by Josh Kim
Do you know that you’re called to be a leader? You may not have an official leadership position or title. You may not be the front lead person of an organization. But you are called to lead because leadership is ultimately using your influence to impact the world around you. And whether you realize it or not, you have influence and use it every day within your family, amongst friends, at work, at school, and more. The level of influence looks different for each person but we all have influence in different capacities and in different contexts. We are all called to be leaders.
However, as followers of Jesus, we are not only called to be leaders but spiritual leaders. People use influence for all different purposes and agendas. But as followers of Jesus, God gave you a mandate to lead to bring influence and advancement to His kingdom wherever you are and whatever you do. That is the main difference between leadership versus spiritual leadership. And I want to encourage you to embrace the mandate of being a spiritual leader because spiritual leadership is needed in our cultural moment.
But before we get specifically into spiritual leadership, let me share further general thoughts on leadership so that we are all on the same page.
LEADERSHIP IS INFLUENCE
First, leadership is transforming. It’s the ability to lead others and achieve goals to ultimately transform the world around us. Banning Liebscher says, “Leadership is the instrument God uses to draw the greatness out of you and bring change to the world around you.” It’s not an instrument to transform your life to become easier by having others serve you, but transforming others’ lives to be better by serving them.
Second, leadership is power. It has the power to change everything – for better or for worse. The power of leadership is so important that John Maxwell simply says, “Everything rises or falls on leadership.”1 It is because of this very principle that I am passionate about leadership because I believe that if I can become a better leader, then I can positively impact those around me. And if we can all become better leaders, we can change the world.
Lastly, leadership is influence. As mentioned in the beginning, we are all called as leaders. We might not be born as a leader but we can all grow as leaders. While the reality is that many of us will not become the best leaders, we can all become better leaders. Why? Because leadership is ultimately about influence and influence is something we can all grow within our respective spheres of influence. Therefore, we have a responsibility to grow as leaders and use our influence well because wherever we are and whatever we are doing, our influence is impacting the world and people around us on a daily basis.
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP vs. LEADERSHIP
Now there are many different ideals and types of leaders. There are effective leaders, charismatic leaders, gifted leaders, and more. However, the world is in need of spiritual leaders today. Here are a few definitions that each captures a different aspect of spiritual leadership:
- “Spiritual leadership is moving people onto God’s agenda.” – Henry Blackaby2
Secular leaders prioritize their own agendas and use influence to establish their own kingdoms. But spiritual leaders prioritize God’s agenda, first and foremost, and use influence to establish and advance God’s kingdom. Obeying and partnering with what God wants to do is foundational to spiritual leadership. If spiritual leaders don’t hear God’s voice and align themselves with God’s agenda, we become just another leader building our own kingdom.
- “Spiritual leadership is reflecting the heart of God to the people around them.” – Reggie O’Neal3
Secular leaders are concerned with results, numbers, productions, and performance. Not to say those values are bad in and of themselves. But when they become the ultimate goal, we often see secular leaders willing to sacrifice the means to the end, regardless of the cost. On the other hand, spiritual leaders are convicted about right motives, character, and the posture of the heart because they understand that they reflect God’s heart in all they do. How they accomplish and achieve is just as important as what they accomplish and achieve.
- “A [spiritual] leader is one who cultivates affection, value, and awareness of the person called the Holy Spirit to manifest the reality of the resurrection.” – Bill Johnson
Secular leaders are focused on themselves and are driven by their giftedness, personality assessments, strengths, and competencies. They manifest the reality of their own strength and will to accomplish what only they can accomplish by their own will. However, spiritual leaders are more focused on the personhood of the Holy Spirit and are driven by the Presence of God. They manifest the reality of the resurrection to accomplish what only God can do.
Therefore, if we take the best aspects of each of those three definitions and synthesize it to one working definition for us, I would define spiritual leaders as:
Spiritual leaders are Presence-driven to influence people to God by reflecting the heart of Christ and moving under the power of Christ.
We see this to be true in the ultimate spiritual leader, Jesus! First, Jesus wasn’t driven by his own agenda but driven by the Presence of God to do what only the Father is doing (John 5:19). Second, Jesus reflected the heart of God as he was moved with compassion in his interactions with people, which led to him loving them (Matthew 20:34). Lastly, Jesus moved under the power of God to heal the sick, change hearts, do miracles, and shift atmospheres to manifest the reality of the resurrection and show who God really is (Luke 4:14, 18-19).
To review:
- We are all called to be leaders because we all influence.
- We are called to be spiritual leaders as followers of Jesus.
- We are called to reflect the heart of Christ and move under the power of Christ.
In the remainder of this part one of the blog post series on Spiritual Leadership, I will focus on spiritually leading with the heart of Christ, the first requisite of being a spiritual leader. And in part two, we will look at spiritually leading under the power of Christ.
