MIDWESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

LEADERSHIP MANIFESTO

A REPORT

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE

MN 5410 CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP

BY

CLAYTON MILLER

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

DECEMBER 5, 2020
 Introduction

When you think of a leader what images come to your head? Are they of people like

Braveheart charging into battle with soldiers? Or is it of a bad school principal that was harsh on

their students? The concept of leadership has brought about many thoughts of what a leader is

that make the definition of leadership and even Christian leadership ambiguous. I believe the

definition of Christian leadership is taking initiative for the glory of God and the betterment of

others. This definition of leadership is in a sense a doing of the two Great Commandments in

Matthew 22:37-40. Christian leadership is a driving force in the Church today and is very

impactful to Christians. In this paper, I will be discussing what Christian leadership entails and

my plan of how I intend on pursuing it for the rest of my life.

I: What is Christian Leadership?

Examples of Christian Leadership

There are many examples of Christians who have embodied leadership throughout the

Scriptures and the history of Christ’s Church. These Christians have lived their lives in a manner

that brings the definition of Christian leadership to life. Through their God-honoring actions,

they have become known for their faithful leadership. In the following pages, I will examine four

Christians that are prime examples of the maxims of a leader, honoring God in their lives and

loving others through their actions. These four leaders are Moses, David, Paul, and Jesus.

One cannot divide the essence of leadership and Moses. Throughout his life Moses

displayed a marvelous ability to lead God’s people through calamity and chaos; whether it be the

ten plagues that God used to strike Egypt or the forty years of leading Israel in the wilderness

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Moses was a bright light of God’s guiding hand. Having grown up in Pharaoh’s court there is no

doubt that Moses was trained and taught by many well-learned men. It is stated in Acts 7:22,

“Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and

deeds.”1 It is amid a life of splendor and pleasure that God calls Moses to do His will. God used

Moses to rescue His people out of the hands of Egyptian slavery and to lead them to the

Promised Land. This task was not easy but with the help of God, Moses was able to lead

confidently through trials and tribulations.

Another biblical figure that stands out as a godly leadership figure is David. A young

musical shepherd that God developed into a king of Israel through various tribulations David

would overcome for example he would battle and defeat the giant Goliath, survive being

persecuted by King Saul. David was a strong leader of Israel but he was not without his faults.

His major downfall was having an affair with Bathsheba and murdering her wife (insert name) to

cover his sin up. David sought repentance from the Lord after David’s son died from righteous

justice from God. Through all the highs of righteousness and the lows of sinfulness David is still

known for his character as being “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14) and for the

leadership he displayed.

Another great example of a Christian leader is the apostle Paul. Before he became a

Christian Paul was an enemy of the faith, one who would persecute and murder Christians. But

after his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus Paul lived his life in a way that put

Christ in front of any other thing in his life. Paul led three missionary journeys that consisted of

visiting numerous places from Jerusalem to Rome. On these missions, he would preach to the

people the Gospel and would help the new Christians starting a new church.

Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version (ESV)
1

(Wheaton: Crossway, 2005).

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 Further examples of Christians displaying great leadership are also found outside of the

Scriptures within the Church. People throughout Church history have displayed great leadership

such as great pastors like Charles Spurgeon and Johnathan Edwards, bold missionaries like St.

Patrick and Charlotte Moon, and leaders of the reformation like Martin Luther and John Calvin.

These people have should great capacity to lead for the glory of God and the good of others.

There are also many great leaders of the Church that are alive today, some of which may even be

in your church.

But out of every leader that has existed, there has only been one man who has

exemplified leadership, this being Jesus Christ. Jesus lived his life without the sin that these

other leaders struggled with. He led His disciples through his three years on ministry with a

leadership akin to no one else. This was possible not only through his sinlessness but also

through his connection with the Father.

Principles of Christian Leadership

When one examines these examples of leadership and the ones in our everyday life, we

find some underline qualities and actions that almost all these leaders take part in. Whether it is

character qualities like bravery or confidence or physical actions like discipline, these leaders

share a lot in common. In this section, we will discuss a couple of important attributes and

actions that Christian leaders take and how these things look like in practice. This is not an

exhaustive list but a highlight of key qualities and actions of a leader.

Character Qualities

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 The first quality that Christian leaders possess is being filled with the Spirit. According to

Sanders, this is “to be controlled by the Spirit. The Christian leader’s mind, emotions, will, and

physical strength all become available for the Spirit to guide and use.”2 Christian leaders rely

upon God for their plans. They plan for the Lord and with the Lord’s guidance. A leader knows

that his position is not of his own doing but God’s. For a Christian leader to enact any plan or

action without first seeking God’s help has not succeeded in relying on the Lord.

