In his latest post, my friend Greg referred to comments I made recently about the concept of leadership and the Bible. (You can read his comments here.) I remember the conversation, but the comments were casual and off the cuff, so neither of us have quotes to share. Nevertheless, I did tell Greg that I’m beginning to realize that a lot of what we label as leadership theory and practice is empty without the Word of God. Some of it is even contradictory to Biblical values, principles, and living.
What struck me as I read the book is that just a few years ago, I would have eagerly and excitedly devoured this book looking for the nuggets I could integrate into my own life as well as how to utilize it in my coaching work. My experience this time was different.
Perhaps God has pulled scales from my eyes, but I clearly saw that the core belief system of that book is humanism—the belief that when you believe in yourself, in your own and others’ goodness, and that you have ability to plan and effect good outcomes, you can achieve anything you want. The book reminded me of classic Norman Vincent Peale quotes such as: Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.
Yes, you’re right. It’s fair to point that out, but so much of what I see being passed off as helping leaders be better leaders rests on humanist beliefs. Humanism has so deeply invaded all aspects of our culture that Christians don’t even see it any longer. Humanism has become normalized even in the Christian community.
Am I saying that situational leadership theory and transformational leadership theory and LMX theory (etc.) are all based on humanism and are therefore false?
No, I’m not. In fact, when you study those and other approaches to understanding leadership you will find very helpful insight for all leaders including followers of Christ. Theories, though, are nothing more than an organized approach to understanding a phenomenon. In this case, we’re talking about the phenomenon of leadership.
The problem with the theories comes when we move to the next step of practical application in the creation and use of models for applying those theories. At that level we cannot avoid dealing with what lies in the heart of the leader and of the follower.
The answers to these questions drive absolutely every thought we have, every decision we make, every action we perform, and every word from our mouth.
Without a biblical understanding of the heart, effective application of any leadership theory will be severely crippled.
As I said, this is an emerging paradigm for me. I intend to return to this in the near future after I devote more time to studying these issues from a biblical perspective. In the meantime, I welcome your insights and even disagreement on what I’ve said here.
Photo by Nick de Partee. Photo available at Unsplash under CC0 license. Image modified for size and space.
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