My two favorite subjects!
And we are back at it again!
The Theology of Leadership Journal was a surprising find on our reading list. I did not expect to be reading a brand new leadership journal. But this publication provided a refreshingly eclectic line-up of international leaders, which is I suspect, one of the contributing factors. It was interesting that each article was tied to a particular university, and that each of these authors came from some level of academia. Regent University seemed to have the most representation in the number of articles here.
The Theology of Leadership website is designed to be a meshing of theology and leadership in a way that is accessible and yet honorable to biblical theology. There is a lot of “Christian Leadership” teaching and training out there, but seldom does this training attempt to teach theology, as much as it does teach leadership while just biblical stories as illustrations. Throughout this website there is a mix of articles purely one-sided, some mesh, while some intentionally use one side to inform the other. It’s certainly a blurred line but I think that is an intentional meshing.
Although the website was thin, the content it contained was deep and rich. When I saw the online format I was expecting more of a blog post, to level maybe of which we write in this D.Min group. But they were much longer, more thoroughly researched, and more polished. Perhaps this is something were are to strive for?
The articles covered a good breadth of topics and it was fun reading through the list and guessing the articles that I think my classmates might decide to write their blog on. After spending a year writing together and becoming more familiar with each others dissertations, I had a few pretty good guesses.
I’m not sure If I chosen a predictable article to focus on or not, but the article I wanted to meditate longer on was Authentic Leadership Theory: Enhancements from 1 Peter 5:1-5 by Daniel B. Holmquist. Holmquist decides to study and dissect what is known as Authentic Leadership Theory (ALT) and see how it compares to that of a biblical model of leadership. Holmquist brings up Authentic Leadership Theory which is based around four main attributes: self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing, and internalized moral perspective.[1] This leadership style that Holmquist describes immediately gave me the same feel that Chris Lowney wrote about in Heroic Leadership. For those who were not as infatuated with this book as I was, Lowney’s four pillars of the Jesuits were ingenuity, heroism, love, and self-awareness.[2] You can see a similar correlation between Lowney’s four virtues of the Jesuits and Holmquist’s four attributes of Authentic Leadership Theory.
Self-awareness = self-awareness
Relational transparency = love
Internalized moral perspective = heroism
balanced processing = Ingenuity
The last one might be a bit of a stretch. But nonetheless what was undoubtedly an alignment between these two ideas was that both of these authors talked about virtues and inner qualities and not just theory, skills, paradigms or core values.
In regards to the actual biblical explanation represented in this study, I give Holmquist a solid A! I love hermeneutical study, I love leadership principles taken from the Bible and I love that this article took the time to walk you through the exegesis and it particular format of steps it was going to take, instead of just jumping right to it’s principles.
This passage in 1 Peter 5 is not a surprising passage to focus on a leadership. It is addressed to the elders of the church and shows it has implications to those who are placed under the care of the church and it has impact on the amount of influence a person can hold.
Holmquist brings good history and exegesis into the piece. A few times however he is describing what life and work was like when Peter was writing this letter, and says things like, “In the first-century Mediterranean world, domineering leadership would have been common and involved a strong lust for power, flaunting it, and gaining more and more of it.”[3] I was a little perplexed by a statement like this, because that certainly seems to be just as true today.
Holmquist’s explanation of the word younger was especially helpful to me. (Yeah, I’ll go ahead and play my Millennial card here.) Holmquist says,
“The meaning of the terms “younger” (5:5) and “elders” (5:1) depends on the context because they are not simply used for designating age but also position or status. Achtemeier (1996) reviewed three possible relationships between the persons designated by Peter (younger in the faith, younger in age, and younger as referencing the congregation) and concluded that while these are not mutually exclusive categories, most likely Peter was using younger to refer to the rest of the congregation. Elliott’s (2001) scholarly opinion is that in 5:5, “younger” refers to the relationship to the “elders” in the sense of church leadership. Those who are younger are those who do not have authority in the church; they are to be subject to the elders and should be supportive of them and their decisions (Heb 13:7, 17).”
