VI. Responding to God’s Call and Living Out Our Mission
Leadership Rooted in Walking with God
Responding to God’s call leads believers to carry responsibilities and serve others in real life. Some of these responsibilities also involve leadership: helping people understand shared goals, coordinating participation, making decisions, and taking responsibility for both the process and the outcomes of the work.
Such responsibilities may arise in the family, the church, the workplace, an organisation, or a community. Authority and expectations differ across these settings and need to be understood separately. In the church, leadership involves teaching the truth, caring for believers, and building up the community. In the workplace and other settings, it involves fulfilling the responsibilities of one’s role fairly, coordinating work, and serving others.
“Leadership rooted in walking with God,” as used in this section, refers to Christians carrying leadership responsibilities according to biblical principles as they continue following the Lord. It involves using abilities, power, and resources appropriately and helping others work together to complete what has been entrusted to them. This section also helps other believers recognise appropriate leadership, learn to work alongside leaders, and, when necessary, offer views and raise concerns.
Those carrying leadership responsibilities also need to know God’s love and learn to treat others with that love. John states that God is love. He explains that God revealed His love by sending His only Son so that we might live through Him, and by giving His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:8–10). “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Our love for God and others rests on the grace He has taken the initiative to give.
Leaders need this grace too. We do not earn God’s acceptance through position or results, nor do we need others’ dependence on us to prove our importance. We receive life from Christ and learn His humility, love, and service as we follow Him. He accomplished redemption by laying down His life. This is a work we cannot undertake or repeat. The character and way of serving He revealed, however, guide how we treat people and carry responsibilities.
Leadership is an ability and practice needed for certain entrusted responsibilities. It must not become a measure of every believer’s spiritual maturity. Whether or not we hold a leadership position, we all need to know God, follow Christ, and live faithfully in our own circumstances.
1. Leadership Begins with Following Christ
Jesus called His disciples, “Come after me” (Matthew 4:19, excerpt). As they followed Him, they came to know Him, received teaching, and learned to carry entrusted responsibilities. When Christians lead others, they themselves still need to be guided by the Lord’s word.
Following Christ leads us to examine carefully the direction of our leadership: Are our goals consistent with the truth? Are the ways we pursue them honest and just? We also need to notice whether our own desires interfere with our judgement about responsibilities and other people’s needs.
Before making decisions, we need to understand the facts, listen to those concerned, and distinguish clear moral responsibilities from specific arrangements that can be discussed. Personal experience, strong convictions, and past results cannot guarantee that our judgement will be right this time.
In the church, we also need to distinguish clearly between biblical teaching, an individual’s understanding of Scripture, and specific ministry arrangements. Leaders should explain the basis for their judgements and must not readily present their own opinions as unquestionable commands from God.
Following Christ also means being willing to receive correction. When we discover an error in judgement, promptly acknowledging it and making adjustments can help shared work return to an appropriate direction. Leaders who remain teachable also set an example of listening carefully, speaking honestly, and seeking guidance together.
2. Leadership Begins with Remaining Connected to Christ
Jesus used the vine and its branches to explain His relationship with His disciples: “for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, excerpt). This is the foundation of life for all disciples. Those carrying leadership responsibilities also need to rely continually on Him.
Chapter 3 has already explained that growth in life requires us to remain connected to Christ. When we carry leadership responsibilities, this reliance especially helps us seek the Lord under pressure and avoid neglecting the truth in our haste to achieve a goal.
Responsibility can bring pressure and loneliness. Leaders can discuss matters honestly and pray with trustworthy people, while setting reasonable limits on the responsibilities they carry. When problems cannot be handled alone, they should seek help in good time, rather than allowing the entire work to depend on one person continually working to exhaustion.
Drawing close to Christ must not be treated merely as a way to improve results. Even when ministry progresses slowly or a previous responsibility has ended, we still belong to Him and need to live in His grace.
Relying on the Lord also leads us to prepare carefully. Knowledge, training, and organisational abilities can help us fulfil responsibilities. We use them well while remembering that knowledge and methods cannot replace God’s work of renewing hearts.
3. Leadership Is Expressed First in Character and Not Only in Ability
Carrying leadership responsibilities requires both the competence to do the work and appropriate character. Ability helps a person complete tasks, while character affects how that person treats others, uses power, and deals with the interests at stake.
First Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–9 set out requirements concerning the lives, character, and teaching of church overseers and elders. These passages primarily concern church offices. They also make clear that leaders must not be chosen solely on the basis of eloquence, enthusiasm, or visible results.
Character needs to be discerned through ongoing relationships and practical cooperation. The community should consider whether a person gives an honest account of important matters, deals fairly with the interests at stake, and treats others appropriately when opinions differ or pressure arises. These things directly affect how that person uses the authority they receive.
Ability also requires specific preparation. Leaders should learn to communicate, organise work, and handle conflict, and seek appropriate help when a matter exceeds their knowledge or abilities. A willingness to serve is valuable, yet necessary training is still required.
Before an appointment, a candidate’s suitability needs careful assessment. After responsibilities are taken up, training and oversight should continue. If a role needs to be adjusted, care for the person should continue as well. Suitability for a particular position must not determine a person’s worth or replace recognition of their belonging in Christ.
