129. Leadership Lessons of the Apostle Paul

Pastors and other church leaders often turn to secular leadership books for insights about how they should lead their congregations. Those books can be helpful, so their advice shouldn't necessarily be discounted. 

By the same token, however, the Bible itself is a leadership book, which sets out the distinctive tone and posture of authentically Christian leadership. So, it should be the primary source of guidance for how Christians lead.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, Influence magazine executive editor George P. Wood talks to Ryan Lokkesmoe about leadership lessons we can learn from the New Testament church. Lokkesmoe is lead pastor of Real Hope Community Church in Houston, Texas. He has a Ph.D. in New Testament from the University of Denver, and he is author, most recently, of Paul and His Team, published in 2017 by Moody.

Episode 128 Notes

00:00 Introduction 00:39 Senior Adult Ministries sponsor ad 01:19 How Paul and His Team counters secular and individualistic tendencies in church leadership 05:21 Secular models of leadership and the radical leadership posture of Jesus 08:19 First bedrock value of the leadership of Paul and his team:  singular focus on Christ 13:43 How do contemporary Christian leaders unwittingly take the focus off Christ? 16:15 Second bedrock value: treating others as equals 19:17 Why a team approach to leadership requires treating people as equals 21:26 Third bedrock value: being agents of reconciliation 27:23 How to follow Ryan Lokkesmoe on social media 28:14 Conclusion