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With everything that is going on in the world today, a lot of attention has been placed on our leaders, both nationally and locally. How should we look at our leaders, and do you think it’s changed the way we view leadership?
When the world unravels at the pace and level that we have seen it unravel, leaders can seem weaker and less potent. During this time, I think leaders must step up and learn to lead in different ways.
We live in a society that is ordained by God and the government is ordained by God. It is imperfect and our leaders are imperfect, but we are to pray for them and work through it. Now is not the time to throw rocks at everyone, but a time to find common ground in our faith and in our institutions that God ordained for us.
We need to double down. We need to pray for our leaders. We need to take leadership into our own hands and our own homes and do the best job that we can.
How do effective leaders navigate in times like this?
The first thing that we need to look for is humility and the ability to shift direction. Nobody has all of the answers to the questions we are facing. In a biblical sense, I think leaders need to look for their prophets, and for mentors they can consult with.
What we see today are leaders who are reaching out to medical experts, local government, military, and front-line personnel for insight into how to attack both the COVID-19 virus and the economy. We need to be as patient and as prayerful as we can for leaders.
Often, leaders are faced with what seems like a lose-lose situation. We’ve seen it as our leaders decide whether to open the economy up and save jobs or potentially risk people’s lives by lessening social distancing. These are situations where leaders are at almost impossible odds and they have to make decisions. You want leaders to be decisive, but you also want to know that those leaders have been prayerful and consulted the scriptures for context on how to handle what we are dealing with today.
We have the best example for leadership in Jesus. Can you touch on some of the qualities that he demonstrated that maybe we’re not seeing in leadership today?
We see several different great qualities in Jesus’ leadership. The first instance and the inspiration for the title of the book, Leading from Our Knees, is when Jesus was choosing his 12 disciples from among the apostles. We don’t really know how Jesus arrived at his decision, but we do know what he did prior to making the decision. He went onto a mountain and he prayed all night. We don’t know how Jesus came to that point — was it a revelation from God or the Holy Spirit? However, we do know that what led to that decision was fervent prayer.
We see times when Jesus reluctantly gave up power because he was asked. His mother, Mary, asked him to perform his first miracle and he told her, “my time has not yet come.” But he honored his mother and her wishes by turning water to wine at the wedding.
We also see Jesus in times when he is silent. He was silent when questioned by Pontius Pilate, and when he was in front of the Pharisees he reached down and wrote in the sand. He knew when to lead in silence and when to lead in a sense of cleansing the temple.
Jesus also demonstrated how to yield to the will of God, even when he knew his journey was going to be unpleasant. Our leaders today know that the journey for many is going to be very unfortunate. We are going to lose lives. We’re losing fortunes. We’re losing businesses and jobs, but in the midst of all that, people still have to lead.
When all that you have is stripped away, you still need to rejoice. We have to look for new mercies each morning. Leaders now need to bring out the hope that new mercies and new beginnings can take place right here in front of us in the world. Even in the situation today, be faithful.
