The Nature of Leadership

In the church of my dreams there is a quality of leadership that we probably all desire to see functioning, but find hard even to describe. Here or there we have commented about some person or other, “If only all church leaders were like that!”
In the New Testament there are various words used for such terms as “authority” and “rule” in connection with leadership, and they frequently are open to the possibility of a wide range of interpretation and understanding. For example, there is a variance of meaning between “Obey your leaders,” “Obey your spiritual leaders,” “Remember those who lead you” and “Be mindful of those who are guiding you.”
In our day there is a major danger of using the kinds of authority found in the world about us as a yardstick for our understanding. This will never do! We cannot compare leadership in the church with officership in military forces, nor with management of business establishments, nor yet with the “authority of a politician in power.
Because of the range of possible interpretive translations it is of utmost importance to have a basic understanding of essential biblically stated qualities and descriptions of leaders. This will provide boundary lines for our understanding of God’s purposes in the realm of leadership.  READ ON….