Everybody who leads has a philosophy of leadership. Every leader from Michael Scott to Genghis Khan has absorbed principles and values that guide them. If you are a Christian leader, have you considered what it might look like to develop a theology of leadership? Is your leadership grounded in and guided by biblical truth—or are you just leading from gut instincts and popular trends? In this article, I want to give you a handful of tools which will help you develop a theology of leadership for your context.
As for my context, I serve as lead pastor at Christ’s Church of Joplin, a congregation of 250 people in Joplin, Missouri. My primary responsibility is to lead our preaching and teaching ministry. In addition, I direct the Organizational Leadership program at Ozark Christian College in Joplin. The program includes 30+ students and 7 faculty members (2 full-time, 5 adjunct). I also serve as Director of Newday Midwest, a summer camp with about 225 students and 70 leaders. My role is to lead the leadership team, whose task is to equip youth leaders and small group leaders to guide their students into meaningful encounters with God and one another so that they can take the next faithful step in following Jesus.
These three roles intersect at one crossroads: providing leadership to leaders. I lead the leaders of my church, the leaders of my camp, and the students preparing for leadership. My calling is to lead leaders across these different spaces. Leading in these ways has taught me that Christlike leadership isn’t reducible to a few quick steps or ready-made principles; it takes time and intentionality to discern what God is doing in your context and how to steward what he has entrusted to you to lead.
“Is your leadership grounded in and guided by biblical truth—or are you just leading from gut instincts and popular trends?”
That’s why you need a theology of leadership.
A Better Question
One of my most common prayers often goes unanswered: Jesus, take the wheel! Jesus usually doesn’t simply make the decisions for me—whether it’s letting a staff member go, opening a new campus, accepting transfer credits for a student, or setting my own schedule as someone who often has to create my own boundaries. Do you feel the same frustration? How often we wish Jesus had written a book that answered the question everyone was asking in the 90s: “What Would Jesus Do?”
Here’s the good news and frustrating news. The frustrating news is that Jesus didn’t come primarily to be our model of strategic leadership—otherwise we could ask WWJD and have our leadership dilemmas quickly solved. The good news is that Jesus did come to be Lord over our whole lives.[1] That suggests that we ought to lean into a more nuanced question: How do we live out our allegiance to Jesus in how we understand and practice leadership?[2]
And again, there’s good news and frustrating news. The frustrating news is that what I’ve put together in this article won’t give you a ready-made theology of leadership. The good news is that it will help you create your own theology of leadership—something you can return to again and again. Over time, that process will train your heart and mind to think theologically about leadership—and to make this sort of thinking a natural rhythm of your leadership.
How do you develop a theology of leadership for your context? I want to recommend three priorities to focus on, followed by three questions to ask.
“How do we live out our allegiance to Jesus in how we understand and practice leadership?”
3 Priorities for the Process
With a thousand voices trying to steer your leadership, it helps to know what to prioritize. What should be our priorities as we discover what it looks like to live out our allegiance to Jesus in our leadership? Here are three priorities that ought to rise above the noise:
Covenant-Faithfulness: Why We Lead
We don’t develop theology just for its own sake. Theology is meant to guide us into living faithfully with—and before—the Living God. The goal here is to develop a theology that helps us lead faithfully with and before the Father, Son, and Spirit. This isn’t just an intellectual exercise but something that should shape how we actually lead.
Context: When and Where We Lead
Faithfulness always takes shape in context. God’s truth doesn’t change, but it needs to be lived out among your people, in your place, and in your time. I encourage you to keep your own context in mind as you go through this process.
Community:Â How We Learn to Lead
Theology is developed in community. That means doing this exercise in conversation with the wider Church—Christians across times and places. It means considering their theology, biblical interpretation, and answers to questions similar to those that we’ll ask. It also means listening to the local Church—Spirit-filled wise counsel whom you know and who know you. It means prayerfully discerning with them the answers to the questions.
“Faithfulness always takes shape in context.”
Are you clear on your why, when/where, and how? Then it’s time to move onto three questions for developing a theology of leadership for your particular context.
