Connecting Leadership Theory and Christian Ministry Essay

Countries disintegrate, place of worship and corporation fail, people become dysfunctional, descendants lose their direction, and mankind drift from God on behalf of one distracting reason; insufficiency of leadership. These disappointments are often for the reason that of the deficiency of instruction, appropriate leadership, and misperception on what Christian leadership subsists and exactly how that leadership is pertinent to every component of professional and personal life. From a Christian worldview perspective, Psalm 112:5 explains, “A good man deals graciously and lends; He will guide his affairs with discretion” (NKJ). A Christian manager should always keep in mind that bounteousness and admiration for God, demonstrates that one has placed trust in Him, and not our material possessions.

Satterlee, A. (2013). Organizational management and leadership: A Christian perspective. (2nd ed.) Roanoke, VA: Synergeistics Publishing.

The Christian worldview of leadership is distinctly different from most secular views on the subject. In the secular, leadership tends to be viewed primarily in terms of a company’s bottom line and how well the leader can urge employees to produce more and better work. That view is profit-centered rather than person-centered, and it does not give much attention to employees’ human needs and qualities nor on how developing excellent work relationships can promote productivity. In the Christian worldview, however, people are key, and their human needs are important. The leader in the Christian worldview understands how meeting employees’ needs promotes the kind of productivity desired and

From a personal perspective, leadership from a Christian worldview is about transforming your skills, abilities, and knowledge of the vision of life, beliefs, values, and principles. Due to the differing worldviews as a leader from a secular or biblical perspective, the ways of life as a leader divert the values that guide us, beliefs that direct us, and principles that motivate us to act or behave a certain way. Jesus lives in disciples, and we should all be living as his light and world. In Paul’s plea he stated, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1, New International Version). Not everyone is in the public eye, but everyone is in the eye of someone, and there he or she is a leader. I will discuss my growth and development into the leader from a Christian worldview and from course material as support.

Lynch and Friedman (2013) express that “Servant leadership is a valuable approach in politics and industry. Adding the spiritual component−striving to build a spiritual workplace and working to improve society− completes the paradigm and makes it more valuable as a leadership theory” (p.

Although Leading with Soul by Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal was written in 1995, it is a classic best seller leadership book that is constantly praised for its innovative ways it encourages those to lead. It is such a classic that it has since been rewritten to reflect the current times and issues leaders face today, such as economic hardships. This book was definitely written ahead of its time in the ways that Bolman and Deal takes spiritual approaches to help those ranging from CEO’s to a regular employee find their path in life. Leading with Soul is an innovative way to inspire those to lead; it strikes down the conventional ways that leadership is discussed. Typically when one reads leadership books one finds chapters on principles, theories and skills however this focuses on leadership being an “uncommon journey of the spirit.”

In the book Practicing Greatness: 7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders, by Reggie McNeal it examines the need for strong spiritual Christian leaders in today’s society. McNeal looks at the good and bad characteristics of a leader in order to help leaders understand and develop the characteristics needed in one’s own life to be a good leader. McNeal states “we are desperate for great

Although Kotter’s eight steps approach can be applied to any institutional change, nevertheless it comes from a secular perspective and mind set. Coming to the Church Organization, the real issue every single spiritual leader has to confront is the dilemma of how secular leadership principles can apply to the spiritual leadership field?

Thus, we can define leadership as a coaching model, or a framework to use as an underlying structure to build teamwork, confidence, improve performance and behavior, and in most any aspect (business, education, sports, etc.) utilize these theories as a way to actualize goals. Because humans are so unique and individualized, there are a number of theories from which to draw from and most agree that the integration of a multidisciplinary approach and field of knowledge is what allows one to become both more tactical and strategic.

According to Bill Hull, “While certain pockets of evangelicalism have grown, overall, the church is in a decline. Many congregations can attest to Hull’s assessment, in that, churches in America are indeed experiencing sharp declines in its numbers of baptisms and church attendance. Over

Leadership comes in different forms and in different aspects of life from private business to government entities (Wren, 1995, p. 5). The models of leadership used are dependent upon the individual attributes of the leaders, for example traits, values, self-identity, skills, and competencies (Yukl, 2013, p. 136). A close look at select leadership models and how they compare and contrast with each other provides insight into the types of leadership that might be employed within organizations as they face various leadership issues and challenges.

Leadership is the ability of a person to influence people toward the attainment of a particular goal. Leadership is a people activity, not like administrative paper shuffling or problem solving. It is a dynamic force and involves the use of power. Out of the forces of leadership come four powerful characteristics: supportive, directive, participative, and achievement-oriented leadership. Although these types of characteristics are not considered ingrained personality traits, they reflect types of behavior every leader is able to adopt depending on the situation.

A sentiment common to almost any organization is that the one fact that remains constant is change. As society changes, and human understanding grows, any organization that maintains a static posture, assures its demise. Churches and Christian organizations are no exception. The gospel may remain the same, but the method for communicating it must speak to the audience to assure understanding. The Christian leader must be prepared to meet this challenge by incorporating an effective model for change into his theology of leadership in order to keep the ministry relevant and effective. Searching for such a change agent can prove to be challenging as well. To aid in this search, four

I never thought to be a Christian leader. As a matter of fact, I am a person who did not know about God for 26 years. I was the center of my life, and there was no room for God to enter. Even when I was attending church service, I was trying not to be exposed to other church people. In other words, I was the kind of person who was afraid to walk into a life of faith. However, in the past three years, God has changed me in many ways, and showed me so many miraculous things. And, finally here I am. Being a Christian leader seems the most challenging job in the world. I am working as the chairman of a youth ministry, and walking on the path to be a church leader. When God called me to work for the

1998 – 2015, Spirit of Faith Christian Center, as a Youth Leader my role was to oversee the optimum care of 100+ youth on a weekly basis. My responsibilities also included collaborating with my team members to develop, coordinate, and implement youth activities and services for youth ages 3-months to 18 years old. Such as coordinating morning breakfast, creating team-building activities, age-appropriate teaching lessons, and developing and facilitating school work tutoring sessions. A part of our responsibilities were also to collaborate and develop yearly youth conferences and alternative entertainment events to promote safety awareness, health awareness, and spiritual awareness.