The second quality that Christian leaders possess is humility. A Christian without

humility is a Christian who does not understand the gospel. On the importance of humility, Ray

Ortland says “Humility is hardwired into reality”3 To be humble is to put others before yourself.

The ultimate example of humility is when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples when the maker

of the universe bent down to wash the feet of His creation.

The third quality that Christian leaders possess is a reverential fear of God. In Welch’s

book When People are Big and God is Small, Welch distinguishes between a terror of God and a

fear of God. Where one leads us to hide from God due to His justice and righteousness, the other

leads to a worship of Him due to His love.4 A leader should live in the reverential fear of God,

live in full realization of the gravity of God’s attributes, and lead in a way that conveys this

knowledge.

The fourth quality of a Christian leader is respectable. Being respectable means to be of

or of high esteem. This is seen in 1 Timothy 3:2 for the qualification of an overseer where Paul

says that one must be above reproach. In Hans Finzel’s book The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders

2
Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer (Chicago: Moody,
2005), 95.
3
Class notes, Master of Divinity, Christian Leadership, Kansas City, MO, August 2020.
4
Edward Welch, When People Are Big And God Is Small: Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and
the Fear of Man (Pittsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1997), 97.

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Make, Hans says that “the most effective and authentic type of leadership is that which belongs

to one’s personhood- respect for the leader.”5 A Christian leader must be viewed by others inside

the Church as respected as well as by those outside the Church.

Now I choose these four qualities, being filled with the Spirit, humility, reverential fear

of God, and being respectable, as a highlight of qualities that a leader must have and not the final

list. There are many more qualities a leader must have, enough that there are multiple lists of

them. There are the qualifications of an elder and deacons in 1 Timothy 3. In Oswald Sanders’s

book Spiritual Leadership, he lists a total of 19 qualities of a Christian leader.

Disciplines

The first discipline that every Christian leader should have is a daily devotional time to

the Lord. This devotional time is usually a time of prayer and reading/studying the Word. A

devotional time is important for a leader because it helps one come to God for help and counsel.

Christ set the example for us on the night before He was arrested by Judas and the Jews in the

Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus planned to pray all night to seek God’s guidance and comfort

before Jesus was to be crucified. He told His disciples to stay up with Him and pray but they fell

away to sleep. This fervor for a connection with God in your everyday life should be a mainstay

in the Christian leader’s life.

The second discipline that every Christian leader should have is diligent time

management. In Ephesians 5:15-16, Paul tells the church in Ephesus to, “Look carefully then

how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are

evil.” In this passage, Paul shows us that we are to use our time in the best way we can. Christian

leaders use their time to the best of their ability to further the gospel and to guide the people they
5
Hans Finzel, Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make (Colorado Springs, David C. Cook, 2007) 32

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lead. Jesus’s life is the best example of time never wasted. He lived His life fully to the Father’s

will, none of His actions were outside of what the Father intended for Him.

The third discipline that every Christian leader should possess is the habit of reviewing

their actions related to their stated goal for leading. For a leader to pursue their goals in a way

that keeps their efforts on course with their plan they must review the actions they take. If you

set out to bake a cake and you end up with a pizza, something went wrong. A leader must reflect

on the plan they have and view the actions they are taking to change or shift them to fit the

original vision.

II: How Do I Intend To Pursue Christian Leadership For A Lifetime?

Things I should be doing to grow as a Christian leader

In this second half of the paper, I will discuss how I intend to implement what I have

learned from this class this semester into my life. I will look to change my character and actions

for the betterment of myself, of those around me, and the Lord to use me in the way that He has

planned for me. I intend to develop and grow in the qualities and habits that a leader must have

to sufficiently serve God that I do not have. After I list the things that I wish to improve and

implement into my life I will give a plan of how I intend to make these changes.

I Must Develop and Grow in Leadership Qualities

One quality that I must grow in is being filled with the Spirit. I feel that I have not but my

whole trust in God recently. I have looked to my power to plan or change things when I should

always be looking to Christ to find the answers. I feel that I have not wholly given my life to

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God and His will, still holding on to a part of my life for my selfish pride and gain. I must realize

that my life is nothing without Christ at the helm of my life. In Acts 20:24 where Paul is giving

his farewells to the Ephesian church, he says this about his life, “I consider my life of no value to

me, if only I may finish my course and finish the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus- the

ministry of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” I must develop a mind like Paul’s to

grow in the works that God has set before me and to develop as a leader.

Another quality that I must grow in is discipline. I lack discipline in many areas of my

life, whether it be anything from a daily schedule or a fixed time for devotions. I have always

sought discipline as a worthy trait but as much as I try to develop this virtue I fall short every

time. I have found that I must move towards discipline in every area of my life because if

something were to change in my life I would have a fixed response to those changes. I wish to

have the discipline that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 where he says, “Every athlete

exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an

imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my

body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” I

seek to be someone who disciplines everything in my life for the advancement of the Gospel and

for the sake of those I will lead.

