The Integrity of Leadership

Leadership has long been a popular “buzz word” in the context of business. It is always interesting to follow the “institutionalization” of popular subjects into the academic arena. Today there are any number of “Leadership Institutes”, “Leadership Seminars,” Masters Degrees in Educational Leadership,” others in “Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship,” among many others.

The scriptures point us to the role of leadership with many examples. They include figures such as Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt. It includes those who served Israel as judges, those who were named kings, and any number of prophets who were called upon to lead by bearing witness to the people of the word from the Lord.

Leadership is often measured by worldly standards of success. For the most part, that is how it is referred to in present academic discussion. Good leaders are often those who help define the realities of the present, help determine the goals for the future, and who help take the steps toward achieving those goals in the day to day. Those essential steps are also included for effective leadership in the context of those who would seek to honor God with their leading. The difference is, those who are interested in honoring God with their leadership understand that it is based not upon their own influence and power, but upon the power of God at work in and through them. They also understand that the objectives or goals to be achieved are not measured only by their ability to reach them by any method. The manner in which the goals are both identified and achieved is as important as the result. Too often we see individuals “in the name of Christ” selling the processes of their “success” to the devil. The results may be “apparently achieved” but at the loss of integrity or witness because of the “way” in which they acted.

Too often the results sought are only temporary in scope. God’s leading requires that we focus on eternal measures. We are called to be a part of divine initiatives. We are called to be participants in sharing God’s light and life and love with the world. To do so requires our integrity of purpose, our willingness of spirit, and our openness to God. Following His lead is the strongest measure of any “leadership” we might seek to initiate. Allowing others to follow our example as God-honoring leaders is limited to those aspects of our personality and actions that honor Christ. The standard is higher than we have usually been willing to consider. We are called to follow the example of Jesus.
To do so is more than challenging. It is a high calling.

Success will not be the measure of earthly successes, but the measure of doing those things that God calls us to do each day.

Will We Ever Catch Up?

It is almost a daily statement among the social commentators of our time. They bemoan the fact that our ethics seem behind our technology, or our social systems, or our economic trends. The conversation goes something like this: “We are behind in discussing the ethical aspects of the use of autonomous robotics in warfare.” Or, we have demonstrated that our ability to exercise ethical behavior in the marketplace has gone woefully lacking in light of our obvious manipulations and abuses of the present system.”
Such social commentary seems to be a popular way of saying that sin remains a distinctive problem in our time and our attempts at making decisions without a moral grounding leave us with less than satisfying results.
The popularity of “ethics courses” in the academic circles likewise has achieved little to change the circuitous weaknesses of morality built upon humanistic models, derived from a lowest common denominator approach coupled with relativism for every situation. It will always be easy to justify our actions, whatever they may be, if we assume that all we have to do is find others willing to join in to make it acceptable. Likewise, our ability to create technologies that disregard our very human weaknesses in their creation, leads us to assume that a “programmed response by a computer” is surely destined to be a “safe” decision. Is it using our best human choices to use a gaming platform to send weapons to distant countries from thousands of miles away, with limited capacity to recognize the consequences of those decisions? Are we allowing the politics of our time to drive the rationale for war in the first place? Our attempt to inject ethics into the realms of science, medicine, business, technology, or even into our own church practices will always be second rate when we ignore the model of Jesus.
Could it be that we will one day ”come to ourselves” and realize that we do not have the last word on what is good or right or just? On the other hand, we find God readily presenting us with his truth to guide and direct us toward the things we are seeking. Could it be that those who discover the capacities for exercising justice in light of God’s love will come to understand the nature of loving God and loving neighbor with insights on how that translates into every day living?
Our behaviors seem to be woefully out of step with what even in our own sinful perceptions is just, and yet, how much more might be accomplished if we would dare to seek the will of God in bringing his love to the world in daily witness of his grace, his mercy, and his truth. We are not so much in the dark as we are unwilling to come to the light. That light is Jesus. Consider learning from him. Consider following him. Consider knowing that he is the way, the truth, and the life.