Christian Business Review 2020: Leadership

Christian 

Business Review 

A PUBLICATION OF THE CENTER FOR CHRISTIANITY IN BUSINESS 

ISSUE 9 

ARCHIE W. DUNHAM COLLEGE OF BUSINESS, HOUSTON BAPTIST UNIVERSITY FALL 2020 

IN THIS ISSUE 

4 

8 

14 

26 

35 

Living Cases 

Aligning My Work with My Personal Purpose 

by Robin John 

Spiritual Leadership (Book Excerpt) 

by Henry and Richard Blackaby 

Leading from Within: Modeling Biblical 

Transformation 

by Garrett Lane Cohee and Samuel Voorhies 

What Christian Leaders Can Learn from Lean 

by Andrew Parris and Don Pope 

Christian Leadership and Forgiveness 

by Marjorie Cooper 

43 

Godly Leadership 

by Al Erisman 

LEADERSHIP 

52 

61 

The Quadruple Bottom Line 

by Will Oliver 

Leadership in the Image of God 

by Rick Martinez 

1 

CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEW Fall 2019




ISSUE 9 


PUBLISHERS 

Robert B. Sloan 

Greggory L. Keiffer 

EDITOR 

Ernest P. Liang 

Houston Baptist University 

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

Richard Martinez, North Greenville University 

Darrell Bock, Dallas Theological Seminary 

Robert Bennett 

Georgia Southwestern State University 

Andrew Babyak 

Messiah College 

Michael Cafferky (retired) 

Southern Adventist University 

Marjorie Cooper 

Baylor University 

John Cragin 

Oklahoma Baptist University 

Al Erisman 

Seattle Pacific University 

REVIEW BOARD (2019-2020) 

Timothy Ewest 

Houston Baptist University 

David Gill (retired) 

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary 

Doris Gomez 

Regent University 

David Hagenbuch 

Messiah College 

Lenie Holbrook 

Ohio University 

Blaine McCormick 


Billy Morehead 

Mississippi College 

Walton Padelford (retired) 

Union University 

Yvonne Smith 

University of La Verne 

Jason Stansbury 

Calvin College 

Marty Stuebs 


Michael Weeks 

The Citadel 

Susan Van Weelden 

Redeemer University College 

Michael Wiese 

Point Loma Nazarene University 

The Christian Business Review, Issue 9. Copyright 2020 Houston Baptist University. 

All rights reserved by original authors except as noted. Submissions to this journal 

are welcome. Email us at cbr@hbu.edu or eliang@hbu.edu. To learn about the Center 

for Christianity in Business, please visit www.hbu.edu/ccb. 

Library of Congress Cataloging Data 

Christian business review (Print) ISSN 2334-2862 

Christian business review (Online) (www.hbu.edu/cbrj) ISSN 2334-2854 

DISCLAIMER 

The views expressed in the articles or commentaries in this publication are solely the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Christian 

Business Review, Houston Baptist University (HBU), the HBU Archie W. Dunham College of Business, or the Center for Christianity in Business. 

CENTER FOR CHRISTIANITY IN BUSINESS 

MISSION 

The mission of the CCB is to equip and encourage leaders to carry their faith into organizations by developing and delivering a distinctively Christian 

worldview for business. 

INITIATIVES 

RESEARCH 

Consulting Engagements 

Scholarly Journals 

Research Seminars and Symposia 

Resident Scholars Program For Faith 

and Business Research 

COMMUNICATION 

Speaker Series 

Christian Business Leadership 

Video Series 

Newsletter on Faith and Business 

EDUCATION 

Annual Mentoring Conference 

Executive Education Programs 

1 

CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEW Fall 2019

IN THIS ISSUE 




ISSUE 9 


4 Living Cases 

35 Christian Leadership and 

Aligning My Work with My 

Forgiveness 

Personal Purpose 

CBR PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE 

Seeking and staying aligned with God’s mission 

define success 

by Robin John 

Humility and grace overcome transgressions while 

honoring God 

by Marjorie Cooper 

8 

Spiritual Leadership 

BOOK EXCERPT 

God’s agenda frames the worthy goals of spiritual 

leadership 

by Henry and Richard Blackaby 

43 

Godly Leadership 


Lighting the path in truth and nuturing others’ 

growth are the hallmark of Godly leadership 

by Al Erisman 

14 

Leading from Within: Modeling 

Biblical Transformation 


Why a re-awakening to our identity in Christ is 

needed for true leadership transformation 

by Garrett Lane Cohee and Samuel Voorhies 

52 

The Quadruple Bottom Line 


Bringing Praise to the forefront of worthy goals 

for businesses honors God 

by Will Oliver 

26 

What Christian Leaders Can 

Learn from Lean 


Lean management offers surprising insights for 

Christian leadership 

by Andrew Parris and Don Pope 

61 

Leadership in the Image of God 


Congruence of leadership and imago dei attributes 

adds biblical mandate for good leaders 

by Rick Martinez

LIVING CASES: PERSONAL SPIRITUAL JOURNEYS OF 

MEN AND WOMEN IN BUSINESS 

ALIGNING MY WORK WITH MY 

PERSONAL 

PURPOSE 

ROBIN JOHN 

INTRODUCTION 

I 

n 2005, I spent a year in Pune, India, working for a large 

custody bank. During that year, I hired, trained, and 

oversaw local employees who were highly educated. 

Many were slowly emerging from poverty. Being born 

in India and having moved to the U.S. on my eighth birthday, 

I quickly connected with my new colleagues and enjoyed 

watching their progression in life. 

One day as I walked into the company guest house where 

I lived, I witnessed an American colleague speaking very 

harshly towards the Indian cook, Kamal. “Servants should not 

use the front door,” he insisted. In shock, I looked at Kamal 

as he looked back at me. He then said something that I can 

never forget: “Sir, I am a human being too.” 

A few days later, I visited the guest house kitchen as 

Kamal and Amal, the housekeeper, were preparing my 

dinner. As I looked around the kitchen, I noticed an old 

traditional Indian mat in the pantry along with a bedsheet. 

Amal and Kamal both slept in that small hot pantry each 

night, on a hard floor with no pillow - a stark contrast to 

the comfortable bed and air conditioner that I enjoyed in 

the same house. When I urged them to sleep in one of the 

empty bedrooms, they refused. They were afraid they’d 

lose their jobs. 

I reached out to upper management and sent some 

unhappy emails back to my superiors in the United 

States. I couldn’t sleep comfortably in that house any 

longer, knowing that Amal and Kamal were lying on the 

pantry floor. When senior management responded that 

the two were not their employees, but subcontractors 

of a company that operated the guest house, I was still 

not satisfied. How could such a large company treat me 

so well but others so poorly? How could they work with a 

CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEW Fall 2020 24

LIVING CASE 

supplier who would treat their employees this way? For the 

first time in my business career, I saw that my company had 

the power to effect change but chose not to do so. 

When I left the company a year later, after finishing 

my project in India, I committed to finding a way to make 

business deliver something better. I wondered: If companies 

did not serve only their own interests, but the interests of 

others as well, how might our world look different? 

DISCOVERING IDENTITY 

From a young age, I was concerned for the welfare of 

others. I lived with my grandparents for the early years 

of my life in a remote village without paved roads or running 

water. I remember the time when a little girl who lived next 

door, named Julie after my sister, choked and died on a 

balloon. There were no cars to get her to the hospital. 

My grandparents were very poor for much of their 

lives, but they knew that their mission in life was to serve 

the church among the poor. My parents and grandparents 

generously shared what they had with those around them, 

and we lived on very little. Looking back, I see that we were 

poor, but we did not know it. Those around us had even less, 

and we were able to experience true life by loving and serving 

those around us. 

When I moved with my family to Boston at age eight, I 

began to experience inequities that I didn’t know existed 

previously. I entered school, not knowing English, and I 

endured cultural insensitivities as the only non-White 

student in my class. Though I graduated in the top 1% of 

my high school class, I carried with me a strong sense that 

because of my faith, ethnicity and culture, I did not fit in. 

These childhood experiences helped build an empathy in me 

for my neighbors and the world around me. 

After I completed my undergraduate degree at Tufts 

University, I began praying that God would use me for his 

service. I moved from one job to the next searching for where 

I might exercise my gifts. I felt out of place in my day jobs; 

my values seemed in constant conflict with those of my 

colleagues and the companies in which I worked. In those 

early years of my career, a question embedded itself in my 

heart where it remains to this day: What can I do for God? I 

would often think of my uncle’s Sunday sermons. He loved to 

quote William Carey, “Expect great things from God; attempt 

great things for God.” 

At first, I believed that doing something for God required 

me to engage in full-time ministry. Living in my parents’ 

basement, I sat beside the washer and dryer night after night 

and prayed fervently that God would show me where I could 

serve him. I longed to find my purpose and mission. After I 

returned from my year in India, I continued to pray in earnest. 

I asked God to guide me toward a clear mission, to show me 

how I might use my life in service to others. 

DISCOVERING PURPOSE 

In 2007, I overheard my friend, Finny Kuruvilla, talking 

with my parents about investing in companies that 

avoided generating profit from products and services that 

are harmful to our neighbors. Finny and I shared a similar 

longing for mission, and we both were ready to act. We met 

together and brainstormed ideas for nonprofits and business 

ventures, but we both sensed investing was where God was 

calling us. We found that in the investment industry, it was 

hard to avoid profiting from activities that were harming 

and extracting value from society. We decided to create 

something that would help give Christians and conscientious 

people the needed guidance to be able to invest with their 

values so that they were not profiting from activities that did 

not align with their values. 

In John 9:4, Jesus warns that “the night is coming, when 

no one can work.” Eventide means “coming of the night,” and 

we knew that our mission and work of helping Christians 

and conscientious investors to avoid ill-gotten gains was 

important because we sensed the night was coming. We 

named our first product, Eventide Gilead Fund because 

Gilead means “mountain of witness” or “hill of testimony.” 

We would unswervingly stand by our mission and use our 

gifts in service of God’s kingdom. Like the lighthouses that 

line the New England coast, we prayed that Eventide would 

shine the light of God’s truth in an industry that needed 

biblical direction and influence. 

With a clear sense of our purpose to avoid ill-gotten gains, 

we were ready to move forward. However, God continued to 

bring wise guides into my life to deepen my understanding of 

God’s call for our work. One mentor that God would bring into 

my life encouraged me to expand my vision of God’s purpose 

in business. “If God had a business plan, what would it look 

like?” he asked me once. In encountering pointed questions 

about our mission, I began to think more deeply about God’s 

intent for business as an agent of blessing. God was honing 

our mission and preparing me for service. 

5 

CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEW Fall 2020

LIVING CASE 

As we studied Scripture more deeply, we understood that 

the call to “avoid evil” is coupled with the call to “cling to 

what is good.” We understood that our mission should be to 

partner with businesses that are serving well the needs of the 

world. This starts with avoiding businesses that profit from 

human weakness and expands into embracing businesses 

that are creating compelling value for their neighbors. Some 

examples of the types of businesses that we would embrace 

include drug development for unmet healthcare needs, safer 

transportation, clean energy, and cybersecurity. We started 

to really sense that investing was about more than just 

returns but an opportunity 

to partner with companies 

whose products and services 

make the world better. We 

believed that the companies 

that best served the needs of 

others also prospered best. 

In the end, we decided 

that our company mission 

would be to honor God and 

serve our clients by investing in companies that are creating 

compelling value for the global common good. My role 

as CEO would be to lead our team to pursue this mission 

wholeheartedly. 

Over the course of my career, I have developed a clearer 

understanding of God’s call for me in business and of God’s 

intention for business as it operates in the world. I strongly 

believe that business leaders who remain committed to their 

mission are agents of blessing in their communities. 

STAYING ON MISSION 

In twelve short years, Eventide has grown from three friends 

with a vision for values-based investing to a company of 

over 40 employees, managing over $4.5 billion in assets. 

From a worldly perspective, we’ve been very successful. 

However, our metrics for success look very different from 

our industry’s. In order to love our neighbors best, we have 

committed to remaining mission aligned regardless of our 

outward success or failure. 

I often say that, in the early years, we at Eventide never 

saw failure as an option. By that, I do not mean that we were 

relentlessly driven toward quantitative success. Instead, I 

mean that, as long as we were aligned with what we believed 

to be God’s call, we felt we had succeeded. We began Eventide 

As long as we were aligned 

with what we believed to be 

God’s call, we felt we had 

succeeded. 

with six months of committed prayer and determined that 

growth would not be the sole measure of whether God had 

answered our prayers. Instead, our commitment to our 

mission would be our measure of success. The two core 

questions that motivated me in the early days of my career 

-- What can I do for God? and How can I love my neighbor? 

-- continue to direct all of my work. 

As I reflect on the last twelve years, many things in my 

life have changed. I am now a husband and a father of three 

children, two roles I did not have when we started Eventide. 

And Eventide has become something larger and greater than 

I could have imagined back 

in those early days when 

we sought God’s guidance 

for how we could best serve 

his kingdom. Today, I am in 

a position for which I did 

not plan, one where I am 

responsible for caring for my 

employees and stewarding 

our company’s mission well. 

Because of Eventide’s growth, I have also been able to pursue 

another dream to build a high-quality high school in India for 

underprivileged and resilient girls. 

I am so thankful to God for placing me in this position to 

love others. I want to be as faithful today to God’s will as I 

wanted to be twelve years ago when I prayed in my parents’ 

basement. My passion for serving others has not changed. 

I want to leave you with two core questions that motivated 

me in the early days of my career and continue to direct all 

of my work: What can I do for God? and How can I love my 

neighbor? I believe Christian business leaders bring unique 

perspectives and capabilities for answering these missiondriven 

questions. But staying on mission isn’t easy. Worldly 

success can tempt us away from our convictions, and leaders 

are pulled in many different directions. For the Christian 

business leader who wrestles with these same questions, I 

recommend reflecting on the following: 

Identify your personal mission and your business 

mission. If the two are not in alignment, work to 

bring them into alignment. 

Communicate your mission and purpose 

regularly to your employees. We are often good 

at communicating our mission to customers, but 

we take for granted that employees need to be 

reminded too. 


LIVING CASE 

Operationalize the mission across the 

organization. Look for ways to bring all aspects 

of your business (recruiting, hiring, on-boarding, 

employee development, operations, sales and 

marketing process, product strategy, investment 

process, etc.) into alignment with your mission. 

As business leaders, if we all seek to remain mission-aligned 

and neighbor-focused, I am confident we will create value that 

increases human flourishing and promotes the common good. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

ROBIN JOHN is co-founder, 

Chief Executive Officer, and 

Managing Partner of Eventide, 

a Boston-based registered 

investment adviser (www. 

eventidefunds.com) pursuing 

“investing that makes the 

world rejoice.” Founded in 2008, Eventide’s 

vision is to serve individuals, financial advisors, 

and institutions by providing high-performance 

investments that create compelling value for the 

global common good. With $5 billion in assets 

under management, Eventide is the Adviser to 

the Eventide Mutual Funds and other advisory 

services. As CEO, Robin is responsible for the 

overall leadership of the organization, and under 

his leadership, the firm has grown into a leader 

within values-based investing. Prior to Eventide, 

Robin held leadership roles for Bank of New 

York Mellon and has also served as a business 

consultant for Grant Thornton. He holds a degree 

in Economics from Tufts University. 

7 


BOOK EXCERPT 

SPIRITUAL 

LEADERSHIP 

Moving People onto God’s Agenda 1 

HENRY & RICHARD BLACKABY 

A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS 

In a world where the pounding waves of political, economic, technological, and cultural forces are deafening, leadership 

takes on a special significance for Christians in the marketplace. How can Christ-followers who define and 

execute visions for their organizations be effective and truthful to their faith so that, they, like Paul, “…are hard 

pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair” (2 Cor. 4:8, NIV)? In this CBR issue where we 

invite a deep reflection on leadership in a world frequently thrust into turmoil (let alone the ravage of a pandemic 

we are still living through), it is helpful to set the stage for this discussion by reminding ourselves of the high calling 

of spiritual leadership. In the following excerpt from Henry and Richard Blackaby’s book, Spiritual Leadership: Moving 

People onto God’s Agenda, the authors shed light on God’s agenda for Christian leaders who must set worthy goals 

for their organizations. We greatly appreciate LifeWay Christian Resources for the permission to reprint this material. 

1 

Taken from Spiritual Leadership: Moving People on to God’s Agenda by Henry and Richard Blackbaby, ©2011 “Chapter 5. The Leader’s 

Goal: Moving People on to God’s Agenda.” Reprinted and used by permission of B&H Publishing Group, an imprint of LifeWay 

Christian Resources, Nashville, TN. 37234, www.bhpublishinggroup.com. 


SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP 

BOOK EXCERPT 

L 

eaders acquiring a new position must ask: “Where 

should my organization go?” This question may 

seem simplistic, but it is amazing how many leaders 

become so enmeshed in the mundane aspects 

of the journey they lose sight of the destination. Or they have 

detailed plans of what they hope to achieve, but they failed 

to examine whether their objectives will lead them to where 

God wants them to be. If leaders do not clearly understand 

where their organization is and where it should be moving, 

they will be ineffective. The following are three of the most 

common, and perhaps most subtle, organization goals that 

can disorient leaders to their true purpose. 

UNWORTHY GOALS 

ACHIEVING RESULTS 

The demand for measurable results puts pressure on 

leaders to focus on quick accomplishments. What better 

way to appear successful than to set a goal and then meet it? 

According to Peter Drucker, a person hasn’t led unless results 

have been produced. 1 

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, in their book Built to Last, argue 

that great leaders do not establish goals and then mobilize 

their organizations to achieve them at all costs. Rather, 

they concentrate on building great organizations. Leaders 

can achieve their goals for a time but destroy their organizations 

in the process. However, organizations that focus on 

being healthy will regularly achieve their goals. 

In the past organizations were generally built on the vision 

and goals of their leaders. Leaders made the plans; everyone 

else followed. But as Peter Senge contends in The 

Fifth Discipline: “It is no longer sufficient to have one person 

learning for the organization, a Ford, or a Sloan, or a Watson. 

It’s just not possible any longer to ‘figure it out’ from 

the top and have everyone else following the orders of the 

‘grand strategist.’ The organizations that will truly excel in 

the future will be the organizations that discover how to tap 

people’s commitment and capacity to learn at all levels in an 

organization.” 2 

According to (Max) DePree (former chairman of the board 

of Herman Miller), leaders should enter a “covenantal relationship” 

with those they lead. He describes this as a “shared 

commitment to ideas, to issues, to values, to goals, and to 

management processes. … Covenantal relationships are 

open to influence. They fill deep needs and they enable work 

to provide meaning and fulfillment. Covenantal relationships 

reflect unity and grace and poise. They are an expression of a 

sacred nature of relationships.” 3 

Leaders who achieve their goals but whose people suffer 

and fall by the wayside in the process have failed. Using people 

to achieve organizational goals is the antithesis of spiritual 

leadership. … In God’s eyes how something is done is 

as important as what is done (Num. 20:1-13). The end does 

not justify the means. Getting results can make leaders look 

good. God’s way magnifies his name. 

PERFECTIONISM 

“God expects the best!” “Nothing but excellence is good 

enough for God!” How often we hear these emphatic assertions, 

sincerely expressed by Christian leaders. They sound 

noble, yet there is a subtle danger inherent in the philosophy 

that everything done in an organization must always be done 

with excellence. 

The apostle Paul did not claim his purpose was to do everything 

perfectly. Instead, he declared his aim was to “proclaim 

Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, 

so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for 

this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in me” 

(Col. 1:28-29). 

Paul focused on developing people. He sought to take 

them from their spiritual immaturity and bring them to spiritual 

maturity. His joy came from seeing those he led blossom 

into the people God intended for them to become. The approach 

of many modern Christian organizations is contrary 

to that of Paul. 

The primary goal of spiritual leadership is not excellence in 

the sense of doing things perfectly. Rather, it is taking people 

from where thy are to where God wants them to be. There is 

a tension here, for leaders want to motivate their people to 

develop their talents for the glory of God. But to help people 

grow, leaders may have to allow them to make mistakes. 

SIZE 

The Western world is mesmerized by size. Leaders of the 

largest churches or companies are automatically viewed as 

experts. If a leader has grown a religious organization to a 

significant size, people interpret that as a clear sign of God’s 

blessing. That may not be so. …. Marketers can attract a 

crowd. They can’t grow a church. Cults can lure a crowd. They 

9 



BOOK EXCERPT 

can’t build God’s kingdom. If numerical growth is a sure sign 

of God’s blessing, then some cults are enjoying God’s blessing 

to a greater extent than many churches. 

The misconception is based on people’s assumption that 

God is as impressed with crowds as people are. He is not. 

The essence of Satan’s temptations for Jesus was trying 

to convince him to draw a crowd rather than build a church 

(Matt. 4). When Jesus fed five thousand people, he became 

so popular the people wanted to forcibly make him their king. 

Jesus knew that, even though a multitude was following him, 

many of them did 

not believe. They 

were merely 

looking for a free 

lunch. So Jesus 

preached about 

the cost of discipleship. 

“From 

that moment many 

of His disciples turned back and no longer accompanied 

Him” (John 6:66). So vast was the exodus Jesus turned to the 

Twelve and asked if they intended to abandon him too (v. 

67). Jesus was never enamored with crowds. In fact, he often 

sought to escape them (Mark 1:35-37). 

WORTHY GOALS 

DEVELOPING PEOPLE 

The ultimate goal of spiritual leadership is…to take their 

people from where they are to where God wants them to 

be. God’s primary concern for people is not results but relationship. 

Calling comes before vocation. There is a profound 

comment on this issue in Exodus 19:4: “You have seen what 

I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings 

and brought you to Me.” 

At first glance this verse can appear confusing. We tend 

to assume God delivered the Israelites from Egypt so he 

could bring them into the Promised Land. But that is not 

what God said. The key for God was not Canaan. That was 

just the means God used to draw his people to himself. God’s 

agenda was his people. The reason the Israelites spent forty 

years wandering in the wilderness was not that God could 

not bring them into Canaan. God kept them in the wilderness 

for forty years to establish a relationship of faith with them. 

According to Max De Pree, the first responsibility of leaders 

is to “define reality” for their organizations. 4 Ronald Heifetz 

describes this as “getting on the balcony” in order to gain 

a clear view of the present situation. 5 Followers do not always 

understand the full implications of what their organization 

is experiencing. They may be so immersed in the minutia 

of their day-to-day routines they do not see the big picture. 

It is a spiritual leader’s responsibility to keep the big picture 

in mind and to help their people understand God’s activity in 

the midst of the daily challenges. 

This truth can 

be seen in the 

The ultimate goal of spiritual leadership 

is…to take their people from where they 

are to where God wants them to be. 

way God walked 

with Moses. 

Scripture says, 

“He revealed His 

ways to Moses, 

His deeds to the 

people of Israel.” 

The Israelites saw God’s acts. How could they miss them? 

God sent ten horrendous plagues on Egypt. He parted the 

Red Sea and obliterated the Egyptian army. God fed an entire 

nation with manna from heaven and brought water out of a 

rock. The pressing question is: after all the people witnessed, 

why did they continually struggle to trust and obey God? It is 

because, although they saw God’s acts, they never gained the 

higher perspective of God’s ways. The ways of God reflect on 

who God is, not merely what God does. When God destroyed 

the mighty Egyptian army, the Israelites were certainly appreciative 

at that moment. But they never understood that 

the same God who destroyed the Egyptian army could just 

as easily annihilate Canaanite armies. So, despite all God did, 

the next time the Israelites faced a new challenge, they grew 

frightened and discouraged once again. Spiritual leaders 

must help their people see beyond God’s acts to recognize 

the way God consistently works with his people, time and 

time again. To do this, spiritual leaders must develop their 

own understanding and recognition of God’s activity in their 

midst. 

Spiritual leaders understand people tend to be disoriented 

to God. So they teach them to know God better. Once 

the people learn to recognize God’s voice and determine his 

leading, the organization will have enormous potential for 

serving God. Its effectiveness will not depend on one overworked 

leader always having to decide what God is guiding 

them to do. The group will all know how to hear from God and 

recognize his activity. When spiritual leaders have brought 

CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEW Fall 2020 10 2


BOOK EXCERPT 

their people to this point, they have truly led. 

Business leaders must understand their preeminent task 

is to equip their people to function at their God-given best 

and not simply to accomplish organizational goals. From a 

secular perspective Peter Senge calls this a “learning organization.” 

Spiritual leaders in the workplace must also understand 

their calling is 

first to please 

their heavenly 

Father, then 

to satisfy their 

board of directors 

and supervisors. 

It is appropriate 

to provide 

spiritual guidance and encouragement to employees as well 

as to clientele. CEOs have a responsibility to care for the spiritual 

well-being of their employees. This should include praying 

regularly for their salvation. It may also involve providing 

a Christian witness. One business leader prayed about how to 

make seeking God’s kingdom a top priority at his workplace. 

God led him to start a Bible study at work. This proved to be 

one of the greatest challenges this executive faced during his 

eventful tenure at his publicly traded company. Yet through 

that Bible study, people encountered God in powerful ways. 

EQUIPPING OTHERS TO LEAD 

Leaders lead followers. Great leaders lead leaders. One of the 

worst mistakes leaders commit is making themselves indispensable. 

Insecurity can drive people to hoard all the leadership 

initiatives so no one else appears as capable or as successful. 

At times leaders become so immersed in their own 

work they fail to develop other leaders. If some people were 

completely honest, they might confess they enjoy being in 

high demand. They covet the organizational limelight. However, 

whether by design or neglect, failing to develop leaders 

in an organization constitutes gross failure by the leader. 

Many leaders work extremely hard at their jobs and enjoy 

remarkable success during their leadership tenure. But a test 

of great leaders is whether or not their organizations can 

function well upon their departure. This phenomenon can be 

clearly seen in the life of Samuel. Samuel was one of the godliest 

leaders in Israel’s history. At the close of his leadership, 

no one with whom he had worked could find fault with him 

(1 Sam. 12:1-5). Nevertheless, Samuel ultimately failed as a 

leader, for he did not prepare a successor: 

Whether by design or neglect, failing 

to develop leaders in an organization 

constitutes gross failure by the leader 

When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as 

judges over Israel. His first-born son’s name was 

Joel and his second was Abijah. They were judges 

in Beersheba. However, his sons did not walk in 

his ways – they turned toward dishonest gain, took 

bribes, and perverted 

justice. So 

all the elders of 

Israel gathered 

together went to 

Samuel at Ramah. 

They said to him, 

“Look, you are old, 

and your sons do 

not follow your example. Therefore, appoint a king 

to judge us the same as all the other nations have.” 

(1 Sam. 8:1-5) 

As long as the Israelites had the noble Samuel to guide 

them, they followed without protest. But when Samuel grew 

old and appointed his sons Joel and Abijah to replace him, the 

people resisted. Later generations have castigated the Israelites 

for rejecting God’s leadership and demanding a king. 

The fact is the spiritual leaders available to them were so 

inferior they considered a secular king preferable. Had Samuel 

groomed an acceptable replacement, the people might 

not have clamored for a king. The people’s failure stemmed 

from their leader’s failure to do his job in developing effective 

leaders. 

Unless leaders are intentional about investing in the development 

of people within their organization, it will not 

happen. There are at least four habits leaders must regularly 

practice if they are to produce a corps of emerging leaders. 

1. Leaders delegate. This is often difficult. Leaders are generally 

skilled individuals who can do many things well. In 

addition, if they are perfectionists, as leaders often are, 

they will be tempted to undertake more than they should 

so things are “done right.” The inherent danger, of course, 

is that the organization’s growth is directly tied to the 

leader’s available time and energy. Leaders are, by nature, 

decision makers. However, it is unwise for leaders 

to make all the decisions. Doing so impedes the growth 

of emerging leaders. As Peter Drucker suggests, “Ef- 

11 



BOOK EXCERPT 

fective executives do not make a great many decisions. 

They concentrate on the important ones.” 6 

2. Leaders give people freedom to fail. If leaders are going 

to develop other leaders, they must delegate. But when 

they do, they must refrain from interfering. … Henry Ford 

gave his only son Edsel the responsibility for overseeing 

his automotive business. The younger Ford had innovative 

and practical ideas that would make the company 

more efficient in the face of growing competition. Yet as 

Edsel sought to implement his ideas, the elder Ford constantly 

countermanded his son’s orders. Soon after Edsel 

became president, he initiated building an addition to 

the Hyde Park plant. After the ground was excavated for 

the new building’s foundation, Henry intervened, claiming 

the building was unnecessary. Edsel succumbed and 

offered to have the opening covered up. His father insisted, 

however, that 

the pit remain for 

a time as a graphic 

example of his 

authority and his 

son’s humiliation. 7 

The relationship 

between father and 

son was irreparably 

damaged. Finally, 

Edsel’s fragile 

health broke and the Ford Motor Company languished 

under the administrative quagmire. 

