Leading from a Position of Authority
There’s surely nothing that I can communicate on the topic of leadership that hasn’t already been written or spoken. I started reading the popular leadership literature when I was around 15 years old, and over the years I have found that there are many wonderful and some not-so-wonderful books out there intended to help us.
So, with everything that’s been said and written about leadership, I believe it can be easy to miss the mark that God has called us to when its comes to leading in our families, our churches, and in the workplace.
Therefore, since God’s word is the highest authority over our lives, we should look to it to brighten our understanding of what His word teaches us about leadership.
Of course we know that people don’t faithfully follow others simply because they have a title of leadership or authority. This is not a new concept for most of us.
In his book, “Start with Why” Simon Sinek wrote,
“Leading is not the same as being the leader. Being the leader means you hold the highest rank, either by earning it, good fortune or navigating internal politics. Leading, however, means that others willingly follow you — not because they have to, not because they are paid to, but because they want to.”
Leading When You Do Have a Title
Although leadership doesn’t require a title, the bible paints us a beautiful picture of how someone given a position of leadership, whether formally or informally, should lead. Below are two specific examples we can look to for help.
John chapter 13, verse 3 reads…
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,…
If we were to pause at this point in the verse, what would logically come next?
I would think it would be something like this…
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,— stood up on the table and told his disciples to worship Him and bow down at His feet!
That’s something that would make logical sense given the introduction, but it’s not what Jesus did or said at that moment.
No, the Bible says —
3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,
4 got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. (John 13:3-4)
If we were to read it this way, it may sound even more strange to us…
He got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself because he knew that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,
So, Jesus, knowing that he was King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and that he held the highest position of leadership in all of Heaven… put a towel on. And, as we know, He washed the feet of his followers. He served them.
Leadership is Not Something to be Exploited
The next example comes from Philippians where Paul, in Chapter 2, writes…
5Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,
6who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.
7 Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant,
So we read that Jesus, who is in every way equal with God, did not consider this fact as something to be exploited.
Many versions translate this that He did not see it as something to be grasped or held onto. Other versions say that He didn’t see his equality with God as something to be used to his own advantage. I think that all of these translations are good and serve the same point —
Christ used His equality with God for the advantage of others.
This is at the heart of what it means for us to be great leaders. Do we use our positions of leadership to our own advantage or for the advantage of others? This is the type of question that leaders must ask themselves every single day.
Do I use my leadership position in the workplace to delegate tasks so I don’t have to do it, or is it truly for the well-being of others?
Do I use my role in the family to make decisions that serve my wife or that serve me?
Am I really serving the church body in a way that leaves me empty in the way Christ emptied himself — where I have nothing left?
I see this as a great challenge in my own life. However, I take heart in knowing that my very own Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, demonstrated this in the way he laid his life down for me.
It would be a worthwhile goal for anyone to merely reflect His sacrifice as we lead others.
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.(Mark 10:45)