SPIRITUAL LEADERS INFLUENCE WITH THE HEART OF CHRIST
Spiritual leaders and secular leaders have many responsibilities and tasks in common – envisioning and executing plans, making decisions, leading people, etc. But one crucial uniqueness of spiritual leadership is the “how” and the “why” we do those things. It’s leading with the heart of Christ in everything that we do.
Jesus says in Matthew 6:1-2, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full…”
In verses 5 and 16 of the same chapter, Jesus continues and addresses prayer and fasting with the same tone, to pray and fast in secret. We see that the “why” and the “how” behind our words and actions are important, according to Jesus. So much so that Jesus highlights and contrasts the way we should practice righteousness, give, pray, and fast with the way the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, went about those things.
In secular leadership, you can do the right things in the wrong way and still be celebrated, as long as you produce results and gain accomplishments. But in spiritual leadership, doing the right thing in the right way, and I would even say at the right time, is the foundation to our influence’s credibility and authority.
For example, Jesus could have avoided the cross and saved the world by worshiping satan but instead, he chose to endure the cross (Matthew 4). Had he chosen the “easier” route or sacrificed the means to the end, his leadership would have lacked the credibility and authority we admire and submit to. He could have saved the world and humanity by his own means. But Jesus’ heart, character, and integrity prevented the end from justifying the means.
In the Kingdom, motives matter and character counts.
Now the ways of the world says you can use your leadership or influence to:
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- CURSE others
- JUDGE in the name of vindictive justice
- SHAME others
- CONTROL others
- Treat people according to their HISTORY
- Operate out of FEAR
- USE others
- Create a culture of LACK, SCARCITY, AND CYNICISM.
- Be PRIDEFUL
But the ways of Jesus says to use your leadership and influence to:
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- BLESS others, even your enemies
- Show MERCY in the name of forgiveness
- HONOR others
- EMPOWER others
- Treat people according to their DESTINY
- Operate out of LOVE
- SERVE others
- Create a culture of ABUNDANCE, GENEROSITY, AND HOPE
- Be HUMBLE
The way we use and live out our influence matters because they create and shape the world we live in. We don’t need leaders who operate out of the ways of the world, further perpetuating our society’s cycle of shame, disunity, hopelessness, and fear. Instead, we need spiritual leadership who live out the ways of Jesus to bring honor, unity, hope, and love to a world that desperately needs it.
In our cultural moment, we need spiritual leaders who lead with the heart of Christ for three reasons.
#1: SPIRITUAL LEADERS REFLECT THE HEART OF GOD.
There is so much scarcity, fear, confusion, and cynicism with all that is taking place politically, culturally, and socially in this cultural moment. We can feel the unrest in the air. Yet God desires for people to know that in and through His Kingdom, His rule and reign, there is abundance and hope in the midst of it all. And His means of this revelation is through leaders.
Reggie O’Neal says, “Why does God create leaders anyways? With all of the options available to him, why has he chosen to work through leaders in spiritual enterprises? The answer at first seems too simple, but it is the best answer I can offer: God creates leaders in order to share his heart with his people.”4
God desires to share his heart with people and he reveals it through leaders. The implication of this is significant. How you lead reveals who God is to those under your leadership (once again, for better or for worse because leadership is power). We can either make decisions based on fear or make decisions based on faith to reveal that God is bigger than my circumstance. We can either operate out of a poverty mindset or be generous towards others, even in times of financial struggles, to reveal that God is abundant. We can either bear the heaviness of forgiveness or let go unto God and forgive to reveal that God is trustworthy with our greatest pain.
The first requisite of spiritual leadership is leading with the heart of Christ because “the first order of responsibility for spiritual leaders is to reflect the heart of God to the people around them.”5
Are we reflecting the heart of God to those around us? In our words? In our actions? In our motives and character? In this cultural moment dominated by the ways of the world, we need spiritual leaders with the heart of Christ to live out the ways of Jesus and reflect who God really is.
#2: LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT CHANGING PEOPLE’S BEHAVIORS.
SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT CHANGING PEOPLE’S HEARTS.
In leadership, we want the people in our world and around us to become better. But when we use our influence like the ways of the world, the most we see is behavior modification in others. However, when we lead with the heart of Christ, we see heart transformation – one of the true joys and privileges in leading others.
If I’m allowed to be honest here, it’s been a little concerning when I have opened up social media as of late. There is so much cursing, shaming, arrogance, and cancelling in the name of bringing change and justice in our cultural moment. I believe most people have good, but misguided, intentions. And while I expect non-believers of Jesus to act like that, I’m shocked when I see believers of Christ doing the same.