3. Leaders recognize others’ success. A sure way to stifle 

staff initiative is to take the credit for something a 

subordinate did. Good leaders delegate. They resist interfering. 

Then, when the job is done, they reward those 

responsible. … Although few leaders deliberately steal 

credit, this can happen inadvertently. If leaders fail to 

point out employees’ efforts, people assume the leader 

is responsible for the success. If leaders continually ignore 

or steal the credit for work their people have done, 

people will naturally grow reluctant to give their best effort. 

In reality, when the people are successful, so is the 

leader. 

4. Leaders provide encouragement and support. Jim Collins 

claims great leaders use the “window and the mirror.” 

When something goes right, they look out the window 

to find someone in the organization to assign the credit. 

When something goes wrong, leaders stand before the 

mirror and assume the blame. 8 Coaches of professional 

sports teams are well acquainted with this reality. If 

the team wins the championship, the athletes assume 

most of the credit and seek more lucrative contracts. But 

when the team performs poorly, the coach is usually the 

first person to be fired. Good leaders don’t make excuses. 

They recognize their organization’s performance will 

be viewed as equal to their own. 

GLORIFYING GOD 

Leaders glorify God by accomplishing 

God’s purposes and moving people on 

to his agenda. Accurately reflecting 

God’s nature to others brings him glory. 

Spiritual leaders should have a third goal for their organizations, 

one which is the ultimate aspiration of any organization 

– to glorify God. You can glorify God through your 

leadership, regardless of whether you lead a Christian or a 

secular organization. 

Spiritual leaders 

cannot relentlessly 

pursue 

their own personal 

goals and 

glorify God at the 

same time. It is 

possible to bring 

an organization 

to the apex of 

success but dishonor 

God in the process. True spiritual leaders value glorifying 

God more than personal or organizational success. 

When Jesus was seeking twelve disciples, he bypassed 

the professional religious establishment and enlisted businesspeople, 

including two pairs of fishermen and a tax collector. 

He found people who understood how the world operated 

and who were unafraid of working in the middle of it. 

He chose people who spoke the language of the marketplace. 

God does nothing by accident. When God places someone in 

a leadership position, he has a purpose. A Christian’s first 

calling is to honor God. 

Glorifying God is not complicated. People do it when they 

reveal God’s nature to the world around them. Leaders glorify 

God by accomplishing God’s purposes and moving people 

on to his agenda. Accurately reflecting God’s nature to others 

brings him glory. When Christians forgive others, people 

learn that God is one who forgives. When Christian leaders 

are patient with those who fail, people experience that God’s 

nature is long-suffering. When Christian leaders live with in- 



BOOK EXCERPT 

tegrity, people gain a glimpse of God’s holiness. Many peoples’ 

first impression of the true God may be reflected in the 

Christians who work alongside them each week. 

God has a specific agenda for every person and organization. 

However, developing your people, equipping leaders, 

and, most importantly, glorifying God ought to be bedrock 

objectives of every leader. 

NOTES 

1 

Peter F. Drucker, foreword to The Leader of the Future, ed. Francis 

Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmit, and Richard Beckhard (San Francisco: 

Jossey-Bass, 1996), xii. 

2 

Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning 

Organization (New York: Currency Doubleday, 1990; Paperback ed., 

1994), 4. 

3 

Max De Pree, Leadership Is an Art (New York: Dell Publishing, 1989), 

60. 

4 

Ibid., 11. 

5 

Ronald A. Heifetz, Leadership without Easy Answers (Cambridge, 

MA: Belknap Press, 1994), 252. 

6 

Peter F. Drucker, The Effective Executive (New York: HarperBusiness, 

1996), 637. 

7 

Steven Watts, The Peoples’ Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American 

Century (New York: Random House, 2005; Vintage Books ed., 2006), 

361. 

8 

Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and 

Others Don’t (New York: HarperCollins, 200), 34-35 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 

HENRY T. BLACKABY is founder of Blackaby Ministries International (www.blackaby.org). 

Author of numerous books, including the best known bible-study Experiencing God, he pastored 

churches in the U.S. and Canada, served in the missions and spiritual awakening ministries, 

and spoken around the world and counseled Christian CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. He is a 

graduate of the University of British Columbia and Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and 

holds four honorary doctorates. 

RICHARD BLACKABY is the President of Blackaby Ministries International. He speaks 

internationally on spiritual leadership in the home, church, and marketplace, as well as on 

spiritual awakening, experiencing God, and the Christian life. Richard regularly ministers to 

Christian CEOs and church and family leaders. He is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan 

and holds an M. Div. and a Ph.D. in history from Southwestern Baptist Theologica Seminary. 

13 


LEADING FR M 

WITHIN 

GARRETT LANE COHEE AND SAMUEL VOORHIES 

ABSTRACT 

MODELING 

BIBLICAL 

TRANSFORMATION 

One of the loudest drumbeats of modern leadership centers on organizational transformation. Driven by technological 

innovation, disruption, and agility, combined with workforce generational and organizational shifts, business 

leaders increasingly realize that we must “change or die.” However, thousands of leadership texts and billions of 

leadership development dollars seem insufficient enablers to lead this change. In an area replete with theories, 

models, constructs, and styles, what is missing? We suggest that the biggest enabler is not found in another external 

system or model, but in behavioral change rooted deep within the leader’s identity. A critical, yet largely 

unknown element of the leader’s identity surrounds our vulnerability to self-conscious emotions. The aim of this 

analysis is threefold. First, by examining the relationship between self-conscious emotions and our identities, we 

offer Christian leaders a framework to better identify gaps in their behavioral styles. Second, we examine a deeper 

comprehension of our union with Christ, unlocking identity messages that Christians often overlook. Finally, we 

offer a model of recurring spiritual disciplines designed to enable the leader’s transformation from within. Through 

this personal change process, Christian leaders are better equipped to lead the business transformations our modern 

era demands. 


LEADING FROM WITHIN 

CBR PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES 

INTRODUCTION 

A 

ny 21st century leader, business or otherwise, 

faces the dizzying necessity for organizational 

transformation. The modern pulse of innovation, 

disruption, and agility, combined with workforce 

generational differences and technological enablers, often 

leaves us searching for equally innovative and adaptive 

approaches to leading. This may be particularly true for the 

Christian leader who feels the tension of breakneck speed 

and associated change rubbing against the voice saying, “Be 

still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). How do we lead 

through the chaos? How do we create a path through unexplored 

territories, where distinctions between the human 

and artificial seem increasingly blurred? 

Ironically, it seems we may not need a new leadership 

model so much as we need a recovered one. Increasingly, a 

host of managerial writers remind us that, in our modern age 

of cognitive computing, analytics, robotics, and ubiquitous 

connectivity, the greatest human differentiator is indeed our 

humanity. Emotional intelligence in leadership, it seems, is 

getting more press than ever. Daniel Goleman’s themes of 

self-awareness, other-awareness, emotional-regulation, 

and social adaptability are recurring topics in business literature. 

1 No wonder. For all our challenges ranging from managing 

technological advancement to adopting new organizational 

paradigms, the biggest hurdle remains behavioral. 

Behavioral change is a topic in which Christians ought to 

be well-versed. While Christianity is not centered on behavior 

modification, changed behavior naturally flows from following 

Christ. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, 

faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22) reflect 

natural outcomes of our faith. And nowhere should this be 

more visible than in our leadership—of others and ourselves. 

Surprisingly, however, this is often not the case. Any casual 

web search will yield numerous stories of high profile 

Christians censured for their toxic leadership styles. 2 Marshall 

Goldsmith’s 20 bad interpersonal leadership habits 3 

seem hardly limited to non-Christians. Yet this cannot be 

for a lack of scholarship. One recent survey identified some 

329,803 books available on the general topic of leadership. 4 

Leadership development is a $366 billion industry, yet research 

indicates most of these programs fail to create the 

desired results. 5 In an area replete with theories, models, 

constructs, and styles, what is missing? Content and opportunity 

are not the problem; personal transformational and 

sustained change is. 

We suggest that the next generation of leadership lies 

less in developing a new model and more in applying a much 

deeper biblical one—one that augers to the leader’s very 

identity (Rom. 12:2). This requires a deep courageous commitment 

to self-examination and reflection. Emotional intelligence 

must be extended well below the surface into the 

“thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). This can 

prove daunting and even a bit uncomfortable. But its rewards 

can truly be transformational. And we believe this transformation 

is what a recovered biblical leadership model uniquely 

offers. 

THE LEADER’S SELF- 

CONCEPT 

John is the Senior Vice President of Operations for a $13 billion 

Fortune 400 firm. Throughout his 26-year career with 

the company, he has catapulted through multiple engineering, 

operations and lower-level executive roles with great 

skill. His current position is viewed by some as a potential 

launching pad into the CEO’s chair. John is talented, bright, 

charismatic and highly respected throughout the firm—except 

by one team. 

Six months prior, John commissioned an agile-based development 

team for a new research and development project 

he felt could serve as an industry disrupter. He intentionally 

chose to use an agility-based model with younger, fresh 

thinkers at the helm. However, from the beginning, their cultural 

and organizational styles clashed with his. While John 

felt he was a flexible and adaptive leader, he was also very 

cognizant of his organizational position within the company. 

He wanted his opinions to be taken seriously. He expected 

respect, if not deference, which most in the company happily 

obliged. 

The agile team did not. Their attitude appeared indifferent 

if not hostile to John’s positional authority. They viewed 

his knowledge and approaches as antiquated. And, the more 

visible this cultural condescension emerged, the more subtly 

enraged John became. It would have been easy enough 

to replace the team but they were quite competent and respected 

in their own right. They were bright, gifted, young, 

respected by their peers, and thoroughly unimpressed with 

hierarchy. This galled John to the core, such that he eventually 

abandoned any desire to collaborate and instead began 

15 




to devise a methodology to permanently remove them. At 

one point, having been informed of some “John the Boomer” 

jokes amongst the team, John flew into a rage with some 

private confidantes. Amidst a string of epithets, John began 

reciting the most distinguished elements of his 26-year career. 

He concluded a no-holds barred rant with the assurance 

that not only would they be off the project, but they would be 

out of the company. The confidantes, many who had known 

John for years, felt like someone or something had finally tarnished 

his gold-plated image. Apparently, John wasn’t quite 

the practiced and polished leader everyone had imagined— 

something had really gotten under his skin. 

John is an archetypal character but his story is based on 

a real one. It is the biblical story of Haman as recorded in 

the Book of Esther. 6 John figuratively, and Haman actually, 

suffered a deep affront to their self-concept. Richard Robins 

and Roberta Shriber identify this self-concept as “our beliefs 

about who we are, our worth as a person, and our aspirations 

for the future.” 7 When John’s opinion of himself was not 

shared by his detractors—in fact when it was directly challenged—he 

rushed headlong into an emotional tailspin. His 

true identity was revealed. 

Ironically, the research linking self and emotionality is relatively 

underdeveloped, particularly when applied to leadership. 

8 Yet this linkage is exactly what we see in John’s case. 

And, if we pull back the covers, we can see it around us every 

day—in leadership and in life. 

SHAME, PRIDE AND 

APPROVAL 

Recently, the study of self-conscious emotions has begun 

to gain traction in several psychological research 

streams. While some research has examined more subtle 

emotions such as guilt and embarrassment, the existing literature 

tends to emphasize shame and pride. In fact, some 

researchers have postulated that shame and hubristic (as 

distinguished from authentic) pride tend to mirror each other 

because they both center on the “I am” of self. 9 Shame 

speaks in terms like “I am a failure.” Hubristic pride speaks 

in terms like “I am extraordinary.” Unlike guilt and authentic 

pride, which speak in terms of “I have done” either a good 

or bad thing, shame and hubristic pride drill to the center of 

our self-concept. Not surprisingly, in the Genesis narrative, 

shame and hubristic pride emerge as the first consequences 

of The Fall. 

SHAME 

Shame may be defined as our emotional response to condemnation, 

evoked from a sense of nakedness and exposure. 

It manifests itself most when we are personally humiliated, 

ridiculed, scorned, or rejected. As June Tangney notes, shame 

often leaves us with the desire to cover up and hide. 10 In fact, 

shame was the first emotion recorded after our original parents 

sinned. Covering up was their first response. 

Shame is not always easy to pinpoint. As Curt Thompson 

observes, shame’s elusiveness proves to be a key element 

of its power. 11 But one way of drawing out shame may be 

to reflect on our feelings when we hear spoken or unspoken 

messages like, “you are totally worthless,” “you are a complete 

failure,” “you don’t matter at all,” “nobody really cares 

about you,” or “you will never be good enough.” 12 Those are 

shame’s voices. 

Once we understand the pattern of shame, we can see 

it in action all the time, both personally and professionally. 

As an executive coach, Simon Cavicchia documents shame’s 

phenomenology in multiple leadership contexts. For example: 

I was coaching a newly promoted senior executive in 

an oil company, let us call her Jenny. She described 

her line-manager as controlling and prone to being 

directly and publicly critical if he did not agree with 

the way Jenny was thinking. My client, who I knew 

to have a capacity for creative and innovative interventions, 

increasingly spoke of feeling stupid and 

confused. On one occasion she described feeling as 

if “everything I have been able to draw on over the 

years is worthless. I feel pretty dumb and useless 

right now, I can’t even think. I just don’t know what 

to do!” 13 

Our inability to “even think” in midst of these shame storms, 

as Thompson calls them, exemplifies shame’s raw emotional 

power. Gershen Kaufman refers to shame as “an entrance to 

self…an inner torment, as a sickness of the soul.” 14 When we 

are deeply shamed as both Jenny and John were, we are often 

helplessly incapacitated and laid bare. 




PRIDE 

As noted, research distinguishes between authentic and hubristic 

pride. Authentic pride reflects the emotional sense of 

satisfaction or accomplishment we feel in a job well done. It 

speaks in terms of “I did” versus “I am.” Authentic pride tends 

to promote the attainment of value, based on expertise or 

legitimate achievement. 15 While this can certainly be taken 

to extremes, the Bible provides for it. 16 

Our focus, however, centers on hubristic pride, which 

may be seen in egotism, boastfulness, presumption, and 

self-centeredness. 17 Hubristic pride is rooted in comparison 

and self-congratulation. It resides in competition and a desire 

to “be better” than the next person. Regarding the competitive 

nature of this pride, C.S. Lewis wrote: 

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only 

out of having more of it than the next man. We 

say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or 

good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of 

being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. 

If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, 

or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud 

about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: 

the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element 

of competition has gone, pride has gone. 18 

In its basest form, hubristic pride screams to its competitors 

and to its audience—don’t you know who I am? I’ll 

tell you who I am! Let us return to the leadership allegory. 

How did John respond to his public shaming? He responded 

by fighting back with hubristic pride. In the face of condescending 

humiliation, John used his resume to prop up his 

damaged self-concept. 

APPROVAL 

The intertwined relationship between shame and pride 

should not be overlooked. Although they appear opposite in 

nature, shame and pride often operate together in a cyclical 

manner; as two sides of the same coin. When we feel threatened 

or attacked by the painful voices of shame, many of us 

counter with our own voices of hubristic pride. But to truly 

put all the pieces together, we need to add one more important 

component—that of approval. 

Approval takes form in the authentication, validation, and 

acceptance in the eyes of others. The message of approval 

directly opposes the message of shame. Rather than a voice 

of condemnation, approval offers a voice of praise. Rather 

than a voice of worthlessness, approval provides a voice of 

esteem. Approval brands the message “you are worthy and 

good” upon our self-concept. 

As image-bearers of God, we were created for approval; 

it is part of God’s design. We were meant to matter. We were 

created to be valuable. We were designed to be worthy, esteemed, 

and purposeful (Ps. 139). In fact, anyone who serves 

Christ properly is “acceptable to God and approved by men” 

(Rom. 14:18). However, both shame and hubristic pride twist 

this natural design into very unhealthy behavior, which can 

be seen in both our life and leadership. The Bible refers to 

this unhealthy contortion as “the fear of man” (Prov. 29:25). 

Shame contorts our natural need for approval into “disapproval 

avoidance.” We naturally flinch at the belief that 

anyone in our circle of importance might disapprove of us, 

so we cover up and self-protect. We lead defensively. If we 

consider Goldsmith’s 20 bad leadership habits, these would 

show up in things like failing to express gratitude (fear of 

showing weakness), withholding information (fear of vulnerability), 

negativity (fear of risk-taking), unwillingness to 

listen (protectionism), and deflecting blame from ourselves 

(fear of exposure). 19 To this list, we might also add isolating 

and micro-managing behavior rooted in a defensive need to 

control all of our circumstances. Ironically, behavior stemming 

from disapproval-avoidance might itself bring the most 

amount of disapproval. But a leader entrenched in the fortress 

of self-protection will rarely see this. Instead, in our 

experience, such leaders always seem to have a reason, a 

rationale, or a justification at their fingertips to explain why 

they are right—and why others should just see it their way. 

Conversely, pride contorts our natural need for approval 

into a non-stop quest for applause. Approval addicts seek 

an “IV drip” of personal validation from anyone and anything 

possible; particularly the highly-esteemed. Such addiction 

lives in the world by showing off in hopes of receiving attention. 

Returning to Goldsmith’s bad leadership habits, this 

manifests itself in areas like winning too much, telling the 

world how smart we are, claiming credit that we don’t deserve, 

and excessive needs to “be me.” 20 To this, we might 

add constantly proving ourselves, name dropping, professional 

gossiping, throwing people under the bus, and sycophantic 

behavior toward colleagues and higher authorities. 

Most pride-based approval habits are reasonably subtle, or 

only occasionally come in out in full force. From the time we 

17 




MESSAGES OF APPROVAL AND DISAPPROVAL 

SHAME 

Disapproval 

Avoidance 

Emotional 

Triggers 

PRIDE 

Approval 

Addiction 

BEHAVIORAL 

RESPONSES 

FIGURE I. A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF SHAME-PRIDE-APPROVAL 

are children to our turn as leaders, we learn cleverer and 

more disguised ways to say, “Look at me!” But the underlying 

need and motivation remains the same. 21 

As Figure I illustrates, this is the world in which John 

lived. Rooted in true giftedness, over time he began to create 

a pseudo-narrative rooted in his own press release. His 

self-concept became wrapped up in the pride-based approval 

and respect that his resume and position “deserved.” He 

came to expect, even live for, validation and approbation. And 

when he did not receive it from the agile team, feelings of 

shame and inferiority began to kick in. His identity was under 

direct frontal attack. In short, pride’s mask was exposed and 

shame’s naked vulnerability was in full view. The emperor 

was losing his clothes. 

A MODEL FOR LEADERSHIP 

TRANSFORMATION 

In our experience, simply understanding how leadership 

can be impacted by negative self-conscious emotions may 




serve as a valuable diagnostic tool. Leadership is naturally 

aided by deeper levels of self-awareness. However, for this 

understanding to be truly transformational, any corrective 

action must involve a core identity-shift. The negative cycle 

between shame-pride-approval and a leader’s defective 

view of self must be interrupted. 

WRITING A NEW NARRATIVE 

Increasingly, researchers are recognizing the formidable interplay 

that exists between human cognitive, emotive, and 

behavioral elements. Jolyn Davidson writes that these three 

elements comprise an internal “operating system” working 

together to shape the attitudes we use to interact with 

ourselves and our environment. 

22 Moreover, 

as Thompson writes, we 

begin to frame these elements 

into stories or meta-narratives 

of our lives. 

These narratives help 

us make sense of our 

thoughts, emotions, and 

behaviors, particularly in 

light of past and present 

experiences. Over time, we begin to interpret life-events 

according to these narratives. If the narratives are rooted in 

truth, all is well. But, for the Christian, shame- and pridebased 

narratives are not rooted in truth. Writing on shame 

(to which we would add hubristic pride), Thompson states, “It 

has purpose in a larger narrative, an interpersonal neurobiological 

instrument that is intentionally and skillfully used to 

distract and disrupt the story that God is telling.” 23 

Leaders who want to find increased freedom from the 

impacts of shame, pride, and their associated approval patterns, 

must learn to change their narrative. This begins with 

developing new ways of thinking, principally about ourselves. 

The “I am” statements that are so often tied to self-conscious 

emotions need to be reprogrammed. The Christian 

leader needs to uncover his/her true self-concept. 

Alistair Begg states, “One of the reasons for Christian ineffectiveness 

is that we don’t know who we are in Christ.” 24 

We would apply that maxim to Christian leadership. The term 

“in Christ” is used so frequently in Scripture that we can blow 

through it without taking the time to truly consider its implications. 

As John Stott stated: 

The commonest description in the Scriptures of a 

follower of Jesus is that he or she is a person “in 

Christ.” The expressions “in Christ,” “in the Lord,” and 

“in him” occur 164 times in the letters of Paul alone, 

and are indispensable to an understanding of the 

New Testament. To be “in Christ” does not mean to 

be inside Christ, as tools are in a box or our clothes 

in a closet, but to be organically united to Christ, as a 

limb is in the body or a branch is in the tree. It is this 

personal relationship with Christ that is the distinctive 

mark of his authentic followers. 25 

Jesus put shame to death. And if we 

are in Christ, the leader no longer 

needs to live in shame’s identity—it 

isn’t ours anymore 

Being “in Christ” and, by extension, having Christ dwelling 

in us (Rom. 8:9-11) might be the most important biblical 

identity statement 

a believer can possess. 

While many 

identity themes 

are important, 

our union with 

Christ holds distinguished 

preeminence. 

This union, 

as we have previously 

written, has 

less to do with who “I say I am” and more to do with who 

“God says I am.” 26 

This has profound implications for the way in which Christian 

leaders identify with shame and hubristic pride. As many 

have noted, it is important to note why Christ suffered 

and died a death of shame. The vivid accounts of his being 

stripped naked, mocked, slapped, spit on, and ridiculed aren’t 

just part of an interesting story. When the Scripture states 

Jesus “endured the cross, scorning its shame” (Heb. 12:2), 

it shows us that he overcame shame exactly the same way 

he overcame sin. Jesus put shame to death. And if we are in 

Christ, the leader no longer needs to live in shame’s identity—it 

isn’t ours anymore (Is. 53:3-5). 

Similarly, when he came to earth as a man to live in our 

stead, Jesus also overcame pride. If we are in Christ, the 

leader no longer needs to live in the identity of self-comparison 

and self-congratulation, because that identity isn’t ours 

anymore. The voices inside need no longer seek to congratulate 

us, inflate us, and exaggerate us. They need no longer 

scream, “Compare yourself! Be sure you’re better! The only 

voice that matters anymore is God’s voice—the voice that 

belongs to us because we are in Christ. 

19 




Rewriting the leaders’ self-narrative involves actively and 

constantly changing the voice we hear. It is the cognitive 

equivalent of choosing to change the radio station—daily 

and hourly—in order to receive a different message. It is a 

message of God’s ultimate approval. 

God’s message to leaders in Christ who are visited by 

shame remains one of ultimate approval. We do not have to 

hide in our shame because he calls us out of the shadows. 

We have inestimable value to him (2 Co. 5:21, Rom. 14:4). 

Similarly, those in Christ visited by pride do not have to boast 

in our accomplishments and comparisons. He has created us 

as one of a kind and approves of us. We have inestimable value 

to him. He doesn’t just know us—he knows us by name. 27 

(Ps 139:13-16, Ex 33:17). 

For the Christian leader, what are the practical implications 

of this narrative change? Consider the following: 

• We don’t need to prove ourselves because in Christ, 

we’re already approved. 

• We don’t need to overpower people because in 

Christ, God is our strong tower. 

• We don’t need to fear others because in Christ, God 

is the strength of our heart. 

• We don’t need to constantly add value because in 

Christ, we are eternally valuable. 

• We don’t need to constantly seek attention because 

in Christ, God always delights, rejoices, and 

smiles on us. 

• We don’t have to always be right, be smarter, be in 

charge, and be accomplished because in Christ, we 

are highly esteemed. 28 

In short, the freedom to lead teams and organizations 

more effectively comes when our redirected self-concept—a 

true self-concept in Christ—becomes part of our daily experience 

(2 Pet. 1:3-11). How so? Consider that when leaders 

are freed from the “fear of man” (be it approval addiction or 

disapproval avoidance), we are increasingly able to consistently 

convey authenticity, genuineness, and transparency. 

We are able to lead less defensively, without resorting to 

tight-fisted micro-managing and bullying. We are able to increasingly 

focus on team success rather than individual appearances. 

We are able to delegate more freely and rely less 

on exerting control. We are also able to deliver difficult messages, 

make unpopular decisions, and ensure team accountability. 

All of these attributes are demonstrated contributors 

to high-performing organizations. 29 

LIFELONG PATTERN SHIFTS 

It would be disingenuous to imply that reading a few paragraphs 

could overcome years spent building incorrect narratives. 

It will not. Neither do we suggest that all leaders who 

struggle in this area do so equally. A biblical case could be 

made that shame, pride and misplaced approval desires tie 

directly to our fallen nature and show up as early as Genesis 

3. However, developmental research also suggests that 

our sensitivity to self-conscious emotions can be influenced 

by relationships with our early caregivers and the social environment 

in which we develop. 30 Every leader’s experience 

will be unique. However, as both neuroscience and spiritual 

practices inform us, applying a discipline of sustained and 

consistent pattern shifts can, over time, lead to authentic 

and effective change. 

Increasingly, research points to the ability to “rewire” the 

neural pathways in our brains. Conceptually, this is not unlike 

choosing to take new roads to a destination. Over time, 

our brains form these neural pathways and strengthen them 

through repetition. This strengthening results in habits, 

which often translate to automatic behaviors used in things 

like reading and driving. So too, we develop automated behavioral 

responses to emotional impulses. These responses 

are typically born out of years of mental training, often 

developed from childhood. This life-long development can 

make behavioral habits difficult to break—but not impossible. 

31 

Behavioral habits change through increased recurrence 

and repetition of new pathways. Not coincidentally, this recurrence 

and repetition mirrors the process of biblical meditation. 

Sadly, biblical meditation, which is replete throughout 

the pages of Scripture and Christian historical practice, is 

nearly lost in modern Christianity. While space does not permit 

a thorough review of this spiritual discipline, we will point 

out a few key components (see Box “Biblical Meditation”): 

First, biblical meditation involves high levels of mental 

engagement. Some scholars call biblical meditation the act 

of “mental chewing.” That is, meditation involves extensive 

pondering, musing, and even verbalization. As some have 

ironically noted, worrying and meditating actually involve the 

same process, albeit to different outcomes, of playing and 

replaying our thoughts. 32 Meditation can also involve actively 

speaking our thoughts through periods of biblical reflection. 

This may appear akin to Eastern practices, but it is far 

from them. As Thomas Merton noted, “True contemplation is 




not a psychological trick but a theological grace.” 33 

Second, the common objects of biblical meditation include 

God’s Word, his work, and his ways. In our specific case, 

meditations are focused on who God says we are in Christ. 

Therefore, biblical meditation is often connected with prayer. 

Charles Spurgeon observed, “Meditation and prayer are twin 

sisters, and both of them appear to me equally necessary to 

a Christian life. I think meditation must exist where there is 

prayer, and prayer would be sure to exist where there is meditation.” 

34 

Finally, while it engages the mind, biblical meditation 

is not exclusively 

mental; it consists 

of aligning our 

mental and spiritual 

gaze with God, the 

work of his Spirit, 

and his truth. When 

the Bible speaks of 

setting our minds 

on things above (Col 

3:2), it is not simply 

speaking of directing 

our physical brain waves. Rather, it is an encouragement 

to focus our physical and spiritual selves on heavenly things. 

To aid us, we ask God’s Spirit to “guide [us] into all truth” (Jn. 

16:13). Thus, while biblical and Eastern meditation may both 

quietly and reflectively concentrate, biblical meditation does 

not encourage us to clear or empty ourselves. Rather, biblical 

meditation propels us to fill ourselves, invoking God’s Spirit 

to direct our recurring thoughts toward God’s Word, work, 

and ways—which are primarily found in Scripture itself. 35 

WE CAN’T DO THIS ALONE 

While these spiritual practices are mostly learned and experienced 

in solitude, we also belong to a community of believers 

dependent 

on one another for 

the body to function 

(1 Co. 12, Rom. 

12). The practice of 

listening to God’s 

voice in community 

is challenging if 

we have not first 

learned to listen to 

it individually. But 

once we do—once 

we have some level of individual proficiency—receiving and 

discerning God’s will together is a powerful and rewarding 

experience. Leaders are part of a broader team that encour- 

Jesus also overcame pride. If we are in 

Christ, the leader no longer needs to 

live in the identity of self-comparison 

and self-congratulation, because that 

identity isn’t ours anymore. 

