Leadership Lessons From The Bible

By Arjan Zantingh

'This wonderful book is full of precious keys that will help you become a good, healthy, and serving leader. Drawing on the lives of leaders from the Bible, Arjan covers many themes facing today's leaders.' Jan Pool, speaker, writer and mentor.

Can the Bible serve as an important and relevant source for leadership in our current time? Arjan Zantingh delves into the Bible with a leadership perspective and uncovers one timeless lesson after another in the lives of leaders from the Old and New Testament.

What habit made Nehemiah such a great leader? What does Moses teach us about dealing with criticism? What can we learn from women like Abigail and Queen Esther, and what principle made Peter someone you could rely on?

Discover with Arjan the truth, power, and relevance of the Bible for leaders in our time. And learn how you can apply those lessons in the church, your work, and society.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arjan Zantingh
• Release date: Apr 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9789083415727

Book preview

Introduction

The Bible as a source for healthy and powerful leadership?

Why go all the way back to the Bible when we have plenty of contemporary relevant management literature? The key is in the word contemporary, because what is relevant now may not be in twenty years. I learn much from books that draw on the latest scientific findings, but at the same time, I am looking for timeless principles that transcend the specific times in which we live and lead.

Therefore, I automatically turn my focus to the Bible. In my long journey from nonbeliever to believer and from business economist to senior pastor, I have been deeply impressed by the truth, power, and relevance of the Bible for today.

However, does that also apply to the topic of leadership? I had never before consciously asked that question, but I found an answer to it, nevertheless. It was the time when competency-based working became popular as the latest management insight, and rightly so, because there is much value in focusing on a person’s competencies and maximizing them. It was during this time that the thought occurred to me: Huh, isn’t this idea in the Bible?

As a matter of fact, yes! The apostle Paul writes about it in several letters, for example in Ephesians 4, Romans 12, and 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. Gift-centered is what it is called in biblical language. It is an example of a timeless principle that we have, in fact, rediscovered.

Does that apply to more principles?

I decided to explore. In my role as a pastor, I study the Bible over and over again to create sermons. Of course, you regularly have to translate the cultural context, but the Bible repeatedly provides timeless principles that always lead to healthy fruit in all areas of life, including leadership.

The importance of healthy leadership cannot be overemphasized. It is sorely needed in a world where healthy dialogue is increasingly under pressure, and the trusty old way of doing things no longer always seems to work. A popular definition of leadership is influence. In that sense, if that were the case, everyone would be a leader. But how do you do that well, harness the influence you have? Too many leaders go down because of moral failure, and too many people are negatively affected, both in the secular world, as well as in the Christian world. In 2004, the booklet Power and Manipulation: Surely not among Christian leaders? ¹ showed up on the market. You wish such a book did not have to be written, but unfortunately, it was necessary, and unfortunately, almost twenty years later, the need is still there.

The journey I took through the Bible in order to write this book shows that it is possible to have a type of healthy and inspirational leadership that connects, a leadership that is visionary and makes teams function stronger and with more joy. When this happens, it is something beautiful.

"In addition to being mindful of failures and pitfalls, it is equally important to continue believing in the beauty and power of healthy leadership."

We all desire this type of leadership that allows people to thrive and teams and organizations to flourish. We cannot live without it, so it is important to continue investing in it.

To equip leaders who are committed to our church, I planned eight Sunday evenings of leadership lessons from the Bible. I was confident that in my preparing for these evenings, I would stumble upon inspiring timeless principles that would help the participants and myself, because as a leader you are always in need of learning, growing in our leadership development. As it turned out, every book of the Bible is full of incredibly valuable leadership lessons, and, yes, the lessons are timeless and directly applicable in our own leadership.

More and more often, when faced with a leadership dilemma, I have begun to ask myself what someone like Paul or Moses would do in my situation. Their leadership was certainly not flawless, but having a realistic look at what went right with them and what did not helps me reflect on my own leadership. This is how I want to bring to full fruition the leadership gift God has placed in me. I hope the same is true for you, that we would embrace the responsibility to develop our gift of leadership.

