What makes a Christian leader a Christian leader? Is it a style? Is it training? Is it the kind of organization that the leader is running? What should be the criterion by which we designate a leader to be "Christian?"
With hundreds of books on leadership hitting the shelf each year and just as many different methods of leadership, it's easy to get caught up in method when determining what makes a Christian leader. Christ has a very distinctive method of leadership, one that is based in service and in power revealed through weakness. However, even the "secular" world has co-opted these leadership methods and uses them with much success in the corporate, government, and not for profit realms.
Neither can we determine a Christian leader by the kind of organization that the Christian is heading. There are Christian men and women in all realms of society, leading all sorts of ventures. Likewise, I fear that there are many non-Christian people who are leaders in Christian organizations.
Likewise, Christian and other leadership training is available to all people, regardless of their faith. A good leader will peruse leadership material from all sources and incorporate that which works for them and for their organization. The Christian leader will consider non-Christian sources of leadership, determine whether they are of God or not, and use them accordingly.
What then, distinguishes a Christian leader? It is as simple as this: The Holy Spirit. The Christian leader is indeed a Christian, and therefore is guided, chastised by, and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. This difference between a Christian leader and a non-Christian leader cannot be overemphasized.
God does not hold a specific training regimen for leaders, nor does He work the same in all leaders. He calls, trains, and uses different leaders in different ways. God's spirit which indwells us is manifested so many different ways. The Holy Spirit gives Christian leadership a mysterious edge that you can never quite predict and a quality that makes it incomparable with regular leadership.
This makes even the most unlikely person a leadership candidate, and makes normal models of leadership training and development irrelevant. It means that instead of solely paying attention to a book or program of leadership development, Christian leaders must also discern the calling of the Holy Spirit on the lives of leaders and be open to His leading and prompting, no matter how much this leads us outside the realms of "normal" leadership or our zones of comfort and familiarity.
And while it is important to see and understand the Holy Spirit's place in Christian Leadership, let's not forget that the Holy Spirit also plays unknowable and mysterious roles in non-Christian leadership too. The Holy Spirit factor in leadership and leadership development should not be overlooked, and those Christian leaders who do run the risk of being outside of the will of God and leading without the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit.
Training Tomorrow's Leaders Today,
Matt
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