Staying the Course: Humility and Christian Leadership (4)

Staying the Course: Humility and Christian Leadership (1)
Staying the Course: Humility and Christian Leadership (2)
Staying the Course: Humility and Christian Leadership (3)

But how are Christian leaders to maintain this attitude of humility?  How can Christian leaders avoid the destruction that inevitably follows pride and threatens to devastate their lives, their churches, and the organizations they seek to lead?  I would suggest seven strategies to help leaders establish and preserve Christ-exalting and fruit-bearing humility.

A Clear Understanding and Appreciation of the Gospel
Humility in Christian leadership begins with the gospel.  Only when a man understands his sin and the free grace of God at the cross can he make progress in the vital area of humility.  A true appreciation of the gospel immediately leads to a turning from self to a boasting in God (see I Corinthians 1:18-31).  Martyn Lloyd Jones aptly writes, “Nothing but the cross can give us a spirit of humility” (Mahaney, 66).  Why?  Because the cross shows a leader his desperate need for Christ and the mercy of God, while cultivating in his life a deep sense of thankfulness.  Genuine Christian humility can only start here.

The Discipline of Constantly Returning to Scripture
One of the symptoms of a leader’s hubris, Collins found, is a neglect of what he calls “the flywheel.”  When companies went from “Good” to “Great,” the transition was a result of constant attention to certain principles.  Although it took a disproportionate amount of work in the beginning to start the flywheel in motion, eventually the flywheel would gather momentum and “spin” on its own.  Success, however, would intoxicate some leaders and cause them to ignore the flywheel altogether.  This typically resulted in the company’s failure (Collins 2009, 32).

For Christian leaders and pastors, the temptation is to float away from Scripture as one tastes the fruit of success in his ministry.  This can lead to and strengthen existing pride as the leader begins to rely more on his own intuition, ideas, and wisdom, rather than consistently bringing his ministry under the guidance of the Bible.  Despite any outward success, this tendency will inevitably give way to a weakened ministry.  Pastor and author, Jay Adams, writes,

If [pastors] care about exercising powerful leadership, shepherds must be willing to support every plan, every program, and every administrative act by scriptural principles.  That is to say, they will ever study, question, examine and reexamine everything that they say or do as leaders in the light of the Word of God—they will never be satisfied with custom and tradition alone (Shepherding God’s Flock, 1975, 332).

The discipline of constantly returning to Scripture tethers a leader to God and His will and leaves little room for pride in one’s own wisdom to take root.  And, as Adams tells us, powerful leadership depends on such commitment to the Word of God.  To drift from the Scripture is to drift from God and the potential for effective leadership.

A Recognition of One’s Dependence Upon God
The source of a Christian leader’s strength, ability, wisdom, and power is God.  Jesus made this clear when he said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:6), and the apostle Paul felt keenly this truth when he said, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God (II Corinthians 3:5).  Paul realized even genuine progress in ministry and spiritual fruit is the gift of God (I Corinthians 3:6).  It is essential, therefore, in order for a Christian leader to remain humble, to recognize his utter dependence upon God.

Practically, this means a leader must acknowledge his weaknesses.  The apostle Paul not only recognized and accepted in his own weaknesses, he found joy in them because it was through his weakness he experienced God’s power: “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distress, for Christ’s sake.  For when I am weak, then I am strong” (II Corinthians 12:10).  How important is this aspect of leadership?  John MacArthur writes, “The leader who forgets his own weakness will inevitably fail.  Paul, by contrast, drew strength from remembering his own weaknesses, because those things made him more dependent on the power of God” (The Book on Leadership, 101).  Ignoring one’s weaknesses will not help an aspiring leader; it will only hurt him.

Next: More Strategies for Staying the Course