The following comes to you as one of a series of papers drawing from the chapters of the recently published Vision Congress ‘08 book New Vision New Zealand Volume III.

I am drafting these for use in the Baptist pastors clusters, New Zealand wide. 

I have obtained permission for this from Vision Network.

They are freely available for use in other contexts also.

                        Lindsay Jones

                        Baptist National Consultant

                        2008

You will need to obtain a copy of the book to read the whole chapter for background.

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Otherwise: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

New Vision NEW ZEALAND Volume III (2008) 

Chapter 14 pgs 185-196

Leadership in the 21^st Century

        by Paul Windsor, Principal Carey Baptist College.

The Kiwi family is changing.  Mothers and fathers now have a far less prominent place in our society. Into such a society steps the biblical passages from the Apostle Paul, with one of the key leadership models being the ‘parental'. (Paul Windsor makes use of 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 and 2 Timothy 4:7-22 and couches these as ‘header' and ‘footer' passages re these being among Paul's first and last words.)

Into such a society steps this header passage where Paul writes about how his leadership among the Thessalonians was "like a mother" (1 Thessalonians 2:7) and "as a father" (1 Thessalonians 2:11).  He emphasizes the qualities of gentleness, care and love in a mother.  Some scholars consider Paul to be reaching for the tenderness that oozes as baby and mother eyeball each other during the moments of breastfeeding.  With fatherhood the qualities being emphasized are the encouraging, comforting and urging ones ("holding your hand, whispering encouragement, showing you step by step how to live well before God", 1 Thessalonians 2:12, The Message).  This parental model then drifts across to our footer passage, written as it is to Timothy, to whom Paul refers as "my dear son" (2 Timothy 1:2).[1]

As leaders follow this parental model, two realities are likely to emerge.  One is the vulnerability of such leadership...The other reality is the accessibility of such leadership.[2] 

Paul Windsor then pivots on this model and gets us to look inward at the character question that it raises.

In her book Bad Leadership, Barbara Kellerman expresses dismay over the "relentlessly positive" bias in the leadership industry today.[3]  "How did leadership come to be synonymous with good leadership?" (Kellerman, page 7).  This is "tantamount to a medical school that claims to teach health while ignoring disease" (Kellerman, page 11).  She decides to go in search of bad leaders and fits what she finds into one of seven types: incompetent, rigid, intemperate, callous, corrupt, insular, and evil.  Her conclusion?  If leaders are to move "from bad to better" it will take the rediscovery of a "moral compass" in which leaders and their followers understand that leadership is a shared responsibility undertaken by people of character. This focus on character is evident in both our header and footer passages.[4] 

Over the long haul leadership is less about personality, charisma, genes, style, or gifts and more about character.  Leadership is not so much about us waiting for God to do something, but about God waiting for us to become someone.[5]  Leadership requires a moral authority.  This authority is gained at the level of character and if it is lost, it will be lost there as well, and become difficult to recover.[6]

Paul then points us to the idea that leadership builds teams.

In our footer passage we find Paul in prison.  The court case to determine his fate is going on around him.  His work is nearing its end.  But because he is surrounded with good people and is spreading leadership throughout his organization the mission task will continue on...While lacking the same plethora of names, our header passage is no less convincing about the priority of building teams.  Here Paul is all about "we" and "our" and "us", referring to "Paul, Silas, Timothy" (1:1).[7]

But working with people is a demanding occupation.  Even in the best of situations, as well as the negative ones, leadership drains the emotions.

I am counted among the many leaders in New Zealand who can go to the exact place where they listened for the first time to the Bill Hybels' message on "Surviving Leadership"...In that message Hybels speaks of the physical, spiritual, and mental gauges on the dashboard of our lives and leadership.  Keep the needles away from "empty" and life will be fine, except that Hybels had overlooked one other gauge and suffered for it.  A gauge for the emotions.  This was the point of his message.  When the emotions tank nears empty a person approaches burn-out; their reserves of fuel become exhausted.

