Leadership Lessons in the Bible
The Bible offers numerous examples of powerful leadership personalities and manifestations of qualities that are relevant to all areas of our human endeavors today, whether in the corporate world, the church, the civil service etc. This article will look at how those leadership qualities apply to our present conditions and how those examples can be harnessed by leaders of our day for the good of humanity.
In Acts 3:1-7 we read: Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and angle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
In this story we see a typical situation where leadership had to be demonstrated to deal with harsh reality. This caliber of leaders approached the situation radically from the way others had been dealing with it by constantly giving alms. Let’s look at their approach.
Firstly when they are approached for help as true leaders they are not fearful to say ‘look on us’ because they know that they have been exemplary. One of the attributes of true leadership is the ability to be safely copied – that means whatever a leader does he should be a safe model for those who are looking. In this case Peter and John were bold to indicate to the one to be led that he should look at them and observe examples.
The second attribute found in this scripture is that while the Man had learned from the past to ask for alms, true leaders break the dependency cycle. True leaders empower the led to learn to live on their own without perpetual dependence on others. You see! Perpetual showering of people with charity leads to perpetual dependence as they fail to act on their own behalf because of a continual expectation of charity.
Former Zimbabwean president Canaan Banana has expressed that thought beautifully in his poem entitled ‘Liberating Love’ in which he says “When we were slaves, we spoke as slaves; we understood as slaves, we thought as slaves: but as we became free, we cast off the chains of servitude”. On this note the man at the Beautiful Gate was a slave to lameness and indeed when he was finally released from slavery he cast off chains of servitude. So he was empowered by Peter and John to become useful to himself and society which is what leaders should empower people to do. Banana in his treatise continues to say “‘the people have suffered long: charity serves barely to keep them alive. But charity by itself defuses the will of the people to act’.
Indeed charity defuses the will of the people to act. This is evident in the attitude of the West in their dealings with Africa and the Third World. We have been receiving alms for many years from the West without altering the conditions that confine us to slavery and poverty and this has defused the will of the people to act on their own behalf to deal with their situation therefore they are confined to perpetual slavery of dependence on the West for everything - this situation disadvantages Africans and the third World and leaves the West taking advantage of us.
Now because of this poor parasitic leadership of the West we are always expecting alms instead of taking action to castoff the chains of servitude. The alms of the west confine us to poverty and exploitation by the very ones who are offering us alms. Those alms come with packaged actions and solutions to our problems formulated by our masters without our participation. How do you help people without asking what they need if your idea is to help them out of a dire situation? This is why these donations have not helped us out of poverty for many years. The so called International Donor Organizations are continually offering alms but poverty has not left us an inch. This is a very exploitative leadership style meant to confine us to lives of shame and suffering.
On the other hand Africans have internalized this culture of donations and alms and they have become content with it. They are constantly asking the West for donations for everything even where they can do things for themselves. As a result our actions are donor motivated and we seem to have no choice because of the alms that come with strong strings attached. This is intended, purposeful leadership of the West which differs with the kind of leadership we are studying here. Indeed Banana was right because our continual begging for alms and the continual offering of alms by the West has defused the will of the people to act. According to the passage we have read true leaders will empower someone to be able to become useful to himself and society rather than to keep offering alms which manage barely to keep people alive.
In the passage from the book of Acts when the lame man responded to the call to stand up and accept the offer of empowerment he was helped on his feet by these powerful leaders. In other words true leaders will help lift up those under their care instead of confining them to a life of helplessness and continual begging of alms. It means you don’t just empower aimlessly but you ensure that your empowerment has the effect intended. The response of the receiver of empowerment should be in such a way as to indicate that he is willing to have his life transformed for the better – that one is willing to forsake a life of confinement to perpetual begging; that shows that the will to act has not been defused as is the case with many who have received body and mind numbing alms.
True leaders will elevate the lives of the people to be equal with them in terms of their relationship with God and the capacity to live a fulfilling and useful life as evidenced by a man who is empowered to jump and praise the Lord and serve Him a manner that may even exceed that of the benefactors. True leaders replicate themselves in others in order to propagate an unending legacy of their leadership even beyond the borders of their immediate personal sphere of influence. In that way their influence will snowball abroad even where they cannot reach.
