Follow Leader

How the Bible can be used as a Reference to Raise up Powerful Leaders

The Power and the Leaders

1.     Power

Used correctly, within God's Authority, power can be considered a blessing. However, there are many degrees of spiritual maturity and, even when power is wielded by one of God's people, if they are insufficiently mature, the power can be cause for alarm. The opposite to blessing is a threat and, even in the Bible they are closely aligned: what can be offered as a blessing can, should circumstances change, easily become a threat – especially in the wrong hands. In fact, one of the earliest uses within the Bible of the word ‘power' is very closely aligned with its antonym ‘threat'. This occurred in Genesis 31:29 when Laban was talking to Jacob, his son-in-law:

 

"I have the power to harm you…"

 

However, Laban reveals that God told him not to cause Jacob any harm, saying:

 

"Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad"

 

God will make His Will known should we attempt to misuse the power entrusted to us: and, that is what it is. God entrusts us to use power carefully and He cares enough to prevent us from abusing such powers.

2.     Power through Manipulation

When you are a leader in the sight of God you need to ensure that your followers are not complying with your wishes blindly, without understanding your true intentions. When you manipulate somebody you are getting them to do something for you without them being fully aware of the way you have deliberately maneuvered them into position. This is a difficult situation to describe, but manipulative power is as destructive as other insidious methods of influencing somebody. Basically, however, it takes that person's freedom of choice away from them, something that even God would not consider doing.

In Romans 6:16 you will note that we can either be obedient to God or disobedient to Him but God allows us the free will to choose whether to fulfill His purpose for us to love and worship Him freely. Put another way, getting somebody to do something for us without explaining why may not be essentially evil but it can become abusive if we do this to gain a person's compliance when, if they truly knew the reasons they would not wish to be of assistance.

3.     Power through Authority

There are essentially five different ways of expressing power through authority, some more comprehensible than others and some being more acceptable from the subordinate's point of view:

• Coercive Authority
• Induced Authority
• Justifiable Authority
• Proficient Authority
• Individual Authority

3.1: Coercive Authority

One text in the Bible that seems to epitomize this particular style of authority appears in Ephesians 6: 5-9. Masters are advised not to threaten their slaves which, perhaps today could be interpreted as employees or even as followers in a congregation. However, the same text also advises the slaves to obey their earthly masters, attributing them fear and respect. Whilst there are many interpretations that could be drawn from Ephesians, intimidation and the subject of coercive authority does appear to appear as management tools.

Nevertheless, the use of force or the threat of punishment as a tool for gaining control is still wielded by leaders who need to maintain control over those followers whose levels of understanding are not as well developed as more mature followers. It is certainly a method of leadership that is attributed to parents controlling their children although, even in that setting it could be open to abuse – as can the misuse of any form of power. The 1st Baron Acton, in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887 wrote:

 

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Great men are almost always bad men".

 

There is certainly something in that and all great men need to have someone greater than them to be accountable to. Eventually those leaders who rule through threats of violence or force their leadership on followers by threat of punishment eventually subvert their own authority. People who lead in this way end up by making their followers undermine their own self-respect. Judges 5:2 explains the ideal way to lead the congregation of God:

 

"When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people

willingly offer themselves – praise the LORD!"

 

As leaders within the Kingdom of God we need to build up individuals' self-esteem and influence them to accept God's leadership by emulating your own behavior for the good of the Kingdom.

3.2: Inducted Authority

This is, unarguably, God's own favorite form of leadership whereby compliance is gained by the promise of reward that will benefit the follower. Offering promises of the reward is not the same as bribery: the good that comes from the promise of reward is missing when it resorts to bribery which relates more to contravening suitable standards of behavior.

3.3: Justifiable Authority

This kind of authority emanates from the power that is naturally accorded a leader who holds a certain position just from the respect due to the position itself rather than any sort of charisma the leader himself holds. This is often the case in Church leadership when the pastor enjoys certain kudos, with his congregation looking up to him just because he is the pastor. Improper behavior on the part of this kind of leader can result in the respect of their followers from disintegrating. Furthermore, it is easy to fall into the position, when your followers no longer respect your position, of demanding obedience due to your position in leadership. This is when this kind of leadership becomes corrosive and falls within the realms of duress.