The things I’ve seen and read made me question, “How far have we strayed away from the spirit and heart of Jesus when we need to be leading the way in love, honor, hope, and compassion?” We’re not reflecting the heart of God but reflecting the ways of the world. Rather than revealing God, we’re mirroring the world.
In addition, I’ve questioned whether we realize that we forfeit being a spiritual leader the moment we follow the ways of the world with the shaming, judging, and cursing. There is a reason why those tactics and tools are so prevalent at the moment. They are powerful, effective, and easy. But by using those tactics, we align ourselves more with the religious leaders of Jesus’ day than Jesus Himself.
Lastly, I’ve questioned whether we’ve realized that the ways of the world only perpetuate more brokenness and behavior modification at best. We cannot expect to transform the world by being like the world. Rob Reimer says it best, “You can’t use tools of darkness to advance the kingdom of light.”
#3: THE TRUST OF PEOPLE IS AT STAKE
Lastly, we need spiritual leaders who lead with the heart of Christ because the trust of people is at stake.
Earlier in the year, my car broke down on the way to church one Sunday morning. I called a car towing service and Adam, the car tower, said he would get to where I was in 30 minutes. However, he came an hour later and when he arrived, he was in a bad mood. I was annoyed because this man came 30 minutes later than when he was supposed to and was displaying such a bad attitude. At that moment, I realized I can be prideful, entitled, and offended at his actions and attitude or I can represent the heart of God. So I asked God, “How can I represent Your heart to Adam?” And I felt God tell me to buy him coffee across the street.
So I asked Adam if he would like coffee. His face and attitude softened a little bit immediately as he requested his vanilla latte. Once I got him his coffee and the car towing was all set, we set off driving and I could immediately tell there was change. Adam started opening up, he was in a better mood, and you could sense that he felt valued and seen. We started talking and he started sharing about his life. And I just listened believing that I was representing God the best I could by simply listening.
Somehow the conversation turned towards church and he started sharing his honest thoughts about the church. He talked about how he dislikes the church and that church people are hypocritical and self-righteous. At that moment, I just told myself and God, “God, I want to be the best representative of you that I can be in this moment to show that while the church is messed up, You are still good.” And so for the next 10 minutes of the car ride, I just listened, asked questions, showed interest to make him feel valued, loved, and seen as I imagine Jesus doing if he were in my seat.
Eventually, he asked me, “So what do you do?” And I told him, “I’m a pastor.” His face became slightly embarrassed realizing he just went off about the church a few moments ago. He said, “You’re not like church-goers that I know. You blessed me with coffee. You made me feel valued by asking me about my life. You didn’t get offended when I talked badly about the church. I would visit your church.”
By the end of the car tow, I asked him for his number so I could keep in touch, give him the address and service times of church, and invite him out one Sunday. We exchanged numbers. I also wanted to pray for him so I asked if his body needed any prayer for healing. He talked about his lower back problems and he gave me permission to pray for his lower back on the spot. Though no healing came, it’s a testimony that someone who was hostile against people from the church allowed me to pray for him all because he felt God’s love and honor through my best efforts to represent God throughout the whole situation.
In our cultural moment, there’s a low trust in institutions, authority, and religion due to secularism and postmodernism. On top of that, it doesn’t help that the world has seen too many leaders without character and integrity. The trust of people has eroded. People have experienced too many leaders and the culture of the shame rather than Jesus and His culture of grace. We don’t need leaders who can get things done but not have character or integrity. We need spiritual leaders who lead with the heart of Christ because we protect people’s trust not only in us, but more importantly, in God.
We can’t represent the Father perfectly, but we must represent Him well – to our families, friends, coworkers, employees, students, and everyone else we influence on a daily basis.
JOHN 9
In John 9, Jesus and his disciples come across a blind man. The disciples ask Jesus, “Was this man born blind because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” Jesus replies back, “This happened so that the power of God may be displayed in this very moment.” And Jesus spat in the dirt, made mud, rubbed it on the blind man’s eyes, and healed him.
Jesus’ method of spitting in the dirt reveals the Father’s heart in this moment. Blindness was viewed as a curse from God for either your own sins or your parents’. Therefore, people would spit on blind men and women on the streets when they walked by to show that they agreed with God’s judgment and curse upon the blind man or woman’s life for his or her own sin.
But rather than shaming the man by spitting on him, Jesus uses the very tactics of the world to heal him instead. He redeems the act of spitting and the man’s sight to reveal the heart of the Father in that powerful moment. The Father did not condemn the man or curse him, but wanted to heal and love him instead.
May we be spiritual leaders who lead with this heart of Christ to reflect the Father wherever we are and whatever we do.
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- John Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1993), viii.
- Henry Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership: Moving People on to God’s Agenda, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2011), 36.
- Reggie O’Neal, A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders, (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011), xiv.
- Ibid, xxiv.
- Ibid, xiv.