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February 21 - March 5, 2020
True Leadership Starts With a Purpose, Not a Plan
The church desperately needs leaders as well. Congregations and Christian institutions need effective leaders who are authentically Christian—whose leadership flows out of their Christian commitment.
Wherever Christian leaders serve, in the church or in the secular world, their leadership should be driven by distinctively Christian conviction.
My goal is to knock the blocks out from under the current models of leadership and forge a new way. I stake my life on the priority of right beliefs and convictions, and at the same time I want to lead so that those very beliefs are perpetuated in others. If our leaders are not passionately driven by the right beliefs, we are headed for disaster. At the same time, if believers cannot lead, we are headed nowhere.
The Leader Is Driven by Beliefs That Lead to Action
The leadership that matters most is convictional—deeply convictional.
I was driven by the convictions the school used to stand on, the truths that had brought the school into being.
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31,
Christianity is founded upon certain nonnegotiable truths, and these truths, once known, are translated into beliefs. The beliefs that anchor our faith are those to which we are most passionately and personally committed, and these are our convictions.
conviction is a belief of which we are thoroughly convinced.
faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1).
“without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (11:6).
Consider Peter and John, the two apostles who, just days after the death and resurrection of Christ, had the courage to stare down the Sanhedrin and defy their order not to preach in public about Jesus. They told the arresting authorities that they simply could not stop telling what they had “seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). Those same beliefs are the convictions that do not allow Christian leaders to be silent today, even in the face of threats and opposition.
Justin Martyr,
“You can kill us, but you cannot harm us.”
authentic leadership in its clearest form—the willingness of people to die for their beliefs, knowing that Christ will vindicate them and give them the gift of eternal life.
Many of my most encouraging and informative models of convictional leadership come from history.
Here I stand.
Luther was not merely ready to stand; he was ready to lead the church in a process of courageous reformation.
How many of today’s leaders are known for being willing to die—or even to live—for their convictions?
If you think about it, just about every leader who is now remembered for making a positive difference in history was a leader with strong convictions about life, liberty, truth, freedom, and human dignity.
Writing to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul encouraged them to know that the gospel had come to them, “not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thessalonians 1:5).
The Leader Develops the Capacity to Think in Convictional Terms and Leads Followers to Do the Same
the ability to lead people depends on the leader’s capacity to develop and deploy what Goleman identified as self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill. That makes a great deal of sense, doesn’t it? If the leader lacks these elements of emotional intelligence, it really might not matter how otherwise intelligent he is.
Christian leaders must develop and operate out of an additional intelligence—convictional intelligence. Leaders without emotional intelligence cannot lead effectively because they cannot connect with the people they are trying to lead. Leaders lacking ethical intelligence will lead their people into a catastrophe. But leaders without convictional intelligence will fail to lead faithfully, and that is a disaster for Christian leaders.
Convictional intelligence is the product of learning the Christian faith, diving deeply into biblical truth, and discovering how to think like a Christian.
at one level this is the responsibility of every Christian, but it is especially vital for the Christian leader.
God once spoke of his people being “destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6).
We all know that we have habits of action, but we also operate out of habits of mind.
The Christian leader must have mental reflexes that correspond to biblical truth.
Convictional intelligence comes by what we rightly call the ordinary means of grace.
God wants his people to possess convictional intelligence and the fullness of the Christian life, and these come by hearing the Word of God preached, celebrating the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and living in the fellowship of believers in a faithful local church.
This is extended through the leader’s personal devotional life, prayer, Bible reading, and reading of other...
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The Christian life is to be lived within the fellowship and accountability of a local congregation, where the Word is rightly preached and believers mature together.
the Christian leader who cuts himself off from the ordinary means of grace cannot expect to possess convictional intelligence. Going it alone is a recipe for disaster.
The Leader Draws Followers Into a Story That Frames All of Life
The excellent leader knows how to lead out of the power of the narrative that frames the identity and mission of the people he will lead, and the leader knows how to put his own story into service for the sake of the larger story.
Leadership that matters grows out of the leader’s own belief that the story is true, that it matters, and that it must both expand and continue. The story must be believed with conviction, told with conviction, and stewarded with conviction.
God’s determination to glorify himself by saving sinners through the atonement accomplished by his own Son. As Christ himself made clear, every word of Scripture serves to tell this story.
This is the greatest story ever told.
It is to be the story that frames our thinking, our living, and our leading. This is the story that tells us who we are, how we got here, and where we are going. This story is the truest and most powerful of all stories, the great metanarrative that frames everything we think, decide, and do. It is also what allows us to die, knowing that the story will survive us and that we are still a part of this story even after our death.
the Christian leader is accountable to this story. This is who we are, what we believe, and what we ho...
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The conviction to lead is rooted in this story, and it is expressed through our own individual stories and the stories of the organizations we lead. The leader is entrusted with the stewardship of these stories, and no leader can lead well if this story is not his own.
the story is not our possession. It possesses us. The leader is deeply and inevitably humbled by the story, because it—like the gospel—reminds us that every office or position of leadership comes to us by grace.
The story is so important that we got here as soon as we could. Now there is much good work to be done. There are battles to be fought. There are people to serve and needs to be addressed. There are people to reach and new opportunities to seize. The leader’s enthusiasm comes directl...
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The Leader Shapes the Worldview of Followers
“We will do almost anything for our visions, except think about them.” Well, leaders have to think about them or leadership will never really happen.
A God-centered worldview brings every issue, question, and cultural concern into submission to all that the Bible reveals, and frames all understanding within the ultimate purpose of bringing greater glory to God.
Every Christian has the responsibility to develop a worldview that is authentically Christian, but leaders face that duty in a way that is even more urgent.
We have to be faithful in the discipleship of the mind before we can expect faithfulness and maturity in those we lead.
