On Being a Leader for God

By Warren W. Wiersbe

Books on leadership in various aspects of life and work abound. But are the principles upon which these books are grounded biblical? Do they describe the best way for Christians to lead, knowing that they function as ambassadors for Christ as they facilitate meetings, lead people, and manage projects?

On Being a Leader for God covers numerous topics that are relevant to Christian leadership in this and every era, including obedience, faithfulness, character, maturity, ability, God's authority, seizing opportunities, biblical images of successful leadership, listening, the difference between a boss and a leader, change management, organizational leadership, and vision. Pastors, deacons, church leaders, and laypeople will find this book both engaging and transformative.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781441232205

Warren W. Wiersbe

Warren W. Wiersbe, former pastor of the Moody Church and general director of Back to the Bible, has traveled widely as a Bible teacher and conference speaker. Because of his encouragement to those in ministry, Dr. Wiersbe is often referred to as "the pastor’s pastor." He has ministered in churches and conferences throughout the United States as well as in Canada, Central and South America, and Europe. Dr. Wiersbe has written over 150 books, including the popular BE series of commentaries on every book of the Bible, which has sold more than four million copies. At the 2002 Christian Booksellers Convention, he was awarded the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement Award by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. Dr. Wiersbe and his wife, Betty, live in Lincoln, Nebraska.

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Roosevelt

Preface

Each generation needs to discover and train new leaders, not only to meet current needs but also to prepare for future challenges and changes. Whether it’s in a manufacturing plant or a local church, life goes on, and that life will either have direction and succeed or wander aimlessly and fail. The philosophers and strategists tell us that the future isn’t what it used to be. Seeing how rapidly things are changing in our world, I suspect they may be right. Change is the process by which the future invades our lives, wrote Alvin Toffler in the introduction to his bestselling book Future Shock,[2] and his choice of the verb invade was a wise one.

This book is meant to be a companion volume to On Being a Servant of God, originally published in 1993 by Oliver-Nelson and reprinted in 1999 and 2007 by Baker Books. The response to the book has been positive, and I’m grateful for the ministry it continues to have. I should point out that this present book is not a detailed manual about hands-on management. Rather, it seeks to present a practical theology of leadership based on the principles taught and illustrated in the Bible. It is encouraging to see that some recent secular manuals on leadership are echoing biblical principles, whether the authors recognize them or not. The experts are catching up with us!

Those who have read On Being a Servant of God will not find it duplicated in these chapters, although some basic concepts will be recognized. The two books go together.

Warren W. Wiersbe

It’s remarkable what weird ideas some people have about leadership.

This story may be apocryphal, but I’ve met it often in my reading. During the French Revolution, a man was seen running after a crowd that was moving toward the barricades in Paris. A friend begged him to stop, because the mob he was following was no match for the troops at the barricades. But the man kept running and shouted back, I must follow them—I’m their leader!

A Russian Aeroflot jet crashed in Siberia in 1994, killing all seventy-five people aboard. When the authorities listened to the black box recording, they discovered that the pilot’s sixteen-year-old son and twelve-year-old daughter had been alternately at the controls of the plane! When the boy pushed a certain pedal, the plane went into a spin 1,300 feet above the ground. The crew pulled the plane out of the spin, but not soon enough to gain the altitude needed—and the plane crashed. The pilot’s last recorded words were, Everything’s fine . . . take it easy . . . take it easy I tell you!

When I pondered that newspaper report, I thought of the words of the prophet Isaiah describing the political situation in ancient Judah: Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling. . . . Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves. . . . Youths oppress my people. . . . My people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path (Isa. 3:8, 9, 12). Effective leadership can benefit from experiments, but experiments must be balanced by experience. The young may be daring but the adults must be wise. Leaders must have the kind of maturity that comes from fighting battles and carrying burdens, maturity that is painfully developed in the school of life.

Two more stories.

During a presidential election year, a church officer said to me, We should pray that [naming a candidate] will be elected president. When I asked him why, he replied, Because he’s born again and the Lord will show him how to lead the country. I asked him, Have you ever noticed the dumb things some church leaders do and then claim the Lord told them to do it? There was no reply. He had been a church officer too long to argue over the matter.