After a surprisingly brief exegesis the whole tone of Holmquist changes drastically as he begins to breakdown the pieces of Authentic Leadership Theory. Homlquist takes another brief run through the description of ALT and spends the last of this essay in the heart of what he is trying to say, which is, how do these two ideas are complement each other. Holmquist actually says that by using 1 Peter 5:1-5 one can arrive at a “more rubust” development of ALT.[4] Specifically, this is how the word of God elevates the ALT theory, “ALT focuses upon leaders and their authentic seeking of personal and social identification from their group members, but Peter focused upon leaders in much deeper personal relationships and commitment to shared community with their followers; and (b) ALT demonstrates an almost exclusive internal orientation of leadership, but Peter incorporated both external and internal orientations for leadership.”[5]
This makes me wonder if there are other philosophies or principles that are already strong, but could be elevated and sharpened by being orientated around God. Adding a fear or God alongside Christian call of embracing Christ’s suffering could potentially redefine many already good leadership principles. All truth is God’s truth after all. The downside of this is eisegesis and taking the word of God to try and strength your own human ideas. I don’t think this is the case with Holmquist, but its something that every interpreter should be aware of suspicious of themselves doing.
Overall I was very impressed with the description of and combination of theology and leadership that meshed within this article. I am however not enticed to keep reading. I would not be a subscriber to this journal, as I don’t think it’s answering a need of my life. I think this is because I find myself looking for different things in different moments. I am either looking for theology or leadership, and never am aware of a moment when I am looking for an answer for both. Perhaps this should not be though.
Works cited.
Lowney, Chris. Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2005.
Homlquist, Daniel. “Authentic Leadership Theory.” Theology of Leadership Journal, March 30, 2018.
[1] Daniel Homlquist, “Authentic Leadership Theory,” Theology of Leadership Journal, March 30, 2018.
[2] Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World(Chicago: Loyola Press, 2005), .
s.ch others dissertations, I hadinciples. All truth i erent things in different moments.hristians.ch others dissertations, I had
[3] Daniel Homlquist, “Authentic Leadership Theory,” Theology of Leadership Journal, March 30, 2018, 91.
[4] Daniel Homlquist, “Authentic Leadership Theory,” Theology of Leadership Journal, March 30, 2018, 94.
[5] Daniel Homlquist, “Authentic Leadership Theory,” Theology of Leadership Journal, March 30, 2018, 94.
7 responses to “My two favorite subjects!”
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Really solid post, Kyle. I especially am grateful for how you integrated the article on 1 Peter with Lowney’s “Heroic Leadership” book. The correlation between the virtues of the Jesuits and the ALT was striking to me, and a good reminder for my leadership as well.
Hey Kyle!
Loved your connection of authentic leadership to our prior study of the best practices of the Jesuits. Well done! I smiled when you played the millennial card…
What I appreciated most about your writing, however, was your honesty in the final paragraph. I understand where you are coming from and I respect your thoughts. To be honest, I don’t do enough journal reading on either leadership or theology, but I would certainly be open to any suggestions you have.
Jay
Kyle,
Hi friend. I missed you and the rest of the LGP8 team. I like the way you summarized this week’s reading and the “blurred line” of international leadership themes. I think that is the reason this book in on our list. It helps us stretch and expand our leadership knowledge base while focusing on a few that might deepen our personal leadership practices.
I liked your examination of the “younger” and “elder” contexts and applications in 1 Peter 5. I personally feel very “young” in the Word even though I just turned 60 last month!
See you in HK.
Stand firm,
M. Webb
Hey Kyle, I appreciate your warning about the risk of applying scripture to human ideas. It really bugs me when pastors proof text their own ideas and call it exegesis. Ugh. FUnny that theology and leadership are “two of your favorite things” and yet, you wouldn’t subscribe to this journal. I wonder who their target audience is!
i was surprised by this myself!
Kyle, great post! I have seen some interesting studies on the relationship of the “elders” of the Old Testament Israelite people and the established “eldership” of the New Testament church. It is Paul’s teaching to Timothy I believe that turned age into an age+wisdom quality that seems to be more encouraged today. I have known way too many “elderly” people that you would definitely not want leading your church just because they were older than everyone else.
I have wondered if the corrupt nature of the church leaders in the time of Christ and the apostles prompted a redefining of who should be leading; apparently those in charge were too focused on money and corruption of the law to their own benefit, so things had to change.
Kyle,
Hey buddy, good to be back with you. Thanks for this post, and I would generally agree with you about this Journal. A “new thing”, and one that will probably need to develop and grow to figure out exactly what it is trying to do, and what the unique contribution will be.