The Craftsmanship of Leadership

— by John Hawkins

Personal Reflections on How God Builds God-honoring Leaders

The modern world has a decreasing awareness and understanding of craftsmanship.  The purposeful, personal skill of a craftsman has largely been replaced by impersonal mechanization.  The impact of this transition has, at the same time, been positive and dehumanizing.  Positive in that more quality items are made quicker and at lower costs.  Dehumanizing in that it is one more way that modern life removes opportunities for personal creativity.

It is interesting to think in these terms in assessing how modern Christians understand God-honoring leaders' development.  By God-honoring leaders, I mean those leaders who understand and commit to striving to honor and glorify God in all aspects of their leadership – both in its means and ends.  In the development of these kinds of leaders, who is the craftsman?  Is there a craftsman?

We tend to operate with either the idea that there is no craftsman or that somehow we’re to be our own craftsman.  If there is no craftsman, then we should do the best we can, pray and hope for the best.  If we’re the craftsman, then we must figure out a plan of how we’re going to string together a lifetime of mentors, training and experiences, along with God’s blessing, that somehow produces God-honoring leaders.  But in the mad dash of learning to lead in our marriages, families, careers, communities and churches, we many times can do little more than:

• pray when we can

• strive each year to sharpen and practice a few core skills

• occasionally reflect on the lives and leadership of leaders in the Bible and leaders we’ve known or known of

• read a leadership book or attend a leadership conference

Developing into a God-honoring leader requires our choices, commitments, experiences and practices, but it also requires much more.  At best, our actions are right responses to the sovereign work of God our Father as He works His plan of developing us into God-honoring leaders.  To the degree that any man or woman becomes a God-honoring leader, it is undoubtedly due to God’s work and our choices.  The development of God-honoring leadership, even in this modern era, still requires a craftsman.  God, our Father, is the craftsman, shaping us into leaders who honor and glorify Him.

God gives us a glimpse into how He builds God-honoring leaders in II Samuel 7.  This chapter's setting is that having built a house for himself, King David wants to build now a temple for God.  God’s response to David through Nathan, the prophet, is that He doesn’t want David to build the temple - He will raise up David’s son to do this.  God goes on to say that throughout David’s life in the past and throughout the rest of David’s life, He has made and will make David into the man and leader that God wants him to be.  “I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel.  And I have been with you wherever you went and (I) have cut off all your enemies from before you.  And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.  And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and (I) will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more…. And I will give you rest from your enemies.” (II Samuel 7:8-11)

David’s reply to God indicates that he realizes that everything God has just told him is the truth, concluding with “For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever. (II Samuel 7:29).

Our development as God-honoring leaders must not focus only on the choices we make as leaders but also on understanding and pursuing the means God uses to forge us into God-honoring leaders.

There are at 11 ways that I’ve seen God forge leaders who long to honor Him through their leadership and influence.  

1. By revealing Himself, His heart and His purposes through creation, Scripture and His Son

2. By bringing us to salvation in Christ, by His grace and for His glory

3. By masterfully and sovereignly crafting the circumstances of our lives

4. By sanctifying us to shape our values and convictions, ultimately to where our deepest longing in life is for His honor and glory, at any cost.

5. By teaching us the sovereign cause and effect that He has built and maintains in everyday life (i.e., teaching us wisdom)

6. By teaching us, rebuking us, correcting us and sustaining us - By His Holy Spirit, through His church, His Word and mentors and friends

7. By revealing His sovereign purposes and grace in all of life, God frees us of the notions of sacred and secular

8. By bringing us to clear thinking and practices on leadership that reflect his heart, purposes and design

9. By bringing us to learn that all acts of leadership must be measured by 1.) was it done with faith in God and 2.) was it done for God’s glory and honor.

10. By teaching us humility in success and His commitment to us in failure

11. By teaching us the profound lessons that are revealed to us every day through the brokenness and suffering of humanity and through death

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[ Photo by Malcolm Lightbody on Unsplash ]