Lessons in Leadership: Learning from Joshua

Over the last week or so, I’ve been following the news more closely than I normally do. There was the meeting in Singapore between Donald Trump and Kim Jung-Un; and then there was the unfolding parliamentary votes on Brexit and the running commentary from the media. The new reality – the 24hr news cycle – makes it difficult not to be aware of what’s going on, particularly in relation to who is criticising who and who is ‘winning’ the debate.

And there is very much a focus on ‘winning’, whether it’s here at our Prime Minister’s Question Time, or in the US where the new and evolving narrative speaks in very similar, but much more strident and combative terms. I cannot really say that politics excites me, or even engages me most of the time, but I do recognise its relevance and I do appreciate the wider context in which it operates – it does matter.

In that context, we may opine on the political impasse…the democratic stagnation that we currently live with, and have lived with for some time, here in Northern Ireland. The party politics does not concern me as we gather here today. What has piqued my interest though, is the much wider question of how we view leadership.

This question is not merely an abstract point of debate for political anoraks or party activists. The course our country will take through the turbulent waters of global economic instability, the shape that Brexit takes and numerous other domestic and international policy decisions, will be determined in the next few months and years. Our leaders will shape and influence all of these.

Global leadership, and how it reacts to economic crises and issues of war and peace, will affect us all. What happens in other countries will undoubtebly affect us here; we live in an interconnected world.

Our local leaders will determine whether we have a functioning executive here in Northern Ireland, and what form this will take.

We often hear people commenting on leadership qualities, and we do it ourselves. We mull over in our minds the question, whether it be at work or in the church, or in the political arena, ‘is he or she ‘leadership material?’’. And ‘what makes for a strong leader…..or more importantly, what makes for a good leader?’ Is there one model that fits all? I suspect not. We all approach these questions from our unique perspectives.

Over my career, I’ve found myself in several leadership positions in an array of environments ranging from the commercial to the charity sector. I’ve operated quite differently in each case, and I’ve been managed differently in each case; there is no one size that fits all. The context is always different and the personality of the leader makes an enormous difference. And of course there is a world of difference between a manager and a leader.

Leadership is very much in our minds.

And so let us turn our attention to leadership in the Church – and I mean ’Church’ in its widest sense, as the body of believers. Each denomination has its own form of government and organisation. Our own is more egalitarian than most; that means that the responsibilities of leadership are spread widely amongst our membership, and that, in my opinion, is just as it should be. We all play a central role in leading and shaping local congregations and the wider church family. And we do so, not in a vacuum, and not just on the basis of our own talents and ideas, but infused with a will to follow God at all times. Our leadership is based on the premise that, although we will surely make errors in how we go about things, we acknowledge God’s providence; we hold in our hearts those words from Jeremiah 29:11 - ‘”For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future!"'

These words surely took their place in the hearts of those who came together and built the Moravian Community in Herrnhut in 1722, an event that we commemorate today. The writer A.J. Lewis described it as follows: “Herrnhut was a haven of peace, with its two hundred houses, built on a rising ground with evergreen woods on two sides, and gardens on the others, and high hills at a short distance. It was a haven of faith in a world of infidelity; of unity in a world of division.”

The leadership of Herrnhut was collective - Count Zinzendorf and twelve elected elders served as the town council; it was democratic and effective.

Nevertheless, that task, taking hold of leadership, may at first seem daunting. This is especially pertinent as we prepare for our own Synod next month. The church faces so many challenges; the need for change and renewal is perhaps greater now than it has ever been. The need for effective and collective leadership is plain for all to see. With the challenges before us it can be tempting to give up……to leave it all to others….to sit back and to think that very little can be done. But as those thoughts race through our minds, let us turn our eyes and open our hearts to those magnificent words spoken to Joshua: 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Joshua had leadership qualities in abundance. Reflecting on his example shows us the way forward. Joshua was a man of humility……he had faith and trust in God in abundance……and he was very much a man of prayer.

For forty years Joshua served God through serving Moses; thereafter he continued to serve God, albeit in a more prominent, public role. But throughout, wherever God was guiding him, he remained focused and resolute. Joshua’s life was a living witness to the fidelity of words of the theologian Karl Barth: ‘In God alone there is faithfulness and faith in the trust that we may hold to him, to his promise, to his guidance. To hold to God is to rely on the fact that God is there for me, and to live in this certainty’.

Joshua understood that true leadership is very much about service. As Helena Blavatsky once wrote: ‘the greatest among men is always ready to serve and yet is unconscious of the service’. Joshua lived that reality.

His leadership was underpinned by the quality, honesty and persistence of his prayer life. He comprehended what Carlo Carretto articulated, namely that: ‘the degree of our faith is the degree of our prayer. The strength of our hope is the strength of our prayer. The warmth of our charity is the warmth of our prayer.’

In his inner and outer life. Joshua embodied the breadth and depth of moral and spiritual leadership displayed by a number of Old Testament figures. As Hershey Freidman wrote: ‘careful examination of the lives of several leaders described in the Hebrew Bible indicates that the purpose of leadership is not fame, power, or fortune, but to lead people with truth and righteousness’.

Leadership, however, does not flow from perfection. God uses us, as he did with the plethora of Old and New Testament leaders, with our insecurities and imperfections, to advance the cause of his kingdom. He calls on each-and-every one of us to exercise leadership in our congregations and communities; exactly what that leadership looks like will depend on our own talents and personalities, shaped over time by God and those we serve. With a quiet determination, grounded in prayer, we can follow his will both individually and collectively, in this place and beyond. We do not embark upon this task, or indeed any task, alone. And as God himself reminded Joshua in 1:5, and by extension reminds us in our modern age, 'As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.’

Such wise and profound words to take with us into the week ahead. As we endeavour to lead, in whatever capacity and however humbly, God will never leave us nor forsake us. There is no better thought than that to inspire and calm our fears.

AMEN