Below are a few recommendations for its practice: 

BIBLICAL MEDITATION 

• Be intentional - our meditations may often feel choppy and scattered and that’s okay. But we should be intentional 

about coaching and focusing ourselves throughout the process. 

• Develop a recurring time and location removed from distractions - we are creatures of habit so recurrence is 

useful. We should also free ourselves from distractions; especially our electronic devices. 

• Seek God’s presence and power - begin by asking for his Spirit to lead us; filing us with joy in his presence and 

eternal pleasures at his right hand (Ps. 16:11) 

• Seek God’s cleansing - reflect on God revealing the dark and often hidden stains of sin and washing our souls 

(Ps. 51:10, 139:24, 51:7) 

• Declutter our souls - reflect on the peace of God breaking through the disquieted clutter (Phil 4:7). Also reflect 

on God binding up our hurt and wounded hearts (Ps. 73:26) 

• Commune with God by reflecting and listening - reflect on his word, work, and ways. Center on an aspect 

of God’s nature and how that relates to our identity. Pray and listen to ways God’s attributes lead to joyous 

fellowship with him; thereby refreshing our souls. 

21 




EXAMINE 

Our vulnerability to 

Pride and Shame 

ASSESS 

Our approval addiction 

and disapproval 

avoidance 

ADJUST 

To God’s identity and 

approval statements 

LEAD 

From a transformed 

self-concept 

GROUNDED IN: 

• Writing a new identity narrative 

• Mental and spiritual pattern shifts 

• Christian community 

FIGURE II. A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF PERSONAL LEADERSHIP TRANSFORMATION 

age and support each other, point out our blind spots, and 

help set direction. Reciprocally, leaders need a broader team 

that we may pour ourselves into, thereby spurring one another 

on toward love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24). 

As believers, we were not intended to operate alone and 

we need to confirm God’s direction through the agreement of 

Christ’s body. These practices operationalize our leadership 

from within, enabling us to listen to both God and one another, 

thereby multiplying our leadership effectiveness. In so 

doing, we are freed from our shame-pride-approval tendencies 

and natural desires to be the source of all leadership decisions. 

As Ruth Haley Barton notes, “Corporate or leadership 

discernment, then, is the capacity to recognize and respond 

to the presence and activity of God as a leadership group 

relative to the issues we are facing, and to make decisions 

in response to that awareness.” 36 Discernment and working 

together as a team does not guarantee unanimity, nor does 

it include abdicating ultimate individual responsibility. However, 

it does mean that the team will be heard collaboratively 

and leaders will be willing to release their shame-pride-approval 

based biases. Through the input of others, we will be 

open to receiving God’s direction that may differ from our 

own limited human perspectives. Through the community of 

others, we will be more eager to encourage one another and 

build one another up (1 Thess. 5:11). 

Learning to grow together as a team and appreciating 

our differences as strengths rather than aggravations, represents 

an essential element of leading from within. As Henri 

Nouwen states, “Community always calls us back to solitude 

and solitude always calls us back to community. Both are essential 

elements of ministry and witness.” 37 

In summary, as shown in Figure II, we believe that biblical 

meditation, prayer, and study, led by God’s Spirit, and accompanied 

by the strength of community, can provide the foundation 

by which regular thought patterns are changed and 

new behavioral habits are formed (I Tim. 4.7-8, Heb. 12:1-3). 




As we are personally transformed into his image (2 Co. 3:18), 

so too does our leadership transform. Christian leaders can 

learn to change their self-narrative; increasingly finding freedom 

from the impacts of shame-pride-approval patterns. 

Over a lifetime of renewal and practice, the Christian leader 

can increasingly discover their true identity (1 Pet. 1:14-15; 

Eph. 1:1-10, 2:1-10; Rom. 8:29) and, from that identity, lead 

more effectively. 

CONCLUSION 

Does this model of leadership transformation actually 

work? Beyond our personal experiences, we conclude 

by sharing a few examples from Scripture and contemporary 

leadership. 

It is hard to miss the behavioral evidences of 

shame-pride-approval in the Apostle Peter during Jesus’s 

years on earth. At the top of his frequent bravado was his 

overconfident assertion to Jesus, “Even if I have to die with 

you, I will never disown you” (Mt. 26:35). Perhaps comforting 

to all of us who are works in progress, Peter never seemed to 

totally get over his approval addiction (Gal. 2:11-13). However, 

it is equally hard to overlook the personal and leadership 

transformation that took place in his life. As he stood boldly 

before the Sanhedrin declaring God’s approval over man’s 

(Acts 5), he was clearly a changed person. He had been with 

Jesus (Acts 4:13), and his leadership had immeasurable impact 

on the early Christian church. 

Similarly, it is hard to miss the behavioral evidences of 

shame-pride-approval in James and John, the “sons of thunder.” 

Like Peter, they held a special position in Jesus’s earthly 

ministry. Yet, scarcely after witnessing his transfiguration 

(Lk. 9:28-36), they were among those arguing about “who 

would be the greatest” (Lk. 9:46). After their attempt to 

coopt Jesus into sitting at his right and left in God’s kingdom 

(Mt. 20:20-23), Jesus delivers his most concise teaching on 

servant leadership contrasted against their naked personal 

ambition. However, after having been with Jesus, they were 

never the same. John, particularly, stands out as the “apostle 

of love”—the last original disciple to leave earth, transformed 

at his very core. 

Being with Jesus clearly means much more than studying 

him or even walking with him across Palestine. Being with 

Jesus means, in the words of Nouwen, “rooted in a permanent, 

intimate relationship with the Incarnate Word.” 38 One 

such modern experience comes from Dave Brown, former 

CEO of Lens Crafters. Trained in the mold of “Neutron Jack” 

Welch and “Chainsaw Al” Dunlap, within a decade of Brown’s 

tenure as a 29-year old CEO, Lens Crafters catapulted to the 

largest eye ware provider in the world. From day one, Brown 

was singularly results-driven. He states, “I was fortunate to 

become the CEO at just 29 years old and thought I was ‘hot 

stuff’ but the truth is, after a couple of years I was miserable.” 

He was, in his words “a classic numbers-only butthead 

who could do everybody’s job and was proud of telling them 

that.” 39 Yet, as he describes in further detail, after coming 

face-to-face with his disconnected faith and his overbearing 

“results at all costs” style, God deeply transformed his life 

and his entire style of leadership. 

We believe that any 21st century Christian leader can experience 

the same transformation and become more effective 

in the process. Any leader, unshackled from the self-preoccupations 

of shame-pride-approval, and all its behavioral 

dysfunctions, will lead more effectively. Such a leader, uncluttered 

by mental and emotional chaos, has much more 

margin at their disposal. Christ’s perpetual source of living 

water (Jn.7:38) leaves more undistracted time to reflect, 

comprehend, create, value, and vision-cast. It yields more 

opportunity to invest in others and grow in community. In 

short, as we journey the path of biblical transformational 

leadership, we are left freer to truly lead. 

23 





LANE COHEE is Associate Professor of Management and Senior Fellow of the Center for 

Biblical Leadership at Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBA) in West Palm Beach, Florida. Prior 

to academia, Lane held increasing levels of managerial responsibilities over a 30-year career 

within the defense and aerospace industry; most recently serving as an executive business 

leader at a Fortune 400 firm. He was educated at the United States Air Force Academy, University 

of Redlands, University of Colorado, and Rollins College where he received his Doctorate in 

Business Administration. Lane’s research interests and academic publications focus on organizational development, 

leadership, operations and strategy. He is also a teacher, published author, and conference speaker in the areas of 

Christian leadership and spiritual growth. 

SAM VOORHIES serves as the executive director of the Center for Biblical Leadership and 

Professor of Leadership at the MacArthur School of Leadership at Palm Beach Atlantic University 

(PBA) in West Palm Beach, Florida. Prior to academia, Sam had a 30-year career in various roles 

of senior leadership in the humanitarian industry, including serving as global director for 

leadership and organizational development of World Vision International. Sam is passionate 

about working with leaders, their teams and organizations to achieve exceptional performance, 

with a focus on delivering strategic support to assess capabilities and expand successes for increased effective 

leadership and team growth aligned with organizational mission and values. Sam holds a Ph.D. in International 

Development Education from Florida State University. He is the author of several articles and publications on 

leadership, international and community development. 

NOTES 

1 

“Why Emotional Intelligence Is More Important Than Ever,” RallyBright, 

February 18, 2020. https: /rallybright.com/why-emotional-intelligence-is-more-important-than-ever/ 

(accessed January 

20, 2020). 

2 

Recently, a number of high profile Christian leaders have been dismissed, 

resigned, or taken leaves of absence for unhealthy, abusive, 

or toxic leadership. This list includes Steve Timmis, CEO of 

Acts 29, Cameron Strang, CEO of Relevant Magazine, James Mac- 

Donald, Pastor of Harvest Bible Church, and Noel Castellanos, CEO 

of the Christian Community Development Association, to name a 

few. While we do not presume to address the unique circumstances 

surrounding each situation, we do seek to encourage the personal 

leadership transformation necessary to mitigate unhealthy leadership 

tendencies in their various forms. 

3 

Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter, What Got You Here Won’t Get 

You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful (New 

York: Hachette Books, 2014), 40–41. 

4 

Al Gini and Ronald M. Green, “Three Critical Characteristics of 

Leadership: Character, Stewardship, Experience,” Business and Society 

Review 119, no. 4 (2014): 435–46. 

5 

Chris Westfall, “Leadership Development Is A $366 Billion Industry: 

Here’s Why Most Programs Don’t Work,” Forbes, June 20, 2019. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/2019/06/20/leadership-development-why-most-programs-dont-work/ 

(accessed 

February 24, 2020). 

6 

According to the biblical record, Haman was second in command 

in the Persian Empire during the reign of Xerxes I. Yet, despite his 

nobility and lofty position, Haman possessed a fatal flaw which was 

exposed by Mordecai the Jew. Mordecai’s regular unwillingness to 

bow or genuflect to Haman served as perpetually insulting. In one 

particularly galling moment, while returning home from Esther’s 

party, Haman saw the defiant Mordecai at the king’s gate and it 

threw him into a free fall. Scripture states: 

Calling together his friends and Zeresh, his wife, Haman 

boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and 

all the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated 

him above the other nobles and officials. “And that’s 

not all,” Haman added. “I’m the only person Queen Esther 

invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And 

she has invited me along with the king tomorrow. But all this 

gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai 

sitting at the king’s gate.” (Est. 5:10–13). 

7 

Richard W. Robins and Roberta A. Schriber, “The Self-Conscious 

Emotions: How Are They Experienced, Expressed, and Assessed?” 

Social and Personality Psychology Compass 3, no. 6 (2009): 887–98. 

8 

Jessica L Tracy and Richard W. Robins, “Putting the Self into 

Self-Conscious Emotions: A Theoretical Model,” Psychological Inquiry 

15, no. 2 (04, 2004): 103-125. As Tracy and Robins note, the 

linkage between our self-concept and self-conscious emotions like 

embarrassment, guilt, pride and shame has only recently emerged 

amongst behavioral researchers. 




NOTES (CONTINUED) 

9 

Robins and Schriber, “The Self-Conscious,” 888-89. 

10 

June P Tangney, “Self-Conscious Emotions, Psychology Of,” International 

Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2001), 

13803–7. 

11 

Curt Thompson, The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe 

about Ourselves (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2015), 9. 

12 

To the degree we personally identify with these types of messages, 

we are impacted by the voice of shame. Not everyone is equally 

affected. Research and observation suggests that both nature and 

nurture combine to influence everyone differently. But to some degree 

we all feel shame’s condemnation, and it often reinforces what 

we already tend to believe about ourselves. 

13 

Simon Cavicchia, “Shame in the Coaching Relationship: Reflections 

on Organisational Vulnerability,” Journal of Management Development 

29, no. 10 (2010): 877–90. 

14 

Gershen Kaufman, The Psychology of Shame: Theory and Treatment 

of Shame-Based Syndromes (New York: Springer, 2011). 

15 

Edward Yeung and Winny Shen, “Can Pride Be a Vice and Virtue 

at Work? Associations between Authentic and Hubristic Pride and 

Leadership Behaviors,” Journal of Organizational Behavior 40, no. 6 

(2019): 605–24. 

16 

For example, Paul offers the Corinthian church an opportunity to 

“take pride in us” (2 Co. 5:11-13) based on the authenticity of the 

apostle’s message. Similarly, Paul encourages the Galatian church 

to test their own actions so they might “take pride in themselves 

alone, without comparing themselves to someone else.” (Gal. 6:4) 

17 

Os Guinness, Virginia Mooney, and Karen Lee-Thorp, Steering 

through Chaos: The Vices and Virtues in an Age of Moral Confusion (Colorado 

Springs: NavPress, 2000), 1–3. 

18 

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins, 2017), 122. 

As Lewis keenly observes about pride, “I pointed out a moment ago 

that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others. 

In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way 

is to ask yourself, ‘How much do I dislike it when other people snub 

me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronize 

me, or show off?’ The point is that each person’s pride is in 

competition with everyone else’s pride. It is because I wanted to 

be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else 

being the big noise. Two of a trade never agree.” 

19 

Goldsmith and Reiter, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, 40– 

41. 

20 

Ibid. 

21 

While we do not wish to paint an overly negative view of most 

leaders and their styles, we do wish to highlight how many commonly 

observed leadership shortcomings tie directly to the leader’s 

self-concept. We also wish to reinforce what biblical teaching 

and an increasing body of academic research states—much of our 

self-concept is linked to latent self-conscious emotions; particularly 

shame and hubristic pride. No leader or person lives in just 

one of these camps. Some may have more of an inclination toward 

shame or pride-based behavior. On any given day or hour, we might 

alternate between the two sides of the coin. But, at the core, our 

experience suggests that defective leadership often traces back to 

defective views of self. 

22 

Jolyn Davidson, Transforming Words into Wisdom: Change Your Attitudes 

and Save Your Life (Los Angeles: Davidson, 2016). 29. 

23 

Thompson, The Soul of Shame, 80. 

24 

Alistair Begg. “Introducing Ephesians: Part I of II,” Truth for Life, 

https://www.truthforlife.org/broadcasts/2020/02/17/introducing-ephesians-part-1-of-2/ 

(accessed February 20, 2020). 

25 

John R. Stott, “In Christ,” C. S. Lewis Institute, July 15, 2013, http: / 

www.cslewisinstitute.org/In_Christ_page1 (accessed October 19, 

2018). 

26 

Lane Cohee, The Disquieted Soul: Paths of Discovery and Deliverance 

(Grand Rapids: Credo House, 2019), 84. Specifically, Cohee writes 

that “To be in Christ means we are so connected to him that everything 

he has done, we have done through association. Everything he 

has accomplished, we have accomplished. Everything he has overcome, 

we have overcome. Everything he has put to death, we have 

put to death.” 

27 

For further discussion of the phrase, “I know you by name” and its 

significance, see Cohee, The Disquieted Soul, 90-92. 

28 

Derived from Romans 8:31–32; Proverbs 18:10; Psalm 73:26; 

Zephaniah 3:17; Ephesians 2:10; Song of Songs 4:7. 

29 

Mike Robbins, “The Secrets of High Performing Teams with Patrick 

Lencioni,” December 18, 2018, https: /mike-robbins.com/podcast-post/the-secrets-of-high-performing-teams-with-patricklencioni/ 

(accessed May 29, 2020). 

30 

Tracy and Robins, “Putting the Self,” 106. 

31 

Juli Hani, “The Neuroscience of Behavior Change,” Medium. 

Health Transformer, August 8, 2017. https: /healthtransformer.co/ 

the-neuroscience-of-behavior-change-bcb567fa83c1 (accessed 

February 20, 2020). 

32 

“Joyce Meyer Quotes,” BrainyQuote.com, BrainyMedia Inc., 2019, 

https: /www.brainyquote.com/quotes/joyce_meyer_567530 (accessed 

January 20, 2019). 

33 

Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: the Path to Spiritual 

Growth (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2018), 22. 

34 

“Meditation on God by C. H. Spurgeon,” Blue Letter Bible, last 

modified April 18, 2001, https: /www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/ 

spurgeon_charles/sermons/2690.cfm (accessed January 20, 2019). 

35 

For more complete discussions of biblical meditation, see Foster, 

Celebration of Discipline, 22-42 and Cohee, The Disquieted Soul, 155- 

168. 

36 

Ruth R. Barton. Pursuing God’s Will Together: A Discernment Practice 

for Leadership Groups (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books/Formation, 

2012), 11. 

37 

“Top 25 Quotes by Henri Nouwen (of 497),” A-Z Quotes, https: / 

www.azquotes.com/author/10905-Henri_Nouwen (accessed May 

31, 2020). 

38 

Henri J.M. Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian 

Leadership (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2013). p. 31. 

39 

“Former CEO Shares 3 Essential Elements of Leadership from 

Building Billion Dollar Company,” EDGE Mentoring, May 9, 2016. 

https://www.edgementoring.org/leadership-blog/building-billion-dollar-company-lenscrafters-ceo-shares-leadership-framework 

(accessed May 31, 2020). 

25 


FROMLEAN 

WHAT CHRISTIAN LEADERS 

CAN LEARN 

ANDREW PARRIS AND DON POPE 

ABSTRACT 

The term “Lean” was coined by researchers at MIT in the 

1980s to describe the methods developed by Toyota in 

post-war Japan to first survive, then thrive, and ultimately 

dominate the global automotive industry. Beyond shop 

floor techniques for setup reduction or just-in-time inventory 

control, Lean evolved into a management system with 

principles that apply in any context. This paper presents the 

foundational principles of Lean and explores their striking 

similarities with biblical teachings. These similarities are 

both noteworthy and surprising, since Lean was developed 

in a non-Christian cultural and religious context. We contend 

that Christian leaders can learn from Lean and suggest ways 

of applying Lean principles that will strengthen their work, 

be it in business, ministry or church. 

INTRODUCTION 

W 

e live in an unpredictable, 

complex, competitive, pluralistic 

and divided world. 

Increasingly, successful businesses 

and organizations require leaders who 

understand the times and who can inspire 

and guide their teams to design and deliver 

superior valuable products and services for 

their customers. Christian and non-Christian 

leaders alike can base their leadership on the 

experience and thinking of pioneers who have 

developed concepts and tools that – when 

properly understood and applied – dramatically 

increase the likelihood of success of an 

organization. When we look across the wide 

variety of management systems, Lean stands 

out above the rest. With significant input from 

the West, Lean was developed and refined in 

Japan, and most successfully at Toyota. 1 What 


CHRISTIAN LEADERS AND LEAN 


may be called The Toyota Production System 2 or The Toyota 

Way 3 we call Lean, as it was first named by John Krafcik 4 in 

1988 and spread more widely by Womack and Jones in The 

Machine that Changed the World. 5 Whether they call it Lean, 

Kaizen, Continuous Improvement, or something else, most 

successful corporations these days apply the concepts and 

tools of Lean in their operations. 

Many have studied the origins of Lean. Most writers recognize 

the strong influence that Japanese culture and religion 

played in the development and acceptance of the Total 

Quality Management, Toyota Production System (TPS), 

Kaizen and Lean. 6 In addition to the well-known Japanese 

fathers of the TPS (Sakichi Toyoda, Eiji Toyoda, Taiichi Ohno 

and Shigeo Shingo, to name a few), several writers 7 also note 

a strong influence from the West, most notably from people 

like Henry Ford, Edwards Deming (a man of strong Christian 

faith 8 ), Homer Sarasohn 9 and Peter Drucker, to name a few. 

One Japanese manager explained to one of our friends on 

a Lean tour that what Toyota developed is not so much a reflection 

of Japanese thinking and culture, but a compilation 

and systematization of what works, based on years of tireless 

experimentation. 10 Therefore, one can say that Toyota 

discovered truths about how organizations can succeed and 

organized these into a management system that delivers superior 

results. 

In this article we begin by introducing the reader to Lean. 

Next, we present some striking parallels between Lean principles 

and Christian principles. These similarities give Christians 

confidence that they can learn from Lean and fruitfully 

apply Lean principles in their work and personal lives. Finally, 

we give specific suggestions on how to do this. 

WHAT IS LEAN? 

Lean can be thought of as a set of principles that are supported 

by practices applied by people. Some reduce Lean/ 

TPS to just two principles (just-in-time production and respect 

for people), 11 or “(1) the reduction of variability and 

removal of waste for cost cutting purposes and, (2) the full 

utilization of workers and employee fulfillment for human 

development purposes.” 12 

We propose seven principles of Lean that make it more 

understandable and applicable to a wider variety of organizations, 

along the lines of those cited above who studied the 

origins of Lean. 13 They are: 

1. We exist to provide value to our customers. 

2. Waste is the greatest hindrance to achieving our 

goals. 

3. A good root produces good fruit. 

4. The greatest long-term gains are achieved incrementally 

and continuously. 

5. Capable and empowered employees will achieve 

great things. 

6. We achieve better results when we work together. 

7. Value is created, learning happens and relationships 

develop where the action is. 

To lay the foundation for further discussion, we briefly explain 

and summarize each principle below. 

1. WE EXIST TO PROVIDE VALUE TO 

OUR CUSTOMERS. 

Every organization exists because it provides valuable products 

and services to its customers. This is true not just for 

for-profit companies, but also for non-profits, churches, 

parachurch organizations, schools, and even governmental 

entities. 14 An organization asks and finds out from its customers 

what they need, what they want, and how they use 

the organization’s products and services. The organization 

then develops processes to design, produce and sell (or freely 

provide) products and services that customers want. Profits 

and growth are not reasons to exist, but are indications 

that an organization is providing superior customer value. 

2. WASTE IS THE GREATEST HINDRANCE 

TO ACHIEVING OUR GOALS. 

Organizations operate mostly through processes – repeated 

sequences of steps that transform inputs into outputs and 

create a valuable result for a customer. Processes may be for 

internal customers, such as a hiring process that delivers a 

qualified new employee to a hiring manager, or for external 

customers, such as the development and delivery of a training 

course for an external customer. 

Toyota found that the greatest performance improvements 

could be found not by creating new and better ways 

of adding value, but by identifying and eliminating waste in 

their processes. They identified three types of waste: Mura 

(unevenness – significant fluctuations in the amount of pro- 

27 




cess output required over time), Muri (overburden – excessive 

demands/loads placed on people or machines), and Muda 

(waste – any time or use of resources beyond the minimum 

required to add value.) 15 Taiichi Ohno identified seven types 

of muda waste: waiting, defects, inventory, over-processing, 

motion, overproduction, and transportation. 16 Many add an 

eighth type of waste: underutilized people – when people’s 

creativity and full energy are not engaged. 

Spear and Bowen noted that Toyota and other Lean organizations 

are “ruthless and relentless” about eliminating 

waste from their processes. 17 They don’t accept waste in 

their processes. Instead, they prevent or detect it and make 

it visible, so they can get rid of it. 

3. A GOOD ROOT PRODUCES GOOD 

FRUIT. 

Lean organizations know that a good process gets good results, 

and that a bad process will get bad results. Therefore, 

they do not pursue excellence by using inspectors to find poor 

quality work, and then fixing or scrapping them. Instead, they 

develop reliable processes that safely produce good products 

and services every time. They build into their processes the 

means to automatically prevent or detect poor quality. And 

when there is a problem, they do not blame people, but find 

and address the root causes of poor quality. 

4. THE GREATEST LONG-TERM GAINS 

ARE ACHIEVED INCREMENTALLY AND 

CONTINUOUSLY. 

While Lean organizations also develop major innovations that 

radically alter how they operate and create new ways of adding 

value for customers, they know that the greatest longterm 

improvements come from each employee (or volunteer) 

making small, incremental improvements or innovations every 

day in how they do their work. Even major innovations 

need to be refined and optimized over time. Therefore, they 

set expectations and stretch goals for continuous improvement 

of processes and performance. 

5. CAPABLE AND EMPOWERED 

EMPLOYEES WILL ACHIEVE GREAT 

THINGS. 

Lean organizations truly believe and act on the fact that their 

employees are their greatest resource. They know they must 

have committed, skilled employees who understand their 

work and how they add value to their customers. They know 

these employees best understand the challenges they face 

and are best positioned to identify and solve the problems 

that cause waste. Because of this, Lean organizations train 

their people, provide them with resources they need to succeed, 

coach them, and set ambitious goals with them. They 

expect and empower their people to make decisions about 

improvements to their work. This is a significant part of what 

Toyota calls “respect for humanity.” 18 

6. WE ACHIEVE BETTER RESULTS 

WHEN WE WORK TOGETHER. 

Lean organizations depend on the synergy that comes from 

people creating, working and solving problems together, 

whether teams of people doing similar work or cross-functional 

teams that bring together people from very different 

backgrounds and perspectives. Therefore, Lean organizations 

promote teamwork and team problem solving. 

7. VALUE IS CREATED, LEARNING 

HAPPENS AND RELATIONSHIPS 

DEVELOP WHERE THE ACTION IS. 

Gemba is the Japanese word for “where the action is” and 

refers to the workplace. Problems occur and are best solved 

in the Gemba. Because of the importance of the Gemba, leaders 

(senior leaders, managers and team leaders) go to the 

factory, offices and other workplaces to see and understand 

the context of work and what is actually happening. At where 

people work, leaders get to know their people, and their people 

get to know them. This allows them to develop meaningful 

relationships of trust and gain valuable insights. 

CHRISTIAN PARALLELS TO 

LEAN WISDOM 

Given the Japanese manufacturing context of the development 

of Lean, a Christian leader may be reluctant to 

adopt Lean personally or in a Christian ministry out of fear 

that Lean is only for manufacturing or is culturally or religiously 

inconsistent with Christian faith or practice. Instead, 

the increasing adoption of Lean in an ever-widening variety 

of industries and now also in all geographic regions (the 




Lean Global Network) demonstrate that Lean has discovered 

some wisdom for the workplace – fundamental principles 

and practices that apply (with some variation) to almost all 

organizations and contexts. 19 

In this section, we explore some of the key Christian/biblical 

parallels to Lean principles that we expect many of our 

readers have already noticed. We note the topic of each principle 

and then cite the most relevant passages from the Bible 

that teach on the topic. In doing so, we demonstrate that 

Lean principles are, in the end, truths supported and affirmed 

by biblical teachings and, as a result, Christian leaders can 

fully endorse and practice. 

1. WE EXIST TO PROVIDE VALUE TO 

OUR CUSTOMERS 

This first Lean principle is about purpose and providing value 

to others. When we examine biblical passages that address 

purpose and value, we find that the Apostle Paul often exhorts 

believers to find out and do what pleases God (2 Corinthians 

5:15, Ephesians 5:10 and 17, Colossians 1:9-10 and 

3:17 & 23-24). The commandment to love our neighbors as 

ourselves (Leviticus 19:18 and Matthew 22:39) requires us 

to learn and do what is good for them – what is valuable 

to them. In the well-known Old Testament passage of Micah 

6, the prophet asks what he should do to please God (v. 

6-7), and then reflects, “He has shown you, O mortal, what 

is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly 

and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (v. 8). 

These passages reflect the Christian idea that we (and our 

organizations, by extension) are to please God and to serve 

others, both of which are similar to the Lean idea of providing 

customer value. 

We note earlier that Lean focuses only on the earthly customers 

(those who pay for and/or benefit from the organization’s 

products and services). At best, Lean might consider 

service to God to be a type of required, non-value-adding 

work (from the customer’s perspective). However, Christians 

are exhorted to do everything first and foremost for God (as 

our primary Customer). 

2. WASTE IS THE GREATEST HINDRANCE 

TO ACHIEVING OUR GOALS 

This second Lean principle is about the things that hinder 

fruitfulness. Biblical passages on this topic teach that there 

are things (such as anxieties and cares of this world) and sin 

that prevent us from living a fruitful Christian life, and that 

we should strive to avoid and rid ourselves of them. 20 

The author of Hebrews writes: “Therefore, since we are 

surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw 

off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” 

(Hebrews 12:1a). In Matthew 13, Jesus’ parable of the 

sower and the seed teaches the same message. The Apostle 

Paul exhorts believers many times to stop sinning, as in 

Ephesians 4:31, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, 

brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” Even 

God gets rid of waste in us. In John 15, Jesus states, “I am 

the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every 

branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that 

does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” 

(v. 1-2). 

