The Four Dynamics of Transformation
Healthy Leaders | Issue 48
Welcome to Issue 48 of Healthy Leaders. In this issue, we start a new series on building leaders.
Hello friends,
Welcome back to our ongoing conversation on healthy Christian leadership and leader development.1
Before we start, take a moment to reflect on these two questions:
How has God built you as a leader?
How did Jesus build the twelve disciples?
Got your answers? Great! We’ll come to those in a moment.
In our previous conversations around healthy leaders we’ve talked about the goal of healthy leader development — a leader who is strong in all 5Cs: Christ, Community, Character, Calling, and Competencies. If we want the leaders we build to be holistically healthy, than we must use a holistic process to build them. That’s where the Four Dynamics of Transformation come in.
Let’s hear from Malcolm.
Many of us who are reading this right now (or writing it!) come from organizations and backgrounds where the head knowledge or institutional training we have received is the primary qualification for leadership.
But this is not how God operates. Think of who Jesus called to be His disciples: ordinary fishermen and tax collectors. They are described as “uneducated, common men” in Acts 4:13. The primary characteristic of Jesus’ disciples was not their knowledge! It was this:
“… and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”
God Does Not Want Your Training, He Wants You!
In his book No Other Foundation, DeVern Fromke reminds us that the instructional training we have received means little if we are not wholly surrendered to God.
In the past fifteen years I have met scores of young people who have given their training to the Lord, yet reserved themselves for themselves! It is one of the most subtle snares in our training today. Musicians want to give their developed abilities to God. Mechanics, doctors, teachers, nurses, linguists, pilots and even preachers — all want to dedicate their training unto Him for His service. It just seems right and proper, so we have become accustomed to this procedure. Bible colleges and seminaries turn out graduates by the hundreds who are professionally trained for service. Yet amid all this, we have an inner hesitancy and a gnawing conviction: something is wrong.
There can be no doubt but that God is concerned with training. The question is this: what kind of training? We must discover the difference between natural and spiritual preparation.
We read that Moses “was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” Philo credited Moses with proficiency in arithmetic, geometry, poetry, music, philosophy, astrology and various branches of education. Officially recognized as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, with the best education of his day, Moses had every right to dream his dreams of a great career in Egypt, in the field of his training. He could serve both his people and his God.
We know then what a momentous choice it was for Moses, when he “was come to years,” to renounce his favored position as son of the Palace, with all the social pleasures, the political privileges of his set, and “the treasures in Egypt.” If we could have our way with him, we would rush him into a new sphere of service for God. Or better still, we would rush him off to Bible school for some specialized training in Christian work.
But here is the snare! There is many a “Moses” who has just come from Bible school and is wholly trained in the religious methods of our day. He has passed the courses on how to do it. How to promote a successful Sunday School. How to develop an adequate music program.
And having learned in homiletics how to preach, or in speech class how to hold the audience spell-bound, he is now ready to enter the ministry. But I wonder if this is not the very juncture where Moses stood? God would remind us that whatever our professional or formal training may be — He has a special course in spiritual preparation. Is Moses willing to enroll in the divine school of hard and humbling work, in solitude, adversity, danger, defeat, misunderstanding, slander and humiliation? It is not surprising that the man who emerged from the wilderness schoolroom was a man of great meekness, faith and faithfulness, spiritual boldness and intimacy with God. …
… This is God’s way. He asks us to yield our training to Him, not to be used — but to go into death. Then out of that awful losing our natural abilities and (even) religious training, He brings us into life. Thus He puts all our training into a totally new perspective.
May the Spirit of revelation help us to see that God only wants us. Our training — religious and even spiritual — He takes into death that out of resurrection He might bring forth a totally new kind of Spirit-wrought development and thus a spiritual ministry and service unto God. (emphasis added)
What about you?
One of our mottos at LeaderSource is “Be One. Build Many.” But if we want to be healthy leaders and build healthy leaders, the only place to start is at the feet of Jesus.
As a leader you must ask yourself: Am I actively seeking Jesus? Am I spending deep time in His presence, looking at Him? Am I relying on Him for all things, and surrendering all things to Him?
This is not a one-and-done exercise, but a whole-life posture. There is no health or wholeness outside of Christ, and if we pursue leadership or building leaders outside of dependence on Him we will crash and burn.
So start there today. And tomorrow. And the next day, and on and on. Seek Him first! Rooted in Him, we can go on to build leaders.
Until next time, we’re with you!
— Chris
Recommended Resources
Core Model Brief: Summary of the Principles of Healthy Leader Development
Book: Building Leaders
For more resources, visit our website.
Thanks to our friends at Fifty-Four Collective for putting together a comprehensive set of video courses for growing healthy organizations, starting with this series of courses on leadership by Malcolm. We’ll be using some of their videos and some of our own. Be sure to check out what they’re doing!