3.4: Proficient Authority

Proficient authority tends to follow from an individual's expertise in a particular area of competency whereby their skills are such that other people with lesser skills in this particular area look towards that person as having specific leadership skills. However, this recognition of leadership is only likely to be within specific areas rather than in all areas of leadership. In fact, there might even come a time when another person arrives with superior skills in that area, to the extent that they supplant the original proficient leader from the most prominent position.

3.5: Individual Authority

This kind of leadership evolves through the follower recognizing a personal leadership quality in their leader which inspires compliance from those following. Leaders such as this reflect a kind of charismatic aura around them that other people recognize as honesty, sincerity and personality – the kind of personality that makes followers want to be with that person: followers want to be led by this person because being close to this kind of leader makes them feel good. Hand in glove with this kind of leader come powerful connections with other influential people who are often powerful people in their own right. Along the way this kind of leader has acquired many skills, some being natural abilities whilst others are spiritual gifts.

However, all of them encourage and persuade followers that this person whom they have recognized as a leader is influential, with an attractive personality that can persuade others simply through the power that emanates from the force of this leader's personality. This kind of leader gains compliance from followers wherever he goes whilst maintaining his followers full rights to exercise their own freedom and free will. It is this kind of leadership that sits particularly well with the Bible and with Bible leadership as a whole. After all, God did not insist on compliance from His followers – a fact well noted amongst most of the Prophets, for example. As stated in Matthew 23:37:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,

and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have

gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens

under her wings, and ye would not!"

 

Despite this kind of leader sounding the most perfect kind for followers, even here power can turn sour unless the leader truly is honest with him and with others. After all, freedom comes in many guises, one of which is the freedom to say ‘No!' Followers need to feel free to be able to dissent if something occurs that they believe is not right for them. Perfect leadership allows for perfect freedom in all things: the freedom to choose – Man's gift of free will!

4.     Spiritual Authority

A spiritual leader is never defensive about his skills as a leader as he recognizes that his spiritual authority comes solely from God, through the beneficence of Jesus, revealed through the Holy Spirit. A leader with spiritual authority is directly accountable to God for all things and it is only God who can provide legitimacy to that authority. In order to be granted spiritual authority you need to be in an active relationship with God because God's wisdom and knowledge will be funneled through to you: you must be spiritually mature enough to be able to make use of it. It is the Holy Spirit who will reveal a spiritual leader to you and it will be a spiritual knowledge of God that will enable you to be able to recognize the pointers the Holy Spirit is giving you.

A spiritually endowed leader will have gifts in such areas as prophecy and teaching, necessary for persuading followers. However, a spiritual leader can only be effective if he is recognized by those who have individual authorities that are justifiable or proficient. Without a competent authority behind them a spiritual leader is unable to exercise his leadership. Spiritual leaders are intended to build God's people up as opposed to diminishing them. The good of those following on behind should be the ultimate aim of the spiritual leader, as recognized by Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:8:

 

"For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority,

which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction,

I should not be ashamed"

 

Spiritual leadership tends to be recognized over a period of time and is rarely something that is immediately recognized as being fully fledged. It is through a spiritual development in the followers that is ultimately the mark of the spiritual leader. Followers of a truly spiritual leader will grow to spiritual maturity, reflecting a God-like maturity that is without duress, with the ability to make the kind of choices expected from a mature Christian, a truly spiritual follower of Christ. A leader who has truly been granted his leadership skills from God will recognize the authority of God and readily acknowledge that his leadership skills have been provided by God. Furthermore, a spiritual leader will recognize that his authority is accountable to God and, those followers who choose not to acknowledge his leadership will ultimately be accountable to God.

The Bible reveals that the primary power base is God's leadership but, nevertheless, to lead God's people effectively it does take a variety of skills, with many different authority styles and power bases to get through to all of God's people and lead them effectively through to the maturity that God requires of His followers. True leaders of God's people should encourage God's people to recognize and react to authority that is deemed to be from God: true spiritual authority. How, however, is spiritual leadership developed? Is it due to the perception of a superior spirituality that is recognized in that leader? Is it due to the increased manifestation of the fruits of the Spirit whilst conforming more closely to the nature of Jesus Christ? Or would spiritual leadership be recognized amongst God's leaders as the result of a spiritual anointing that sits well with their authority?