Interestingly, while Lean recognizes many different types 

of waste, it does not recognize sin as a waste or a source of 

waste. However, consider the arrogant, hurtful and violent 

things that people do, the harm that these things cause, and 

the enormous amounts of time and resources spent trying to 

prevent, restrain or recover from evil. One quickly sees that 

sin is possibly the greatest waste that any individual or organization 

has to deal with! 

3. A GOOD ROOT PRODUCES GOOD 

FRUIT 

This third Lean principle is about the source of good fruit. In 

the Old Testament (Ezekiel 36:26-28) and the New Testament, 

we find passages that teach that a bad or a good heart 

is the source of bad or good deeds. 

In Matthew 12:34-35, Jesus affirms this principle and applies 

it to what people say and do, “Make a tree good and its 

fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, 

for a tree is recognized by its fruit…. For the mouth speaks 

what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out 

of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil 

things out of the evil stored up in him.” 

4. THE GREATEST LONG-TERM GAINS 

ARE ACHIEVED INCREMENTALLY AND 

CONTINUOUSLY 

This Lean principle is about personal and corporate growth. 

It aligns with the expectation that God has for his people 

(individually and as the body of Christ) to grow and to be- 

29 




come more mature over time, with the result that we will 

bear increasing fruit. While salvation is an event, sanctification 

is a process that happens over time. The Apostle Paul 

repeatedly writes about believers growing in faith and character 

(Ephesians 4:15, Colossians 1:10, 2 Thessalonians 1:3, 

2 Peter 3:18). Jesus commissioned his disciples to make 

disciples (Matthew 28:16-20), and discipleship is always a 

“growing-learning relationship.” 21 In Matthew 2:52, we find 

that even “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor 

with God and man.” 

This principle of incremental growth and its fruit is most 

fully described in 2 Peter 1:5-8: “For this very reason, make 

every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, 

knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, 

perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to 

godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For 

if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they 

will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your 

knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

One key difference on this topic between Lean and Christianity 

is that Christians receive supernatural strength and 

assistance in our growth, through the Holy Spirit, as explained 

in Philippians 2:12-13 and Colossians 2:19. 

5. CAPABLE AND EMPOWERED 

EMPLOYEES WILL ACHIEVE GREAT 

THINGS 

This Lean principle is about those who are more mature 

building up those who are less mature so they grow and 

make a valuable contribution. It can be best seen in how Jesus 

took a rag-tag group of twelve followers and taught and 

discipled them to become the leaders of his church. Our Lord 

Jesus asked many more questions than he answered, and almost 

always answered a question with a question or with a 

mysterious answer for his interlocutor to think and reflect. 

His interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 

4 exemplifies this. 

Jesus made disciples and continues to trust and empower 

everyday believers to do his work on earth, for he said: “Very 

truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I 

have been doing, and they will do even greater things than 

these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). 

In Ephesians 4:11-12, Paul affirms this idea of empowering 

believers when he explains that God gives people specific 

roles to build up the church: “So Christ himself gave the apostles, 

the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 

to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of 

Christ may be built up.” 

6. WE ACHIEVE BETTER RESULTS 

WHEN WE WORK TOGETHER 

This Lean principle is about the importance of people working 

fruitfully together. It aligns with the biblical teaching that 

believers need one another and should work together, without 

divisions that might separate us. 

Jesus saw the importance and fruit of unity when in John 

17:20-23 he prayed for the complete unity of all believers 

and explained the impact this will have: “Then the world will 

know that you sent me and have loved them even as you 

have loved me.” Likewise, in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 

12, Paul wrote extensively about the body of Christ, the unity 

of believers, and the necessity of each part of the body to 

cherish one another and to contribute their part. 

7. VALUE IS CREATED, LEARNING 

HAPPENS AND RELATIONSHIPS 

DEVELOP WHERE THE ACTION IS. 

This Lean principle is about where a leader should spend his 

or her time. In the Bible this can be seen both in the Incarnation 

of Jesus – his coming to the Gemba of mankind – and in 

the incarnational presence of Christians in the world – our life 

in the world. Jesus left his glorious “office” in heaven, made 

himself nothing, was born, lived, suffered and humbly died in 

our world (Philippians 2:6-8). Jesus taught, discipled, healed, 

performed miracles and gave us an example of how to live 

(John 1:18, 1 John 1:1-2). In his high priestly prayer, Jesus 

stated that he sent his followers into the world and gave to 

them the glory the Father had given to him (Joh 17:18-22). 

Jesus tells his disciples (and us) to be the salt of the earth 

and the light of the Word, so that others “may see your good 

deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16). 

The extent to which the Bible affirms Lean principles gives 

Christians confidence that the Lean principles practiced by 

Toyota, Google and countless other corporations is not primarily 

a Japanese or Buddhist management system that 

may conflict with Christian beliefs. On the contrary, this affirmation 

demonstrates that Lean principles reflect Christian 

values and principles that we already seek to live out in our 

personal and professional lives. 




WHAT CHRISTIAN LEADERS 

CAN LEARN FROM LEAN 

Christian leaders, workers and organizations can have confidence 

that they can learn from and apply Lean wisdom 

to help them succeed in their work and even to strengthen 

their Christian identity and mission. 

Our experiences in Christian ministry have shown us that 

Christian organizations often struggle with the very things 

that Lean focuses on. 22 The concepts of “value,” “customer,” 

and “waste” are hard to understand and apply in Christian 

church and ministry contexts because these are arguably the 

most gut-wrenching ideas to apply anywhere. Allowing customers 

(external stakeholders and God himself as revealed 

through Scripture) to define value for us will inevitably conflict 

with long-held internally-driven beliefs about what we 

think is important. If we 

take Lean principles seriously, 

we will need to 

question established 

traditions, outdated 

programs, burdensome 

administrative 

procedures, excessive 

centralized control, 

unfruitful committees, 

superfluous activities, elaborate facilities, some staff positions 

and our inadequate understanding of and outreach to 

non-Christians. 

Most importantly, Lean reminds Christian leaders to prioritize 

the parallel Christian principles that they already know, 

yet may have forgotten or neglected. Secondly, Lean provides 

principles and tools that Christian leaders can apply as 

they lead others, whether in business, ministry or church. 23 

Toyota and many others have thought and written about 

what Lean means for leaders. 24 In line with these insights, we 

propose these priorities for Christian leaders derived from 

the seven Lean principles: 

1. FOCUS ON PLEASING GOD 

AND PROVIDING VALUE TO YOUR 

CUSTOMERS. 

It is easy for an organization to lose its direction, to focus on 

policies and bureaucratic procedures, rather than on pleasing 

God and serving people. Christian leaders should take time to 

find out or to rediscover their personal purpose and the purpose 

of their organization and every department, committee 

or other entity in it. What pleases God can be found through 

prayer, reading the Bible, learning from and discussion with 

others, and reflection. Have your teams meet with and ask 

their customers what they value and what they want from 

the goods and services your organization offers or can offer. 

2. IDENTIFY AND ELIMINATE WASTE 

AND SIN. 

Knowing your purpose, facilitate a review of how your organization 

(or your part of it) provides value to your customers. 

As you do this, identify all the obstacles that hinder you personally 

and your organization from pleasing God and delivering 

value. Identify unevenness, overburden, the eight types 

of waste and administrative burdens; then find ways to eliminate 

or at least 

reduce them. Stop 

what does not bear 

fruit, and prune 

what is bearing 

fruit for greater 

fruitfulness. 

Leaders should 

also look in their 

own life to identify 

the cares of this world, the anxieties and the sins that hinder 

them and trip them up. Sin not only causes great hurt and 

loss to others, but it also harms the sinner (Proverbs 5:22) 

and separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2). With humility and 

wisdom, leaders should also partner with others to identify 

and eliminate organizational sin, such as various forms of 

discrimination and unfair treatment of employees. 

Lean reminds Christian leaders 

to prioritize the parallel Christian 

principles that they already know, yet 

may have forgotten or neglected 

3. WORK ON THE ROOT. 

When we are busy and we encounter a problem, we often 

feel we don’t have the time to stop, identify the root cause of 

the problem, and prevent it from happening again. We make 

a quick fix and endure the same problems again and again. 

However, leaders should encourage their teams to prevent 

their recurrence through root cause analysis and mistake-proofing, 

or applying the Plan-Do-Check-Act problem 

solving cycle. Once the best-known way to do something has 

been found, it should be documented and shared to become 

31 




“standard work,” which serves both as a great way to train 

new people and as a springboard for continuous improvement. 

The same principle applies to a leader’s character and behavior. 

Rather than continuing to sin and asking for forgiveness, 

leaders must work – with God’s strength and the encouragement 

and wisdom of others – to purify their hearts 

and overcome sin, and in so doing become more like Christ. 

4. STRENGTHEN CONTINUOUS 

IMPROVEMENT AND GROWTH. 

Christian Leaders should develop a vision and a strategy with 

and for their organization, and then set stretch goals for the 

continuous improvement of their activities, processes, outputs 

and outcomes. They should expect every person and 

every part of the organization not just to do their work, but 

also to grow (personally and professionally) and to do their 

work better over time. What really helps in this is to document 

improvements, to share success stories and to recognize 

people and teams to continuously improve. Frequent 

and compelling communication of the vision, the strategy, 

and progress is essential. 

5. BUILD CAPABILITY OF AND 

EMPOWER YOUR PEOPLE. 

Leaders should ensure that everyone receives training and 

coaching so that they are equipped and inspired not only to 

perform their work as best they can, but also to improve it. 

Initially, Christian leaders may rely on external expertise to 

provide training and coaching in the principles and tools of 

Lean, but over time they should develop internal expertise in 

Lean and expect managers and team leaders to coach their 

teams to improve. Leaders must also give their people authority 

and responsibility to improve. 

6. PROMOTE UNITY AND 

COLLABORATION. 

Christian leaders must take very seriously Jesus’ words on 

the importance of unity of believers and the importance of 

working together with others. Therefore, they build bridges 

that connect people and serve as peacemakers when there is 

division. They do what they can to live at peace with everyone 

(Romans 12:18). They ask and encourage their people 

and teams to collaborate and partner with other individuals, 

teams and external partners. 

7. SPEND TIME IN THE GEMBA. 

Like Jesus, Christian leaders go to the workplace to know and 

to be known, to develop relationships and to build up people. 

For all Christians, the larger Gemba is the home, community, 

country and world in which we live. Christian leaders courageously, 

sacrificially and humbly go and challenge their people 

to go into the world, in order to learn, to bear witness to 

Jesus through word and deed, to live fully for God (Colossians 

3:17), to build relationships of trust, to be peacemakers, to 

reconcile, to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with 

their God (Micah 6:8). 

CLOSING REFLECTION 

Chiarini et al. argue that non-Japanese organizations which 

adopt Lean do not need to change their society, culture or 

religion, but to change their frame of mind about how they 

manage. They stated, “Lastly, it could be interesting to investigate 

whether, in some way, there is a sort of Western approach 

for implementing Lean-TPS based on the same tools 

and techniques but with different principles more pertinent 

to our culture.” 25 In this article, we argue that Christianity – 

while fundamentally very different from Japanese religions 

– aligns well with Lean principles and thus provides a welcoming 

and fertile different context for Lean. Lean principles 

remind Christian leaders to take the difficult steps to periodically 

reassess whom they are serving and challenge longheld 

notions of value versus waste as we seek to achieve our 

overarching mission of glorifying God and serving the world 

in His name. 





ANDREW PARRIS is Process Excellence Manager at Medair, a Christian humanitarian NGO 

based in Switzerland. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT as part of the 

Lean Aircraft Initiative. After earning his doctorate and spending a year in seminary, he worked 

in process improvement for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, mostly on the Atlas rocket 

program. Then he worked in process improvement for World Vision, including three years in East 

Africa. He is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. His work and interest center around 

the application of Lean to streamline and maximize the impact of humanitarian and development work around the 

world. 

DON POPE is Associate professor of Management at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, 

Texas. He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University. He had a 20-year 

career in aircraft manufacturing, working with simulation modeling, manufacturing strategic 

planning, and enterprise information systems. He has taught operations management, supply 

chain management, and related courses. His research interests include operations management 

and applications in humanitarian projects. 

NOTES 

1 

“History of Toyota”, accessed February 24, 2020, https: /global. 

toyota/en/company/trajectory-of-toyota/history/. 

2 

Yasuhiro Monden, Toyota Production System: An Integrated Approach 

to Just-In-Time (Atlanta: Institute ofIndustrial Engineers, 1993). 

3 

Jeffrey Liker, The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the 

World’s Greatest Manufacturer (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004). 

4 

John Krafcik, “Triumph of the Lean Production System,” MIT Sloan 

Management Review 30, no. 1 (1988): 41. 

5 

James Womack, Daniel Jones and Daniel Roos, The Machine That 

Changed the World, 1st ed. (New York:Harper Perennial, 1991). 

6 

Examples include Christian Wittrock, “Reembedding Lean: The 

Japanese Cultural and Religious Context of a World Changing Management 

Concept,” International Journal of Sociology 45(2) (2015), 

95-111.; Andrea Chiarini, Claudio Baccarani, Vittorio Mascherpa, 

“Lean Production, Toyota Production System and Kaizen Philosophy: 

A Conceptual Analysis from the Perspective of Zen Buddhism,” 

The TQM Journal (2018); and Poropat, Arthur, and John Kellett. “Buddhism 

and TQM: An Alternative Explanation of Japan’s Adoption of 

Total Quality Management,” in Proceedings of the 20th ANZAM Conference, 

Australian and New Zeeland Academy of Management (2006). 

7 

Examples include Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), 

Kaizen Handbook (2018); and Takahiro Fujimoto, The Evolution of a 

Manufacturing System (Oxford University Press, 1999). 

8 

Robert B. Austenfeld, Jr., “W. Edwards Deming: The Story of a Truly 

Remarkable Person,” Papers of the Research Society of Commerce and 

Economics 42(1) (2001). 

9 

See Richard Donkin, “Whatever Happened to Homer Sarasohn?” 

In The History of Work (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 202- 

215, and N. I. Fisher, “Homer Sarasohn and American Involvement 

in the Evolution of Quality Management in Japan, 1945 – 1950,” International 

Statistical Review 77(2) (2009), 276–299. 

10 

Steven Spear and Kent Bowen, “Decoding the DNA of the Toyota 

Production System,” Harvard Business Review 77 (1999), 96-106. 

11 

Y. Sugimori , K. Kusunoki , F. Cho & S. Uchikawa, “Toyota Production 

System and Kanban System Materialization of Just-in-Time and 

Respect-for-Human System,” The International Journal of Production 

Research 15(6) (1977), 553-564. 

12 

Thomas M. Smith, “Lean Operations and Business Purposes: A 

Common Grace Perspective.” Journal of Markets & Morality 18(1) 

(2015),139-162. In addition, Womack and Jones identify five that 

are more generally applicable to non-production contexts; see 

James Womack and Daniel Jones, Lean Thinking (New York: 

33 





Simon and Schuster, 1996). 

13 

Masaaki Imai, Gemba Kaizen (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997), and 

Liker, The Toyota Way. 

14 

Womack et. al., The Machine. 

15 

“Muda, Mura, Muri,” accessed February 24, 2020, https: /www. 

lean.org/lexicon/muda-mura-muri. 

16 

Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System: Beyond Large Scale Production 

(Boca Raton, Fl: CRC Press, 1988). 

17 

Spear and Bowen, “Decoding the DNA.” 

18 

Yasuhiro Monden, Toyota Production System, An Integrated Approach 

to Just-in-Time (Springer Science & Business Media, 1994). 

19 

Torbjørn H. Netland and Daryl J. Powell, The Routledge Companion 

to Lean Management (New York: Routledge, 2017), and “Lean Global 

Network Institutes,” accessed 16 June 2010, http: /leanglobal.org/ 

affiliates/. 

20 

John Piper discusses this in his book, Don’t Waste Your Life (Crossway 

Books, 2007). 

22 

See Andrew Parris, “Improving Processes for Good in East Africa”, 

The TQM Journal 25(5) (2013), 458-472; Don Pope, Andrew Parris 

and Kent Smith, “The Lean Church.” Regent Business Review 10 

(2004), 11-16; and Charles Duffert, Lean Ministry: Implementing 

Change in the 21 st Century (ChurchSmart Resources, 2011). 

23 

Michael George, David Rowlands, Mark Price and John Maxey, 

Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to 100 Tools 

for Improving Process Quality, Speed and Complexity (New York: Mc- 

Graw-Hill, 2005). 

24 

Bob Emiliani, Practical Lean Leadership: A Strategic Leadership 

Guide for Executives (Wethersfield, CT: The Center for Lean Business 

Management, 2008); Michael Ballé and Freddy Ballé, The 

Lean Manager: A Novel of Lean Transformation (Cambridge, MA: Lean 

Enterprise Institute, 2009); and Jeffrey Liker and Gary Convis, The 

Toyota Way to Lean Leadership: Achieving and Sustaining Excellence 

through Leadership Development (Audible Studios, 2011). 

25 

Chiarini et al., “Lean production.” 

21 

Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship 

in an Instant Society (InterVarsity Press, 1980). 


CHRISTIAN 

LEADERSHIP 

AND 

F RGIVENESS 

MARJORIE COOPER 

ABSTRACT 

Christians in business and organizational leadership are 

under pressure to perform and to adapt to rapidly changing 

circumstances perhaps more than at any other time in recent 

memory. Because of so much pressure and urgency, it is 

understandable that leaders and followers will have missteps 

and commit transgressions, which lead to finding themselves at 

odds with other leaders, followers, or external constituencies. 

It is at such times that the role of forgiveness acquires special 

relevance. Sometimes leaders need to seek forgiveness; 

sometimes they need to offer forgiveness to transgressors over 

whom they exercise oversight. In both cases, Christians need to 

consider their responsibility before God as to how to deliver a 

genuine apology and to seek forgiveness as well as when and 

under what circumstances to offer forgiveness to offenders. 

To uphold moral and ethical principles in businesses and other 

organizations, leaders require many skill sets, not the least of 

which is a mindset of humility and grace. 

INTRODUCTION 

T 

oday’s leadership is scrutinized 

more closely than possibly any other 

generation of leaders throughout 

history. Social media, Internet 

news stories, and opinion blogs populate the 

airwaves in addition to 24/7 “news” reporting 

and commentary. The pitfalls for anyone 

in the public eye or even in the private sector 

are many and varied. It would not be unusual 

for many, if not most, leaders to have 

to make apologies for how they have handled 

some situations and seek forgiveness from 

various constituencies. Because organizations 

are complex and accountable to their publics, 

it would also not be unusual for followers to 

transgress organizational norms and ethical 

standards such that they also stand in need 

of forgiveness—whether from supervisors, 

colleagues, employees, or other of the orga- 

35 


FORGIVENESS 


nization’s constituencies. Even a superficial review of “leadership” 

and “forgiveness” articles in a Google search verifies 

the timeliness and growing interest in the subject of forgiveness 

as part of a manager’s skill set and toolbox. 

The purpose of this paper is to examine the act of forgiveness 

more closely from both biblical and managerial 

perspectives with a twofold thrust: Christian leaders asking 

for forgiveness and Christian leaders granting forgiveness to 

followers. In this article, I discuss some definitions of forgiveness 

and offer some biblical perspectives, coupled with 

examples, on the application and practice of asking for and 

granting forgiveness for Christians in leadership roles. 

DEFINITIONS OF 

FORGIVENESS 

Social science experts define forgiveness as a social-psychological 

phenomenon that manifests itself in the context 

of everyday activities. 1 The importance of forgiveness 

lies in the fact that it is instrumental to restoring interpersonal 

harmony after a transgression takes place. 2 The context 

for such restoration may be close personal relationships, 

as in family or friendships, but forgiveness can also 

take place in a more formal setting, such as the workplace. 

In these contexts, forgiveness may be viewed as letting go of 

negative feelings toward another and may entail adjustment 

of claims for restitution or retribution. In his classic article on 

forgiveness, Horsbrugh argues that forgiveness begins with 

a volitional decision, the decision to forgive. As one moves 

through the process of forgiveness, negative feelings are 

overcome, and reconciliation is accomplished. 3 To achieve 

reconciliation, it is important that the offender is no longer 

defined in terms of the offense, but, instead, is viewed in a 

more balanced way that acknowledges the offender’s positive 

characteristics, unique contributions to the organization, 

and potential for growth and future contributions. This does 

not negate confession of culpability and the need to make 

restitution, but it treats the manager or subordinate as more 

than just the summation of his or her transgressions. 

For Christians, the practice of forgiveness has a long and 

venerated precedent grounded in the Scriptures. Therefore, 

a biblical understanding of forgiveness is paramount, since, 

when understood in a hermeneutically correct way, biblical 

instruction and injunctions on the subject are definitive as 

to God’s view of forgiveness. The Koine Greek word for forgiveness 

in the New Testament is a common word, ἀφίημι 

(ăphíāmi), that carries with it more than one meaning, depending 

on context. When used for “forgiveness,” it means 

“to release from a legal or moral obligation or consequence.” 

It can be translated “cancel,” “remit,” or “pardon.” In the Old 

(Septuagint) and New Testaments, when used as the absolution 

of misdeeds, the word frequently refers to divine forgiveness. 

4 

Forgiveness is one of the critical issues addressed in the 

Lord’s Prayer and should be observed regularly. 5 Forgiveness 

is also a reflection of how the Lord has forgiven us. 6 Additionally, 

one cannot but be reminded of Peter’s query as to 

how many times one should forgive and the Lord’s answer 

of “seventy times seven,” essentially setting up limitless forgiveness. 

7 Nevertheless, it should be noted that in the gospel 

writer’s reporting of this occurrence, the Lord does not stipulate 

the terms for forgiveness, which, from other passages 

seem, at a minimum, to entail repentance on the part of the 

wrongdoer as a necessary precursor to forgiveness. As will 

be discussed later, such a stipulation coheres well with the 

idea of the wrongdoer being re-integrated into the community. 

Rather than labeled exclusively as a transgressor, the 

wrongdoer is recognized as a valuable member of the community, 

and the intent of the community focuses on reconciliation 

rather than revenge. 8 

Forgiveness involves restoring relationships within the 

community without sacrificing either justice or restitution for 

wrongdoing. 9 Certainly the delegation of justice to the state 

can result in wrongdoers being lost to the community instead 

of being restored as well as suggesting a lack of accountability 

on the part of wrongdoers directly to the community 

that was wronged. Along these lines, Christian theologian N. 

T. Wright writes in his book, Evil and the Justice of God, that 

although God holds his creatures accountable and metes out 

discipline (to believers) and retribution (to unbelievers), his 

measures are fundamentally restorative in intent. 10 Nevertheless, 

Christian leaders are obligated to invoke legal consequences 

for some acts of wrongdoing in accordance with 

biblical injunctions to obey the laws of the state. 11 

WHAT FORGIVENESS IS 

NOT 

Forgiveness should not be confused with offering lack of 

accountability for one’s transgressions. Even in secular 

literature, forgiveness does not mean that a leader condones, 


FORGIVENESS 


excuses, or justifies bad behavior. 12 “Condoning” means to 

overlook or disregard an action, treating it as unimportant. 

Condoning is a poor response to transgression, because so 

doing undermines the significance of the wrong that was 

perpetrated and falsely minimizes the damage that was done 

to others and to the organization. Forgiveness is also not the 

same as “excusing” a wrongdoing. Applied to minor offenses, 

excusing simply lets the offender “off the hook,” so to speak, 

because the leader is too lazy to mete out punishment or too 

timid to demand restitution. Similar to condoning, excusing 

merely invites more of the same type of transgression. Finally, 

forgiveness should not be the result of “justifying” the 

offender’s behavior, because of reasons to “understand” why 

the offender acted as he or she did. In each of these cases, 

forgiveness is wrongly 

applied, which further 

exacerbates the 

damage done by the 

offense in the first 

place. Thus, although 

forgiveness is an important 

tool in the 

leader’s repertoire of 

leadership capabilities, 

forgiveness as 

practiced must adhere 

to ethical parameters. 

In a Christian context, 

Zacchaeus is a 

good example of the 

responsibility of a 

convert upon receiving the Lord’s forgiveness and kindness. 

Zacchaeus immediately recognized his need to not only accept 

the Lord’s graciousness but to also make restitution to 

those he had harmed through the illicit manipulation of his 

secular power in the role of a tax gatherer. To show his genuine 

change of heart, he offered to give back fourfold to those 

he had defrauded. The Lord’s response was not, “Oh, Zacchaeus, 

you don’t have to do that. You are forgiven.” Rather, 

the passage indicates that the Lord approves when he says, 

“Today salvation has come to this house.” 13 

THE NEED TO PRACTICE 

FORGIVENESS 

By asking for forgiveness when they are clearly at fault, 

leaders show humility and the willingness to repent of 

their transgressions. The act of asking for forgiveness is often 

indicative of a person’s integrity; that is, asking for forgiveness 

reflects honesty and consistent adherence to moral 

and ethical principles, an acknowledgment that those principles 

apply to themselves as well as to others. For Christians 

in leadership roles, asking for forgiveness may indicate 

a willingness to learn from one’s mistakes and a heart that 

submits to God’s overriding authority and sovereignty as 

well as a high degree 

of personal awareness 

The act of asking for forgiveness 

is often indicative of a person’s 

integrity; that is, asking for 

forgiveness reflects honesty and 

consistent adherence to moral and 

ethical principles, an acknowledgment 

that those principles apply to 

themselves as well as to others. 

and recognition of 

one’s own faults and 

weaknesses. 

For example, the 

head nurse at a large 

regional hospital, who 

was also a Christian, 

became embroiled in a 

rather vocal argument 

with a doctor in the 

hospital. Several other 

medical personnel 

who were involved in 

the patient case under 

discussion were uncomfortable 

witnesses to the confrontation. One of the head 

nurse’s assistants, who was also a Christian, pulled the head 

nurse aside and told her that such a public display of disagreement 

was not good and that the head nurse and the 

doctor needed to continue their discussion in private. The 

head nurse realized her fault immediately; she apologized to 

the other nurses present and to the doctor, showing both humility 

and a willingness to learn from her mistake. 

Leaders who grant forgiveness may demonstrate the 

kindness and reconciliation that they themselves have received 

from the Father through faith in Christ. A manager of 

a large retail establishment overheard two of his employees 

vocally criticizing company policies in front of three customers. 

When the manager intervened and pointed out their 

disloyalty and inappropriate remarks, one of the employees, 

who was a Christian, immediately confessed and apologized 

37 


FORGIVENESS 


for the behavior. The manager, after counseling privately 

with both employees, forgave them and put the incident behind 

them with the employees’ assurance that such a lapse 

would not happen again. 

On the other hand, Christian leaders who are unwilling to 

ask for forgiveness or grant forgiveness may be exhibiting a 

stubbornness and hubris—and even lack of integrity—that 

is not fitting for a Christian. Such traits in leaders routinely 

lead to disruption, dysfunction, economic instability, and 

other management breakdowns in businesses and organizations. 

Integrity, the “cornerstone of leadership,” is necessary 

for society’s flourishing. 14 It is simply the case that everyone 

who holds any form of leadership—from parents to church 

leadership to CEO’s of billion-dollar organizations—is in need 

of repentance and forgiveness at times and is also called upon 

to offer similar considerations to others. By refusing to 

admit the need for personal forgiveness and rejecting the 

grace to offer forgiveness to others, leaders commensurately 

sacrifice integrity to expediency and self-protection on 

the one hand or revenge tactics and retaliation on the other 

hand. Along these lines, many leaders have destroyed everything 

good they accomplished and done irreparable damage 

in the process. In some cases, the core problem behind a 

lack of forgiveness and leadership hubris is an unwillingness 

to acknowledge ethical 

breaches, to confess sin, 

and to ask for forgiveness, 

as well as an unwillingness 

to forgive others. 

The Lord himself 

pointedly illustrates the 

need to offer forgiveness 

in the account reported in 

Matthew 18:23-35. The 

king’s servant is in jeopardy, 

because he owes 

the king a large debt. However, as a result of the servant’s 

pleading, the king relents and forgives the debt. A fellow servant 

owes the first servant a small sum, but the first servant 

refuses to forgive him and has the debtor thrown into prison. 

When the king hears of this, he imposes severe judgment on 

the first servant. The Lord then explicitly warns his hearers 

that the Father will take a similar tack with his people who 

are unforgiving, certainly a serious warning to us all. 

Besides the need to act with integrity and honesty themselves, 

leaders are often called upon to decide how to respond 

when followers in their organizations commit ethical 

transgressions. 15 A few offenses are serious; many are not so 

important. However, some transgressions will jeopardize the 

organization’s good name, reputation, and even legal status. 