The Bible offers numerous examples of powerful leadership personalities and manifestations of qualities that are relevant to all areas of our human endeavors today, whether in the corporate world, the church, the civil service etc. This article will look at how those leadership qualities apply to our present conditions and how those examples can be harnessed by leaders of our day for the good of humanity.
In Acts 3:1-7 we read: Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and angle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
In this story we see a typical situation where leadership had to be demonstrated to deal with harsh reality. This caliber of leaders approached the situation radically from the way others had been dealing with it by constantly giving alms. Let’s look at their approach.
Firstly when they are approached for help as true leaders they are not fearful to say ‘look on us’ because they know that they have been exemplary. One of the attributes of true leadership is the ability to be safely copied – that means whatever a leader does he should be a safe model for those who are looking. In this case Peter and John were bold to indicate to the one to be led that he should look at them and observe examples.
The second attribute found in this scripture is that while the Man had learned from the past to ask for alms, true leaders break the dependency cycle. True leaders empower the led to learn to live on their own without perpetual dependence on others. You see! Perpetual showering of people with charity leads to perpetual dependence as they fail to act on their own behalf because of a continual expectation of charity.
Former Zimbabwean president Canaan Banana has expressed that thought beautifully in his poem entitled ‘Liberating Love’ in which he says “When we were slaves, we spoke as slaves; we understood as slaves, we thought as slaves: but as we became free, we cast off the chains of servitude”. On this note the man at the Beautiful Gate was a slave to lameness and indeed when he was finally released from slavery he cast off chains of servitude. So he was empowered by Peter and John to become useful to himself and society which is what leaders should empower people to do. Banana in his treatise continues to say “‘the people have suffered long: charity serves barely to keep them alive. But charity by itself defuses the will of the people to act’.
Indeed charity defuses the will of the people to act. This is evident in the attitude of the West in their dealings with Africa and the Third World. We have been receiving alms for many years from the West without altering the conditions that confine us to slavery and poverty and this has defused the will of the people to act on their own behalf to deal with their situation therefore they are confined to perpetual slavery of dependence on the West for everything - this situation disadvantages Africans and the third World and leaves the West taking advantage of us.
Now because of this poor parasitic leadership of the West we are always expecting alms instead of taking action to castoff the chains of servitude. The alms of the west confine us to poverty and exploitation by the very ones who are offering us alms. Those alms come with packaged actions and solutions to our problems formulated by our masters without our participation. How do you help people without asking what they need if your idea is to help them out of a dire situation? This is why these donations have not helped us out of poverty for many years. The so called International Donor Organizations are continually offering alms but poverty has not left us an inch. This is a very exploitative leadership style meant to confine us to lives of shame and suffering.
On the other hand Africans have internalized this culture of donations and alms and they have become content with it. They are constantly asking the West for donations for everything even where they can do things for themselves. As a result our actions are donor motivated and we seem to have no choice because of the alms that come with strong strings attached. This is intended, purposeful leadership of the West which differs with the kind of leadership we are studying here. Indeed Banana was right because our continual begging for alms and the continual offering of alms by the West has defused the will of the people to act. According to the passage we have read true leaders will empower someone to be able to become useful to himself and society rather than to keep offering alms which manage barely to keep people alive.
In the passage from the book of Acts when the lame man responded to the call to stand up and accept the offer of empowerment he was helped on his feet by these powerful leaders. In other words true leaders will help lift up those under their care instead of confining them to a life of helplessness and continual begging of alms. It means you don’t just empower aimlessly but you ensure that your empowerment has the effect intended. The response of the receiver of empowerment should be in such a way as to indicate that he is willing to have his life transformed for the better – that one is willing to forsake a life of confinement to perpetual begging; that shows that the will to act has not been defused as is the case with many who have received body and mind numbing alms.
True leaders will elevate the lives of the people to be equal with them in terms of their relationship with God and the capacity to live a fulfilling and useful life as evidenced by a man who is empowered to jump and praise the Lord and serve Him a manner that may even exceed that of the benefactors. True leaders replicate themselves in others in order to propagate an unending legacy of their leadership even beyond the borders of their immediate personal sphere of influence. In that way their influence will snowball abroad even where they cannot reach.
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