TLS2: Leadership and Mentorship

Welcome to another week of the Transformation Leadership Series (TLS). I would like to thank everyone for welcoming me to the DU Transformational Leadership WhatsApp platform.

 

Today we will discuss Leadership as shown in 1 Corinthians 11. This chapter is FULL of nuggets on leadership however this week we will only consider verse 1 and 3 which focus on Leadership, and Mentorship.

 

LEADER AS AN EXAMPLE OR PATTERN

 

Leadership can be described as a two-sided coin. On the one side, leaders are expected by God to live lives that teach or influence others positively—especially followers. Actions sometimes teach better than words. Leaders are thus expected to live lives that others can pattern themselves after. On the other side of the leadership coin, leaders imitate those who have gone head of them. As aspiring transformational leaders, we must have godly role models. We must follow leaders who follow Christ, the great Leader and Teacher of Leaders.

 

1 Corinthians 11:1 (AMPC)  PATTERN YOURSELVES after me [follow my example], as I imitate and follow Christ (the Messiah).

 

1 Corinthians 11:1 (Weymouth)  Be imitators of me, in so far as I in turn am an imitator of Christ.

 

From the above, we see that transformational leadership is about becoming positive examples and patterns of conduct and action for others, that is, modelling in our daily lives the life of the greatest transformational leader ever to walk the earth—Jesus Christ. Leadership can be likened unto a continuum. Using a thermometer as an example, Jesus as a leader is at 100 degrees. He is the perfect mark and example of leadership. Other leaders (followers of his) may be at 70 degrees, others at 40 degrees, 20 and 10. Those whose leadership resource development potential are lesser are admonished by the scripture to follow and imitate those whose potential are higher.

 

God is Leader of Leaders and since He can only reproduce after His kind, all His offspring are likewise leaders howbeit at different levels of manifesting sustainable influence. This sphere and level of influence manifested is subject to how much time, energy and prayer is invested into developing one’s leadership resource potential. Take a look at the following verse:

 

1 Corinthians 11:3 (AMPC)  But I want you to know and realize that Christ is the Head of every man, the head of a woman is her husband, and the Head of Christ is God.

 

The word ‘head’ can be used interchangeably with ‘leader’ for the purposes of our study. The verse confirms that all leaders are ultimately followers and all followers are potential leaders. There is only one Being in the Universe(s) and beyond the Universe(s) who follows no one because he is ALL-MIGHTY. He is God the Father, the Leader with no leader.

 

Even Jesus according to verse 3 is a follower. While on earth, He only did, imitated and patterned himself after what He saw the Father doing.  This is confirmed in:

 

John 5:19 (Weymouth)  “In most solemn truth I tell you,” replied Jesus, “that the Son can do nothing of Himself–He can ONLY DO WHAT HE SEES THE FATHER DOING; for whatever He does, that the Son does IN LIKE MANNER.

 

The phrase “in like manner” is instructive. It means Jesus imitated God the Father. And His disciples imitated Jesus as Jesus imitated God.

 

LEADERSHIP, SUBMISSION AND APPRENTICESHIP

 

Leadership schools have grappled with the question: Are leaders born or made? By and large, most believe that leadership is something people can learn and develop. Much of the discourse surrounding this point of view focuses on the intellectual development of persons who aspire to be leaders. While intellectual development is beneficial, it is only a fraction of leadership resource development. Leadership is also caught by observation in a discipleship or apprentice setting. Jesus lived with his disciples who were submitted to Him. Not only did they learn intellectually from him but they observed His life and character, how He did things and that accounted for part of their apprenticeship, discipleship or leadership resource development program. This is how they became great leaders in their own right. It is because they observed Him and His ways carefully that they could recount what they saw in the books of the bible known as the Gospels.

 

BE AND EXAMPLE AND FOLLOW AN EXAMPLE

 

If you want to be a transformational leader, BE AN EXAMPLE to others and FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE of Christ in others who have gone further than you in following Christ’s leadership example.

