Lesson 9 of 11 · Chapter: Leadership
Leading Toward Flourishing
Lesson 8 said expect evil. This lesson asks how you lead, and follow, when the world bites back. Chapell opens with a wry story about a president and a nuclear briefcase, then hands us Paul's compact manual in 1 Thessalonians 5. The goal of leadership, it turns out, is not success. It is flourishing.
The story that frames the chapter
An interviewer once gathered the eight former military aides who had taken turns guarding the "football" for President Reagan, the attaché case that never leaves the president's side because it carries the nuclear launch codes. Reagan was known for his humor, so the aides smiled at the question: "What did the president say when people asked him what was in that case?"
They replied, "He always said the same thing. 'Inside there's a red button and a green button. The red button launches the nuclear weapons, and the green button averts the launch.' Then he would pause, look quizzical, and ask, 'Or is it the other way around?'" The story reminds us there are as many styles of leaders as there are responsibilities of leadership. So what actually makes a biblical one?
The surprise: it starts with you, not the leader
Chapell looked at all the leadership books on his shelves and went weak in the knees. Drucker says leaders work hard and see their position as responsibility, not privilege. Myron Rush says a true leader must be willing to stand alone. Others add: master your emotions, strive for the best, maintain balance. The list could run forever, and no one has the complete package.
So Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15, does something unexpected. He does not start with the qualifications of leaders. He starts with the obligations of everyone toward their leaders: "Respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord." If we want good leaders, our first duty is to respect the ones God has put in place.
Chapell loves riding through a military gate with his officer brother, because the guards salute. They are not saluting the person, or even his qualities, but the insignia. Organizations cannot function without respect for the office. Paul even coins a brand-new Greek word, jamming three verbs into one, to say we should "super-hyper esteem" our leaders. Daniel showed it to the tyrant Nebuchadnezzar, calling him "my lord" even while urging him to repent. The enslaved Israelite girl showed it to Naaman, her Syrian captor, by pointing him to the prophet who could heal him. Respect and courageous compassion, together.
If you lead: labor, among, over
Now Paul turns to leaders themselves, in three loaded words. First, labor: the Greek word means to work almost to the point of exhaustion. Leaders expend themselves for others. Second, "among you": biblical leaders do not let hard work isolate them. It is not just about your promotion. Leadership exists for the benefit of others. The Reformers called this the priesthood of believers; John Calvin would sit among his congregation on a common chair before ascending the pulpit, to show the preacher is one of the people.
Third, "over you in the Lord": the Greek carries the notion of shepherding, guarding, caring. Authority exists for the good of the led, never for self. And it is exercised "in the Lord," representing his character. That is why Christian leadership is uniquely painful. William Willimon, a church executive, put it bluntly: a real leader "induces pain, the pain the organization has been studiously avoiding." Any organization can run down as it is. The leader's calling is to stretch it beyond its present limits, which someone in it is always studiously protecting. That takes union with Christ, or it will crush you or crush those you lead.
Check your understanding
Where does Paul begin his instruction about leadership in 1 Thessalonians 5?
Admonish the idle
Then comes the uncomfortable word. Leaders are also called to admonish (1 Thess. 5:12), from the Greek noutheteo, "to set the mind." Because leaders care, they work to reorient hearts and habits toward what is good. Paul is blunt elsewhere: "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat" (2 Thess. 3:10). Consequences. Nobody enjoys it.
Chapell lived this as a new dean of faculty, supervising former peers and even former professors. He lost sleep over a beloved colleague who would not do his job despite admonishments, instructions, and reprimands. Finally the organization's president told him, "Bryan, don't you believe God can put that man in a position appropriate for his gifts? It is not loving to keep someone in a position to which God has not called him." In that moment Chapell realized the person he was most trying to protect was himself. He did not want the pain of disciplining a friend. It isn't loving to keep someone in a role for which God did not make them. Biblical admonishment requires confidence in God's continued care more than in others' continued approval.
Check your understanding
Why does Paul say leaders must sometimes admonish and discipline?
Encourage, help, be patient
But leadership is not all admonishment. Paul adds three more verbs. Encourage the fainthearted, literally the "small-souled," whose pressures have shrunk their faith or joy. Help the weak, who need training, resources, a coach, or support. And be patient with them all (1 Thess. 5:14), giving people time to change. Our patience reflects the God who is "slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love" (Ex. 34:6). The whole package, admonish through encourage, is one process: clarify expectations, warn of consequences, offer help, reevaluate, and where needed begin again.
Pull it all together and you see the goal. Brian Fikkert, in When Helping Hurts, defines it: "The goal of human flourishing is to restore people to full expression of humanness, to bring what God created us to be in right relationship with him." Few business schools would describe leadership this way. As believers, our responsibility is to help people come into right relationship with God so they can flourish, now and eternally. That is the aim of every verb in Paul's list.
A faithful presence
Two Christian business owners Chapell knows were being bled by nuisance lawsuits from larger competitors. Their first instinct was hatred, and their employees began blaming every loss on the big firms rather than their own performance. Then the owners recognized that as Christians they had to teach and demonstrate Christ's forgiveness, not just to keep people working, but to reflect Christ's character. "See that no one repays anyone evil for evil" (1 Thess. 5:15). When you forgive, you refuse to let someone else's sin rule your soul.
James Davison Hunter, in To Change the World, asks each leader one question: What is God calling you to do? His answer: be a faithful presence in the place of your profession. Abraham Kuyper said there is not a square inch of human existence over which Christ does not cry, "Mine!" So we say, "In whatever square inch God has assigned me, I will reflect his humility, courage, forgiveness, and patience, and his desire that all should flourish."
Make it real this week
Leadership reframes best when you name your actual people and square inch. These answers save in this browser.
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Where this is going
Leadership asks how you lead. Next we ask what holds it all in proportion. Chapter 10 turns to Balance, and it opens with a child's drawing of a father running out the door, captioned "Hurry, Daddy, hurry!" Chapell builds the chapter on Psalm 127: Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. The heart of it is a single sentence you will carry for years: awe is the antidote to anxiety. Rest and Sabbath are not interruptions to your work; they are the condition of it.