3 Questions to Ask
The Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 is one of the first times the Church worked out a theology of leadership in their context. As Gentiles began joining the church, their practices clashed with long-held culture of the community. This created a cultural crisis, and leaders disagreed on how to respond. The Council gathered to decide how to lead faithfully in that moment. Their decision became an example of applying theology to leadership in context.
Take a moment to read Acts 15. You’ll see three key factors in their discussion. Each of these frames the three questions you can use to create a theology for leadership.
1. What do we believe?
In Acts 15, the apostle Peter, never shy to speak, stood up and said: “We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 15:11, ESV). He reminded the church that belief was central to their decision about leadership. We should never draw a line between what we believe as disciples of Jesus and how we lead. Our beliefs need to form the core of how we lead.
Thus, it’s worth pausing to ask, how does what we believe about the Father, Son, and Spirit shape our understanding of leadership and how we act as leaders?
For example, we believe the Spirit lives in every believer and empowers them for ministry, giving leadership gifts to accomplish the good God wants for His people. What does this mean for leadership? It means leadership is an expression of my unique gifts. What does this mean for what I do? I embrace my gifts as the right ones for this people at this time, while also honoring the gifts of others.
As you develop a theology of leadership for your context, start with what you believe as disciples of Jesus. Write them out and ask where your leadership might be conflicting with what you believe.
“How does what we believe about the Father, Son, and Spirit shape our understanding of leadership and how we act as leaders?”
2. What does Scripture say?
Of course, even our beliefs can drift from truth. That’s why we need to constantly be asking what Scripture actually teaches. In Acts 15, after listening to Peter, James stood and said, “And this conversion of the Gentiles is exactly what the prophets predicted” (Acts 15:15, ESV). In their leadership dilemma, He pointed them back to Scripture.
For our purposes, it is important to focus especially on the words of Jesus, since all Scripture finds its meaning in Him. How do the words of Christ—the Kingdom He reveals and the love He commands—shape our understanding of leadership and how we act as leaders?
For example, Jesus taught that the heart of God’s commands is to love God fully and love our neighbors as ourselves. What does this mean for leadership? It means leadership, at its core, is an act of love—for those I follow, those I lead, and those I lead alongside. What does this mean for what I do? It means that in every decision I should ask: “What is in the best interest of everyone involved?”—and commit to that, even if it costs more money, takes more time, or requires more effort.
3. How is the Spirit guiding us?
Before the Council, Peter had several powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit: visions, direct words, and witnessing the Spirit fill the Gentiles. At the Council he reminded them: Why should they oppose God by making it hard for Gentiles to follow Jesus? (see Acts 15:19). Peter grounded his leadership in what the Spirit had revealed.
As Christian leaders, we too need to ask: What guidance is the Spirit giving us for how we understand and practice leadership?
For example, speaking from my own experience, I have sensed the Holy Spirit giving me impressions, images, and words from others that affirm God is calling me to provide leadership to leaders. What has this meant for my understanding of leadership? It means leadership, in my context, is about joining Christ in His work of giving leaders to the Church (Ephesians 4). What does this mean for what I do? My focus is to develop followers into leaders, give them resources and opportunities to lead, and then lead leaders.
“What guidance is the Spirit giving us for how we understand and practice leadership?”
Conclusion
Jesus usually won’t “take the wheel,” and He hasn’t written a book called WWJD for Leaders. But God has already given us what we need for life and leadership. By pointing you to priorities to focus on and questions to ask, this article is simply meant to encourage you toward pursuing all God has already offered us when it comes to leadership. My prayer is that He fills you with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation as you look to the beliefs of the Church, the words of Christ, and the guidance of the Spirit—developing a theology that helps you lead faithfully before God.
The grace of Jesus, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be with you,
Jaron
[1] Scott Rodin, The Steward Leader: Transforming People, Organizations, and Communities (IVP Academic, 2013)
[2] Russell Huizing, “Bringing Christ to the Table of Leadership: Moving Towards a Theology of Leadership.” Journal of Applied Christian Leadership 5, no 2 (2011): https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/jacl/vol5/iss2/5.
