ultimate best for the other person. Loving someone is making them a priority. Why did people follow Jesus? According to Dr. Hendricks it is because he loved and served them. If as a leader you genuinely love and selflessly serve others, Dr. Hendricks believes that you will never have a ministry that is not having an impact. People are starving to be genuinely loved and selflessly served. The easiest way to leverage any level of influence is to love. If this were a speech, that principle would be worth repeating- twice. This idea puts the relational side of leadership at the forefront, as it should be. It keeps the focus off of the leader. Loving Gods people should be one of our primary goals of leadership. Not just believing you should, or saying that you do, but actually doing so with actions. If pastors across America and in this world really got this right, it would change the dynamic of the church ten-fold. The easiest way to leverage any level of influence is to love. Encouraging & Equipping The reality is that true leaders encourage others. As believers we are called to build one another up, encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thess. 5:11, NIV). In their book, Spiritual Leadership, Henry and Richard Blackaby note three primary ways leaders can encourage their

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followers: their presence, their words, and concern for the welfare of their followers.8 There is nothing more powerful and encouraging to followers than when their leader is present. Not through mass emails or conference calls but live and in person. This is true for a staff at a church and for the congregation at a church. Leaders need to learn how to make themselves more available. Words are powerful, especially coming from someone in a leadership position. Leaders should strive to celebrate, recognize, and commend individuals and teams on their efforts. A leader communicating how valuable someone else is to a team should be regular behavior for a leader. And lastly, there is nothing more inspiring and energizes a team or a group of followers than when a leader shows how much he actually cares for the welfare of those who are following. A way to do this? Sacrificing your welfare as a leader for the sake and welfare of your followers. No one leader has all of the gifting or talent. There is not one person, outside of the person of Jesus Christ, who embodied everything that exemplified a perfect leader. There is no perfect leader. There is no leader who can do it all. Going back to Ephesians 4, we learn that Christ gifted people differently. The reason he gave those gifts was equip people so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in faithattaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:1213, NIV). Gifts are not limited to those in leadership positions. Followers have responsibility within the body of Christ. The growth of the body requires the contribution of all.9 Leaders then, are responsible for helping and equipping followers to utilize and develop their gifts so they too can contribute to the body of Christ. Humility & Obedience Outside of the words love and service, the two words that probably describe Christs humility best would be humility and obedience. In Philippians 2, Paul exhorts Christians to imitate the humility !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership, 209-10. Seidel, Charting A Bold Course, 31.

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of Christ, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servanthe humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:6-8, ESV). If a leader truly believes these verses, they will never allow the position God put them in to unhealthily go to their head. Christ becoming human is rarely given enough credit. As condescending as it would be for a human to take the form of a rat, infinitely more condescending was it for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to take the form of a human. Then Christ willing gave himself up as a sacrifice in obedience to the Father. At the center of the greatest act this world has ever seen was a humble and obedient servant. The principle to be gleaned and applied from this beautiful picture? As a leader, your maximum potential for good is maximized by God when you are humble and obedient to God. Humble in two dimensions. First, knowing your place before God. You are not god to anyone. As a leader, you are not to beat your chest and assure that your presence is known. Know your place before God- a servant. Know your responsibility to those you are to lead- serve them. The second dimension of humility is a leaders dependence on God. Full dependence on God and on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is critical. This should lead to prayer, When spiritual leaders take their task of leading people seriously, they will be driven to their knees in prayer.10 Nothing will overwhelm and render a leader ultimately ineffective than when he or she tries to do everything out of their own strength, power, gifting, and talents. God gave us those gifts and we must rely on Him to bring those gifts to life in a way that will impact lives.

Leadership Marked by Vision If a leader does not have vision, he or she will not have an idea of where they are going. And if a leader does not know where they are going, they will not be able to lead people there. Dr. Hendricks masterfully describes the power and impact of a leaders vision for the future: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership, 186.

