The Gift of Leadership

Question 4124

The gift of leadership is the Spirit-given ability to set a godly direction for the people of God and to take responsibility for moving them towards it with diligence and care. Paul names it in Romans 12:8, where he writes that the one who leads should do so with zeal, or as some versions render it, with diligence. The Greek word he uses is proistemi, which literally means to stand before, and so to go in front of others, to preside, to give oversight. The very same word is paired in that verse with the call to do the work earnestly, because a leader who stands before the people and then drifts is worse than no leader at all.

It is worth noticing at once that this is a grace, not a position. A man may hold an office without the gift, and a believer may carry the gift of leadership without ever holding a formal title. The Spirit distributes it as he wills, and where he gives it, others find themselves naturally following, not because of rank but because of a God-given capacity to see the way ahead and to take others with them.

What the gift of leadership involves

The word proistemi appears again where Paul describes elders who rule well as being worthy of double honour (1 Timothy 5:17), and where he says that an elder must manage his own household well before he can be trusted to care for the church of God (1 Timothy 3:4 to 5). The link Paul draws there is illuminating. The household and the church are both flocks that need someone to go before them, to provide, to protect, to settle disputes and to set a course, and the man who cannot do it at home will not suddenly be able to do it in the assembly. The gift of leadership is therefore deeply practical. It shows itself in the ordinary work of bringing order out of confusion, of helping a group of people know where they are going and why.

Paul couples the gift with diligence for a reason. Leadership is wearisome work, full of decisions that please nobody, burdens that cannot be set down and people who must be patiently borne with. The temptation is always to coast, to enjoy the standing without doing the labour, and so the apostle attaches the spur of zeal to the gift. The one who leads is to do it earnestly, putting his back into it, because the welfare of the people depends on the diligence of the one who goes before them.

Nehemiah is one of the finest pictures of this grace at work in the Old Testament. He surveyed the broken walls of Jerusalem by night, formed a clear plan, set the people to work each family on its own section, answered the mockery of his opponents with prayer and steady vigilance, and kept the whole project moving until the wall was finished in fifty-two days. He led from the front, refused the allowance that would have burdened the people, and gave God the glory for what was achieved. The gift of leadership looks very like that, a clear sight of the goal, the courage to take responsibility for reaching it, and the patient labour to see it through when others would have abandoned the work.

Leadership that serves rather than lords

The Lord Jesus turned the whole notion of leadership on its head, and any Christian use of the gift of leadership has to begin where he began. The rulers of the nations lord it over them, he said, and their great ones exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant (Matthew 20:25 to 26). He then washed his disciples feet and told them to do likewise. So the Christian leader leads from below as much as from in front. He is not driving the flock from behind with a whip, nor commanding from a distance, but going ahead of them on the road and bearing the heaviest part of the load himself.

Peter sounds the same note when he tells the elders to shepherd the flock not domineering over those in their charge but being examples to the flock (1 Peter 5:2 to 3). The genuine gift produces a leader whom people follow gladly, because they can see that he is spending himself for their good and not using them for his own advancement. Where leadership turns into domineering, the Spirit is grieved and the flock is scattered, which is why this gift must always work hand in hand with the warmth of the gift of exhortation, lest direction harden into cold command.

How the gift of leadership serves the body

A body needs direction, and the Spirit supplies it through gifted members rather than leaving the church to drift. When Paul describes the ascended Lord giving gifts to his church, he names those who lead and equip the saints for the work of ministry, so that the body may be built up until it reaches maturity (Ephesians 4:11 to 13). Leadership in the church is never an end in itself. Its whole purpose is to bring the people of God to maturity, to equip them, to release their own gifts, and to keep the whole body moving together towards the goal. The leader who builds a following around himself has failed, even if the crowds are large. The leader who works himself out of a job, raising up others and multiplying ministry, has understood the gift.

This means that a healthy leader is always developing other people. He looks for the gifts in those around him and draws them out, he delegates rather than hoarding, and he measures his success by the growth of the saints rather than by his own prominence. Our study of how every believer discovers and uses their gift describes the very process that a good leader is constantly fostering in his people, and the wider survey of the gifts listed in Scripture shows the variety he is called to harness.

Keeping the gift of leadership safe

No grace is more open to abuse than this one, because it deals directly with authority over others. The history of the church is littered with men who took a real gift of leadership and turned it into a personal kingdom, gathering power, silencing dissent and treating the flock as theirs rather than the Lord. The New Testament is alert to the danger. Diotrephes, who liked to put himself first, refused to welcome the brothers and put out of the church those who would (3 John 9 to 10). His gift, if he had one, had become a tool of self. The safeguard is the cross, the daily dying to self that keeps a leader a servant.

There is a particular danger in our own day, where the language of the Spirit can be used to place a leader beyond accountability. When a man claims that his decisions carry the direct authority of God, the ordinary checks of plurality, of congregational consent and of submission to Scripture are quietly set aside, and the flock is left defenceless. We have written about the safeguards a church needs in our study of honouring the Spirit while avoiding charismatic excess. A true gift of leadership welcomes accountability rather than fleeing it, because the leader knows that he too is a sheep under the Chief Shepherd, and that he will give an account for the souls in his care.

So, now what?

If the Lord has entrusted you with this gift, receive it as a charge to serve rather than a licence to rule. Go before your people in holiness and diligence, carry the heaviest burdens yourself, draw out the gifts of others, and keep yourself under the authority of the Scriptures and the accountability of fellow believers. The day is coming when you will answer to the Chief Shepherd for how you led, and the leaders who hear well done are the ones who spent themselves for the flock.

If you are not a leader by gift, you are still called to follow well, and the New Testament has much to say about honouring and praying for those who lead you. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account, so that they may do this with joy and not with groaning (Hebrews 13:17). A congregation that follows its godly leaders gladly is a great gift to those leaders, and a great defence against the bitterness that wears them down.

Whether you lead or follow, the direction is the same, towards maturity in Christ and the building up of his body. The gift of leadership exists for that end, and the leader who keeps that end in view will not go far wrong.

“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in preaching and teaching.” 1 Timothy 5:17