Other transgressions have their biggest effect on the climate 

within the organization causing disruption in operations, as 

well as employee burnout, job dissatisfaction, and high levels 

of attrition. 16 

ASPECTS OF LEADERS 

ASKING FOR FORGIVENESS 

When a leader asks for forgiveness, what does this act 

entail? The biblical evidence suggests that asking 

for forgiveness entails both repentance and confession. In 

the New Testament and the Septuagint Old Testament, the 

word for repentance is μετανοέω, which means “to change 

one’s mind, to repent, to convert.” 17 The word implies a turning 

away from something. For example, in Jeremiah 8:6, the 

word is used explicitly to represent turning away from wickedness. 

When someone asks for forgiveness, the implication 

is that the person has recognized his or her sin and is turning 

away from that wrongful action. Another key passage 

in the New Testament with respect to forgiveness is 1 John 

1:9, where we are told 

that if we confess our 

When someone asks for 

forgiveness, the implication is that 

the person has recognized his or her 

sin and is turning away from that 

wrongful action. 

sins he is faithful and 

just and will forgive us 

our sins. The word for 

“confess” is ὁμολογέω, 

and it means “to share 

a common view,” “to 

concede that something 

is true,” and “to 

acknowledge something, 

ordinarily in 

public.” 18 That is, we are saying the same thing that God says 

about our actions; we are acknowledging our sin and taking 

God’s perspective rather than attempting to rationalize it 

away with excuses. Thus, a significant aspect of an apology 

is both confession that a transgression has taken place and 

turning away from that behavior for the evil that it is. 

As mentioned earlier and illustrated by Zacchaeus, asking 

for forgiveness may also include an offer of restitution 

and/or some type of remediation of the consequences of 

the transgression. For all these reasons, we conclude that 


FORGIVENESS 


asking for forgiveness is reflective of a believer’s integrity 

before God. In asking for forgiveness, one is admitting to 

transgression instead of trying to cover up or excuse one’s 

actions, confessing—perhaps even publicly—that one has 

committed a transgression, and perhaps offering restitution 

if appropriate. 

The topic of asking for forgiveness is particularly relevant 

as applied to leaders because research shows that leaders 

feel entitled to 

earn more, to 

contribute less to 

the public good, 

and to expect extra 

grace when 

they violate 

group norms. 19 Of 

course, leadership 

that expects 

extraordinary 

consideration is 

not a new phenomenon. It is referenced in Scripture and by 

the Lord himself. For example, the prophet Samuel describes 

in detail the oppression the elders of Israel have chosen for 

the nation by rejecting the theocratic rule of God in favor of a 

king, so they could be “like all the nations.” 20 Jesus comments 

on the fundamental nature of Gentile rulership, which is one 

of both privilege and oppression. 21 Rulership over God’s creation 

has taken an ominous turn since Eden, and its destructive 

tendencies continue. 

The Lord’s perspective on human self-elevation could not 

be expressed more clearly than in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, 

King of Babylon. In Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar sets up 

an image of gold on the plain of Dura, which he commands 

everyone to worship along with great fanfare by members 

of the court’s pageantry. The account of how Shadrach, Meshach, 

and Abednego defied the king and refused to worship 

any other than the God of Israel should be known to all Christians. 

What some may not realize is the “rest of the story” as 

related in the very next chapter of Daniel. Even after being 

warned by Daniel of the meaning of his dream, in Daniel 4 

Nebuchadnezzar once again reveals his narcissistic self-importance 

when he says in his heart “Is this not Babylon the 

great, which I myself have built as royal residence by the 

might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?” 22 For 

that expression of pride, the Lord sent him out to eat grass 

with the beasts of the field for seven years until Nebuchadnezzar 

recognized that “the Most High is ruler over the realm 

Successes should be opportunities to 

honor God and others, and failures should 

be opportunities to demonstrate humility 

and acknowledge both transgressions and 

the universal need for forgiveness. 

of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes.” 23 

Leaders who fail to take note of how very insignificant human 

achievement really is and the enablement of grace that 

has allowed one’s endeavors to prosper may find themselves 

experiencing a divinely administered attitude adjustment. 

Successes should be opportunities to honor God and others, 

and failures should be opportunities to demonstrate humility 

and acknowledge both transgressions and the universal 

need for forgiveness. 

The willingness 

to both ask 

for forgiveness 

and to offer forgiveness 

begins 

with an honest 

understanding of 

one’s true place in 

the universe and 

a recognition that 

God sovereignly 

bestows his blessings on whomever he chooses, such that 

we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought 

to think. 24 

ASPECTS OF LEADERS 

OFFERING FORGIVENESS 

One aspect of granting forgiveness to followers is that 

forgiveness is a key response to restoring interpersonal 

harmony after a transgression takes place. 25 Forgiveness 

also may be viewed as letting go of negative feelings toward 

another and may entail adjustment of claims for restitution 

or retribution. 26 However, such assessment should be considered 

in light of the best course of action for the organization 

and the transgressing follower in the long run. Rosabeth 

Moss Kanter writes, “One of the most courageous acts 

of leadership is to forgo the temptation to take revenge on 

those on the other side of an issue or those who opposed 

the leader’s rise to power.” She adds, “Instead of settling 

scores, great leaders make gestures of reconciliation that 

heal wounds and get on with business.” 27 

Multiple benefits may accrue to leadership that practices 

forgiveness, reconciliation, and relationship-building within 

the organization. For example, each follower’s gifts and 

talents are preserved and encouraged for the benefit of the 

entire organization, rather than being discarded and wasted. 

39 


FORGIVENESS 


This is especially true if the offender has heretofore been an 

important contributor to the organization’s successes. Forgiveness 

and restoration also may salvage future contributions 

of those who are novices and still learning proper ethical 

behaviors. 

An important study of motivated reasoning specifically 

related to moral reasoning indicates that people’s internalized 

self-sanctions are learned socially, and that individuals 

are motivated to uphold the moral standards they have 

learned. Thus, because of the need to see themselves as 

morally good, they tend to adhere to those standards to 

avoid self- punishment and the censure of others. But, as 

fallen humans, we are often motivated to engage in behaviors 

that we know violate our standards and, more seriously, 

God’s standards. Thus, a rationalization is called for to justify 

behavior. Two methods of justification especially relevant to 

willingness to forgive are seeking moral justification for retribution 

and punishment while simultaneously blaming and 

dehumanizing those who may oppose the leader’s preferred 

behavior. 28 This is the essence of hypocrisy: The tendency to 

present oneself as a moral agent (even a moral judge) while 

rationalizing one’s own immoral behavior creates tremendous 

psychological barriers to exercising humility and offering 

forgiveness. 

Christian leaders need periodic conscious reminders of 

how God’s grace has aided them in achieving some measure 

of success and how important it is to likewise offer gracious 

correction to others. Dehumanization occurs when victims 

are blamed for their plight, transgressors are portrayed as 

wholly evil or worthless, and the community becomes a battleground 

of wills and violations on the part of many. Because 

it is easy to summon an appeal to “God’s judgment” in 

the way leaders treat offenders, it may be more difficult to 

objectively view one’s own problematic behavioral responses. 

THOUGHTS ON THE 

PRACTICE OF FORGIVENESS 

SUGGESTIONS FOR LEADERS WHO 

NEED FORGIVENESS 

1. Apologies are essential, but a defensive series of excuses 

makes a bad situation worse. Also, timing is critical. 

Delayed apologies increase the likelihood that the apology 

will be perceived as pro-forma and insincere. 

2. The best advice is to ignore those who instruct managers 

not to apologize, because they will lose their authority 

from a power dynamic perspective. In the case of a 

heartfelt apology, such is rarely the case; accepting fault 

and responsibility for mistakes is generally viewed in a 

positive light. This is especially true if a leader acknowledges 

responsibility and presents a plan to fix the problem. 

3. Beware of “non-apology” apologies. If a leader seeks to 

excuse, minimize culpability, or denigrate victims, people 

quickly sniff out self-serving motives rather than genuine 

contrition. 

4. Research shows that apology alone and restitution alone 

are effective in eliciting forgiveness, but that restitution 

combined with apology enhances the effect of apology. 29 

SUGGESTIONS FOR LEADERS WHO 

SHOULD OFFER FORGIVENESS 

1. An initial, privately held debriefing should take place to 

uncover the real reasons for a follower’s transgression 

(see the previously recounted case of the store manager). 

Multiple causes are possible, and it is impossible to 

address the core problem unless it is surfaced for examination. 

2. Prayerfully assess the situation and ask for wisdom from 

the Holy Spirit. Justifiable discipline, correction, and imposed 

retribution should not be by-passed when called 

for and may, in fact, be necessary for complete restoration 

of the offender. This was certainly the case involving 

Paul’s instruction to the church at Corinth in 2 Cor 

2:5-11. 

3. If ethical expectations are unclear to followers, efforts 

would be needed to set more specific boundaries and 

even sponsor training sessions on ethical and moral applications 

within the organizational milieu. 

4. Take action to assist a penitent transgressor in the process 

of becoming fully restored and integrated back into 

the community. Here again, we reference Paul’s instruction 

to the Corinthians. 


FORGIVENESS 


CONCLUSION 

When transgressions occur, apology and seeking forgiveness 

becomes mandatory. Christian leaders often 

find themselves in a position where they must seek or offer 

forgiveness. It is important for the long-term reputation and 

smooth functioning of organizations that forgiveness criteria 

maintain ethical boundaries appropriate to each unique situation. 

Condoning, excusing, and justifying bad behavior does 

not serve offenders or the organization well in the long run. 

Research and the Bible show the proclivity of transgressors 

to protect themselves, to put the best construal on their actions, 

and to avoid ruthlessly honest self-appraisal. However, 

Christian leaders and followers have a higher obligation, and 

that is to honor God, whether from leader or follower positions. 

The role of forgiveness is to acknowledge that someone 

committed an offense and that restitution and/or punishment 

may be needed, but that restoration of relationships 

and a community of goodwill and ethical commitment is the 

ultimate goal of forgiveness. 


MARJORIE J. COOPER is 

Professor of Marketing at 

Baylor University in Waco, 

Texas, where she has taught 

for 35 years. Dr. Cooper has 

published more than 50 

articles in refereed journals, 

including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of 

Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, 

Journal of Business Research, and Journal of 

Business Ethics, among others, as well as more 

than 100 business-related articles in practitioner 

publications. She is currently the Editor for the 

Keller Center Research Report published by the 

Keller Center for Research at Baylor University. 

She holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration 

from Texas A&M University and a Th.M. from 

Dallas Theological Seminary. 

41 


FORGIVENESS 


NOTES 

1 

Michael E. McCullough and Everett L. Worthington, Jr., “Religion 

and the Forgiving Personality,” Journal of Personality 67 no. 6 (1999), 

1141-1164. 

2 

Ibid, 1143. 

3 

H. J. N. Horsbrugh, “Forgiveness,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 4 

(1974), 269-282. 

4 

Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other 

Early Christian Literature, revised and edited by Frederick W. Danker, 

3 rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 156-157. 

5 

Matt 6:12. 

6 

Col 3:13. 

7 

Matt 18:22; Luke 17:4. 

8 

A good example can be found in 2 Cor 2:5-11, where Paul comments 

concerning transgression, forgiveness, and restoration in the 

Corinthian church. 

9 

Everett L. Worthington, Jr., “Empirical Research on Forgiveness 

with Christians: What Have We Learned?” Journal of Psychology and 

Christianity, 27 (2008), 368-370. 

10 

N. T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God (Downers Grove, IL: Inter- 

Varsity Press, 2006). 

11 

Rom 13:1-7 

12 

Marcia J. Kurzynski, “The Virtue of Forgiveness as a Human Resource 

Management Strategy,” Journal of Business Ethics 17 (1998), 

77-85. 

13 

Luke 10:1-10. 

14 

Col. Eric Kail, “Leadership Character: The Role of Integrity,” accessed 

February 23, 2020, https /www.washingtonpost.com/ 

blogs/guest-instights/post/leadership-character-the-role-of-integrity/2011/04/04/glQArZL03H_blog.html; 

Farzana Suri, “Integrity, 

the Cornerstone of Leadership,” accessed February 23, 2020, 

https://www.peoplemattersglobal.com/blog/leadership/leadership-integrity-20756. 

15 

Jerry Goodstein and Kenneth D. Butterfield, “Extending the Horizon 

of Business Ethics: Restorative Justice and the Aftermath of 

Unethical Behavior,” Business Ethics Quarterly 20, no. 3 (2010), 453- 

480. 

16 

Ronald E. Riggio, “Organizations from Hell: When Leadership 

Fails,” accessed February 22, 2020, https: /www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/200906/organizations-hell-when-leadership- 

fails. 

17 

Bauer, 640. 

18 

Ibid, 708. 

19 

Ken Auletta, Greed and Glory on Wall Street: The Fall of the House 

of Lehmann (New York: Warner Books, 1986); Dacher Keltner, Deborah 

Gruenfeld, and Cameron Anderson, ”Power, Approach, and Inhibition,” 

Psychological Review 110, no. 2 (2003): 265-284; Roderick 

Kramer, “The Harder They Fall,” Harvard Business Review 81 (October) 

(2003), 58-66; Jeroen Stouten and Thomas M. Tripp, “Claiming 

More than Equality: Should Leaders Ask for Forgiveness?” The Leadership 

Quarterly 20 (2009), 287-298. 

20 

1 Sam 8:10-18 (NASB). 

21 

Matt 20:25; Mark 10:42 (NASB). 

22 

Dan 4:19-27 (NASB). 

23 

Dan 4:30-32 (NASB). 

24 

Rom 12:3 (NASB). 

25 

Robert D. Enright and R. P. Fitzgibbons, ”Measures of Interpersonal 

Forgiveness,” in Forgiveness Therapy: An Empirical Guide for Resolving 

Anger and Restoring Hope, Ed., R. D. Enright and R. P. Fitzgibbons 

(Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2015), 251- 

269; R. D. Enright and Joanna North, Exploring Forgiveness (Madison, 

WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998). 

26 

Robert D. Enright, S. Freedman, and J. Rique, “The Psychology of 

Interpersonal Forgiveness,” in R. D. Enright and J. North (Eds.), Exploring 

Forgiveness (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1998), 46-62; 

J. J. Exline, E. L. Worthington, Jr., R. Hill, and M. E. McCullough, “Forgiveness 

and Justice: A Research Agenda for Social and Personality 

Psychology,” Personality and Social Psychology Review 7, no. 4 (2003), 

337-348. 

27 

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, “Great Leaders Know When to Forgive,” 

accessed February 22, 2020, https: /hbr.org/2013/02/great-leaders-know-when-to#comment-section. 

28 

A. Bandura, “Moral Disengagement in the Perpetration of Inhumanities,” 

Personality and Social Psychology Review 3 (1999), 193- 

209. 

29 

Nicholas DiFonzo, Anthony Alongi, and Paul Wiele, “Apology, Restitution, 

and Forgiveness after Psychological Contract Breach,” Journal 

of Business Ethics 161 (2020), 53-69. 


G DLY 

LEADERSHIP 

AL ERISMAN 

ABSTRACT 

King David made a profound statement about Godly leadership 

near the end of his life, prefacing it with a strong claim that this 

idea was not his, but was given to him by God. The statement 

focused on two leadership elements: shining a light on what 

is ahead, and supporting growth in others. Both elements 

are challenging for a leader today. Developing a clear and 

compelling vision is confounded by technology and other 

complexity factors, making it difficult to see ahead clearly in 

the presence of uncertainty. Seeking growth in others requires 

the leader to set aside his or her ego - leadership is not about 

the leader. The Bible has much more to say about leadership 

than this, but these two foundational elements are the anchor 

for practices needed for today’s leaders. We consider some 

examples - people in modern leadership roles who navigate 

these things well and poorly. 1 

L 

eadership is so vital in this day of 

leader isolation, shifting cultures, and 

changing environments. Perhaps that 

is why there are so many books on leadership. 

While the Bible has a great deal to say about 

leadership, does it provide clear insight on what 

Godly leadership looks like? Interestingly, near 

the end of the life of one of the great biblical 

leaders, King David reflected on what Godly 

leadership looks like. Poetic in its statement, 

David said, “When one rules justly over men, 

ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like 

the morning light, like the sun shining forth on 

a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass 

to sprout from the earth” (2 Samuel 23: 3b-4 

ESV). David not only made this statement, but 

he made a concerted effort to argue that this 

was not his idea, but it came from God. Here is 

how he set up his insight: 

43 


GODLY LEADERSHIP 


Now these are the last words of David: The oracle of 

David, son of Jesse, the oracle of the man whom God 

exalted, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the favorite 

of the Strong One of Israel: The spirit of the Lord speaks 

through me, his word is upon my tongue. The God of 

Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me. 

(2 Samuel 23:1-3a NRSV) 

His justification for making the statement is longer than 

the statement itself! David wanted to make sure we all 

understood the importance of what he said and the authority 

behind the statement. 

But what is he really saying about leadership? It starts 

with the light of the sun, a source rooted in God’s creation. 

This light representing Godly leadership suggests two things. 

First, a Godly leader brings light to the direction, speaking 

truth clearly, showing the way. The morning light and the sun 

speak to this. Second, the Godly leader nurtures growth in 

others. Not only does he or she bring warmth to the soil, 

which enables growth, but that work is rewarded by the 

fulfillment of that growth, “like grass sprouting from the 

earth.” 


DEFINED 

Godly leadership is not about the leader, but about what 

that leadership means in the lives of others. More 

recently, Max DePree, former Chairman and CEO of Herman 

Miller Furniture and a member of the Fortune Business 

Hall of Fame, wrote this definition of leadership: “The first 

responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to 

say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become 

a servant and a debtor.” 2 

While DePree did not reference David’s statement, there 

is a strong parallel. Defining reality is like shining light on the 

path, showing the direction. Being a servant and a debtor 

produces growth in others as it gives accountability and 

responsibility to those doing the work. 

Neither part is easy. First, how does the leader know and 

understand reality? Many leaders would rather avoid what 

is really happening. A Godly leader will look squarely at the 

truth. But what is the truth? In an age of misinformation, 

the leader must sort through and understand what is real. 

Particularly in an age of technology, leaders will struggle with 

defining reality for areas where they have little expertise. 

Gaining a clear understanding is required, and challenging. 

Second, fostering growth in others is also difficult when, 

for so many, leadership is about the leader. What are the 

requirements on a leader to create growth in others? 

Sometimes this means stepping aside to allow others to 

grow. It means delegating. And it leads to growth in the 

person doing the work. Hence changes in the lives of others 

is an essential outcome of leadership. 

For the Christian leader, it is very clear that leadership 

takes place in the context of God working his sovereign will. 

We are called to fully engage in our work, but also to recognize 

his authority. This does not give us the opportunity to “let go 

and let God,” nor does it give us the right to believe it is all 

up to us. The Scripture reminds us of the tension between 

human effort and seeking God in the context of a sickness 

for King Asa: “In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was 

diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even 

in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from 

physicians” (2 Chronicles 16:12). Rather than seeking help 

from physicians and at the same time seeking God, he only 

sought help from physicians. Let us look more carefully at 

these two elements of leadership: shining a light on the path 

ahead, and the meaning of bringing growth in others. 

SHINING THE LIGHT 

Some of the factors of seeing clearly ahead include facing 

reality (avoiding our own personal desires and ignoring 

bad news), dealing with technology (where we may not 

understand the impact), navigating complexity (details that 

matter that we don’t understand), and dealing with complex 

problems where competing demands must be resolved. All of 

these require a posture of humility. 

FACING REALITY 

In order to shine the light on the direction forward, the leader 

must assess the path. As part of this assessment, it would 

seem that leaders would want to face reality, to find the 

best path forward for the organization. Some will look away 

from truths to find what they believe will be best for them, 

supporting what they want to hear. 

When Rehoboam took the throne following his father 




Solomon, he demonstrated the leadership failure of seeking 

his own good, obscuring the harder, better path. The assembly 

of Israel went to him with this message, “Your father put a 

heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the 

heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you” (2 Kings 12:4). 

Rehoboam asked for three days to consider this advice, and 

so he went for a second opinion. But when the advice was 

confirmed, he “rejected the advice the elders gave him and 

consulted the young men who had grown up with him” (2 

Kings 12:8). This time he seemed to get the answer he was 

looking for when they told him, “…tell them, ‘My little finger is 

thicker than my father’s waist. My father laid on you a heavy 

yoke, and I will make it even heavier. My father scourged 

you with whips, and I will scourge you with scorpions’” (2 

Kings 12:10b-11). He took the advice he wanted. His ego 

was stroked, but he lost the kingdom: “So Israel has been 

in rebellion against the house of David to this day” (2 Kings 

12:19). 3 His vision 

of the future was 

distorted by personal 

desires for power. 

Ken Lay, onetime 

leader of Enron, was 

a modern-day model 

of this same behavior. 

Sherron Watkins 

discovered what was going on in the finances at the company 

in 2001, and she sent Ken an anonymous letter describing 

what she found. But at a meeting the next day, Ken said 

nothing about the letter but did invite people to come see him 

or his HR leader, Cindy Olson, if there was a concern. When 

Sherron set up a meeting with Cindy that same day, Cindy 

said, “Ken gravitates toward good news. He probably showed 

this to Rick Causey, the chief accounting officer, and to Andy 

[CFO at Enron], and they said there is no basis for concern. 

So he just threw it away. For him the issue is resolved.” 4 By 

the end of 2001, Enron, the once darling of Wall Street, had 

totally collapsed. Sherron’s role became known only later, 

when she was identified as the Enron whistleblower, and 

later was one of Time magazine’s persons of the year in 

2002. 

Issues of importance don’t go away or get better because 

they are uncomfortable. When Jesus said, “I am the way, 

the truth, and the life,” (John 14:6), we tend to reduce his 

statement to truth about spiritual things. My mentor, Al 

Greene, used to remind me, “When Jesus said ‘I am truth,’ he 

was speaking of the source of truth about all things. ‘In him, 

all things hold together’ (Colossians 1:17). So we should be 

always seeking the truth.” 5 

Facing hard truth was illustrated by Alan Mullaly. When the 

Ford CEO was asked how he dealt with bad news, he replied, 

“There is no bad news. It is just the way it is. There is a 

status, and you must know what the status is.” 6 Bill Pollard, 

former CEO of ServiceMaster, reminds us of the fundamental 

importance of seeking truth by the leader: “There is an 

awesome responsibility in leadership….A leader has only one 

choice to make, to lead or mislead.” 7 

A good leader must clearly face reality, especially when it 

is uncomfortable. 

THE TECHNOLOGY FACTOR 

Facing reality becomes even more challenging in this fastpaced, 

complex age of technology, where a leader may not 

understand reality for 

many reasons. 

A Godly leader brings light to the 

direction, speaking truth clearly, 

showing the way. The Godly leader 

nurtures growth in others. 

First, in an age of 

misinformation, not 

all sources (articles, 

videos, deep fakes) 

convey reality. What 

information should be 

trusted? 

Second, technology often has unintended consequences. 

When technology is used in a product or process, it is easy 

to see what it can accomplish, but less easy to see how 

it can correspondingly be misused or have unintended 

consequences. Edward Tenner has a collection of studies 

from 20 years ago, showing how good technology intended 

to accomplish one good objective can lead to accomplishing 

many other things with difficult consequences. 8 As one 

illustration, he shows that protective football equipment, 

designed to make the players safer, has in reality changed 

the nature of the game and made the players less safe. 

Technology will be a part of the solution to a problem, and 

a part of creating a different problem. While we implement 

the first, we must be vigilant about the second. Erisman and 

Parker commented, “We need to be vigilant and forward 

looking as we roll out the technologies, but often our culture 

of short-term thinking and immediate gratification overrides 

our best intentions.” 9 Few leaders are prepared to even ask 

the right questions, let alone understand these implications 

on their own. 

Third, leaders confronted with cost pressures often



don’t understand the reasons for delays in projects. Is the 

project “good enough;” is the engineer trying to simply 

continue to improve the technology, or is there a true safety 

or performance issue? Areas involving high risk, whether 

it is hospitals, airplane design, or pharmaceutical drug 

development are all fraught with these issues. Again, expert 

advice is required to know the difference. 

What is a leader to do in the face of technological change 

and uncertainty, where the leader is not the technology 

expert? This is a much bigger and longer discussion, 

developed in more detail elsewhere, where we draw on 

insights from Scripture and management lessons. 10 Here are 

some general principles: 

• What did not work effectively last year has little 

bearing on what might work effectively this year 

because of the pace of change. 

• One must constantly ask the question: what might 

be possible in light of new technology? 

• Be willing to engage in the uncomfortable 

conversations with those who better understand 

the technology and who challenge your 

assumptions. 

• Don’t stop with what the technology makes 

possible. Try to explore what problems the 

technology could create as well (the unintended 

consequences). 

NAVIGATING COMPLEXITY 

How does a leader develop the ability to overcome personal 

bias, to have the confidence to trust differing views, and to 

see reality in this ever more complex world? This requires 

addressing two different issues: getting individual facts 

straight, and understanding how different areas of expertise 

come together. 

One senior leader the author has conversation with was 

General Peter Pace, former Chairman of the Joint-Chiefs of 

Staff. He was asked by the author how he could point the way 

when the details of the strategy that came from the top and 

the way it was carried out depended on things only known by 

those on the ground. In response he said, 

I like to listen as much as I can. When I come into a new 

organization, I spend as much time as I can just talking 

to folks about what’s going right and what’s going 

wrong. Inside the military, there is always a senior 

enlisted person whom you can talk with to find out 

their perspective and get their guidance on whatever 

is happening. I gather senior leaders’ perspectives. 

Then I can put together my own thoughts of what I 

heard and make decisions. When we get together I tell 

people what I understand, where we’re going to go, 

and how we can get there. But I always use examples 

of who told me what so that they know that I have 

been listening and paying attention. Those on the 

ground know a lot more about the details of what is 

going on than any senior officer, and I would be a fool 

not to gain from this knowledge. 11 

A leader, in the role of “shining the light on the direction,” 

must clearly find trusted advisors to support the decisionmaking 

process, rather than those just giving the leader 

the answers he or she is seeking. It would be interesting to 

explore how the work of sensemaking, pioneered by Weick, 

might play a role in defining reality in the face of complexity. 12 

That is beyond the scope of this paper. 

RESOLVING COMPETING CLAIMS 

What happens when the direction calls for trading off 

competing complexity? In airplane design, for example, it is 

important to understand the truth about the aerodynamic 

flow of a particular design, to understand the structural 

integrity of a design, and know how to make this design 

affordably. In each area, the leader will need to depend on 

expertise beyond his or her own. But it is also important 

to know how to bring these areas of expertise together to 

create a safe, affordable solution. The goal is an integration 

of these parts into a safe, affordable airplane that meets the 

carrying requirements of the airline. 

One way not to do this was demonstrated by Volkswagen. 

The company tried to produce a diesel engine that would 

have great mileage, great performance, and low emissions. 

They couldn’t accomplish the goal. Instead they delivered 

a car that met the first two objectives, and found a way to 

cheat on the third. The car gave one reading when emissions 

were being tested, and had another result when the car was 

on the road. 13 In the end, it cost the company $30 billion, not 

to mention the damage to its reputation. 

Sometimes, the question of tradeoffs can be resolved, 

but requires a great deal of creativity. For example, 

ServiceMaster sought to navigate through decisions with 

often conflicting objectives: “To Help People Develop,” and 




“To Grow Profitably.” People or profits? The second CEO of 

the company, Ken Hansen, created a vivid picture of this 

when he likened managing these multiple objectives to 

pulling an elastic exercise strip to the point of tension. “It’s 

hard to do,” he said, “but you had better hold on to both ends. 

If you don’t, the tension will be released, and you will get hit 

on the head!” 14 

POSTURE FOR SHINING THE LIGHT 

According to David Gill, the Beatitudes of Jesus (Matthew 

5:1-13) lay out the posture of an organizational leader who 

exhibits Godly leadership. 15 It starts with “Openness and Humility.” 

When Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” it 

represents a willingness to acknowledge not having all the 

answers. Going on through the beatitudes, we see “Accountability 

and Responsibility,” and “Power Under Control” (drawing 

on “Blessed are those who mourn” and “Blessed are the 

meek”). Doing it right (“Blessed are those who hunger and 

thirst for righteousness”) is vital when done in the right way, 

but it follows the previous statements. The posture of the 

leader who points the way is not one of a brilliant, all knowing 

person who needs no one, but a humble leader willing to 

learn and listen and then take the best path. Interestingly, 

the last Beatitude is about being persecuted - meaning: it 

takes courage to be a leader. 

Defining reality may seem like a simple thing, but it is not. 

It can’t be done without careful listening, trust, setting personal 

agendas aside, and not giving up on seeking truth in 

the midst of complexity or bad news. 

