How is Your Success Defined?

Nehemiah 1:11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." Now I was cupbearer to the king.

What aspect of life, if not examined properly, will produce in us the wrong theology and practice of leadership? There are probably more, but I would suggest that the study of successful leadership causes the most problems. Let's start by looking at Dictionary.Com's first three definitions of the word “success.”

1. The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors

2. The attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like

3. A successful performance or achievement

Now add the word leadership, and then try to measure the success of Jesus’ leadership life. Was Jesus a success or failure as a leader?

By the above criteria, most would agree that He looked like a failure. Read page 88 and 89 of Christian author Scott Rodin’s book The Steward Leader, and you will be sure that Jesus' leadership life WAS a failure. (By the way, I loved every other page of this book; buy it!) Rodin believes that Jesus came to save sinners, but in doing so IS NOT the model for every aspect of life, especially leadership.

Was Christ a Successful Leader?

In order to follow Christ, we need to re-define our idea of successful
leadership.

If you look closely at the phrase "successful leadership," it is no wonder that there is debate about whether Jesus belongs among the rank of successful leaders. We simply cannot use principles and methods that Jesus used to lead because our minds are imbedded with a definition of success that presents us with pictures of worldly achievement that Christ did not attain. In the process, we have transformed the phrase "successful Christian leadership" into an oxymoron. We cannot be “successful” Christian leaders because the world and Jesus defined success in very different ways! But because we define Christian leadership this way, we look everywhere but the life of Christ for leadership models.

Why do we Christians, who are supposed to be acting as “little Christs,” look outside of our ideal for leadership guidance? I suggest that one reason is because we don't desire the end result of Jesus' life, and that my friends might be literally having "something to die for.”

 You see, by the world's definition of success, Jesus' death represented total leadership failure. Expose yourself too long to that worldview, and you will begin to feel the same way.

 In reality, Jesus' death was the total successful fulfillment of His mission, yet his leadership is largely unrecognized. To recognize this, we just need to define success as receiving God's favor, not man’s. Only then can we take it to the next level and study what, if anything, Jesus wants leaders to know about their own "recognition.”

"If you think prosperity is requirement of success, you will never examine the life of Christ in your pursuit of  “successful leadership."

Prosperity & Success

Now do not be confused or misunderstand me. I am talking about leadership, not a successful business, church or organization. There are many moral, spiritual and good things to achieve that will bring a level of wealth and prosperity to a person or organization. Prosperity in Godly terms is not a measurement for successful leadership. It could be a sign of it, but it is not a requirement.

If you think prosperity is requirement of success, you will never examine the life of Christ in your pursuit of  “successful leadership.” Instead of looking for prosperity, we need to ask and answer this question: does God intend to teach us something new about leadership if we just study the life of Jesus a bit more? The answer is very important. The answer has a lot to do with what we believe success really is. It has everything to do with which way we seek to learn about leadership.

I am not done studying this aspect of leadership yet, but I am confident of one thing: if you continue to pursue a leadership life full of "the favorable termination of your attempts and endeavors" that help you attain "wealth, position, honors or the like,” you will always be in the pursuit of a great "performance or achievement.” People may, and probably will, enjoy what they see but you will fail in Christian leadership.