4. Leadership Serves and Equips Others Rather Than Controlling Them
Jesus washed His disciples’ feet and taught them to serve one another as He had served them (John 13:12–17). He also commanded them to love one another as He loved them (John 13:34). This helps us recognise that love needs to become action, making us willing to take responsibility, attend to needs, and serve others.
Jesus also taught that His disciples must not imitate those who use power to dominate others. Whoever wants to be great is to serve, and whoever wants to be first is to be the servant of all (Mark 10:42–44). Leaders need to use their entrusted authority appropriately, helping everyone carry shared responsibilities rather than satisfying personal ambition.
In practice, serving includes listening patiently, understanding participants’ difficulties, providing necessary support, and considering their abilities, time, and existing responsibilities. We must not keep assigning work to someone simply because they are willing, nor care about them only when we need results.
Equipping others requires opportunities to learn and practise. We can begin with suitable responsibilities, explain expectations, offer guidance along the way, and review the work together. As people’s abilities grow, they should also receive corresponding authority, enabling them gradually to take fuller responsibility for the work.
Serving and equipping also include helping people face mistakes and learn to take responsibility. Paul says that love “doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). Leaders need to identify problems honestly, explain how to improve, and provide necessary guidance. Correction should respect the person, helping them understand the truth, change their behaviour, and carry entrusted responsibilities more appropriately.
As others mature, leaders should be willing to share opportunities and support them in taking responsibility. As more people grow in maturity, more can share the work, reducing excessive dependence on a few leaders.
5. Leadership Means Faithfully Managing All That God Has Entrusted to Us
Peter urges believers to serve one another with the gifts they have received, as good stewards of God’s grace (1 Peter 4:10). This understanding of being entrusted with responsibilities and accountable to God also helps leaders take seriously the time, funds, positions, and resources under their care.
Work arrangements should be clear: Who is responsible for what, and what authority do they have? Which decisions can be made independently, and which require consultation? How are resources to be used and progress assessed? Responsibility and authority need to correspond, so that people are not required to bear all the consequences of matters they cannot decide.
Leaders also need to explain the basis for decisions, the use of resources, and actual outcomes, and be open to examination. This is accountability. Clear records and arrangements for oversight help identify problems promptly and enable everyone to fulfil their responsibilities.
The community should have appropriate ways to raise difficulties. Those asking reasonable questions need to be treated fairly. If dishonesty, injustice, or harm occurs, the facts need to be established, those affected protected, and those responsible held accountable. Problems must not be concealed to protect a person’s or ministry’s image.
Managing resources also requires attention to people’s actual needs and burdens. We need to examine whether limited time and funds meet real needs, whether work arrangements are reasonable, and whether anyone has been persistently overlooked. Resource management requires accuracy and efficiency as well as justice and care.
Faithfully carrying leadership responsibilities also includes preparing for others to take over the work. Organising information, developing suitable people, gradually transferring authority, and helping those concerned understand the new division of responsibilities enable the work to continue. After a handover, the successor’s authority and responsibilities also need to be respected. Any continuing support should follow what both parties have agreed, without overstepping the new arrangements.
Work has its stages. A careful handover and support for others as they continue carrying responsibilities are also expressions of faithfulness to what has been entrusted to us.
6. Leadership Helps People Turn to God Rather Than Depend on the Leader
Chapter 3 has already discussed John the Baptist’s understanding of his place. He said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). For leaders in the church, this reminds us that Christ is the Lord to whom believers belong. Leadership must not allow dependence on an individual to replace trust in Him.
Jesus calls people to follow Him because He is Saviour and Lord. Christian leaders are entrusted with serving others and helping them know and follow Him. Imitating Jesus’ humility, love, and service does not give us His unique position.
Teaching and pastoral care should help believers understand Scripture, learn to pray, discern, and put the truth into practice, and grow alongside other members of Christ’s body. Leaders can offer counsel, but they cannot take over every decision in another person’s life or equate loyalty to themselves with loyalty to Christ.
Appropriate leadership helps people gradually learn to make judgements in light of the truth, carry responsibilities seriously, and seek the Lord amid their limitations. People can be grateful for a leader’s help while also knowing that life and grace ultimately come from God.
In the workplace and public life, leaders need to treat people of different faiths fairly. They may explain their hope when appropriate opportunities arise, but must not make employment opportunities, resources, or treatment conditional on whether someone accepts their faith.
Leaders should help participants grow and complete entrusted work together. In the church, they especially need to help people know Christ, grow in Him, and follow Him alongside other believers.
7. From Responding to God’s Call to Remaining Faithful to Our Mission
Leadership serves specific entrusted responsibilities. When the work ends or a responsibility is handed to someone else, the path of following the Lord continues. Greater responsibilities require more preparation and oversight, while reduced responsibilities call for appropriate adjustment. Both should help us become more faithful to the Lord and more responsible in our treatment of others.
Leaders need to take responsibility seriously, and participants also need to work faithfully alongside them. Sharing responsibilities, communicating honestly, respecting different contributions, and supporting one another through difficulties help entrusted work be carried out appropriately.
We carry today’s responsibilities wholeheartedly and place our ultimate hope in Christ. His salvation gives those who have received grace the hope of bodily resurrection and of being with Him forever in God’s promised new creation. Our work in this life has its stages, yet this hope continues to guide how we use power, love others, and serve.