Category: Christian Leadership

According to Andy Stanley, “Autonomy is a myth.  Eventually, every leader is forced to come to terms with the reality that everybody is accountable to somebody.”

Leaders who say, “If I were in charge” or “when I’m in charge” are often making excuses for poor performance or lack of initiative; and they will most likely never be in charge. On the other hand, the real leaders in an organization will find a way to lead the charge until they are in charge.

Great leaders leverage influence and relationships over title and position.

The best leaders become the leaders by mastering the art of leading when they’re not in charge.

You don’t have to be in charge to make a difference. You can lead without being in charge!

That’s why Clay Scroggins wrote How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority.

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When I consider this month’s focus on the Discipline of Submission, I visualize a posture of “gentle and lowly.”  Incidentally, that’s the title of Dane Ortlund’s 2020 book.  I first learned about Ortlund’s book as part of our Weekend Bible Study class in the Spring of 2021.

Ortlund explains that the strategy of his book was to take either a Bible passage or a bit of teaching from the Puritans or others and consider what is being said about the heart of God and of Christ.

His book considers the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, the apostles John and Paul, the Puritans Goodwin and Sibbes and Bunyan and Owen, and others such as Edwards and Spurgeon and Warfield and deciphers what they tell us about the heart of God and the heart of Christ.

It is one thing to ask what Christ has done. And there are many sound books on this. Consider Stott’s The Cross of Christ; or Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach’s Pierced for Our Transgressions; or Macleod’s Christ Crucified; or Packer’s seminal 1974 article; or a dozen other solid historical or contemporary treatments.  Ortlund chooses not to focus on what Christ has done. Instead, the controlling question of his book is: Who is Jesus Christ?

Click here for a summary of Ortlund’s book, which focuses on the heart of Christ for sinners and sufferers