Leadership Styles

Incarnational leadership is rooted in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, as “He took a towel” (John 13:2-5). He was efficient with people, had goals in sight, but was also relational over being task-driven. This kind of leadership produces a church filled with real purpose and motivation as people are called, appreciated, loved, encouraged, discipled, involved by mentoring and discipleship before they are deployed in ministry. This is “Christ life” before “ministry life.” Thus, the leadership of Christ is producing a church of spiritual maturity and involvement so that the people are inspired to be devolved, as in caught up in Christ and with one another to be more admirable in the faith and in the world making Him known. After they are deployed, the equipping and encouraging are to continue. Manipulation, conniving, and posturing are to be absent, as God’s Love is the fuel. This kind of leadership sees Christ glorified as our tempers and temperaments come in line with His precepts. It means being imitators of Christ so we go in the direction of the possibilities; we stretch beyond what we think we can do or go, and seek where and what He has for us, even with our limitations and frailty. 

Leadership has been the big “buzz-word” for the church in America during the last dozen or so years, but exactly what is meant by real leadership? Many books and resources are available on this subject, and to be honest with you, most of them are fluff and nonsense, distilled from contradictory business paradigms and faulty presuppositions that ignore the truths of Scripture! I have spent most of my ministerial career studying leadership as a church growth constant, I even went to Harvard Business School where I pursued an MBA.