Vance Havner used to tell about the time General Stonewall Jackson needed to get his army across a river, so he ordered the engineers to build a bridge. He also told his wagon master to get the wagon train across the river as soon as possible once the bridge was completed. The wagon master—a former blacksmith—got a group of men together, and with rocks, logs, fence rails, and various other materials, they built a bridge and got all the wagons and artillery over the river safely. Early the next morning the wagon master reported this to General Jackson, and the amazed general asked, Where are the engineers? The wagon master said, They’re over there in a tent, drawing pictures and planning a bridge. Vance Havner’s comment was, We need a few blacksmiths to get us over the river.

I’m neither an engineer nor a general, but I find myself identifying with that wagon master, because during most of the sixty-plus years of my ministerial life, I’ve been a bridge builder. It’s been my calling to move people and equipment over the river into better situations for getting the job done. Most of my friends would consider me a preacher and writer rather than a leader, but I did try to do my best when I was given that calling, and at least I was willing to learn.

The Frenchman bravely following the mob wasn’t a leader; he was a cheerleader, concerned primarily with pleasing his crowd and his own ego. The jet pilot was depending on technology to carry the flight safely through, but technology is only as good as the skills of the people who manage it. The church officer assumed that membership in the family of God was the only requirement for leadership, an assumption that automatically disqualifies thousands of very successful leaders who have never trusted Christ. As for the bridge builders, General Jackson assumed that the engineers’ training and experience guaranteed vocational efficiency. After all, engineers are supposed to solve problems, not create them. Given the materials and enough time, they could have built that bridge, but by the time they finished, it might have been too late to make good use of it. A diploma on the wall is a big help if it represents a balanced education, but it isn’t a guarantee of achievement.

Like most achievers, leaders are both born and made. They are born with physical and mental abilities and, if born again, they possess spiritual gifts in addition to their natural abilities. There is a gift of leadership, and if we possess that gift, we must use it diligently (Rom. 12:8). The New English Bible reads, If you are a leader, exert yourself to lead. You don’t fill an office; you use it for the good of the organization and the glory of God. Successful leaders learn from both study and experience, and they find great fulfillment in seeing their co-workers discover and develop their own skills as they serve together. True leaders have the ability and the humility to select associates who are potential leaders. They surround themselves with people who can help them get things done. True leaders and followers gladly learn from each other.

The leaders mentioned in the dedication of this book all contributed to my ministry in many ways. They taught me that everything rises or falls with leadership, and that leaders must be servants of all. They taught me that the why of leadership is as important as the how. He [the Lord] made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel (Ps. 103:7). The Israelites knew what God was doing, but Moses knew why God was doing it. As someone has said, "The people who know how will always have jobs, and the people who know why will always be their bosses. These men taught me that leaders are second in command and need to keep in touch with the Master if they want to get the job done. They showed many of us the efficient management of organizations involving multitudes of people in numerous nations, supported by many thousands of friends in North America. The word globalization" hadn’t yet gotten into the evangelical vocabulary when I started my ministry, but these leaders certainly knew how to practice it.

One of the most important lessons I learned is that leaders focus on purposes while managers are primarily concerned with processes, and that both of them must keep in touch with the people involved. Managers keep processes healthy and productive and never make changes that violate the vision statement of the organization. Leaders and managers need each other. Leaders are primarily concerned with vision and revision, while managers focus on supervision. Leaders see the big picture and never forget the controlling vision statement of the organization. They know that to ignore the vision statement is to put the organization on dangerous and costly detours. One management guru reminds us that managers are people who do things right while leaders are people who make sure they do the right things.

In the early days of Youth for Christ International, expansion was so rapid that the organization was soon involved in many diverse ministries. It became like that mythical centipede who was asked by a beetle how he knew which leg to move next, and the more he considered the question, the more helpless the centipede became. I think it was Bob Pierce who first pointed out YFC’s expansion paralysis at a board meeting and subsequently founded World Vision to help feed, clothe, and heal the needy peoples of the postwar world. Somebody else took over ministry to the armed forces, and so on, until the word Youth in Youth for Christ really meant the teenagers of the world.

