Got talking about leaders again last night and it revisited the entire issue all over again. I never stop struggling with this issue and I don’t know why. Sometimes I think it’s because I’m power hungry and want to be in positions that were never meant to exist. Other times I keep revisiting it because I’m always thrown into positions of leadership and I want to make sure that I’m doing things right.

I find that we usually make the distinction between good and bad leaders by how they make decisions and control those that follow them. A good leader makes good decisions and controls the public, church or whoever else in a positive manor and a bad leader the opposite. That is always how we do it. The problem with this is that the basis of good and bad leadership is based on control, which I’m learning is usually a breeding ground for trouble. Why do we assume leaders are those that make decisions for other people? That’s the consensus I see in politics and in the church. We want to ‘vote’ or choose someone to be our leader that will make great decisions for us. Is it so we don’t have to? Is it so we have someone to blame when things go wrong? I’m starting to wonder if leadership in the Kingdom is to look drastically different then what we see elsewhere and usually from what we want.

A leader is one who leads not by making decisions that affects everyone whether they like it or not but one who lives a life that people follow. One position gives power and the other one gives responsibility. One position says that the leader can affect everyone and anyone by their decisions and the other one let’s their decisions speak for themselves. This could be a problem with our concepts of democracy. Really we are choosing someone to make decisions and change the world for us for a four year term. We aren’t looking for someone to model a right and worthy life. We’d rather them tell us what to do.

This is the kind of leader that I’d love to see in the church (and hey why not the country too). Not a leader who is voted into power and then gets to make decisions and steer the ship whatever way he likes. Not a leader who is so concerned with losing power that they have to fight to keep it. Not a leader who insists on his authority because people are starting to doubt him. Instead, a leader that simply lives like Jesus and people follow them because of it. A leader who leads by influence and not authority. A leader who doesn’t try to control all those around them but instead love them, be himself/herself and allow them to decide on their own if they will follow.