Invariably such a scenario is created by a life stuffed full with people.  This is the situation which Paul faces in our footer passage.  Eighteen different people are named in these verses.  Paul's heart is loaded with people.[8]

So what are we to make of the classic definition of leadership as casting vision?  Paul describes the capacity to see something of the future and then plot strategy towards it.  But then he says this...

While this is all very true, is it true enough?  Is this the final word on vision?  There is one difficulty with leaving it here.  This is not the way in which the Bible engages routinely with vision.  It seems to be more short-sighted and more far-sighted than we are.  In being more short-sighted the vision that matters is so often the view of the space in front of us right now.  In two celebrated missional passages we find Jesus in Matthew 9:35-38 and Paul in Acts 17:16 to be like this.  It is the present, not the future, which fills their vision.  Vision is a picture of the present which produces compassion (in Jesus), and revulsion (in Paul), in these passages.

Then in being more far-sighted we must reckon with the fact that for the people of God in the Bible the prevailing word for speaking about a future vision is hope.  When it comes to vision our gaze as leaders in the 21st century is not distant enough.  When it comes to vision our conviction as leaders is not certain enough.  In fact it is possible to draw distinctions between biblical hope and the contemporary use of the vision word.  For example, vision looks to the future, while hope looks from the future; vision is founded on what God may do, while hope is founded on what God has done.[9][10]

Paul finishes this excellent look at leadership with the encouragement for us to find God in the picture.

It matters little whether the target is the favoured one of consumerism, or the deeper ones of individualism and narcissism, we live in a time characterized by an alarming self-centeredness.  It is everywhere...How exactly can it be permissible to do this with the Creator of the universe, the Lord of history, the Redeemer of humankind?... D.A. Carson concludes that "a profound selfism, self-centeredness elevated to an unrecognized principle of interpretation, governs not only much of western culture, (but also) much of the western Church".[11]

So when we come to our header and footer passages it is important to linger awhile over every reference to God in the text.  In 1 Thessalonians, he is the God who helps (2:2).  He is the God who approves and entrusts and who is to be pleased (2:4).  He is the God who is a witness (2:5).  He is the God with a gospel to be shared and preached (2:8-9).  He is the God for whom we live worthy lives (2:12).  And he is the God who calls us into his kingdom and glory (2:12).  This header passage is seared with a God-centeredness.  He is ever before these leaders, infiltrating deep into their motivation.  Leadership becomes a far simpler task if we are able to keep it character-driven and God-focused.

Then in the footer passage we discover the Lord as the righteous judge awarding a crown (2 Timothy 4:8); the Lord repaying the harm done by Alexander (4:14); the Lord standing by Paul's side and giving him strength (4:17); the Lord rescuing Paul from evil and bringing him safely to the heavenly kingdom (4:18); the Lord receiving glory forever and ever (4:18); and the Lord being with Timothy's spirit (4:22). [12]

Matters for discussion:

1. When you think of the parental roles of father and mother, what aspects of leadership come to mind?
2. In what ways does the parental model affirm, complement or challenge current models of leadership?
3. Discuss Paul's quote from Barbara Kellerman concerning the relentless bias in today's climate towards the positive aspects of leadership only: this is  "tantamount to a medical school that claims to teach health while ignoring disease"
4. Give examples from your own life of the following quote: "Leadership is not so much about us waiting for God to do something, but about God waiting for us to become someone."
5. Describe some benefits and some challenges in building teams.
6. What do you do to replenish the emotional drain of leadership?
7. Discuss the following: the prevailing word for speaking about a future vision is hope. 
8. As we go about our leadership tasks, how can we help people find God in the picture?

[1] Pg 185

[2] Pg 186

[3] Kellerman, Barbara, Bad Leadership, (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004).

[4] Pg 187

[5] I am indebted to Chris Clarke, CEO of the Hawkes Bay District Health Board and President of Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship (TSCF), for this observation.

[6] Pg 187

[7] Pg 189

[8] Pg 190

[9] I am indebted to a conversation with Mark Grace, on the staff of Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship (TSCF), for these insights.

[10] Pg 192

[11] Carson, D.A., The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), page 462.

[12] Pp 193-194

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