5.     The Abuse of Spiritual Power

Sadly, spiritual power is abused by God's leaders, often not even recognized as being an abuse of power. Sometimes it simply manifests itself as an exuberance of zeal for the Biblical experience that followers who are truly in need of earthly help, advice or support are simply met by a wall of Biblical phrases and statements that leave the person in need of help bewildered by the lack of understanding shown by their leader. Unfortunately, amongst congregations, this is widely practiced and, much as we love and honor the Bible as the Word of God, when it is immediate support we need which is not forthcoming the person in need can feel undermined and embittered – and this lack of understanding on behalf of the leader can easily result in the follower turning away from that leadership, discovering the help they need amongst non-believers: a help that should have been forthcoming from God's people and wasn't!

A spiritual leader abuses their power when the leader uses their power as domination over the lesser person or whose zeal for God's work is at the expense of those people who have labored with the leader, as mentioned in the Book of James 5: 4:

‘Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed

your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have

reached the ears of the Lord of hosts'.

 

Spiritual leadership should be all about balancing the needs of the congregation with achieving success of God's work. Where this spiritual leadership leaves behind a broken congregation of demoralized people, with the leader forging ahead doing the Lord's work, then it is a clear abuse of spiritual leadership. This concept could actually be taken further, revealing an emphasis on the act of worship rather than on the God whom we worship. These leaders are often highly charismatic people who attract other charismatic people as satellites.

All of these people achieve a lot for God, but at the expense of followers who have never been given any encouragement to grow or to develop their own spiritual powers. This kind of spiritual abuse can be manifested in the leader expecting blind faith from those followers who are expected to follow orders and never question their leader's authority because ‘the leader has been sought out by God to do His will and you will be judged if you criticize God's power in his life'. A true spiritual leader needs to focus on the well-being of the people and does not have the authority to ususrp God's own place in His people's lives. Leaders have been called to serve the people: Jesus died to save His people!

6.     How essential is Power to Effective Leadership?

According to Dr J Robert Clinton, Professor of Leadership Studies at the Fuller Seminary School of World Mission, located at Pasadena in California, power and leadership are intrinsically linked. According to Dr Clinton a leader can be defined as:

 

"…a person with God-given capacity and with God-given responsibility

who is influencing a specific group of God's people toward God's purposes

or the group"

Dr Clinton believes that spiritually-endowed leaders have been raised up due to various natural abilities they possess, together with the spiritual gifts they have been given as well as various innate skills they have developed. Between all of these factors the spiritual leader acquires a capacity to be a spiritually-endowed leader. Such a leader is accountable to God for the well-being of all the congregation's followers as well as for the work that God has called him to do. In other words, successful spiritual leaders need to nurture ‘relationship-behaviors' and it is failure to do so adequately that most often tends to result in abuse of spiritual power.

Followers or less mature Christians in the congregation look towards their leader for direction. They expect their leader to provide them with the influence they need to grow spiritually. It is here that leadership concurs with power. As revealed in 1 Corinthians 4:20:

‘For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power'

7.     Introduction to Leadership Styles

The Bible introduces us to a wide range of leadership styles, all of which are needed at one time or another to lead God's people.  These leadership styles tend to be specific to different leaders although, as a leader develops in maturity they tend to alter their style of leadership in accordance with the people they are called upon to lead. The most well-known Bible leader whose maturity led him to use a range of leadership styles in accordance with the levels of maturity in his followers was the Apostle Paul. Paul the Apostle reveals three highly directive styles of leadership; two styles are directive; two styles are non-directive; and three styles of leadership are extremely non-directive.

8.     Apostle Paul's Highly Directive Leadership Styles

According to the Bible the Apostle Paul alternated between highly directive leadership and non-directive leadership, despite his appearance as a strong character. Nevertheless, one style is fairly consistent throughout his leadership that of the apostolic leader assuming responsibility over believers from the power designated through God's delegated authority. Paul the Apostle could be quite straightforward and direct when the need arose, as revealed in 1 Corinthians 4: 21:

 

‘What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in

love and with a gentle spirit?'

 

A modern day equivalent could be the top-down model where the Pastor, who is anointed by God, leads the church under his God-given leadership and the congregation responds by acknowledging their Pastor has had leadership bestowed on him by God. What is obviously wrong with this model in a modern-day church situation is the lack of accountability. No man is totally perfect so, in effect, we have a congregation following the personality of a leader who is widely acknowledged as endowed to lead by God. If that leader gives into temptation, will his fall from grace be recognized and acknowledged by his followers, or would they turn a blind eye knowing that their leader had been put in position by God to lead them? Even today, that's a tough one to answer and possibly reveals more questions than answers. Overall, however, accountability is essential and everybody in positions of leadership should be completely transparent to audit. This reinforces their leadership and power rather than detracts from it.

