In the Bible, we find many examples of leaders among the major characters. We find examples of heroism, cowardice, success, and failure in those characters. We also see varying styles of leadership. Some of those characters include:
- Abraham: leader of his family and father of the Jewish nation
- Joseph: leader in his family but went on to be second in command of Egypt
- Moses: leader of Israelites when they left Egypt
- Samuel: major prophet in Israel
- David: one of the greatest kings of Israel
- Daniel: a prophet and leader during the time when the Jews were exiled in Babylon
- Peter: one of Jesus’ disciples and leader in the early church
- Paul: a persecutor of Christians who was dramatically converted and went on to write much of the New Testament and establish a number of first century churches
There are certainly others in the Bible who were leaders or demonstrated leadership ability. However, every leader demonstrated different methods of leadership. God used each of these leaders in a way of His choosing, and each accomplished his leadership role according to their style and giftings.
Everyone has their own style of managing and leading. Some of that is due to our inadequacies as people. Some of it is due to theory, personal philosophy, and planned behaviors. Like the leaders in the Bible, we have to follow God’s leading to be an effective leader given our style. As we learn to better serve God and carry out His plan for us, He moves us along on the spectrum of leadership development. As He does, as we saw last week, He shares His very best with us in increasing roles and inviting us to know Him better. We never become our own leader when we are faithfully following God. He is always our leader. We are in various stages of development along His plan. At the center of the development cycle though is our relationship with Him. It is both our motivation and our reward.
As we grow through this cycle, He uses us to lead others and help them in their development. The leaders in the Bible mentioned above were all used by God to affect change and development of His people. They had great impact on helping people, getting them to move forward, etc. because they agreed to follow God’s plan.
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