Leadership Gifts

In preparation for teaching a master’s level course on the Foundations of Christian Leadership for the Caribbean School of Theology in Jamaica (sorry, no room in my suitcase), there are a number of excellent books and journals I have been reading. C. Gene Wilkes writes the following in his book Jesus on Leadership:

“The Bible mentions two leadership gifts in its representative lists of spiritual gifts. Those are the gifts of leadership (Romans 12:8) and administration (I Corinthians 12:28). Leadership comes from the context of the Greek politic. It means to stand in front of the assembly. Members with this leadership gift serve the church as those who stand in front of the assembled church and call the people to a common vision and goal. The leadership gift empowers members to help others see which hill to take. If this gift were a body part, it would be an eye. This gift fits the model of the leader as pioneer.

The second leadership gift in the church is administration. This gift does not mean that the person is organized. The meaning of this gift comes from the context of shipping in the ancient world. This person was the ‘steersman or pilot’ of the boat or ship. He was the helmsman. The pilot guided the ship t the chosen coordinates. He was most valued in times of storm. This gift is separated from apostle, prophet, and teacher, which implies that administration is not a speaking gift but a gift that provides direction and guidance. This gift would be the second eye in the body made up of many parts. With two eyes of leadership, one to see which hill to take and the other to see the way up the hill, a church can move forward in a unified way. This gift would fit Peter Senge’s model of ‘leader as designer.’”

We struggle with this because we want these ‘two’ distinctly different gifts to be resident in one person. Scripture does not support this concept . . .    Every congregation MUST have a team of leaders or the result will be the death of the organization and death for the solo leader.