Student Leadership 5
So far, we’ve suggested that we need to critique carefully the examples of leadership that we see around us. We need to seek to understand Leader-SHIP before we begin to encourage the development of leaders. Our development of leaders will marry together an understanding of leadership with the personality and giftings of each person. Then we suggested that leadership has many names and faces – but the common factor is that it arises from, and engages with, community.
We opened this series by pointing out that most leadership understanding focuses on strong individuals. Again, we have to realise that this model is drawn from places other than the Scriptures.
There is a clear pattern in the Scriptures pointing towards understanding leadership in the context of teams.
Let’s briefly look at that pattern.
We have a Triune God: There is one God in three persons. Father, Son and Holy Spirit who are inseparable. They are different Persons, not three different ways of looking at God. While the three members of the Trinity are distinct, this does not mean that any is inferior to the other. Instead, they are all identical in attributes. They are equal in power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge and all other qualities. The Trinity is actually indispensable, not just to our understanding of leadership, but to our understanding of Christian Education; indeed, the whole of life!
After the creation of Adam, God says: “It is not good (beneficial) for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper [one who balances him—a counterpart who is] suitable and complementary for him.”[1]
We need to note that this is God’s idea and plan not Adam’s. Some people think that Adam was lonely and yearned for a partner. (Some even suggest that God was lonely and created people to satisfy His aloneness!). We cannot read that into the Scriptures. It is likely that Adam was fully satisfied in his relationship with God. It is God who plans that humanity will be plural, that His created humans will reflect the communal nature of the Triune God.
These are deep things that we must seek to understand – they provide the basis of our thinking, relating and actions in life.[2]
Blessings
Brian
[1] Genesis 2:18 Amplified Bible
[2] Read Michael Reeves (2012): Delighting in the Trinity IVP and/or Sam Allberry (2012) Connected IVP