What Makes A Productive Leader?
By
Dr. Bill Campbell
Pastor, Woodland Christian Church
Tulsa, Oklahoma
I wish to focus initially in this article on the word leadership. Simply stated, a leader is anyone who is out front. Showing others, the way. A leader is expected to be effective, to achieve results, and to be a group difference maker. This being so, more is expected of a leader than is expected of anyone else.
During my college and seminary days much of my instruction was focused on being a leader. On being successful as a leader. Achieving results as a leader. Furthermore, the emphasis was directed toward not being just any kind of a leader, but more importantly on being a Christian leader.
Over time, however, I’ve learned that Jesus never requested or commanded persons to be leaders. His emphasis was rather focused not on being leaders, but on being followers. Jesus is the leader. The commander. The one out front. Thus, it’s obvious that being out front of others requires that one learn first how to follow Jesus in the ways He wishes as conveyed in the New Testament Gospels.
What am I saying here? Simply stated, leadership must be grounded initially in followership. Many want to become instant leaders, but they are called at the outset to be submissive followers of Jesus before they can ever possibly be placed in front of others. Being an effective leader requires that one learns how to follow Jesus in the ways that He wishes, before one can ever possibly be in an out front position directing other lives. You cannot become a genuine spiritual leader until you have first become a committed follower of Jesus.
Furthermore, leadership must never be viewed as being positioned at the top and situated over others. Unfortunately, much that goes under the banner of Christian leadership today is about being in charge of others. About being above others. And about being over others. You cannot be effective as a leader today for Christ unless you first enter into the submissive state of followership. Jesus can only use you for His sake when you choose to become His willing servant leader.
As a follower of Jesus one must also have a clear sense of where Jesus is leading Him. Where is Jesus taking you? What are His major concerns? At the top of the list loving God and loving others must become forever etched in stone (see Matthew 22:34-40). The major purpose of the church is to take others toward fulfilling these two major commandments. And that purpose must be clearly radiated in and through the life of the person who is out front and endeavoring to show others the way. Teaching love is not only something that’s taught. It’s also something that’s caught from the one who’s attempting to show individuals the way.
In addition to knowing where he’s going, the leader needs to have others following Jesus with Him. There is no such thing as a leader who is without followers. Who is without those who are also being influenced with following Jesus. A leader with followers is always engaged in enlarging the leadership circle. They are reproducing others after their own kind. The human race would soon die without the blessing of human reproduction.
And the ongoing ministry of Jesus will not achieve its ends if its followers are not keenly sensitive to bringing others inside the discipleship circle. And do not forget the final words of Jesus: “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20 – ESV).’”
Anyone engaged in this important discipleship mission as a following leader has the promise of Jesus to energize and empower his words and actions: “ … I am with you always …” (Matthew 28:20). He is with us always today in the Person, Power, and Presence of the Holy Spirit. What more do we need to excite and propel us as out front following leaders than this Divine promise?
John Maxwell has said something very important about effective leadership. He says, and I quote: “Leaders who develop people add. Leaders who develop leaders multiply.” In conclusion, I believe that an effective leader today is one who is producing other leaders through his being a following leader that everyone may clearly see, and with whom they may clearly identify.
