There has not been an assignment that has impacted me more than this one: To blog on a book written about leadership that\u2019s over 300 years old.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why it has been so impactful: 300+ year old history is full of books, but it was surprising to me to discover how difficult it was to find many of them that were written about leadership. Conversely, it was almost too easy to find leadership-focused books written in my lifetime.<\/p>\n
In other words, for thousands of years, relatively few books were written about leadership but in the last few years, there have been thousands of books produced on the topic.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s most astounding to me is that this is a fact not just in general, but it holds true in the Christian world as well. Pastors didn\u2019t seem to be writing books about leadership over 300 years ago. Now it seems to be all we\u2019re writing about.<\/p>\n
As a pastor who earned a BA in Christian leadership, an MA in Leadership-and-Spirituality, and who is closing in on a Doctorate in Leadership and Global Perspectives (if I can finish!), this revelation is a reality check.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m aware that organizational life has changed and become more complex over time, and the need for leadership and management practices has increased. Resources on leadership can be helpful, and even essential. But maybe we\u2019ve gotten out of balance and made leadership itself the main thing.<\/p>\n
But back to the search for ancient leadership texts. When I did an AI search to find 300+ year old books about leadership the usual suspects came up:<\/p>\n
The Prince by Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli (1513), Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (circa 180 AD), The Art of War by Sun Tzu (circa 5th century BC), The Republic by Plato (circa 380 BC).<\/p>\n
I could have blogged on any of these, but my search also suggested The Torah as an ancient leadership resource. Being a Bible guy, I wanted to reflect on that.<\/p>\n
The Bible seems to hold leadership in good tension. It\u2019s full of examples of great and terrible leaders, and it has admonitions for leaders, but it treats leadership as one of many gifts, assignments, and functions that are vital for the church to operate well.<\/p>\n
To get more specific I would point to:<\/p>\n
Nehemiah:<\/strong> This is a great book on leadership told from the perspective of a person who led through personal sacrifice, pain, obstacles, and ridicule.<\/p>\n Joshua:<\/strong> This text is still used today in military leadership training[i], the first part of this book points to battlefield strategies and strong leadership that helps a people turn into a nation.<\/p>\n 1 Samuel:<\/strong> I keep saying I want to write an article or book on the leadership actions of King Saul juxtaposed with David\u2019s leadership heart.\u00a0 But of course, that book has already been written. 1 Samuel provides stark contrast between a leader who is functioning for expediency and one who is surrendered to God.<\/p>\n Acts:<\/strong> Literally the \u201cActs of the Apostles\u201d this book is a fast-paced story of how founding leaders operate as they take the first steps of establishing the most enduring institution in the world, the Church.<\/p>\n Timothy and Titus:<\/strong> While the books mentioned above are leadership lessons in narrative form (no, Patrick Lencioni didn\u2019t make that up), both 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus are letters written specifically to pastor-leaders serving in the context of what we would call today a local network of churches.<\/p>\n Those are all books that could be pointed to as ancient leadership texts, but the book I want to suggest for the purpose of this assignment is Proverbs<\/strong>. Written from a King to his sons (who would be preparing for future leadership), this book that is accepted as wisdom for the general public is actually written for an emerging leader of a nation.<\/p>\n Wisdom about leadership and life is necessary for someone who is, as a simple definition of leadership suggests, guiding and influencing others towards a common vision or goal. This book is about acting wisely, but ultimately gets at the heart of a leader regarding subjects as diverse as overindulgence to the fear of God to friendship to sexual temptation and much, much more.<\/p>\n Whether found in Proverbs or any of the other books (I haven\u2019t even touched on the patriarchs or the prophets or Jesus\u2019 servant-leadership style) the entire Bible could be considered prime content for leadership. One need only remember that one of the \u2018rules\u2019 for Israel\u2019s King\u2019s was that they were to write, in their own hand, the entirety of God\u2019s law and read it daily in order to be a good leader (Deut 17:18-19).<\/p>\n So, leadership IS important in the Bible. But perhaps we leaders have overstated its relative importance and forget that it is one of many gifts and tasks Jesus uses to make up his gloriously diverse body.<\/p>\n