CAUSING OTHERS TO 

GROW 

In addition to pointing the direction, the leader is responsible 

for achieving the results. Though modern leaders are 

challenged to achieve tough targets, this has been the case 

for leaders down through the ages. In Genesis 41, Joseph 

was called before Pharaoh initially to interpret his dreams. 

But when this was successfully done through God’s help, he 

was then given responsibility to implement a strategy that 

literally saved the world from starvation. While he trusted in 

God, he continued to need to deliver results over a 14-year 

period. Apparently his boss didn’t seem like the kind of 

person who would settle for less. This execution strategy 

required adaptation to changing circumstances. 16 

There is an indication that Joseph’s brothers grew through 

their interactions with Joseph in this position. From the time 

we first meet his brothers, through the time they sold him 

into slavery, and then through their interactions with Joseph, 

we see men who seemed to think only of themselves and 

their own interests. Joseph challenged them in a number of 

ways that seem harsh, maybe even unfair. But finally, Judah 

offers an impassioned plea to Joseph showing that he was 

putting their father’s interests above their own (Genesis 

44:18-34). Only then did Joseph identify himself to his 

brothers. Joseph’s actions seemed to be about helping his 

brothers to grow. 17 

Jesus beautifully illustrated this aspect of leadership by 

washing the feet of his disciples (John 13:1-8). He taught us 

to lead not for the glory of the leader, but in service to others 

when he said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord 

it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over 

them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become 

great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants 

to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did 

not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a 

ransom for many” (Matt. 20:25-28). Through His leadership, 

the disciples grew, and from that the church grew. Jesus lived 

out what he preached. 

SERVANT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL 

LEADERSHIP 

Centuries later after Jesus, the words and actions of the 

Lord have inspired an approach to leadership that draws 

on the idea of serving as a leader, though without the faith 

component. It is called servant leadership, popularized 

by Robert Greenleaf. 18 References to servant leadership 

often point to Greenleaf rather than Jesus, and to the ideas 

Greenleaf practiced and then wrote and lectured on. The 

Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership says that he is the 

one who “coined the term.” 19 

Not everyone praises the concept of servant leadership. 

For example, in one critique Liu argues servant leadership is 

“necessarily embedded in wider power structures that shape 

who gets to be a ‘servant leader’ and who remains merely a 

‘servant.’” 20 Brown and Bryant argue that it has been illusive 

to structure theory around servant leadership, even though 

they have committed to try in the journal Servant Leadership: 

Theory and Practice: “Despite existing for more than four and 

47 




a half decades as a 

construct, servant 

leadership remains 

an ever elusive and 

under-developed 

phenomenon in the 

sense that it has yet 

to be packaged into 

a set of replicable 

best management 

practices. Greenleaf 

himself forewarned 

of this reductionism, 

stating that it is an 

unorthodox approach 

to leadership, which 

is less of a management technique and more of a way of 

life to be contemplated, stating , ‘It is meant to be neither a 

scholarly treatise nor a how-to-do-it manual.’“ ’21 

A related concept is called transformational leadership, 

first introduced by James Burns, who writes, “The 

transforming leader recognizes and exploits an existing need 

or demand of a potential follower. But, beyond that, the 

transforming leader looks for potential motives in followers, 

seeks to satisfy higher needs, and engages the full person 

of the follower. The result of transforming leadership is 

a relationship of mutual stimulation and elevation that 

converts followers into leaders and may convert leaders 

into moral agents.” 22 We see in this statement the combining 

of the two elements of this paper—growth in others and 

movement toward a goal. We also see a problem of the 

potential to exploit. Perhaps this is at the heart of the 

challenge of servant leadership as well, where it looks at 

external patterns and behaviors and doesn’t address the 

heart motive, what I will call the interior motivation rather 

than the external motivation. 

This distinction may seem subtle, but it was captured well 

by Wayne Alderson, a servant leader at Pittron Steel back in 

the 1970s. He later summarized his work in something he 

called Theory R Management. 23 He said, “You do it because it 

is the right thing to do. Unconditionally. If you don’t genuinely 

value people, and simply try to gain a bottom-line result, 

they will see through you in an instant. It will backfire.” 24 

It takes us beyond the standard principles of servant 

leadership - listening, empathy, healing, awareness, etc., to 

interior motivation. 25 Rather than a set of practices that can 

be formalized into 

a theory, leadership 

for the growth of 

others starts with the 

understanding by the 

leader that all people 

have value and are 

worthy of being 

treated with dignity 

and respect. For the 

Christian, it starts 

with the recognition 

that all people are 

made in the image 

and likeness of God. 

The leader is also a 

created being under God, not the ultimate authority. While 

Jesus spoke to and demonstrated servant leadership, it is not 

a program, but rather a life that leads to the Cross. 

When we examine the servant leader through this lens, we 

see someone who genuinely cares about others, recognizes 

his or her own limitations, and seeks the best for all as a 

true servant. It also recognizes the leader as a sinner, which 

means seeking forgiveness is a fundamental part of this kind 

of a servant leader. 

Leadership for the growth of others 

starts with the understanding by 

the leader that all people have value 

and are worthy of being treated with 

dignity and respect. For the Christian, 

it starts with the recognition that all 

people are made in the image and 

likeness of God. 

EXAMPLES OF LEADERSHIP FOR THE 

GROWTH OF OTHERS 

Max DePree wrote of this kind of servant leadership while 

drawing on his faith. He said, “Leaders don’t inflict pain, they 

bear pain.” 26 Tim Keller and Katherine Alsdorf illustrated what 

this looks like in a story they told: 

[A woman] made a big mistake that she thought would 

cost her the job, but her boss went in to his superior 

and took complete responsibility for what she had 

done. As a result, he lost some of his reputation and 

ability to maneuver within the organization. She was 

amazed at what he had done and went in to thank him. 

She told him that she had often seen supervisors take 

credit for what she had accomplished, but she had 

never seen a supervisor take the blame for what she 

had done wrong. She went on to press him as to why, 

and he admitted he was a Christian. “Jesus Christ took 

the blame for things that I have done wrong. He did 




that on the cross. That is why I have the desire and 

sometimes the ability to take the blame for others,” he 

said. 27 

Yet we are not always perfect. How do we lead in a broken 

world when we ourselves are broken? Five ServiceMaster 

leaders between 1929 and 2001 were all Christians and 

sought to root their own servant leadership in Jesus Christ. 

They had a clear picture of their own imperfections at the 

same time. Ken Hansen, along with others, spoke about this 

frequently. He said, “I have learned many important lessons 

through stress. Trouble and problems bring pain. I listen 

more attentively to God and to others when in such pain. This 

listening helps me to face the realities of life rather than to 

yield to dreaming about make believe situations, or covering 

up mistakes and wrongs, or blaming others.” 28 He went on 

to identify two different kinds of failure in himself: “Failures 

of judgment … should be faced openly (not covered up) and 

then put out of one’s memory bank…. [But a second kind of 

failure] is one of motive — that is, doing something with bad 

intent. This kind requires forgiveness by God and others.” 29 

This kind of leadership for the growth of others includes, 

at a very fundamental level, seeking forgiveness, because 

leaders are not perfect. 

Through this servant leadership, the various leaders at 

the ServiceMaster company sought the growth in others. 

The third CEO of the company, Ken Wessner, put it this way, 

“Training, indeed any management directive, is not so much 

about what we want people to do, but rather what we want 

people to be.” 30 Harvard Professor James Heskett wrote two 

case studies on ServiceMaster. He wrote, “ServiceMaster is 

an important story of large-scale servant leadership that 

proves that making money and changing the lives of people 

for the better are more than compatible; they are inextricably 

linked.” 31 

However, ServiceMaster founder Marion Wade was more 

cautious in claiming this link. He said, “I was not asking for 

personal success as an individual or merely material success 

as a corporation. I do not equate this kind of success with 

Christianity. Whatever God wants is what I want. But I did 

try to build a business that would live longer than I would 

in the marketplace that would witness to Jesus Christ in the 

way the business was conducted.” 32 Bill Pollard added, “One 

should [not] expect or promote financial success or gain from 

seeking to honor God.” 33 

To underscore the nature of biblical leadership at 

ServiceMaster (a publicly traded, global company), its 

headquarters lobby featured a wall of recognition for 

employees of the company along with a statue of Jesus 

washing the feet of the disciples. One business writer 

lauded the switch of the company from evangelical Christian 

leaders to a “modern CEO” in 2001, stating that he thought 

the company was better positioned. But a year later he 

observed, “Coincidentally with this transition [to Jon Ward, 

away from the evangelical focus] the company’s legal 

difficulties mounted and its financial results stagnated.” 34 

Leading in this (biblical) way is difficult enough that, for long 

term commitment, it often requires faith in God. Yet it must 

be carried out because it is the right thing to do, even when 

there is no final clarity regarding the outcome. 

CONCLUSION 

Godly leadership brings forth the challenge to shine as 

the light of God. As David said, that light brings both 

clarity for the path and the growth of others. The leader is 

not there for his or her own purposes, but for the good of 

others. To quote Bill Pollard, “My leadership responsibility 

was not about me or my feelings. It was about what should 

be done for our business and for our people.” 35 The very 

act of a leader seeking help in understanding the direction 

involves engaging the people of the organization in dialogue. 

Through this dialogue, the leader grows in understanding 

and those providing insight also gain context for their 

narrower knowledge. This is a part of their own growth as 

well. It is difficult to carry out Godly leadership by seeking 

to mimic certain practices, to simply follow a program or 

theory. Rather, it springs from a deep commitment to God. 

It is grounded in prayer. It comes from doing things because 

they are right, not because it seems like the best way to gain 

external results. It also necessitates seeking forgiveness, 

because no leader is perfect. 

49 





AL ERISMAN began his career at Boeing as a research mathematician in 1969 and retired 

in 2001 from the position of Director of Mathematics and Computing Technology. At Boeing, he 

was selected as a senior technical fellow in 1990. Al was executive in residence in the School of 

Business, Government, and Economics at Seattle Pacific University from 2001 to 2017, co-chair of 

the Theology of Work project (an independent, international organization dedicated to researching, 

writing, and distributing materials with a biblical perspective on non-church workplaces, www. 

theologyofwork.org), and a founding board member for KIROS (Christians in Business in the Seattle 

Area). He has authored multiple books (most recently The ServiceMaster Story (Hendrickson, 2020)) 

and numerous papers in technical and scholarly journals. He is executive editor and co-founder of 

Ethix magazine (www.ethix.org), and often speaks on business, technology, ethics, and theology 

issues around the world. Al holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Iowa State University. 

NOTES 

1 

The author is grateful to helpful insight, suggestions, and corrections 

from the anonymous reviewers of this article. 

2 

Max DePree, Leadership is an Art (New York: Doubleday, 1989), 9 

3 

Messenger, William (ed.), The Theology of Work Commentary discusses 

this case from the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 10 (https: / 

www.theologyofwork.org/old-testament/samuel-kings-chronicles-and-work, 

July 2020). 

4 

Sherron Watkins, “Did We Learn the Lessons from Enron,” interview 

by Al Erisman, Ethix (June 2007), retrieved from https: /ethix. 

org/2007/06/01/did-we-learn-the-lessons-from-enron. 

5 

Dr. Albert E. Greene (longtime founder and headmaster of Bellevue 

Christian School), interview by Al Erisman. 

6 

Alan Mulally, “Producing Cars with Passion and Involvement,” interview 

by Al Erisman, Ethix (July 2010), retrieved from https: /ethix. 

org/2010/07/15/producing-cars-with-passion-and-involvement. 

7 

Albert M. Erisman, The ServiceMaster Story: Navigating Tension 

between People and Profit (Peabody, MA.: Hendrickson Publishers, 

2020), 158. 

8 

Edward Tenner, Why Things Bite Back (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 

1996). 

9 

Albert Erisman and Tripp Parker, “Artificial Intelligence: A Theological 

Perspective,” Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation (June 

2019), 95-106 

10 

See for example, Albert Erisman, “Technology and the New Challenges 

of Management,” Beyond Integrity: A Judeo-Christian Approach 

to Business Ethics (3rd Ed.) by Scott Rae and Kenman Wong (Grand 

Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 285-295; Messenger, Theology of 

Work Commentary on 2nd John, retrieved from https: /www.theologyofwork.org/new-testament/general-epistles/2-john-and-work; 

Albert Erisman, “Technology, Business, and Values,” Ethix (https: / 

ethix.org/2012/07/12/new-technology-business-and-values, July 

2012); and also Ed Catmull, Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen 

Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (New York: Random 

House, 2014) – an example of a significant collection of insights on 

bringing technology into decision making. 

11 

Peter Pace, “The Truth as I Know it,” interview by Al Erisman, Ethix 

(October 2008), retrieved from https: /ethix.org/2008/10/01/thetruth-as-i-know-it. 

12 

Karl E. Weick, Sensemaking in Organizations (London: Sage, 1995), 

and Karl E. Weick, “Enacted Sensemaking in a Crisis Situation,” Journal 

of Management Studies 25(4), (1988), 305-317. 

13 

Russell Hotten, “Volkswagen: The Scandal Explained,” BBC News 

(December 10, 2015), retrieved from https: /www.bbc.com/news/ 

business-34324772. 

14 

Erisman, The ServiceMaster Story, 8 

15 

David W. Gill, “Eight Traits of an Ethically Healthy Culture: Insights 

from the Beatitudes,” Journal of Markets and Morality 16(2), (2013), 

615-634. 

16 

Albert E. Erisman, The Accidental Executive: Lessons on Business, 

Faith, and Calling from the Life of Joseph (Peabody, MA.: Hendrickson 





Publishers, 2015), Chapter 17. 

17 

Erisman, The Accidental Executive, 109 

18 

Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of 

Legitimate Power and Greatness (Mahwah, NJ.: Paulist Press, 1977). 

19 

Retrieved from https: /www.greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/. 

20 

Helen Liu, “Just the Servant: An Intersectional Critique of Servant 

Leadership,” Journal of Business Ethics 156 (2019), 1099–1112. 

21 

Steven Brown and Phillip Bryant, “Getting to Know the Elephant: 

A Call to Advance Servant Leadership through Construct Consensus, 

Empirical Evidence, and Multilevel Theoretical Development,” Servant 

Leadership Theory and Practice 2(1), (2015), 10-35. 

22 

James MacGregor Burns, Leadership (Kindle edition, Open Roads 

Media, 2012), 4. 

23 

Wayne T. Alderson and Nancy Alderson McDonnell, Theory R Management: 

How to Utilize Value of the Person Leadership Principles of 

Love, Dignity, and Respect (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1994). 

24 

Wayne Alderson, “Valuing People Helps Business,” interview 

by Al Erisman, Ethix (October 2009), retrieved from https: /ethix. 

org/2009/10/01/valuing-people-helps-business 

25 

Larry C. Spears, “Character and Servant Leadership: Ten Characteristics 

of Effective, Caring Leaders,” The Journal of Virtue and Leadership 

1(1) (2010), 25-30. 

26 

DePree, Leadership is an Art, 9 

27 

Timothy Keller with Katherine Alsdorf, Every Good Endeavor (New 

York: Penguin Group, 2012), 219. 

28 

Erisman, The ServiceMaster Story, 62 

29 

Ibid. 

30 

Erisman, The ServiceMaster Story, 88. 

31 

The ServiceMaster Story, endorsement of James Heskett. 

32 


33 

Bill Pollard, Serving Two Masters: Reflection on God and Profit (New 

York: HarperCollins, 2006), 34. 

34 

Lewis D. Solomon, Evangelical Christian Executives: A New Model for 

Business Corporations (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2004), 10. 

35 


51 


THE 

QUADRUPLE 

B TT M 

LINE 

WILL OLIVER 

ABSTRACT 

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reflects a new theory 

of business today, in which businesses work for more 

than just profit; they strive to improve people and planet as 

well. Christian business leaders have the strongest reason 

for treating people and the planet well. They run their businesses 

to praise God, who clearly loves treating people well 

and preserving his planet. This article explores how Christian 

business leaders can lead their companies differently than 

other well-meaning companies engaged in CSR. It offers a 

practical framework through which Christian business leaders 

can improve how they offer their businesses as praise to 

God. The article explores three questions: what is the shift in 

business theory underlying the Triple Bottom Line (TBL); in 

what ways can a Christian business leader praise God as a 

matter of business objective; and in what ways could praise 

be measured as a separate bottom line? It concludes with 

some practical suggestions on the implementation of this 

new dimension of corporate responsibility. 

INTRODUCTION 

P 

rofit has long been business’ definition 

of success. In 1962, Milton 

Friedman reflected a common 

view: “there is one and only one 

social responsibility of business: to use its 

resources and engage in activities designed 

to increase its profits.” 1 With Shareholder or 

Agency Theory, the leader is considered an 

agent of company shareholders with the primary 

responsibility of increasing shareholder 

wealth. 2 Then, in 1994 John Elkington coined 

the phrase “Triple Bottom Line” (TBL), proposing 

that companies pursuing Corporate Social 

Responsibility (CSR) need to manage Profit, 

People and Planet, together. 3 Now, over 92% 

of the world’s 250 largest companies publish 

an annual CSR report. 4 They find that the 

three “Ps” interact. Profit provides the economic 

sustainability necessary to maintain 


QUADRUPLE BOTTOM LINE 


people and planet. 5 People do the work of the company, buy 

its product and provide for the general community supporting 

the business. In turn businesses assure quality of life: respect 

for human rights and equality, cultural identity/diversity, race 

and religion. People as well as the business itself depend on 

the planet. In the long run maintaining the quality of the environment 

is necessary for healthy people and profit from 

economic activities. 

This paper begins with a review of TBL. Next, it introduces 

“Praise” as a fourth bottom line. An examination of current 

approaches to measuring “People” and “Plant” as business 

objectives is then followed by an explanation of how and why 

“Praise” could be measured as a bottom line, supported by a 

few examples of Quadruple Bottom Line businesses. It ends 

with a challenge to further research on implementing “Praise” 

as a measurable business objective for Christian leaders. 

EVOLVING THEORIES OF 

BUSINESS 

Garriga and Domènec classified the main business theories 

underlying CSR into four groups: (1) instrumental theories, 

in which the corporation is seen as only an instrument 

for wealth creation, and its social activities are only a means 

to achieve economic results; (2) political theories, which consider 

the power of corporations in society and a responsible 

use of this power in the political arena; (3) integrative theories, 

in which the corporation is focused on the satisfaction 

of social demands; and (4) ethical theories, based on ethical 

responsibilities of corporations to society. 6 

Pride suggests four typical arguments for increased social 

responsibility: (1) business is part of society and it cannot 

ignore social issues; (2) business has the technical, financial, 

and managerial resources needed to tackle today’s complex 

social issues; (3) business can create a more stable environment 

by helping resolve social issues; and (4) business can 

reduce government intervention by using socially responsible 

decision making. 7 

Three primary theories seem to be at the root of the 

change: Human Resource, Stakeholder and Common Goods. 8 

Human Resource Theory is a departure from the 19th century 

Scientific Management theory of how businesses manage 

people. From Adam Smith through Frederick W. Taylor, 9 Scientific 

Management held that the role of the business leader 

was to manage worker performance to increase profit. Scientific 

Management studied the profit impact of changes to 

pay structures, organizations and work design. Then, a new 

crop of business writers changed the discussion during the 

middle of the 20th century. Human Resource Theory reflects 

that people are not merely resources for profit-making. It 

is built on the organizational behavior perspective, where 

Maslow theorized that individuals each have different types 

of needs. 10 McGregor added that individuals need good direction 

to help them serve the company. 11 Ouchi observed from 

Japanese management styles that make employees feel they 

are part of a supportive environment. 12 Boyatzis found that 

business leadership achieves the best result by helping employees 

align personal self-image with the company mission. 

13 The ascendance of Human Resource Theory has led 

to the second dimension of business success: “People,” in 

addition to “Profit.” 

Stakeholder Theory also helps explain CSR, which is 

grounded in the notion that business leaders owe a broader 

allegiance to the community beyond its employees. 14 Brown 

links CSR to Adam Smith’s 18th Century writings and concludes 

that companies have both a duty and an opportunity 

to help the broader community. 15 Charles Handy described 

businesses as living communities of individuals, so that “the 

essential task of leadership is to combine the aspirations and 

needs of the individuals with the purposes of the larger community 

to which they all belong.” 16 Under Stakeholder Theory, 

businesses should create jobs to benefit those who otherwise 

would be left behind. Stakeholder responsibility means 

businesses have “neighbors” much like the Good Samaritan. 

The concern for the “Planet” is built upon the Common 

Goods Theory (Theory of Externalities or Theory of the Commons). 

17 It recognizes that some activities generate short 

term profit for one business at the expense of other businesses 

and people (present and future generations). 18 Rachel 

Carson’s book, Silent Spring, the first Earth Day in 1968, the 

Environmental Protection Act of 1970 and numerous court 

cases and legislative actions all reflect changing attitudes 

about responsibility for the planet we share. For many, environmentalism 

is largely pragmatic in nature. It holds that 

the acts of one company should not be allowed to adversely 

affect others, not, at least, without paying a price. It also 

holds that businesses’ responsibility extends not merely to 

our neighbors today, but also to future generations. Patagonia 

is famously passionate about selling products which 

promote a better planet. Founder Yvon Chouinard built his 

company to protect the planet. Oliver Falck suggests that, 

53 




“by strategically practicing corporate social responsibility, a 

company can do well by doing good.” 19 

PRAISE AS A BUSINESS 

RESPONSIBILITY 

God does not want to be a shareholder or stakeholder in 

any business. He is not interested in a Balanced Scorecard. 

God wants our praise to be the primal, organizing goal 

of every business, enveloping all bottom-line endeavors. He 

wants Christian business leaders to thank and praise him as 

the provider of all the resources including employees, customers, 

investment 

capital, patent 

ideas, …everything. 

The psalmist declares, 

“The earth 

is the Lord’s, and 

everything in it, the 

world, and all who 

live in it” (Ps. 24:1, 

NIV). The Christian 

business leader 

honors God’s planet 

as a matter of 

celebrating and 

honoring the Giver. 

Paul describes in Ephesians 3 a process of revelation, grace, 

power of the Holy Spirit, becoming a servant, grasping the 

love of Christ, being filled with God’s fullness, then giving 

glory to Him. Again, in 2 Cor. 5 Paul explains the Christian 

[business leader] has been reconciled to God, and in the process 

re-created into God’s ambassadors and co-workers. 

James explains that the new creation exhibits a “wisdom that 

comes from heaven [and] is first of all pure; then peace-loving, 

considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, 

impartial and sincere” (James 3:17). The Christian business 

leader treats other people well, not out of duty, but out of 

his/her regenerated nature. The Christian manager conducts 

business not as a matter of profit or law, or to receive a reward, 

rather because it is in the nature of God’s new creation. 

The Christian business leader has an opportunity to pursue a 

fourth bottom line: “Praise.” 

Three questions help unpack praise as a business objective: 

what is praise; is it meaningful to measure, and how 

could it be measured? The Psalms are often turned to as a 

source for understanding praise. The psalmist exclaims, “You 

are my God, and I will Praise You” (Ps. 118:28). The Hebrew 

word for “praise” here is yadah, which means give thanks or 

confess. 20 Words used in the Bible as synonyms or in parallel 

with praise include: bless, exalt, extol, glorify, magnify, thank 

and confess. To praise God is to call attention to his glory, 

and “Praising God is a God-appointed calling. Indeed, God 

has formed for himself a people ‘that they may proclaim my 

[God’s] praise.’” 21 C.S. Lewis confesses that he initially misread 

the many expressions of praise in the Psalms to read 

that “God has the ‘right’ to be praised.” 22 Eventually, Lewis 

came to realize instead that, praise and “admiration is the 

correct, adequate, appropriate, response to” a wonderful 

God. Reflecting his 

regenerated nature, 

The Christian business leader 

instinctively wants to praise God for 

being God. He wants to acknowledge 

God’s generous gifts of a business, 

people working in it and wonderful 

environmental resources being used. 

the Christian business 

leader instinctively 

wants to praise 

God for being God. He 

wants to acknowledge 

God’s generous 

gifts of a business, 

people working in it 

and wonderful environmental 

resources 

being used. In the 

words of the Westminster 

Shorter Catechism, the Christian business leader’s 

chief purpose in managing is “to glorify God and enjoy Him 

forever.” 23 More than thanking God quietly in the closet, 

Lewis suggests that the Christian business leader wants to 

share God’s praise. This is much in the same sense as one 

would spontaneously praise anything of high value, and also 

instinctively urge others to join in the praise. In praise we 

are rhetorically asking, “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? 

Don’t you think that is magnificent?” 24 

WHAT IS PRAISE? 

God is honored through the Christian business leaders’ public 

praise: “I will Praise you, Lord, among the nations” (Psalm 

57:9). Theologians would argue that “While privately spoken 

praise to God is fitting and right, it is virtually intrinsic 

to the notion of praise that it be publicly expressed.” 25 Nothing 

in the Bible suggests praise should be limited to songs 

or a worship service. R. C. Sproul suggests that praise and 




thanksgiving should permeate the Christian business leader’s 

life. 26 The psalmist declares: “Let everything that has 

breath praise the Lord” (Ps. 150:6). Jesus says too if [Christian 

business leaders] “keep quiet, the stones will cry out [in 

praise]” (Lk. 19:40). We can praise God through the spoken 

word, published books, newspaper articles, Facebook posts, 

or blogs. Today more than ever, we have many opportunities 

to express God’s greatness. 

IS IT MEANINGFUL TO MEASURE 

PRAISE? 

Although Christian business leaders need to be “beware of 

practicing your righteousness before other people in order 

to be seen by them” (Mt. 6:1), the impact of a praiseful business 

is a way of keeping it focused on pointing others to God. 

The Billy Graham ministry reports praiseworthy metrics: 2.2 

billion people heard him preach, 215 million attended his live 

events, 2.2 million responded to the invitation to become a 

Christian while at one of his crusades, and so on. 27 These are 

reported so that they can thank and praise God for allowing 

them to be part of advancing His Kingdom. A Google search 

on “Marion E. Wade” (ServiceMaster founder), produces 9.6 

million hits. 28 Leafing through first five pages of the hits reveals 

that nearly all were references to ways he glorified God 

through and as a result of his successful company. Publishing 

these metrics brings praise to God. Marion E. Wade wrote, 

The head of any corporation big or small has the responsibility 

of conducting his business along lines 

that will keep his employees working and keep his 

stockholders happy. But this is not his first responsibility. 

His first responsibility is to conduct his business 

along lines that will be pleasing to the Lord. And 

he must do so not because of any rewards he hopes 

to receive but because, for a Christian, there is no 

other way. 29 

The Christian business which earns a profit, builds people 

up and helps to sustain the planet is doing a praiseful 

thing. Yet, “Praise” is more than just achieving a great TBL. 

Non-Christians achieve those as well. For example, Patagonia’s 

mission is to “use business to protect nature.” 30 Ben & 

Jerry’s has a mission of giving back to the community, and so 

on. The worldly CSR company does good for the world’s sake. 

The Christian business leader credits God as the source, inspiration 

and power behind the business results. 

MEASURING THE QUADRUPLE BOTTOM 

LINE 

Accountants have always faced the challenge of balancing 

the need for relevant information against the requirement 

for accurate numbers. 31 That challenge increases with TBL 

companies. Academic researchers such as Slapper have pondered 

how, and even if people or planet performance can be 

reduced to numbers. Slapper acknowledges, “There is no 

universal standard method for calculating TBL.” 32 In spite of 

such challenge, useful metrics have and can be developed to 

offer meaningful measurement of the TBL. Some of these 

examples are discussed in the side box: Measuring TBL. 

Given the challenge for measuring TBL, is there a practical 

way for the Christian leader to measure “Praise” as a fourth 

bottom line? Two important considerations in measuring 

praise include observing behaviors that honor God, and observing 

the level at which that behavior is attributable to the 

working of the Spirit. When we are reborn as a new person 

in Christ, we naturally exhibit the fruits of the Spirit. Erisman 

and Daniels showed how love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, 

generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control may be 

exhibited in employees’ behavior. 40 They used a closed coding 

approach to identify terms representing fruits of the Spirit in 

the performance appraisal forms employed by sixteen secular 

organizations. They found terms representing the fruits 

in each of the companies’ performance evaluation tools. 

The results suggest the possibility of measuring behavior at 

the corporate level – looking for fruits of the Spirit in many 

company documents. Outside the scope of that study was 

whether a company (individual) that acknowledges God performs 

differently. Hopefully, a company led by a Christian 

business leader would evidence more instances of fruits of 

the Spirit (a form of praise to God), and would acknowledge 

God’s hand in its business. 

