Reflections on Leadership 1: Who is leading?

As a leader in the body of Christ, what is your job? The (my) typical answers tend to be to shepherd, to teach, to strategize, to organize. All of those things are important, but I believe there is an even greater calling for those of us, who somehow, in one way or another (through no fault of our own sometimes lol) ended up in a position of leading others in the body of Christ. That calling is summed up in a single phrase for me: Leading people into the Promised Land. God has a purpose, a destiny, not just for each follower individually, but for your chunk of the body of Christ as a whole, and your job as a leader is to help them get there.

An even more important question to ask is (somehow I've always failed to ask the simplest questions), who's leading? People think of their answer to that question quickly enough. "God," they say (I don't even know how to start dealing with those people who say "me"). In reality though, in my years of working with other Christian leaders, myself having made the very same blunders, I notice two common manifestations of "Who's leading?".

Some leaders get fixated on convincing, sometimes forcing, other people to come with them, while neglecting to help them see that where the leadership is headed is what God wants. Well, hopefully it's what God wants, I have seen some that just plain try to get people to do what they want.

Other leaders get fixated on following God themselves, often citing that they are leading "by example", and neglect to pass on that God-given vision and direction to the people they are trying to lead. Most are left wondering at the end of their leadership term why no one came with them. John C. Maxwell, a pastor who became famous in the secular business world for his leadership teaching has a wonderful quote that addresses this specific situation,

He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.

John C. Maxwell.

Here's what I've realized about this matter: Leading the body of Christ is not about God leading you, or you leading them. It is about God leading them. That is what a leader is supposed to facilitate.

You see that pattern emerge in Joshua's leadership. As the torch gets passed from Moses to Joshua, God gives Joshua the charge, the vision, of leading His people into the Promised Land of Canaan. First thing Joshua does: tell the people,

And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, "Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, 'Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.'"

Joshua 1:10-11

On the actual day of their crossing,

Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. At the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, "As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before." Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you." And Joshua said to the priests, "Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people." So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

Joshua 3:1-6

Joshua is constantly reminding the Israelites, in words and in action, that God Himself is leading them; literally the Ark of the Covenant is leading the way.

Proper biblical leadership begins when the leaders hear where God wants the group to go, and shares/affirm/refines that vision with the group so that everyone will recognize that vision as God's for them.