How does leadership in you and me become healthy leadership? It has everything to do with reflection and the desire to learn. Self-knowledge and self-reflection are catalysts for growth, certainly when examining leaders from the Bible and comparing them to ourselves as we will do in the coming chapters.

This book is intended for leaders, whether in the church, in general society, or both, who see the Bible as the foremost source of inspiration.

An important realization I had during the leadership nights in the church was that it is all about spiritual leadership both in and outside the church. The association with spiritual leadership often has to do with leadership in the church or in Christian organizations, where it involves spiritual matters. However, leadership in the church, when all is said and done, is no more spiritual than leadership in society! What matters is that your life of faith serves as a source of your leadership and that your leadership is nurtured from an intimate relationship with God.

There is a way that things work, I once read. This applies to things like gravity, but also to a topic like spiritual leadership. The biblical leaders in the chapters of this book grew in their leadership through trial and error. They made mistakes (it is allowed), and it generally ended well. Unlike many other leaders in the Bible who crashed and burned and did not finish well. Many such examples can be found in 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles.

However, there are also leaders who did start out well, who seemingly led from an intimate relationship with God, yet gradually slipped away. In these situations, a direct link can be found between the development of their leadership and their connection with God. This is because there is a way that things work, and that is why my book starts with this important subject.

Structure of this book

This book is structured in three parts. The base, the mission, and the people. The chapters can be read separately, but the structure is there for a reason. In Part 1, about The Base, we first look at ourselves as leaders, because that is where healthy leadership begins. How do we lead ourselves? What do we feed/fuel our leadership with? What role does our relationship with God play in it all? The stories of Peter, Moses, and Paul, among many others, put us on the right track.

In Part 2, we focus on The Mission, the somewhat harder side of leadership, where things like vision and strategy are involved. Nehemiah, David, and Daniel, each in their own unique way, have much to say in this area.

Part 3 is all about The People, because leadership is always about people. How does Paul build his teams? What role do women play? What is the key to leading others according to Jesus?

How to maximize the payoff from reading this book

Many leaders who read leadership literature are primarily interested in the concrete lessons, principles, or tips provided, and you get those in this book. However, the input from reading this book will undoubtedly become much richer if you yourself read the Bible passages about the main characters. What do you notice in them? You can then put your discoveries alongside mine. Therefore, at the beginning of each chapter, you will find the Bible passages that are most relevant from a leadership perspective.

Each chapter also includes some reflection questions. I’ll be honest: I usually tend to skip those when reading books because I’m eager to move on to the next chapter; however, reflection is precisely the most important link between new insights, on the one hand and an actual change in practice on the other. Otherwise, you might quickly think, Good point, but then just move on. So do yourself a big favor and really take a moment to consider the questions at the end of each chapter. Above all, take notes; it makes the journey more valuable.

Part One

The Basis

1 The Base—An Intimate Relationship with God

The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant (Psalm 25:14, ESV).

You sometimes have to zoom out along the way to see the right perspective. In examining the leadership of the individuals in this book, I began to see more and more sharply that the basis of their leadership was their spiritual life.

Whether they were leading in a spiritual or secular environment, an intimate relationship with God is what the main characters have in common.

I mentioned in the introduction that there is a way in which things work. Every Christian leader should have an intimate fellowship with God as the main source of nourishment for their leadership.

God speaks to Moses as someone speaks to a friend (see Ex. 33:11). David shows in the Psalms that one is allowed to be emotionally open with God; this speaks of an intimate relationship (e.g., Ps. 22). Daniel, in the midst of a secular environment, has his daily, faithful prayer rhythm, and God reveals to him the meaning of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams. Paul usually begins his letters to churches with a prayer, and he is also the one who calls for prayer without ceasing. And so we go on. Relationship with God, friendship with God, and intimate interaction with God are the source of wisdom and leadership for our main characters.

