Musings on Leadership (1)
The question is not ‘will we have leaders?’ for we'll have them if we are to function at all as communities (sacred or secular). The questions are questions like: ‘What kind of leaders will we have?’ ‘What is the nature of their authority?’ ‘What are the limits of their power?’ ‘Who decides who the leaders will be?’ ‘What are the purposes of our leaders?’ ‘What do we do if they run amok?’ ‘In a community of Christians, are the leaders “over” the followers?’
The Bible is filled with teaching about community living, about leaders, their character, powers and purposes. He who gave leaders their authority has warned again and again about the abuse of power, of leaders ‘lording it over’ the people and ‘drawing away disciples after themselves’. The OT especially is filled with principles and legislation related to power and the many calls for leaders to seek ‘justice for all’ are there for good reason. In our world there are so many defenceless, voiceless and powerless people, so men and women of influence must speak and act on their behalf. It’s in a world where so many men and women of power have corrupted themselves that the stern warnings of Scripture are profoundly necessary. (One of the deeply satisfying doctrines of the Bible is that of a coming judgement by the ‘Judge of all the earth’ who will right all wrongs and do what is right.) This little book offers some observations about biblical leadership in light of the teaching of Scripture and personal observations. Of course I have no monopoly on wisdom (or any other good quality) but we hear so many horror stories. I mean stories of communities being paralyzed by leaders who are tyrants and (on the other hand) of churches being fragmented by eccentrics who will submit to no one.
The Inequalities of Life
1. There’s little sense in arguing that "everyone ought to be equal in every sense" when that isn’t possible. There are some profound ways in which we are all equal but it’s written into the fabric of human life that some are to have ‘authority over’ others, that some have more decision-making power than others.
Authority in Families and Nations
2. God created humans in such a way that parents would of necessity have ‘authority over’ the children as they grow. Humans are subject to moral and social development and the requirements of social life make it necessary to put a limit on a little child’s desires. He learns the word ‘No’. The years of discipline begin both at home and at school where rules are made which the child often resents until some maturity indicates that they were for the best. Until that time the child is ‘under authority’.
3. But that is only the beginning. Because humans differ in gifts, experience and temperament they are at varying stages of capability (socially and spiritually). The learned have power the ignorant lack, the wise have influence the novice hasn't, the experienced has a capacity the naive will gain only later. On any hour of every day we can see this anywhere we look. We see it in the home, school, work and recreation. We can see it between two individuals, at a local community level as well as nationally and internationally.
4. There are nations which are experienced in democracy and the free market system and use the system tolerably well compared with other nations who are infants in these matters. Centuries of colonization are slowly departing and independence is being seized by or granted to little nations with little capacity for self-government. The selfishness of the colonists extended to their refusal to train their colonies for future self-government. The result is, the emerging nations are completely incapable of handling their own internal affairs or of establishing equitable and wise trade relations with their competitors and neighbours. (Illustrations of this are so numerous that it would be tiresome to cite or develop examples. The international situation that illustrates this well and is presently at the centre of world news is, of course, eastern Europe.)
5. The mass of us, even in the West, are barely capable of balancing our cheque books much less building financial empires or guiding a nation’s economy. Grumble as we will (and that’s not always bad), protest as much as we will (and sometimes with the very best of reasons), we’re glad there are those who hold the nation’s economic stability in their experienced and committed hands. It’s right to have people with authority over us guiding the nation’s commerce. We’re all aware of the people in the cafes and bars who know just what the country needs and how simple it is to keep a 'national family’ in a stable condition in the face of a changing world market. But we have more than a sneaking feeling that things are a bit more complex than they claim. (There is no economic outlook that cannot be used by corrupt men to their own advantage and at the awful expense of multitudes of others. I’ve said that so I won’t be thought naive and so that I can avoid very important but, for our purposes, irrelevant issues.)
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, theabidingword.com
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