The Alternative: God's Requirement

Leading with a Limp: Turning Your Struggles into Strengths
by Dan B. Allender, Ph.D.

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What should we require of a pastoral candidate, a corporate CFO, or even a representative to the state legislature? What I am about to write is ridiculous. It won't happen in the public and secular realms. It could possibly happen in faith-based contexts, but it is far from the norm. Yet it is the model offered by most of God's leaders in the bible.

We should bless men and women who have done their level best to escape leadership but who have been compelled to return and put their hand on the tiller. We should expect anyone who remains in a formal leadership context to experience repeated bouts of flight, doubt, surrender, and return. Why would this be God's plan? Why does God love the reluctant leader? Here is one reason: the reluctant leader is not easily seduced by power, pride, or ambition.

Power

A leader inevitably uses his own power, or limits the power of others, to make things happen. And there are as many different kinds of power in an organization as there are people, but two forms are the most common: instrumental and influential. Think of a family. The mother and father hold the instrumental power to control money and the family's schedule, so they plan the family vacation. But the volatile and moody middle child has the influential power to ruin the vacation.

The people in an organization who can hire or fire, set budgets, determine priorities, evaluate performance, and reward success hold the instrumental power. The influential power might be in the hands of a famous faculty member, a brilliant software designer, or the pastor who resigned but remains in the congregation. It is crucial to know who holds the power to set an organization's direction and tone.

A reluctant leader is highly suspicious of people who work to accumulate and hoard power. One of the reasons godly leaders are reluctant is that they have frequently seen power misused to build personal kingdoms. I have several friends who worked in education but were ruined by a bully school superintendent.

This individual first emptied the school board of strong voices and then filled the empty seats with yes-men and -women who were not experienced in educational processes. She then began to remove school principals who questioned her authority. In one tirade she yelled at a principal, "I will not tolerate insubordination. You will not scream at me or humiliate me in public ever again." The preceding interaction had been heated, but no one else present at the meeting felt that the superintendent had been treated poorly. This woman dealt with the school district's multimillion-dollar debt by cutting the programs and the positions of individuals who questioned her, and she rewarded the few who protected and promoted her regime. And there was nothing that victimized teachers could do. The superintendent covered over her violence with school administrator rhetoric. She marginalized every critic as a miscreant. And because of her dictatorial rule, highly qualified teachers and administrators-the ones who weren't forced out-fled the sinking ship. Reluctant leaders don't aspire to hold power; in fact, they avidly work to give it away. They attempt this even as they use power to create a context where power is used fairly, wisely, and with checks and balances. A reluctant leader does not hoard power because doing so creates more pressure and demand. Power is like a weighty gold bar. It can't be slipped into one's wallet; instead it must be carried obtrusively everywhere one travels. It elicits the envy of others and many will want to take it. The reluctant leader detoxifies power by empowering others to bring their vision, passion, and gifts to the enterprise. She creates an environment of open debate that honors differences and where no one fears reprisal. In the leadership approach of a reluctant leader, it is a blessing to give away power and a calling to monitor its faithful use.

Pride

A reluctant leader is not likely to be caught in pride's limelight. Pride is a perverted form of worship. Pride basks in the light of its own glory and blesses its goodness as originating from within. Prideful people, however, never seem secure in their self-evaluation: they require a community to idolize their glory. Self-glory pushes prideful leaders to remind others of who they know and what they've read and written, of their earned degrees and the programs they have created. Such leaders are seldom wrong, and they always are in the know. Pride is a sucking vortex that, vampirelike, draws into itself the goodness and glory of others.

Such pride is contagious. Being in the presence of a pride-driven soul begets a craving in others for more power. It is like being in a wealthy enclave of Mercedes, Porsches, and Bentleys when you're driving a Ford. What once seemed like a good car no longer feels adequate. Similarly, the presence of a self-glorifying leader lures with a vanity fair of opportunity. Followers try to do whatever is required to keep their personal stock high and to avoid the danger of crossing swords with the narcissistic leader. This contagion is nearly impossible to escape. The only way out is to flee for one's life.

And a reluctant leader is one who has fled in the past. He knows he is a coward and a fool. He already tried to slip away, but he got caught. He went AWOL and, rather than being court-martialed, was advanced in rank. How does one fathom the absurdity? So it's no surprise that a reluctant leader is not impressed with either his ability or the results of his labor. This quality is why Paul underlined the type of people God calls as leaders. He said, "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."3 Why? Because such a selection process clarifies who deserves the glory and who is to be grateful just to have been a part of God's story.

Copyright © 2006 by Dan B. Allender, Ph.D.

About the Author

Dan B. Allender, Ph.D., is the President of Mars Hill Graduate School, in Seattle, Washington. He taught in the Biblical Counseling Department of Grace Theological Seminary for seven years, then was a professor in the Master of Arts in Biblical Counseling program at Colorado Christian University, Denver. Dr. Allender is the author of The Wounded Heart and has coauthored two books with Dr. Larry Crabb: Encouragement: The Key to Caring and Hope for the Hurting. With Dr. Tremper Longman he has coauthored four books: Bold Love, Cry of the Soul, Intimate Allies, and Bold Purpose.