But there is an apparent contradiction to this in Psalm 25:14: The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. I do not like to interact intimately with someone whom I fear, but this fear is actually much more about awe, which is also a possible translation:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Prov. 1:7, NIV)

The [reverent] fear of the Lord [that is, worshiping Him and regarding Him as truly awesome] is the beginning and the preeminent part of knowledge [its starting point and its essence]. (Prov. 1:7, AMP)

Start with God – the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning. (Prov. 1:7, MSG)

An intimate relationship with God goes hand in hand with the knowledge of God and standing in awe of who he really is.

What is your image of God? The image that we have feeds our understanding of how we can live in relationship with him. My faith and my leadership are nurtured from the fact that God is good. All the time. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him, says David in Psalm 34:8 (NIV). If he is good, then from there, I also believe that the principles he provides in the Bible are good, and they will bear fruit in my life. This does not mean I always like applying those principles, but I do believe (sometimes against my feelings) that applying them will lead to blessings in my life, in every area of life, and thus also in leadership.

If I want to grow in my leadership, the first thing I need is to grow in my intimate relationship with God by taking refuge in him in the difficult moments, by trusting that he wants to give me wisdom when I lack it, and by recognizing prayer as the main source for my leadership.

Let’s see what that intimate fellowship looks like in some of the main characters of the Bible. In the life of Daniel, the focus is on his growth in supernatural wisdom. With regards to Nehemiah, we look at how he prays from a life rhythm. As for Paul, the focus is on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Later on, we will get to know these leaders in more detail, but for now, we will focus specifically on their spiritual lives.

1.1 Daniel: Growing in Supernatural Wisdom

At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him. Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven (Dan. 2:16-19).

Daniel is an interesting leader because he is not engaged in spiritual work. He is among the exiles of the people of Israel taken to Babylon, where he must function in what we would call a secular environment. He is active in politics, which revolves around wisdom from sources different than what Daniel draws upon. How does Daniel relate to that?

In the first chapter of the book of Daniel we read that God gives Daniel and his friends great wisdom and knowledge (see Dan. 1:17). This immediately raises a question. Does that put us on the sidelines? If God gives wisdom, that is wonderful, and you should act on it above all else, but what happens if God does not give wisdom? So be it?

Throughout the book of Daniel, we see that Daniel and his friends strive to grow in supernatural wisdom. Daniel’s supernatural wisdom from God not only helps him explain all kinds of dreams and visions, but at the same time molds him and his friends into fantastic counselors. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom (Dan. 1:20). Daniel is very aware that his own wisdom will not be enough for him.

In chapter 2, when the king has a disturbing dream that no one can explain, the king threatens to kill every wise man in Babylon. In turn, Daniel calls on his friends to join him in pleading for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon (2:18).

God reveals the meaning of the dream and in a prayer of thanksgiving, Daniel says the following:

He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king. (Dan. 2:21-23)

We should take a moment to consider what he is saying here. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. This sounds like a general principle. Does it apply to our leadership as well? Should we consult with God about the business decisions we make in our company, organization, or church? If it is true for Daniel that he receives his wisdom from God, why couldn’t it be true for us as well? I fully believe that God wants to give you the wisdom to make good choices. No matter how unspiritual they may feel to you.

Lord, should we really go with this new supplier/customer/partner?

Lord, what is the best strategy to help my team take a step forward?

Lord, when is a good time to approach that customer?

"Lord, what is the right approach for this difficult dialogue with one of my employees?

And so on.

For Daniel, prayer is the most normal thing in his life. When it becomes illegal for him to pray (see chapter 6), we read in verse 10 of that chapter, Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Three times a day, Daniel can be found in prayer, even though he undoubtedly had a busy job as a kingdom leader. However, God is completely intertwined with his life, and thus, his leadership. Daniel has a habit, a