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There is no more powerful engine driving an organization toward excellence and long-range success than an attractive, worthwhile, achievable vision for the future- usually shared. The bottom line for vision is that it empowers people. It doesn't push people, it doesn't drive people, it draws them and attracts them like a magnet to that which is worth investing your life to the full extent of your potential for Jesus Christ. Although having vision may not be the number one attribute people look for in a leader, it certainly is a linchpin of effective leadership. People desire to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Vision for the future is the gateway to that opportunity and it is the responsibility of the leader to paint a picture of that opportunity. It serves as the why behind the what. Vision motivates, it establishes a standard of excellence, narrows your mission, and is the bridge between the present reality and future hopes and dreams.11 Communication Its one thing to have a vision and a picture of what could be but it is another thing to communicate that vision to those who are under your care clearly and effectively. In his book, Making Vision Stick, Andy Stanley cleverly writes that Vision doesnt stick, it leaks. His point is that people will forget the vision. Casting vision one time from stage is not enough. Vision needs to be cast continually because the why will fall off peoples radar faster than you think. Leaders must also get creative and figure out ways to cast vision differently. Casting it the same way over and over again will eventually have the same effect as not casting it all. If you actually care about your vision, prove it. Neglecting to get creative with casting your vision communicates neglect of your vision. Vision must be cast convincingly and passionately. None of your followers will get excited about your vision for the future if they cant see your excitement or feel your passion for that vision. A compelling vision will make followers believe that what you are calling them to is worth their investment. People should be gripped emotionally by the vision that is cast, leaving them no choice but to buy in. Vision must be communicated clearly. It should be clear to your followers what you are trying to accomplish. Communicating a vision is more than the transfer of information or a dream. Communicating a vision !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Dr. Howard Hendricks, Module 7: Vision, DTS Online.

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is painting a picture of the future, enabling your followers to see what has yet to be, to believe the seemingly impossible is possible, and to inspire greatness in your followers for the sake of the Gospel and the glory of God. Courage Courage is essential to leadership. Courage is what enables a leader to challenge the status-quo, face adversity, lead into uncharted territory and go where no one else has gone before. Courage to act defines the leader, and in turn the leaders initiative gives those around him courage to follow.12 A courageous leader will inspire courageous followers. Followers need their leader to be courageous. This idea is clearly seen in Joshua 1. Joshua is the man who had to follow Moses (Im sure he was thrilled). Moses is highly regarded as the greatest leader other than Jesus in the Bible. I cannot imagine what Joshua was feeling and if you didnt know the story, you would imagine the people werent too happy about the change either! But Israels response to Joshua is surprising and quite telling of what followers need from their leader, Then they answerd Joshua, Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us, we will goOnly be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:16-18,
NIV)!

If Israel had gotten to choose, they would have definitely picked Moses to lead them into the

Promised Land and Joshua probably would have too! But God had other plans and his plan was Joshua. And what was it that the people of Israel asked of Joshua? Only be strong and courageous! As a leader, your vision and ministry will face adversity. You will face change and difficult circumstances. You will be challenged to lead to places where no one has gone before you. In all of these times fear will set in because we all fear failure.13 But your followers need you to be strong and courageous. This does not mean a leader has it all figured out and it does not mean that a leader cant be honest about what lies ahead. Rather being honest but deciding to lead courageously anyway is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Stanley, The Next Generation Leader, 51.

Failure should not be feared. Failure should be seen as an opportunity to learn, grow, and get better. Dr. Hendricks said this in regards to failure, If you learn from a failure, it is not failure! Not fearing failure will eliminate the power that failure has over you as a leader.

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probably even more inspiring and encouraging to your followers. Leader must be strong and courageous.

Conclusion A Christian leader is one who is marked by character that is above reproach, a heart that seeks to serve others before self, and is captivated by a vision that looks at what is and see what could be. Developing integrity, leveraging influence, continually learning, loving, encouraging and equipping others, choosing humility and obedience, communicating vision effectively, and leading courageously all make a leader worth following and will set up a leader for maximum kingdom impact. So as a leader, the question is, what do you want your legacy to be? If done right, not only will the legacy that a leader leaves behind prove to be honorable to God but that legacy will also continue to impact lives upon lives long after a leader is done leading. Although the above philosophy is not comprehensive and there are a plethora of leadership principles still to be discussed, the above is a foundation that any aspiring leader will be able to build on.

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BIBLOGRAPHY Blackaby, Henry & Richard. Spiritual Leadership: Moving People On to God's Agenda. Rev. & expanded ed. Nashville, Tenn.: B&H Books, 2011. Gibbs, Eddie. Leadershipnext: Changing Leaders in a Changing Culture. Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Books, 2005. Sanders, J. Oswald. Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer. Unabridged ed. 4 vols. Chicago, Illinois: Hovel Audio, 2006. Seidel, Andrew. Charting a Bold Course: Training Leaders for 21st Century Ministry. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2003. Stanley, Andy. Making Vision Stick. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2007. Stanley, Andy. Next Generation Leader: 5 Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future. Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books, 2006. Zondervan. Niv Holy Bible, Compact. Cpt Spl ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012.

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