Business Tips from a Christian Worldview

A Christian Worldview of Leadership

Gerald R. Chester, Ph.D.

The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. (Psalms 24:1 NIV)

Suppose you were invited to visit someone’s home. You entered the home but did not bother to greet the owner nor did you bother to find out the rules. Rather, you began to make yourself comfortable. You selected a bedroom and moved in. In the kitchen, you began to experiment making food that suited your taste but never asked the owner about using the ingredients. You chose your own entertainment and invited friends over, never seeking the owner’s permission. You decided what you would do and how you would do it, never consulting the owner. In other words, you lived in a home that was not yours but treated it as if you owned it and, therefore, had the right to be there and do as you please.

This is the way many people approach leadership theory. As the psalmist intimates in Psalm 24:1, we are invited guests in God’s universe. The only proper response as guests is to obey the host’s will. This means aligning with his will, ways, and timing. And the host must be honored.

Our gracious host, who is the owner and Creator of the universe, provided humanity with revelation about himself and a directive. The Creation Mandate is the first mandate given to mankind to explain the divine intent and purpose of humanity to serve as the Creator’s ruling agents.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1:26−28 ESV)

Mankind sinned (Genesis 3). Divine love was extended to humanity by means of temporarily deferring the full, eternal judgment on mankind. At the Creator’s sovereign pleasure, he initiated a metanarrative of redemption to restore what was lost through mankind’s sin.

The Old Testament era covered more than four thousand years of history during which mankind failed in its attempt to remedy its fallen condition. Finally, the divine solution was revealed. The Savior—Jesus, who is God incarnate—came to satisfy the righteous requirements for mankind’s sin. Part of this divine work was to send the Holy Spirit to regenerate and empower a remnant of fallen mankind to be the people of God. The Discipleship Mandate (Matthew 28:18−20) was given to Jesus’ apostles as the command to replicate themselves and, therefore, to prepare God’s people for eternity in the New Creation.

While waiting for the final judgment and New Creation in the New Testament era, the divinely empowered people of God can fulfill the Creation Mandate as never before possible since the fall of mankind.

True leaders recognize the responsibility of humanity to obey the Creation and Discipleship Mandates. They understand the empowering gift of the Holy Spirit to enable mankind to grow and mature in the ability to obey. Leaders will be model disciples who obey the Creation Mandate wherever they are sent, and, along the way, they will replicate themselves in others and train them to obey.

Here is your business tip. Godly leadership recognizes that the Creation Mandate is the governing mandate of humanity. In its fallen condition, mankind is unable to obey. Based on the redemptive work of Jesus, mankind can be regenerated and empowered by the Holy Spirit to obey the Creation Mandate. Leaders train and model for others how to live as disciples of Jesus. Accordingly, they will seek to find and fulfill their call to obey the Creation Mandate in the context of the metanarrative.