I Must Develop and Grow in Leadership Habits

One habit that I must develop is a regular devotional time. It seems I have gone my entire

life without a time of devotion to the Lord. I have tried and failed many times in the past to

develop this habit, but it has never stayed. I know the value of this time with God, but I have

never pushed myself to start doing it. I want my devotional time to be a very important part of

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my day. Important enough that if I do not do it, I would feel that I am forgetting something. I

wish to have a solid time of prayer before and after I read my Bible each day.

Another habit that I must develop is regularly reviewing my actions. I have wanted to

develop this habit since I heard that people like Benjamin Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt did

this every day. Ben Franklin would ask himself in the morning, “What good will I do today?”

and in the evening, “What good have I done today?” I wish to implement this type of daily

review of my life with the context of the Christian life. I also want to be in the habit of thinking

about this thought throughout the day and before important actions or choices.

My Plan

Now I intend to lay out a plan to further my development of these qualities and habits for

the future of my ministry and the Church. I will intend on implementing the six key relationships

of a leader that was introduced to me during the second leadership project with Mr. Dodd. I

intend on getting people to be these six relationships with me so that I can not only prevent

myself from falling short in my future leadership roles but also to build me up and grow for the

Church. These six relationships are a boss, a trainer, a couch, a counselor, a mentor, and friends.

With these relationships in my life, I will work with them to develop and push myself.

After finding these six or more people to fill these roles in my life I will use their

encouragement to help develop the habits that I need to develop for Christian leadership. I intend

to start a daily devotional time with the Lord through prayer and Scripture reading. I also intend

to start giving myself the question, “What will I do to advance Christ today?” after my devotions

to start my day with the right goals. At the end of my day, I will ask myself, “What have I done

to advance Christ today?” This will help me to reflect on my day and to help me find out how

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well I did to fulfill what I intended on doing that day. My mentor and trainer will be keeping me

accountable through these endeavors so that I do not fall short of keeping these habits.

Through these relationships, I will also develop the character qualities that a leader needs

to be a Christian leader. Through the encouragement of these roles in my life, I will develop a

sense of discipline for my life. I will try to be disciplined in all the habits that I will form and

through the type of person I want to be. I also want to feel filled with the Spirit, that God is in

full control of my life. I intend to develop the character qualities that make a Christian leader

throughout my life through these relationships and their encouragement.

I intend to keep these key relationships throughout my entire life. Without these roles

being a concrete thing in my life there is a good chance that I might fall back on myself and lose

the progress that I made in becoming a Christian leader. I also intend to replace these roles if the

person wishes to no longer help or cannot help anymore. I intend on these roles being a great part

of my development for my life.

Whenever I graduate and take a leadership position in a church, I intend on analyzing the

church that I join through the framework set out in Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck’s book Designed

to Lead. I will look at my church from the conviction, culture, and constructs level. I will try to

work from the ground up starting with the base convictions of the church. Whether the church

shares the same convictions as me and the Bible are a big part of church life. After I have

examined their convictions I will look to see if the surrounding culture matches their base

convictions. If their church culture does not match their beliefs, then that church needs to change.

Once I have examined both the convictions and culture of the church, I will look at the constructs

and systems of the church to see if they work themselves and if they match with their convictions

and culture.

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 During my time as a leader in this church, I intend on using the knowledge that I learned

from Hans Finzel’s book Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. Two things that I want to implement

in my leadership at the church is a delegation of tasks as well as a program to bring up

successors. I want to work on the skill of delegating so that when I delegate tasks to people in the

church, they will not have a problem getting the job done. The other thing I want to do is find a

way to bring about a successor for me and other leaders when their time of leading has come to

an end.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we have looked at what Christian leadership is and examples of Christian

leaders throughout history. We looked at the aspects and disciplines a Christian leader possesses

and how this impacts their leadership. Then we looked at my plan to develop the character

qualities and habits of a leader. As well as how I intend to implement the six key relationships of

a leader in my life. Christian leadership is something very important to me and the Church as a

whole. I intend for Christian leadership to be something that is prominent in my life as goes on.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Finzel, Hans. The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007.

Geiger, Eric, Kevin Peck. Designed to Lead: The Church and Leadership Development.
Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2016.

Sanders, Oswald. Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer. Chicago:
Moody, 2007.

Welch, Edward. When People Are Big And God Is Small. Pittsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed,
1997.

The Holy Bible. English Standard Version (ESV), Wheaton, Crossway: 2011.

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