9.     Paul the Apostle's Non-Directive Leadership Styles

Two of Paul's most effective leadership styles were those of maturity and the nurse leadership style. The first of these were characterized by a developing of spiritual knowledge amongst followers that gradually enabled those followers to respond positively towards the kind of empathic leadership based on an experience of leader and follower sharing the recognition of God as the hand that directed the leader's actions under the power of the Holy Spirit. This empathic experience is illustrated clearly in 2 Corinthians 11:16 – 33 where Paul seems to brag about his experience of suffering. Of course, there could be another interpretation on this. If you read Proverbs 27:2 you are advised against praising your own achievements which, in the case of Paul could be related to his experiences of suffering as well.

The other non-directive style of leadership that Paul displays has become known as the nurse leadership style. This can be seen in 1 Thessalonians 2:7:

 

‘….but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her

little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to

share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well,

because you had become so dear to us'.

 

This style is similar to that of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, protecting His flock from harm.

10.   Paul's Intensely Non-Directive Styles of Leadership

Paul's character was basically goal-orientated by nature, with what has been described as a ‘choleric' personality. It is debatable whether this kind of personality would correspond with the wide range of leadership styles that Paul used at different times. Clearly the mellowing influence of the Holy Spirit enabled him to develop the flexibility needed to employ these highly different styles of leadership. Amongst these highly non-directive leadership styles Paul developed three leadership styles that have been attributed to Jesus, the Holy Spirit and developed as a result of some of his life experiences over the course of his life. These non-directive styles of leadership have been categorized as:

 

• Imitator Leadership
• Consensus Leadership
• Indirect Conflict Leadership

 

Although being described as having a ‘choleric' personality trait doesn't sound as if it would sit well with Christian leadership, being self-motivated is one of its better qualities. Without this personality trait one wonders whether Paul might have been quite so adept at getting out of some of the situations he found himself in at certain times of his life. Once a choleric person realizes what needs to be done, they ensure it gets done, one way or another!

A person with a choleric personality may make an excellent manager and really good leader, although their people skills often need to be worked on! Choleric personality traits can often be revealed as being impatient; sometimes with a short fuse, neither of which sits well when applied to leading some of the more irritating followers. This kind of leader, with this kind of personality, gets jobs done and, for Paul, with him being under the authority of God through the Holy Spirit, fulfilling God's vision for His church.

10.1: Imitator Leadership

This style of leadership is often seen in Bible leadership, referring to the nature of Jesus whose example is explained in Philippians 2: 5 – 12 and inherent in the leadership of Paul, as seen in Philippians 3:17:

 

‘Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take

not of those who live according to the pattern we gave you'.

 

Peter and John both made this imitator-style leadership perfectly clear, according to 1 Peter 2:21 and 1 John 2: 6 respectively. This is perfectly summed up in 1 Corinthians 11:1: ‘Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ'.

10.2: Consensus Leadership

Consensus leadership involves the leader as facilitator. Rather than leading from the front the leader is adept at leading from amongst the followers. This takes a powerful and confident leader to be able to achieve this successfully. The consensual leader needs to be able to take into consideration everybody's contributions and opinions and dovetail them into some kind of coherent structure in order to achieve a way forward. This was portrayed in Acts13 when the congregation in Antioch, acting under the direction of the Holy Spirit, sent Paul and Barnabas to minister, in accordance with God's will.

10.3: Indirect Conflict Leadership

This kind of leadership could probably best be described as a third-party leadership in accordance with Ephesians 6:10 – 20, resolving conflict through prayer, basically, instead of confronting a problem head-on. Put another way, sensing a disruptive influence that can be neutralized through God's intervention, a person in leadership prays for God's authority over that person.

11.     How Power is Exercised

There are various ways that different leadership styles can be exercised through the application of power. This power tends to be shown in four different ways, such as force, manipulation, authority and persuasion, with force being represented as:

• Typically, power through the application of force is debatably the least acceptable way of expressing leadership and is particularly common in many of the cult sects. Sadly, it is also alive and well in a number of evangelical churches who still operate in the old-style ‘hell and brimstone'. Dr Clinton likens this style of power as use of the spiritual gifts such as ‘slaying in the Spirit' in a spiritual representation of gaining power over that person. It is certainly an interesting concept.

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