The American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie said, Here is the prime condition of success: Concentrate your energy, thought, and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. The apostle Paul agreed with this counsel when he wrote, "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to

Reviews for On Being a Leader for God

[thelogo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Here is a man experienced in ministry, having served for over 60 years, offering his advice on being a leader for God. Wiersbe begins his book by defining leadership: "Christian leaders are people who, by faith, willingly use their character, abilities, authority, and opportunities to serve others and to help them reach their fullest potential, to their benefit, the benefit of the organization, and the glory of God." He then spends the rest of the book exploring each part of this definition in detail. I have long been a fan of On Being a Servant of God by Wiersbe. It is one of the books I try to give to people starting out in ministry and I make all of my interns read it. I was pleased to find that this companion volume, which compliments Servant without repeating it, will be going on that same list. Wiersbe offers good thoughts and advice on a broad array of topics to do with leadership. This is not an in depth textbook exploring the issues, theological, practical, or otherwise, but, instead, it is a series of reflections on being a godly leader. As that, it is well worth reading.A few quotes to whet your appetite. In speaking of Jesus as a CEO, a concept which Wiersbe disagrees with, Wiersbe notes that "Nobody ever called Jesus 'boss,' because His title was always 'Lord' - and it still is." He urges Christian leaders to turn to God first, not the wisdom of this world: "If Christians are to make a difference in this world, they must avoid thinking like the world and imitating the world. Right planning and right serving begin with right thinking, and right thinking comes from the wisdom of God." In another chapter, Wiersbe offers this excellent quote from Markings by Dag Hammarskjold: "Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others can receive your orders without being humiliated." Wiersbe concludes: "Ponder that statement." Indeed. Conclusion: 5 Stars. No, this book will not tell you everything you need to know about leadership. Instead, it is an excellent book on thinking rightly about leadership and focusing on God. A must read, especially for those just starting out. "Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group".

[kratz_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Book Review: "On Being a Leader for God" by Warren Wiersbe. Review written by Matthew KratzIn the preface, pastor and Bible teacher Warren W. Wiersbe articulates the purpose of this book is to be "a practical 'theology of leadership' based on the principles and illustrated taught in the Bible" (p.10). He makes clear distinctions throughout the book between "leaders" who deal with vision and direction from "managers" to deal with day to day implementation (p.15). This book is filled with helpful bible verses, quotes, stories, and illustrations of what it means to be a godly and biblical leader for God’s glory. There are times when the theology is not as tight and precise as I would like (God "needed" Adam and Eve to tend the garden (p.18) yet it is generally helpfulThis book is meant to be a sequel to the well-known and loved book On Being A Servant Of God by Wiersbe. In that book we have a powerful exhortation to serve God’s people and maintain a servant’s heart in ministry. In this book we have a broader look at the responsibilities, character and Biblical description of a Christian leader. Wiersbe deals biblically with topics that are relevant to Christian leadership, including:*obedience*character*maturity*ability*God's authority*seizing opportunities*biblical images of leadership*measuring management*being a leader versus a boss*change management*organizational leadership*visionThe chapters are short (4-7 pages), making the book easy to read, though the lack of chapter headings or titles is very frustrating. For my own reference, I summarised the topics of each chapter and made my own table of contents. Only after completing the book did some of the progressions from topic to topic become a little clearer. Although, the progression in each chapter seems not to flow at times and the logical link was sometimes hard to follow, for connections were not always made.I appreciated the focus on a leaders humility and faithfulness, over a "leadership principle" approach. Indeed, there a no quick actions to long term effective leadership. Self-checks on Biblical principles (p. 30) were helpful.Although a seasoned pastor/writer/speaker/board member, Wiersbe shows particular insight in dealing with those of various generations (p. 111). There are often times I wished he would have taken a topic/passage and drawn out the meaning and implications instead of just dealing with it in passing.The work would be an excellent introduction to leadership since it is an overview of Biblical principles. It is suitable for an introductory college (or high school) course on leadership, or for a Christian in any leadership situation. Price:$13.99ISBN:978-0-8010-1382-9ISBN-10:0-8010-1382-8Dimensions:5.5 x 8.5Number of pages:144Carton Quantity:76Publication Date:Jun. 11Formats:Paperback"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group".