Potential performance measures can be formative or reflective. 

We are most familiar with formative measures: sales 

produces profits, low wages induce employee turnover, toxic 

waste discharge causes fish to die. Table 1 summarizes some 

representative ways companies report formative measures 

of Profit, People and Planet. Formative measures report 

things businesses do to promote TBL. Christian business 

leaders can also measure the things they do to praise God. 

Table 1 proposes some things companies can do to deliberately 

praise God. Dave Kahle proposes, “If we want to impact 

55 




generations of people, we need to make a commitment to a 

cause larger than ourselves (serving the Lord) and publicly 

declare that commitment…like a stone thrown into a pool of 

water, the ripples of impact can spread beyond our ability to 

discern. It may even be the tipping point to transform a community.” 

41 

Chick-fil-A could count the ways they make public statements 

for God. For example, when they stay closed on Sundays, 

host a flash dance with a church group, play Christian 

music in their stores, they offer acts intended to praise God 

in and through their business. H-E-B groceries was founded 

by Howard E. Butts, a Christian businessman, and 115 years 

later still gives 5% of its profits to charity. 42 Hobby Lobby’s 

founder David Green openly and unapologetically leads his 

company based on his Christian commitment. The Hobby 

Lobby mission statement talks about its Christian principles, 

and clearly intends to align all stakeholders with biblical principles. 

43 Through these acts, businesses offer praise to God. 

These do not “add up” in the way sales or expenses do, but 

can be tallied and reported—as acts of praise. The purpose is 

not some expression of sum, but the act of being deliberate 

about praise. 

Measures of “Praise” can also be reflective. When Christian 

business leaders acknowledge God publicly, the world 

responds—sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. 

Either way, the resulting recognition is “reflective” of the 

impact the business’ acts of praise is having. Table 1 speculates 

as to the types of reflective “Praise” measures Christian 

business leaders could monitor. When journalists write 

about the faith of Marion E. Wade or S. Truett Cathy, they 

reflect those Christian business leaders’ lives of praise. Tallying 

that reflective measure of “Praise” can help the business 

stay focused on achieving “Praise” as a bottom line. 

Two examples of measurement of a company’s “Praise” 

effort are tracking public mentions and monitoring traffic 

patterns on the company’s web site. Public mentions happen 

whenever someone name-drops a company, its employees, 

business decisions, products or brands names. Mentions 

MEASURING TBL 

B-Lab, which envisions a “global movement of people using business as a force for good,” 33 employs a measurement 

method (B Corp Certification) which is a bold and increasingly accepted tool for measuring the TBL. It divides 

social responsibility into Governance, Workers, Community and Environment. Companies report measures such as 

compensation level relative to the market, number of vacation days, tuition reimbursement, employee stock ownership 

percent, employee satisfaction rating and whether the company has a worker health and safety committee. B-Lab 

does not tie any of these measures directly to profit. Instead, the notion is that measures of building up employees as 

human beings are a benefit unto themselves. B-Lab asks companies about their community performance: social and 

environmental performance of suppliers, percent of management from underrepresented populations, paid time off 

for community service, and targeting of products for underserved populations. 34 

Walmart prepares a large annual CSR report, including goals and metrics. 35 Walmart has thoughtfully broken down 

its Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) metrics into goals, metrics and results. For example, Walmart has a goal 

of achieving an 18% emissions reduction in Walmart’s own operations by 2025 (over 2015 baseline). That is broken into 

five metrics, with associated performance measures. 

Another form of measuring CSR performance is through awards offering formal external recognitions by others, 

e.g., when Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby were cited as having among the best brands in the US by Harris Poll. 36 Likewise 

many sustainability awards recognize companies that perform well on the Planet bottom line. For example, Boost lists 

dozens of international awards, including SEAL, which honors the 50 most sustainable companies globally. 37 Another 

example of a Planet award is the CDP Climate A List, which scores over 8,000 companies (including more than 2,400 in 

North America) from A to D- (only the top 2% made the A List). 38 Another CSR award is the “Best Place to Work,” whose 

award promotes a vision “for all people to be working at a Great Place to Work.” 39 These awards recognize companies 

that perform well on CSR. Companies led by Christian business leaders can bring attention (Praise) to God by winning 

awards such as these. 



TABLE 1 

MEASURING QUADRUPLE BOTTOM LINE 


Bottom Line Measures Formative Measures Reflective Measures 

Profit 

Revenue, Revenue growth, Expenses, Net 

Income 

Brand awareness 

Inc100, Deloitte Fast500 

People 

Walmart’s ESG metrics 

Best Place to Work 

Employee ratings on Glassdoor 

Planet 

B Corp certification 

Sustainability awards, such as SEAL or 

CDP Climate A List 

Praise 

Praiseful acts: mission statement, 

policies…public statements that recognize 

God and espouse Christian ethics 

“Mentions” of company in conjunction 

with God; 

Web traffic analytics following visits to 

“Praise” pages 

can be in any instance in the media (press, social media, job 

posting sites, etc.) Using social listening tools such as Google 

Alerts, a Christian business leader could employ social 

listening to identify which praise messages are being noticed, 

when, how frequently and by whom. Measures could 

track the positive or negative nature of each mention. Even 

a negative opinion about praise activity acknowledges God. 

Awareness of how the world responds to praise messages 

helps the Christian business leader know if its message is 

“getting through”—the extent to which God is being praised 

through the company’s activities. It can also help refine the 

company’s praise messages for best effect. 

Monitoring traffic on the company’s own website (and 

Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is another approach. Major web sites 

commonly monitor users’ web footprint employing web 

tracking tools such as Google Analytics. They use cookies to 

track who visits which pages and what they do on the site 

afterward. AI-based tools watch shoppers’ web footprints, 

compare them to the activity of others with similar footprints, 

and make judgment about potential future interests. Using 

such tools, Christian business leaders could track the effect 

praise messages have on user activity. How many views do 

statements of praise get? If viewers see a page suggesting 

that the company is not open on Sunday in honor of God, 

do the praise message influence users’ behavior? Christian 

businesses glorify God when they tell others about how they 

live for God’s glory. 

EXAMPLES OF QUADRUPLE 

BOTTOM LINE COMPANIES 

Christian business leaders have an opportunity to build 

businesses based on a different way of thinking about 

the role of business in the world. They have the responsibility 

to deliver profit and good for people and planet, as part of 

offering praises to God. 

Eventide Investments manages mutual funds dedicated 

to “investing that makes the world rejoice.” Their tagline 

comes from Proverbs 11:10, “When the righteous prospers, 

the city rejoices.” Biblically, when righteous individuals (and 

by extension, their businesses) prosper, the neighbors and 

city of the righteous are supposed to rejoice. Eventide evaluates 

how a business is adding value to various stakeholders: 

customers, employees, vendors, host communities, the 

environment, and the broader society. Eventide’s goal is to 

invest in businesses that add value to its neighbors, rather 

than degrading them. 44 

57 




Dedicated to investing for profit and God’s glory, IBEC 

Ventures publicly asserts its mission is to build sustainable 

businesses that change lives and transform communities. 

With business viewed as a mission, the goal is to reconcile 

and integrate three bottom lines all at the same time. In 

making business judgments, it asks: what is good for profit; 

what is good for all stakeholders including employees; and 

what is good for God’s kingdom? This requires deliberate 

management choices. IBEC suggests a fourfold purpose: (1) 

creating sustainable profit and wealth in the communities 

where they operate, (2) providing jobs that give employees 

both income and dignity, (3) pursuing spiritual capital and 

making followers of Christ, and (4) promoting stewardship of 

God’s creation. 45 

The Impact Foundation’s mission is to seek “better ways 

to accomplish good in the world.” Over the past several years, 

they have placed more than $54 million in over 100 what they 

call Impact Companies. This fund’s view is that “God doesn’t 

need our money, but in His kindness, He allows us to participate 

in His work in the world.” 46 Impact Foundation invests in 

companies so the Kingdom of God may advance, the lost are 

found, the hungry are fed, the orphan housed, and justice is 

carried out. Christians are called to invest in business in order 

to accomplish good in the world, for His glory. 

Partners Worldwide sees business as a holy calling. They 

work to put work and worship back together. One example 

of Partners Worldwide’s Kingdom business is Pueblos en 

Accion Comunitario (PAC), which works to end food insecurity 

and poverty in rural areas of Nicaragua. PAC empowers 

rural farmers by advocating for them, equipping them with 

training and loans, and providing access to larger markets. It 

has allowed 750 local coffee farms to achieve better profit, 

stronger focus on people, more sustainable farming practices…and 

glory to God. Partners Worldwide tracks its global 

impact, which in 2017-18 included over 200,000 jobs in 32 

countries through 147,000 business/farms and $16.7 million 

in loans, all these to sustain a vision “to end poverty so 

that all may have life and have it abundantly.” 47 

CONCLUSION 

Profit, People, Planet and Praise: four crucially important 

outcomes God wants all Christian businesses to achieve. 

Christian business leaders can serve as “a nation of priests” in 

the world. They would work diligently to praise Him through 

the profit they earn and from doing good for people and planet. 

Delivering bottom line profit, people, planet and praise requires 

new forms of management. These include new kinds 

of mission, new ways of looking at customers, new types of 

investment, and new ways of planning, managing and measuring 

the way businesses praise God. TBL measures are 

being actively pursued by academics and business leaders, 

but the Christian business leader has the unique opportunity 

to explore and experiment with a new way of measuring 

the fourth bottom line, “Praise.” The concept of a Quadruple 

Bottom Line will offer Christians a powerful opportunity to 

use business to drive a Jesus Revolution across the global 

marketplace. 


WILL OLIVER is Professor 

of Business and head of the 

business faculty at Sattler 

College in Boston, MA. As an 

entrepreneur he has started 

four companies and is a 

partner in a private equity firm. 

His consulting experience spanned global brands 

including Bain & Company, KPMG and Cap Gemini. 

Previously, he taught at Brandeis, Tufts and Gordon 

College. As an active member of Grace Chapel in 

Lexington, MA, he has led a special needs ministry 

for the past 12 years. He is widely published in 

the areas of the effectiveness of microfinance, 

healthcare data analytics and how Christian 

executives praise God through business. He holds 

a master’s from MIT and a Doctor of Management 

from Case Western. 




NOTES 

1 

Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase 

its Profits,” In Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance, eds. 

Walther Zimmerli, Klaus Richter & Markus Holzinger (Springer, Berlin, 

2007), 173-178. 

2 

Elisabet Garriga and Melé Domènec, “Corporate Social Responsibility 

Theories: Mapping the Territory,” Journal of Business Ethics 

53(1-2) (2004), 51-71. 

3 

John Elkington, “25 Years Ago I Coined the Phrase ‘Triple Bottom 

Line.’ Here’s Why it’s Time to Rethink it,” Harvard Business Review 

25 (2018). 

4 

Adrian King and Wil Bartels, “Currents of Change: The KPMG Survey 

of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting 2015”, KPMG International 

Cooperative (2015), accessed July 4, 2020 at 

https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2016/02/kpmg-international-survey-of-corporate-responsibility-reporting-2015. 

pdf 

5 

Tomislav Klarin, “The Concept of Sustainable Development: From 

its Beginning to the Contemporary Issues,” Zagreb International Review 

of Economics and Business 21(1) (2018), 67-94. 

6 

Garriga and Domènec, “Corporate Social Responsibility.” 

7 

William M. Pride, Robert J. Hughes, and Jack R. Kapoor, Foundations 

of Business (Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 2014). 

8 

See Bettina Lis, “The Relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility 

for a Sustainable Human Resource Management: An Analysis of 

Organizational Attractiveness as a Determinant in Employees’ Selection 

of a (Potential) Employer,” Management Revue (2012), 279- 

295; A. Russo and P. Francesco, “Investigating Stakeholder Theory 

and Social Capital: CSR in Large Firms and SMEs,” Journal of Business 

Ethics 91(2) (2010), 207-221; and H. Garrett, “The Tragedy of the 

Commons,” Science 162(3859) (1968), 1243-1248. 

9 

See Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth 

of Nations (Vol. 1., Homewood, Ill: Irwin, 1963), and Frederick Taylor, 

The Principles of Scientific Management (New York: Harpers & Brothers, 

1911). 

10 

Abraham Maslow, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Psychological 

Review 50 (1943), 370-396. 

11 

Douglas McGregor, and Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, The Human Side 

of Enterprise (Mew York: McGraw-Hill, 1960). 

12 

William G. Ouchi, Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the 

Japanese Challenge (Reading, MA.: Addison-Wesley, 1981). 

13 

Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, “Intentional Change,” Journal 

of Organizational Excellence 25(3) (2006), 49-60. 

14 

See R. Edward Freeman, Jeffrey S. Harrison, Andrew C. Wicks, 

Bidhan L. Parmar, and Simone De Colle, Stakeholder Theory: The state 

of the Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010); also Archie 

Carroll, “A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate 

Performance,” Academy of Management Review 4 (1979), 497-505. 

15 

Jill Brown, and William Forster, “CSR and Stakeholder Theory: A 

Tale of Adam Smith,” Journal of Business Ethics 112(2) (2013), 301- 

312. 

16 

Charles Handy, Myself and other More Important Matters (New York: 

Amacom Books, 2008). 

17 

On Common Goods Theory see Tim Hindle, “Triple Bottom Line. It 

Consists of Three Ps: Profit, People and Planet,” The Economist (17, 

2009), accessed December 16, 2019 at https: /www.economist. 

com/news/2009/11/17/triple-bottom-line. For Theory of Externalities 

see William Baumol and Wallace E. Oates, The Theory of Environmental 

Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988); 

and for Theory of the Commons see William Buzbee, “Recognizing 

the Regulatory Commons: A Theory of Regulatory Gaps,” Iowa Law 

Review 89 (2003), 1. 

18 

John Fancis Mahon and Richard McGowan, Searching for the Common 

Good: A Process Oriented Approach (Boston, MA.: Boston University, 

School of Management, 1991). 

19 

Oliver Falck and Stephan Heblich, “Corporate Social Responsibility: 

Doing Well by Doing Good,” Business Horizons 50(3) (2007), 247- 

254. 

20 

See Jeremy Harn, “What Does Praising God Mean?” Biblical Authority 

Devotional: Praise God, Part 4, Answers in Genesis, Biblical Authority 

Devotional (February 17, 2011), accessed June 3, 2020 at https: /answersingenesis.org/answers/biblical-authority-devotional/whatdoes-praising-god-mean/. 

21 

“Praise,” Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, accessed 

June 4, 2020 at https: /www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/praise/. 

Quoting Isaiah 43:21, New International Version, Bible 

Gateway, Accessed June 3, 2020 at www.biblegateway.com. 

22 

C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (New York: Harcourt, Brace 

& Jovanovich, 1964). 

23 

The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Westminster Assembly 

(1646), accessed June 16, 2020 at https: /bpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/d-scatechism.pdf. 

24 

See Justin Taylor, C.S. Lewis in the Theology and Practice of Worship, 

the Gospel Coalition Blogs, accessed June 10, 2020 at https: /www. 

thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/c-s-lewis-on-the-theology-and-practice-of-worship/. 

25 

“Praise,” Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, accessed 

June 4, 2020 at https: /www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/praise/. 

Citing 1 Chron 16:4, 1 Chronicles 23:4, and 1 Chronicles 

23:30. 

26 

R.C. Sproul, “From Praise to Praise,” Ligonier Ministries, accessed 

June 10, 2020, at https: /www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/ 

praise-praise/. 

27 

“Billy Graham’s Life & Ministry by the Numbers,” Facts & Trends, 

accessed June 5, 2020 at https: /factsandtrends.net/2018/02/21/ 

billy-grahams-life-ministry-by-the-numbers/ 

28 

Search for “marion e. wade” using google.com on June 5, 2020. 

59 





29 

Marion E. Wade, and Glenn D. Kittler, The Lord is My Counsel: A Businessman’s 

Personal Experiences with the Bible (Upper Saddle River, 

NJ.: Prentice-Hall, 1966). 

30 

“Core Values,” accessed June 5, 2020 at https: /www.patagonia. 

com/core-values/. 

31 

Akira Nishimura, Management, Uncertainty, and Accounting: Case 

Studies, Theoretical Models, and Useful Strategies (London: Palgrave 

Macmillan, 2018). See for example page 9 et seq. 

32 

Timothy Slaper and Tanya J. Hall, “The Triple Bottom Line: What is 

it and How Does it Work,” Indiana Business Review 86(1) (2011), 4-8. 

33 

“About B Lab,” accessed June 4, 2020 at https: /bcorporation.net/ 

about-b-lab. 

34 

“B LAB Impact Assessment, Step 1. Assess Your Impact, Sample 

Questions,” accessed July 9 at https: /bimpactassessment.net/ 

how-it-works/assess-your-impact#see-sample-questions. 

35 

“2019 Walmart Environmental, Social & Governance Report: Metrics,” 

accessed June 19, 2020 at https: /corporate.walmart.com/esgreport/. 

36 

“The 100 Most Visible Companies,” The Harris Poll (2019), accessed 

June 19, 2020 at https: /theharrispoll.com/axios-harrispoll-100/#. 

37 

See “Boost Awards, List of International CSR Awards & International 

Green Awards,” accessed June 19, 2020 at https: /awards-list. 

com/international-business-awards/corporate-social-responsibility-csr-awards/; 

and “2020 SEAL Business Sustainability Awards, 

SEAL Awards,” accessed June 19, 2020 at https: /pro.evalato. 

com/2289. 

38 

“Alphabet, Citigroup and Walmart named among global leaders 

on corporate climate action in CDP climate A List,” CDP: Disclosure 

Insight Action, accessed June 19, 2020 at https: /www.cdp.net/en/ 

articles/media/alphabet-citigroup-and-walmart-named-amongglobal-leaders-on-corporate-climate-action-in-cdp-climate-a-list. 

39 

“Great Place to Work: Mission Monitor,” accessed June 19, 2020 at 

44 

See “Eventide Purpose and Values,” accessed December 18, 2019 

at https: /www.eventidefunds.com/purpose-and-values/; Cision 

PR Newswire, “Eventide Launches the Eventide Global Dividend 

Opportunities Fund, 2017,” accessed June 19, 2020 at https: /www. 

prnewswire.com/news-releases/eventide-launches-the-eventide-global-dividend-opportunities-fund-300530980.html; 

and 

“Invest with Us, Eventide: Creating True Value,” accessed June 19, 

2020 at https: /www.eventidefunds.com/creating-true-value/. 

45 

See IBEC Ventures, “About Us: Serving the BAM Community Since 

2006,” accessed June 19, 2020 at https: /ibecventures.com/about/; 

Larry Sharp, Triple Bottom Line #3: A BAM Business Seeks to Make 

Followers of Jesus, (2016), accessed December 18, 2019 at https: / 

ibecventures.com/blog/triple-bottom-line-3-a-bam-businessseeks-to-make-followers-of-jesus/; 

and IBEC Ventures, “About Us: 

Serving the BAM Community Since 2006,” accessed June 19, 2020 

at https: /ibecventures.com/about/. 

46 

“Business with a Purpose has the Willpower to Transform Society,” 

Impact Foundation, accessed June 19, 2020 at https: /impactfoundation.org/about-us. 

47 

Partners Worldwide, “About Us,” accessed June 22 at https: / 

www.partnersworldwide.org/about-us/, and David Morgan, “Global 

Indicators and Annual Impact 2017-2018, Partners Worldwide,” 

accessed June 19, 2020 at https: /www.partnersworldwide. 

org/2018/10/08/creating-new-jobs-every-hour-of-the-day/. 

https: /www.greatplacetowork.com/about. 

40 

Al Erisman and Denise Daniels. “The Fruit of the Spirit: Application 

to Performance Management,” Christian Business Review (2013), 27- 

34. 

41 

Dave Kahle, “God in Your Foundational Statements,” Business as 

Mission: The BAM Review (2018), accessed June 16, 2020 at https: / 

businessasmission.com/god-in-your-business-value-statements/. 

42 

Each of the examples in the paragraph are described in Barbara 

Farfan, “Retail Company Mission Statements with Religious Values,” 

The Balance Small Business (2019), accessed June 16, 2020 at 

https: /www.thebalancesmb.com/retail-company-mission-statements-religious-values-2891764. 

43 

Hobby Lobby, “Our Story,” accessed June 19, 2020 at https: / 

www.hobbylobby.com/about-us/our-story#:~:text=We%20are%20 

committed%20to%3A&text=Serving%20our%20employees%20 

and%20their,and%20investing%20in%20our%20community. 


LEADERSHIP 

IN THE IMAGE OF GOD 

RICK MARTINEZ 

ABSTRACT 

A substantial body of classical research on leadership has 

consistently concluded that great leaders share similar 

traits, exhibiting a production (task) orientation, or a people 

(relationship) orientation in their leadership profiles. 

These findings offer surprising and valuable parallels to 

the three primary perspectives on the biblical concept of 

imago dei (image of God) - substantive (characteristic or 

trait), functional (production), and relational. We explain 

the ways in which these discovered models of leadership 

behavior match significantly with the specific ways in 

which humans reflect the image of God. We then explore 

the practical implications for leadership improvement as 

Christians lead in their capacity as the image bearer of 

God. 

INTRODUCTION 

A 

s followers of Christ, we must seek to 

understand what the revelation of Scripture 

teaches us about the marketplace 

work (and leadership) efforts to which 

we are called in our walk with Christ. In addition, 

we must study, appreciate, and share the ways in 

which our observations of the human experience – 

general revelation – verify (or at least support) the 

claims of Scripture – special revelation. Through the 

discussion below, we give a brief examination of the 

illuminating connection between decades of secular 

leadership research and the specific revelation regarding 

God’s creation of humans in His own image, 

or the imago dei. The implications these findings 

have on our leadership efforts as followers of Christ 

are then discussed. 

61 


LEADERSHIP IN THE IMAGE OF GOD 


Today’s over-abundance of books on leadership underscores 

the fact that leadership is indeed critical to human 

flourishing. Most great human endeavors arise from leadership 

efforts,, stories and models about substitutes for 

leadership notwithstanding. 1 Even in the realm of Christian 

discourse, leadership models abound. 2 There has developed 

over time a great body of work clarifying the ways in which 

leadership provides great value to organizations and societies, 

but the evolution of scholarly research and observation 

over the past century has resulted in three major models of 

leadership behavior. The thesis of this essay is to demonstrate 

that fundamental leadership models match up wonderfully 

with the three major perspectives of the imago dei 

(i.e., humans created in the image of God.) We should be 

greatly intrigued by the fact that a century of (mostly secular) 

leadership research reveals that human leadership behavior 

matches what we would expect from humans created in the 

image of God. 

The great body of classical leadership observation and research 

revealed three general patterns of leadership profiles: 

1. Trait Models (originally, the “Great Man Theory”) 

2. Task/Production Orientations 

3. People/Relationship Orientations 

A vast body of theological interpretation on the subject of 

the imago dei can also be summarized into three prominent 

(non-competing) ways that humans reflect the image of the 

God: 

1. Substantive (Characteristics) View 

2. Functional View 

3. Relational View 

After a brief survey of the literature on these themes, we 

will examine how leadership behavior lines up with what we 

would expect of human leaders created in God’s image. Next, 

we consider what this overlap means for those of us who 

lead organizations, businesses, and people – especially as 

we do so with the intention of reflecting and glorifying God 

ever more through our leadership opportunities. 

THE EVOLUTION OF 

LEADERSHIP PROFILES 

For the purposes of this paper, we observe that much of 

the classical and foundational research on the subject 

has arisen from three major profiles of leaders and how they 

behave in organizational settings – Trait profiles, Task/Productivity 

orientations, and People/Relationship orientations. 

Leadership courses, textbooks, studies, etc., typically focus 

on these models as the beginnings of understanding leadership. 

While more modern research establishes what a leader 

might do and how leaders might behave – e.g., Servant 

Leadership and Transformational Leadership 3 – the seminal 

classic studies are understood as the foundation from which 

these additional models are built. 

TRAIT MODELS OF LEADERSHIP 

Simply put, we all have the sense that some people are born 

to be natural leaders, while others are less so. That ability, or 

tendency or capacity, is manifest both in the growth of these 

special individuals into leadership roles, and in the traits 

(characteristics) that make them more likely to be seen/chosen 

as leaders. This model stems from the work of many early 

organizational (and sociological) researchers, who studied 

various world-class leaders from different times, places, and 

arenas to identify the traits that made them stand out and 

aided their leadership efforts. Trait models remain popular 

in modern times, 4 but the classic work belongs to scholars 

such as Ralph M. Stogdill and Robert W. Mann. 5 Along with 

the work of several other researchers, Stogdill and Mann determined 

that certain traits were common among successful 

leaders. Northouse aggregates these findings into the following 

“Major Leadership Traits”: 6 

• Intelligence 

• Self-confidence 

• Determination 

• Integrity 

• Sociability 

As we will see below, this small set of valuable characteristics 

shared by successful leaders are congruent with those 

we expect to see in God’s image bearers. 




TASK/PRODUCTIVITY AND PEOPLE/ 

RELATIONSHIP ORIENTATIONS 

A second major finding of foundational leadership research 

is that leaders exhibit a dichotomous style and orientation: 

Task/Productivity and People/Relationship. Most textbooks 

and comprehensive guidebooks on the subject of leadership 

prominently present the development of leadership knowledge 

in terms of leadership styles and the contextual situations 

in which leaders find themselves. This research has 

resulted in several powerful models of leadership, including: 

• Ohio State studies 

• University of Michigan studies 

• Blake-Mouton model 

• Fiedler’s Contingency model 

Ralph Stogdill emerged as a major contributor of understanding 

about leadership, heading the decades-long project 

eventually known as the Ohio State studies. 7 The findings of 

this body of work is typically summarized as demonstrating 

that leaders exhibit one of two different leadership styles, or 

orientations: “initiating structure” and “consideration.” Leaders 

who are oriented toward initiating structure are typically 

focused on creating the conditions under which the task at 

hand can best be accomplished. Goal achievement is paramount, 

and these leaders naturally are persistent in leading 

others to higher levels of productivity. Leaders who are oriented 

towards consideration are typically focused on relational 

behaviors, especially in team-building, esprit de corps, 

and meeting the needs of followers. Such leaders are not 

necessarily less successful or productive; they simply focus 

on a broader conceptualization of what it means to be a successful 

leader. 

At the University of Michigan, another research team 

found that leaders of small groups tended to exhibit two distinct 

types of leadership behaviors – “employee orientation” 

and “production orientation.” 8 As one might expect, leaders 

exhibiting an employee orientation tend to prefer the development 

of meaningful relationships with subordinates as a 

means of inspiring, motivating, and creating teams united 

through these personal relations, as well as achieving the 

organization’s goals. Production orientation pertains more to 

those leaders who are primarily focused on achieving organizational 

goals, and who utilize their teams as the means for 

achieving these goals, with less concern about meeting the 

TABLE 1 

LEADERSHIP STUDIES IN TERMS OF PRODUCTION AND 

RELATIONSHIPS 

Study Production/Task People/Relationships 

Ohio State Initiating Structure Consideration 

Michigan Production Orientation Employee Orientation 

Blake-Mouton Concern for Production Concern for People 

Fiedler’s Contingency Task Motivated Relationship Motivated 

63 




personal needs of team members. 9 

Blake and Mouton’s behavioral model of leadership is anchored 

by two alternate factors. 10 These factors, as we might 

expect, are “concern for production” and “concern for people.” 

Finally, Fred Fiedler’s well-known Contingency Model of 

Leadership aimed at demonstrating that leaders have an ingrained 

sense of leadership style that renders them fit or unfit 

for leadership roles depending on the situational factors in 

which the leadership activity takes place. It also identified a 

leader as either “relationship-motivated” or “task-motivated.” 

11 Table 1 provides a summary of these styles and orientations. 

The collected body of research demonstrates that both 

leadership orientations are necessary for success and are 

exhibited by various organizational leaders. Leaders think of 

followers, subordinates, and employees primarily as either 

the means or the ends in organizational efforts. We are all, of 

course, both means and ends, but each of us has a primary 

focus when engaging in leadership activities. It is important 

to note that this vast body of research is not in complete 

agreement about whether leaders are capable of both orientations, 

12 or just one primary orientation, 13 and there are 

differing results in terms whether leaders can change their 

orientation through learning or over time. 14 

THREE PERSPECTIVES ON 

THE IMAGO DEI 

Like most important theological themes, any study of what 

it means to be created in the image of God could be infinitely 

deep. The primary reference is recorded in Genesis 1: 

26-27 (NIV): 

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in 

our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the 

sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all 

the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move 

along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own 

image, in the image of God he created them; male and 

female he created them. 