 

1 Timothy 4:12 (AMPC)  Let no one despise or think less of you because of your youth, but be an EXAMPLE (PATTERN) for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.

 

1 Corinthians 11:1 (AMPC)  PATTERN YOURSELVES after me [follow my example], as I imitate and follow Christ (the Messiah).

 

The first scripture says BE AN EXAMPLE. The second says PATTERN YOURSELF after the EXAMPLE of those who follow CHRIST.

 

FOCUS ON CHRIST IN OUR LEADERS

 

On another occasion we will discuss some criteria for selecting a godly transformation leader to imitate. But let us for now assume that a person has identified a godly leader to imitate. What if the leader(s) admired and looked up to has both bad and good traits? Must the person imitate both the good and bad traits? Honestly, only Jesus is perfect. Everybody else is a work in progress. God gave the fivefold ministry gifts to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all … attain to THE WHOLE MEASURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST (Eph 4:12-13). This means we have not attain the full measure yet.

 

What do we do then when the leader(s) we aspire to pattern ourselves after are imperfect? The answer is in 2 Corinthians 5:16. Imitate the Christ in them and not the flesh. Put differently, followers must learn to focus on the Christ in leaders they aspire to imitate and not to regard them from a worldly point of view (2 Corinthians 5:16). In the beginning, the disciples knew Jesus from a worldly point of view but as they grew, Apostle Paul wrote, “Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer” 2 Corinthians 5:16.

 

Joshua followed Moses but did not imitate the anger of Moses. Samuel followed Eli but did not inherit the negative aspects of Eli’s nature. It is possible to focus on and imitate only the good.

 

WHAT IF MY LEADER MAKES A MISTAKE

 

Leaders that followers aspire to imitate may sometimes make mistakes, get drunk on the fruit of their labour (vine) and get naked. Some aspiring leaders who follow them may take this as an occasion to gossip or dishonour their leaders because of the temporary drunkenness and nakedness. More often than not, this may result in what happened to Ham and Canaan.

 

It is imperative to know that as much as leaders cover followers, there are times that followers must cover leaders like Shem and Japheth did for Noah. This leads to blessing that elevates sons of this type above those like Ham and Canaan. The inability to understand or appreciate this truth led to a situation where Canaan’s inheritance was given to Shem the one who covered his leader’s nakedness (Gen 9:22-23). Who transferred the inheritance? The leader Noah. His authority did not dissipate because he got drunk. A drunk police man still retains his or her authority.  

 

Genesis 9:21-23 (AMPC)

21  And he drank of the wine and became drunk, and he was uncovered and lay naked in his tent.

22  And Ham, the father of Canaan, glanced at and saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.

23  So Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon the shoulders of both, and WENT BACKWARD and COVERED the NAKEDNESS of THEIR FATHER; and their faces were BACKWARD, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

 

It is unwise to gaze and meditate on the mistakes and nakedness of leaders we submit to. This is why the brothers turned their back to their father’s nakedness unlike their younger sibling Ham. It is wisdom to focus/gaze at the Christ within and upon the leaders we aspire to imitate. David even when hunted by King Saul saw the anointing (Christ) on King Saul and this prevented him from a grave error of judgement. As we gaze at Christ within and upon the leaders, we too are transfigured in the inner man into that same image of Christ—the greatest leader and enabler to ever walk the earth.

 

Isaiah 26:3 shows us that GOD will keep us in perfect peace, if we stay our minds, and thought life on God or on the Christ in the leaders we aspire to imitate or pattern ourselves after. The opposite is also true. If we stay our minds on what we perceive are their deficiencies, we lose our perfect peace. This promised peace that comes with how we focus our minds, in Hebrew is defined as, “completeness, soundness, welfare, safety, health, prosperity, tranquillity, contentment, friendship, favour etc.). This is the benefit of setting our minds on Christ.

 

In our quest to become transformational leaders, let us all aim to PATTERN ourselves after leaders, following their example, as they imitate and follow Christ (the Messiah).

 

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