The imago dei (image of God) is a critical, central concept of 

biblical theology. Scripture tells us that humans are created 

by God in a special way – they alone are bearers of His image; 

they alone are like Him. But what does that mean? How 

are they like Him? What exactly is His image? What elements 

of His image do humans reflect? It is beyond the scope of 

this paper to engage in extensive exegesis or theological discussions. 

Rather, we offer a summary rendering of the most 

common way of understanding the imago dei, which incorporates 

three perspectives: 15 

RELATIONAL VIEW 

Man in the image of God is understood to mean that the special 

relational capabilities that humans possess are reflective 

of the nature of our Creator. In this relational view, God 

imparted at the time of creation only to those who bear His 

image the unique ability to relate to Him in presence (prefall), 

thought, prayer, and communion. The relational view of 

the imago dei thus helps us to understand that God created 

us to be relational creatures, just as He is relational. While all 

aspects of the human relationship is marred by the fall into 

sinful nature, humans – including leaders – pursue relationships 

with other people, their environment, and (often) God. 

FUNCTIONAL VIEW 

A second perspective holds that God’s image is reflected in 

the things that man does, especially insofar as man lives and 

acts according to the creation (divine, cultural) mandate (i.e., 

rule over other creatures and exercise dominion over the 

earth). Man reflects God’s image to the extent that he obeys 

the very commands of God and exercises dominion over the 

rest of creation. God’s created image bearers are invited to 

be co-creators with Him in the continued unfolding of the 

created order, including the ongoing ministry of reconciliation 

(2 Cor. 5: 16-21). Those of us who are called to marketplace 

ministries are especially attuned to this perspective as 

it gives meaning and purpose to our God-glorifying work. It 

is in this perspective that we understand humans as engaging 

in the work of adding and creating value – building their 

world around them through work, production, and creativity. 

SUBSTANTIVE VIEW 

This third perspective of the imago dei is particularly helpful 

in analyzing human nature. From this perspective, we 

consider the various attributes or characteristics of God the 

Creator that are reflected in the human creature. While few 

would consider the physical make-up of humans to reflect 

God’s own, humans are more likely to reflect the psycholog- 




ical and spiritual image of their creator. Among these divinely-imparted 

attributes are: 

• Morality, fairness or justice – e.g. Acts 10: 34; Zech. 

7: 10; Psalm 89: 14; Is. 61: 8; Micah 6: 8 

• Creativity and innovativeness – e.g. Gen. 1; Gen. 11: 

1-9; Ex. 35: 35; Ex. 31: 1-6 

• Reason, intelligence and rationality – e.g. Romans 

11:33; Psalms 147:5; Job 32: 10-12; Is. 1: 18; Eccl. 

2: 3-9 

• Efficiency and order – e.g. Gen. 1; 1 Peter 5: 1-6; Hebrews 

7; 1 Timothy 3: 1-13; Titus 2: 1-10; Colossians 

3; 2 Timothy 4: 1-5; Acts 1: 21-26 

• Love – e.g. 1 John 4: 16; Matt. 22: 37-39; John 3: 16 

These, of course, represent just a sampling of the various 

attributes of God that are reflected in His image bearers, but 

they may suffice to make the point that characteristics and 

traits are key to understanding how humans – and humans 

in their leadership roles – may reflect God’s image. 

To summarize, humans reflect God’s image in three specific 

ways – they are relational, as He is relational; they are 

productive, as He is productive; and they embody specific 

traits, similar to the traits that describe God’s nature. 

LEADERSHIP PROFILES 

AND GOD’S IMAGE 

We pointed out earlier that leadership models have offered 

an empirical understanding of successful leadership 

as related to specific human traits, an orientation toward 

productivity and task achievement, and an orientation 

toward the building of human relationships. This body of 

work is primarily secular in nature, mostly disconnected from 

any understanding or consideration of a Christian worldview. 

On the other hand Scripture presents God’s design and creation 

as resulting in humans who reflect (imperfectly) God’s 

own image, and this in terms of his traits/characteristics, his 

relational and functional/productive natures. 

It appears therefore the general revelation of empirical 

research on leadership matches up closely with the special 

revelation of Genesis 1. As we can see in Table 2, the fundamental 

nature of leadership reflects the fundamental nature 

of the imago dei. 

TABLE 2 

IMAGO DEI PERSPECTIVES AND LEADERSHIP MODELS 

Imago Dei 

Perspectives 

Substantive View Functional View Relational View 

Leadership Models 

Trait Studies 

Production/Task 

Orientation 

People/Relationship 

Orientation 

Leadership 

Behavior/ 

Orientations 

Intelligence 

Self-confidence 

Determination 

Integrity 

Sociability 

Extroversion 

Initiating Structure 

Production Orientation 

Concern for Production 

Task Motivated 

Consideration 

Employee Orientation 

Concern for People 

Relation Motivated 

65 



TRAIT THEORIES AND THE 

SUBSTANTIVE VIEW 

There is imperfect but significant overlap 

across the traits of successful leaders and 

the traits humans reflect as image bearers of 

God. Table 3 makes these connections. While 

neither of these lists in Table 3 is intended to 

be exhaustive, we can observe certain connections. 

TABLE 3 

LEADERS TRAITS AND IMAGE BEARERS 

OF GOD 

Intelligence 

Trait Theory 


Imago Dei 

(Substantive Perspective) 

Reason, intelligence and rationality 

INTELLIGENCE 

People who seem to emerge as successful 

leaders draw from characteristics that God 

has instilled in His image bearers. For example, 

research indicates that successful leaders 

benefit from above-average intelligence 

(a God-given trait). All humans reflect (more 

or less) God’s nature as intelligent, reasonable 

creatures, but some are gifted such that 

they see possibilities, make connections, and 

understand implications better than the average 

person. It is significant that leadership 

research has identified this trait as critical. 

Self-confidence 

Determination 

Integrity 

SELF-CONFIDENCE 

As trait research has shown, great leaders 

are demonstrably self-confident, or at least 

project such confidence. After all, who would 

follow a leader who does not believe in him/herself? Biblical 

examples of Godly leaders do indeed exhibit confidence 

that inspires (e.g. David against Goliath, 1 Samuel 17, esp. 

vv. 32-51). And yet, a biblical understanding of the imago dei 

does not lead us to self-confidence so much as it leads us to 

confidence in the power, will, goodness, and sovereignty of 

God (note David’s rationale in 1 Samuel 17: 37; 45-47). Great 

leaders do indeed project confidence, and godly leaders temper 

this confidence with humility and a proper acknowledgement 

of God’s role as the source of our confidence (Psalm 

118: 5-14). 

DETERMINATION 

Determination has many manifestations, but foundational 

leadership research refers to great leaders as those who are 

extraordinarily capable of finding solutions to problems and 

persistent in leading people to accomplish the tasks at hand. 

Sociability and Extroversion 

Note on Love and Order 

(see below) 

[Confidence in God] 

Creativity and innovativeness 

Morality, fairness or justice 

Relational 

Love 

Order and Efficiency 

One important element of this trait is the creativity and innovation 

that we inherit from God’s nature, and that is imperative 

in overcoming obstacles and problems in the path of 

successful leadership. That is, successful leaders persevere 

through creative insights and innovative solutions – these 

made possible through the gift of God’s image. 

INTEGRITY 

It is in many ways comforting that leadership research has 

consistently demonstrated that successful leaders embody 

and promote ethical integrity. Followers remain loyal and 

committed when leaders demonstrate consistent integrity 

to stated ideals. Humans created in the image of God reflect 

God’s nature in our insistence upon justice, our appreciation 

for ethical integrity, and our constant search for fairness – 

however imperfect each of these may be. To be sure, not all 

leaders demonstrate or pursue a morality/integrity that is 




consistent with the will of God, but God’s image in us makes 

this trait prominent in successful leaders. 

SOCIABILITY AND EXTRAVERSION 

Great leaders have historically been especially comfortable in 

their public personas, drawing energy from their interactions 

with others, and giving that energy back in the form of inspiration 

and motivation. Much of the leadership research has 

focused on charisma as a manifestation of this trait, 16 but 

charisma is only one manifestation of sociability and, in fact, 

often has a dark side in humans. More generally, successful 

and great leaders are relational (as how we are wired as 

God’s image bearer) in ways that build loyalty and confidence 

among their followers – a trait that is critical in building the 

trust necessary to move toward success. 

NOTE ON LOVE AND ORDER 

It is important to consider areas where research on trait 

models of leadership does not match up with the trait (substantive) 

perspective of the imago dei. One element is the 

godly trait of Order. The God of the Bible is a God of order. 

He creates order out of chaos and has ordered all of creation, 

including our lives. And yet, seminal work on trait theories 

of leadership does not mention “order” (or organizing, or 

efficiency) as a common trait of the great leaders in these 

studies. This is easily understood when we consider that the 

“great,” successful leaders of these studies were (as later 

research would unveil) Transformational leaders. Contemporary 

leadership models distinguish between transformational 

and transactional leaders, identifying both as necessary 

at various times and places in organizational life. It is 

transactional leadership – or leadership that is focused on 

fulfilling existing goals in a given organizational environment 

– that emphasizes and makes great use of the order/efficiency 

trait. In fact there is heavy overlap between transactional 

leadership and what we typically refer to as Management. 

Transformational leadership differs in that it is aimed 

at achieving goals or outcomes that upset (or are contrary to) 

the existing order, such as in change management, organizational 

upheaval, or crisis situations. Thus, if trait models of 

leadership had been extended to include great leaders of the 

transactional variety, it is likely that “order” would have been 

prominent in the traits identified. 

Similarly, the godly characteristic of “love” is not identified 

as consistent among the great leaders in the original 

trait models. Rather, love has emerged as an element of 

modern leadership models, especially those exploring the 

traits of authentic leaders, 17 transformational leaders, 18 servant 

leaders (esp. Spears et. al.), 19 and spiritual leadership. 20 

Fry specifically addresses “altruistic love” and faith in building 

his model of spiritual leadership, and describes some of 

the traits that spiritually-minded leaders bring to their efforts. 

21 That is, love of others – even self-sacrificing love – is 

increasingly a trait that leadership studies are addressing as 

we seek to better understand what it is that great leaders 

do. This is not surprising, as we know that love is the most 

important trait that humans reflect from their Creator (Matt. 

22: 34-40; 1 Cor. 13; 1 John 4: 16). 

PRODUCTION/RELATION 

ORIENTATIONS AND THE IMAGE OF 

GOD 

As noted earlier, the Functional View of the imago dei focuses 

on the productive nature of God and the resulting productive 

nature of those made in His image, who are invited to share 

in His good work. The complementary Relational View of the 

imago dei focuses on God’s desire to relate to His creation 

and the resulting relational nature of those created in His image. 

The scriptures are indeed the story of God’s relationship 

with His people. We can see from Table 1 above that research 

identifies leaders as exhibiting (generally) a leadership orientation 

towards either Production or Relationships. 

FUNCTIONAL VIEW-PRODUCTION 

ORIENTATION 

The Production orientation of leaders is perfectly consistent 

with humans reflecting the Functional aspect of God’s nature. 

Humans are created to be functional, or oriented toward 

the work for which God has created them. This work includes 

the various mandates in which God has invited humans to 

share, including the creation mandate (Gen. 1: 28) and, since 

Christ’s time on earth, the Great Commission (Matt. 28: 18- 

20) and the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5: 16-19). While 

the Great Commission and ministry of reconciliation are 

partnerships with God that are specific to those who are redeemed 

in Christ, the creation mandate is the work of caring 

for the earth and serving one another. It is a call to caring, 

building, stewardship, and general work that is applicable to 

all humans. 22 It is a fundamental reflection of God’s nature 

that humans are driven to work, to create, to achieve, and to 

be an active part of the unfolding of the world in which they 

have been placed. Thus, we should be comfortable with the 

observation that many successful leaders are primarily driv- 

67 




en to produce. They are motivated by a sense of accomplishment 

that is manifest in their work with, and through, others 

to achieve important goals. 

RELATIONAL VIEW-RELATIONSHIP 

ORIENTATION 

Being relational in this sense involves more than simply having 

a relationship with others. It is this characteristic of God 

that leads Him to love, and to sacrifice for the good of those 

with whom He desires this special relationship. Humans likewise 

seek relationships, seek and give love, and build communities 

and societies. They develop a genuine care for the 

well-being of others. Many successful leaders are oriented in 

this way specifically. To be sure some of the relational orientation 

of leaders is pragmatic – seeking to meet the needs 

of other people so as to gain their cooperation in pursuit of 

organizational goals. But research also shows that many 

leaders are genuine, even altruistic, in their interest in the 

well-being of followers and other organizational actors. More 

recent leadership models emphasize this relational element 

to a greater extent than did classical leadership models. 23 It 

is therefore obvious that leadership practice demonstrates 

(and leadership models confirm) that the relational perspective 

of imago dei accurately predicts how humans will pursue 

leadership efforts. 

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS 

Having established that (1) classical leadership models 

emphasize leader traits, as well as leader orientations 

toward production and/or relationships, and (2) the common 

perspectives of the imago dei match up significantly with 

these leadership research findings, Christian leaders need to 

be intentional in understanding God’s character so that they 

can lead accordingly. 

An important step in this process is seeking to recognize 

our own leadership styles as reflective of our unique gifting, 

and God’s design. Most people engage in leadership roles 

with little understanding of their own leadership style and 

strengths. Which of the traits and characteristics of great 

leaders do we have in abundance? Which ones are lacking? 

Is it possible to improve in any of these areas? We don’t all 

have the natural-born leader traits as described in the Great 

Man theories, but we do reflect God’s characteristics as part 

of the imago dei. 

Are we more Production/Task oriented, or more People/ 

Relationship oriented? Do we view people (followers) as a 

means to an end, or as an end in themselves? The reality is 

that we are both of these things. God’s word indicates that 

we are an end in ourselves – He sent His Son to die to save 

us (John 3:16), and even more amazing, while we were still 

sinners He died for us (Romans 5: 8). That is, God sets the example 

that other people are an end in themselves – they are 

worthy of our love, care, efforts, and sacrifice. At the same 

time, people are a means to an end in the leadership context. 

Again, God sets the example. God consistently used His 

created people to accomplish various tasks, goals, and His 

own will. Even today, we are invited to join in the ministry of 

reconciliation, although He does not “need” us for His will to 

be accomplished. 

That being said, we are called to love those we lead, and 

to lead those we love. They are the means of production 

(achievement), and they are the end of our efforts – “You 

shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22: 39). Each of 

us needs to seek to understand our natural leadership orientations 

in terms of how God has created us, and to build 

strengths out of the traits with which God has blessed us. 

Thus: 

1. Seek to understand your own leadership traits and 

orientations; 24 

2. Seek to reflect God’s image more fully through 

these leadership opportunities; 

3. Seek to love and lead your neighbor as a means to 

accomplishing God’s will, and as a divinely-loved 

end in him/herself. 

In this process, we aim to accomplish two outcomes that 

help build our capacity as effective leaders – develop on the 

leadership strengths we identify in ourselves, and mitigate 

the “absences” we uncover. 

DEVELOP EXISTING LEADERSHIP 

STRENGTHS 

However we attain an understanding of our own leadership 

strengths, whether through experience, or through assessment 

techniques (such as those found in the Northouse text 

discussed earlier), we cannot rest on those presumed laurels. 

In order to enhance these leadership capabilities, we recognize 

that: 




• Some things can be changed and some cannot - 

As we study the lists of traits that “great” leaders 

have projected, we may be strong in some of those 

capacities and not in others. We may not be able 

to change our intelligence as a leader, but we can 

continually increase our education to make use of 

the intelligence that we do have. Many business 

people make the mistake of minimizing educational 

opportunities once their formal educational 

paths are “completed.” Even those who are highly 

intelligent will never exhaust their intellectual 

gifts, and so will always benefit from continuing 

educational efforts. Further, each of the other 

traits that characterize great leadership potential 

can be sharpened, even if they cannot be created. 

At the same time, it is important that we understand 

that we cannot change our introversion into 

extraversion. Yet we can learn sociability behaviors 

that are valuable, even if they are relatively 

foreign to us. 

• If we are relationally-inclined, we are not likely 

to become a leader who focuses primarily on 

task/production processes. We must continue to 

build, innovate, and model this capacity for whom 

it is not natural. We are likely to be well-served 

through new HRM and/or Mediation certifications 

and training as ways to develop these existing 

leadership strengths. Alternatively, if we are task 

(production outcome)-inclined, we must maximize 

our potential as this kind of leader by continually 

learning and creating new paths to mutual success 

along these lines. Perhaps we would pursue Project 

Management training and certification, or Supply 

Chain Management and Logistics certifications 

to enhance our natural leadership profile. We must 

continually expand our capacity to lead people according 

to the strengths we already have. 

MITIGATE IDENTIFIED “ABSENCES” 

A companion insight from these discussions is to seek to 

mitigate the “absences” in our own leadership profile. I use 

the word absences because I am not convinced that the possession 

of all leadership capabilities is necessary to qualify 

a highly effective leader. While we work to build upon the 

strengths related to our dominant leadership capabilities, it 

does not automatically follow that lacking other capacities 

is a weakness. So, rather than lamenting our “weaknesses,” 

we intentionally work to complement the leadership capabilities 

that are absent in our own profiles. We do this through 

enhanced awareness of our deficits and complementary 

team-building: 

• Awareness - In this paper we have identified and 

summarized leadership capabilities that are known to 

be useful, effective, and necessary (i.e., traits, relational 

and production orientations). We become more 

effective as a leader to the extent that we recognize 

the leadership strengths we have, as well as the deficits 

in our portfolio. Continuous self-assessment and 

feedback is critical in the process of discerning the 

limitations of our own leadership profile and capacity. 

• Complementary leadership assets - Having recognized 

the balance of strengths and absences in our 

own leadership portfolio, we must aim to become 

better where we are able to do so, and remedy where 

we are not. For example, if we are a particularly relationship-oriented 

leader, there is likely a ceiling as 

to how effective we can be in the task/production elements 

of the leadership journey. But we can move 

closer to that ceiling by developing habits of production 

orientation, and acquiring tools that shore up 

these areas of responsibility. Specifically we can build 

teams around our leadership efforts that include other 

members who are more naturally inclined toward 

the areas where the leader needs help. 

LEADING IN THE IMAGE OF GOD 

The most valued application we can discern from our discussion 

is how to better connect our (or your) leadership profile, 

and efforts, to a growing understanding of laboring in the image 

of God. Here we aim for three goals: to be the leader God 

has created us to be; to use our leadership gifts according to 

God’s calling; and use our leadership efforts to build communities 

that glorify God. 

TO BE THE VESSEL GOD CREATED US TO BE 

As a leader we uniquely reflect God’s image in the ways He 

designed us and uses us for the purposes He intends. We 

are not made simply to maximize profit, to lead people to 

accomplish organizational goals, or simply to build esprit de 

corps and camaraderie. We are made to glorify God in our 

69 




leadership work and love our neighbors as we serve followers, 

customers, clients, students, or whomever crosses our 

paths. We are relational in leadership because God is a relational 

God. We are productive in leadership because God is 

a productive God. We are inspirational and motivational and 

transformational in leadership because God has designed us 

to be like Him. We are not any of these things for the sake of 

our own glory, or our own career, or our own worldly success, 

but because this is (we are) the vessel through which God 

chooses to continue the good work of His creation. 

DON’T SEPARATE THE GIFT FROM THE 

CALLING 

It is of paramount importance that those of us who seek to 

represent Christ in the marketplace actually do so. That is, 

we must not separate 

our leadership 

talents 

and gifts from 

the reasons God 

has given them 

to us. Many of us 

have a tendency 

to build walls between 

(compartmentalize) 

the 

various valuable 

aspects of our 

lives, including 

Leading in the image of God means: 

to be the leader God has created us 

to be; to use our leadership gifts 

according to God’s calling; and 

use our leadership efforts to build 

communities that glorify God. 

work, family, and faith. We must remind one another that the 

leadership gifts we have are tied to the unique calling God 

has placed on our lives. Our leadership opportunities are the 

ministry laid before us, and there are relational, productive, 

motivational, and spiritual elements in all of them. 

LEADERSHIP AS COMMUNITY-BUILDING 

Whatever our leadership strengths/tendencies, we must 

build a leadership team/capacity that accomplishes four critical 

goals: 

1. Instills confidence and inspiration in followers – 

this based on the trail that God has laid before us 

to blaze. 

2. Acknowledge and meet the needs of followers 

- Jeff Van Duzer asserts that one of the primary 

reasons that God ordains business is to provide 

meaningful work for people. 25 That is, we provide 

work for people who, like their leaders, are created 

in the image of God. Leaders reflecting the image 

of God will build teams that create opportunities 

for others to glorify God through the work to which 

He has called them. This is critical. 

3. Seek to build human relationships as well as results 

- A leader who is living out his/her calling 

in Christ is always a participant in the ongoing 

ministry of reconciliation, even if his/her natural 

strength is not of the relational kind. The functional 

view of the image of God reminds us that we 

are invited to be co-laborers with God in the ongoing 

work of creation and redemption. At the same 

time, it is God’s will that our leadership efforts are 

to meet the 

needs, including 

relational, 

of followers 

and of leaders. 

Because we reflect 

God’s relational 

nature, 

our organizational 

leadership 

efforts 

are a means 

to meeting 

the relational 

needs of all organizational actors. 

4. Seek to restore/add/create organizational value 

– this as an extension and manifestation of God’s 

ongoing mandate of creation. That is, in community, 

balanced leadership teams are indeed focused 

on production and task goals, or outcomes that 

glorify God by creating value that meets the needs 

of all organizational stakeholders, internal and 

external. This is the means by which leaders and 

other organizational actors live out the greatest 

commandment – loving their neighbors as themselves. 

In the end, we cannot, and should not, separate our organizational 

leadership efforts from our mandate to live out the 

imago dei as a new creation in Christ. 




CONCLUSION 

We have seen that the body of classical research on 

leadership points to three key findings: great leaders 

share similar traits, many leaders tend toward a production 

or task orientation in their leadership efforts, and other 

leaders tend toward a people or relationship orientation in 

their leadership efforts. We also recognize that the biblical 

concept of imago dei carries three primary perspectives: 

substantive (characteristic or trait), functional (production), 

and relational. The secular models of leadership thus offer 

surprising parallels to the image of God in human leadership 

profiles. This is both inspiring and motivational in the sense 

that it helps Christians see our leadership potentials in the 

context of God’s image and provides a framework in which 

we evaluate and improve our strengths and weaknesses as 

we lead to redeem businesses for the glory of God. 


RICK MARTINEZ is 

Distinguished Professor 

of Management, and 

the Associate Dean for 

Undergraduate Programs in 

the College of Business and 

Entrepreneurship at North 

Greenville University in Tigerville, SC. He has 

published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, 

including Journal of Management, Journal of 

Business Research, Journal of Biblical Integration 

in Business, Christian Scholars Review, Christian 

Business Review, and Christian Business Academy 

Review, among others. Prior to his academic career, 

Dr. Martinez spent six years in the U.S. Navy 

operating nuclear power plants on surface ships. 

Rick holds a B.S. in Political Science from Arizona 

State University, an M.B.A. from Baylor University, 

and a Ph.D. in Management from Texas A&M 

University. Rick and his wife Peggy live in Greer, 

SC. and are the blessed parents of 3 amazing young 

adult children. 

71 




NOTES 

1 

S. Kerr and J.M. Jermier, “Substitutes for Leadership: Their 

Meaning and Measurement,” Organizational Behavior and Human 

Performance 22 (1978), 375-403. 

2 

See, for example, Henry Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership 

(Nashville, TN.: B&H Academic, 2007); David Dockery 

(ed.), Christian Leadership Essentials: A Handbook for Managing 

Christian Organizations. (Nashville, TN.: B&H Academic, 

2011); B. Robinson, Incarnate Leadership: 5 Leadership Lessons 

from the Life of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016); 

and K. Blanchard and P. Hodges, Lead Like Jesus: Lessons from 

the Greatest Leadership Role Model of All Time (Nashville, TN.: 

Thomas Nelson, 2006). 

3 

For servant leadership, see R. K. Greenleaf, Servant Leader: 

A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness 

(New York: Paulist Press, 1977); and for transformational 

leadership, see J.M. Burns, Leadership (1 st ed.) (New York, 

NY.: Harper Torchbooks, 1978), and P.G. Northouse, Leadership: 

Theory and Practice (7 th ed.) (Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage 

Publications, 2016). 

4 

See, for example, D. Jung and J.J. Sosik, “Who are the Spellbinders? 

Identifying Personal Attributes of Charismatic Leaders,” 

Journal of Leadership and Charismatic Studies 12 (2006), 

12-27; and S.J. Zaccaro, “Trait-based Perspectives of Leadership,” 

American Psychologist 62 (2007), 6-16. 

5 

Ralph M. Stogdill, “Personal Factors Associated with Leadership: 

A Survey of the Literature,” Journal of Psychology 25 

(1948), 35-7; and Robert W. Mann, “A Review of the Relationship 

Between Personality and Performance in Small 

Groups,” Psychological Bulletin 56 (1959), 241-270. 

6 

Northouse, Leadership. 

7 

Ralph M. Stogdill, Handbook of Leadership: A Survey of Leadership 

and Research (New York: Free Press, 1974). 

8 

Northouse, Leadership. 

9 

D. Cartwright and A. Zander, Group Dynamics Research and 

Theory (Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson, 1960). 

10 

R. Blake and J.S. Mouton, The Managerial Grid (1964), The 

New Managerial Grid (1978), and The Managerial Grid III (1985) 

(Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing.) 

11 

F.E. Fiedler, “A Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness,” 

Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 1 (1964), 

149-190, and A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness (New York: 

McGraw-Hill, 1967). 

12 

For example, see Cartwright and Zander, Group Dynamics. 

13 

For example, see Stogdill, Handbook. 

14 

For example, see Fiedler, “Contingency Model.” 

15 

See D. Cairns, The Image of God in Man (revised ed.) (London: 

Fontana, 1973); J.R. Middleton, The Liberating Image: The 

Imago Dei in Genesis 1 (Ada, MI: Brazos Press, 2005); and 

S.G. Murphy, “On the Doctrine of the Imago Dei,” Online article 

(2002) last accessed at http: /www.freerepublic.com/ 

focus/f-religion/698208/posts, May, 2020. 

16 

J.A. Conger and R.N. Kanungo, “Toward a Behavioral Theory 

of Charismatic Leadership in Organizational Settings,” Academy 

of Management Review 12 (1987), 637 – 647. 

17 

B.J. Avolio and W.L. Gardner, “Authentic Leadership Development: 

Getting to the Root of Positive Forms of Leadership,” 

The Leadership Quarterly 16 (2005), 315-338. 

18 

See B.M. Bass, Transformational Leadership: Industry, Military, 

and Educational Impact (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbau, 

1998); and Burns, Leadership. 

19 

See, especially, L.C. Spears, M. Lawrence, and K. Blanchard 

(Eds.), Focus on Leadership: Servant Leadership for The 21st 

Century (3rd ed.) (New York: Wiley, 2001). 

20 

L.W. Fry, “Toward a Theory of Spiritual Leadership,” The 

Leadership Quarterly 14 (2003), 693 – 727. 

21 

Fry, “Toward a Theory.” 

22 

See Wendell Berry’s discussion of “usufruct” in “God and 

Country,” in W. Berry, What are People for: Essays (Berkeley, 

CA: Counterpoint Press, 1990), 95-102. 

23 

Avolio and Gardner, “Authentic Leadership.” 

24 

A powerful aid in this process is the collection of leadership 

self-assessment instruments at the end of each chapter 

in Northouse, Leadership. 

25 

Jeff Van Duzer, Why Business Matters to God (And What Still 

Needs to be Fixed) (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2010). 


THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW AND 

THE MARKETPLACE SERIES 

PAPERBACK AND EBOOK AVAILABLE AT 

CHRISTIANITYINBUSINESS.COM AND AMAZON.COM 

73 


THE TEN PILLARS 

FAITH & REASON 

IN A GREAT CITY 

I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 

Build On The Classics 

Recruit For National Influence 

Embrace The Challenge Of 

Christian Graduate Education 

Establish A Residential Society 

Of Learning 

Increase Our Cultural Impact 

Through Our Faculty 

Renew Our Campus, Renew Our Community 

Bring Athens And Jerusalem Together 

Expand Our Commitment To The Creative 

Arts: Visual, Music And Literary 

Cultivate A Strong Global Focus 

Move To The Next Level As An Institution 

75 

CHRISTIAN BUSINESS REVIEW Fall 2020 

www.hbu.edu/vision



©Houston Baptist University

Christian Business Review 2020: Leadership

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?