Lifestyle Leadership
There is an interesting occupation that exists in our world today that would have been difficult to even comprehend 15 or even 10 years ago. Lifestyle influencers are mostly very attractive people, whose job often includes an equally attractive spouse or significant other, a cute dog, and doing fun stuff all the time. They get paid to travel, eat good food, and buy stuff online(!?). While I don’t believe we are necessarily called to this lifestyle, I do believe that God has called us to lead others through the way we live.
As followers of Jesus, we have a call to leadership in our lives. Just as Paul encouraged Timothy, we should also consider how we live our lives. We need to understand that how we live is how we lead. We often think of leadership as bossing people around or telling them what to do, but true leadership couldn’t be more opposite. True leaders lead by example!
A lifestyle of Christian leadership, I believe, is founded first on a private and personal walk with God (1 Timothy 2:1). Paul encourages Timothy to pray for people before he attempts to lead them. When we look at our lives as leaders, it’s important that we consider if we are praying for those who follow us.
Paul reminds Timothy that the outward work of God in our lives must be founded on a deep personal relationship with Him. Paul instructs Timothy to intercede on behalf of others. Intercession simply means going between two parties, in this case, those we lead and God. Praying for those around us is one of the greatest acts of leadership in which we can partake. Walter Wink said of the power of intercession, “History belongs to the intercessors—those who believe and pray the future into being.” This “others first” mindset is essential to the heart of a Christian leader.
While lifestyle leadership starts in private, it must ultimately be lived out publicly. Paul continues in his encouragement to Timothy to be “tranquil” and to live a “quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:2). These aren’t typical leadership traits that we think of, but Christian leadership is anything but typical.
Paul is saying that Christian leaders need to be unjostled, not rocked by the shifting sands of our culture. As followers of Jesus and leaders, our lives should not be as easily upset as the world around us. Jesus exemplified this in Matthew 8: while His disciples were panicking on the upper deck of the boat, fearing the storm would overtake them, Jesus slept through the storm, trusting in God’s protection. Christian leaders should be people who have noticeable peace.
This encouragement also challenges us, as leaders, to remain unstained by the world. Just as a garment that is stained has been tainted by an outside object, so too should our lives not be affected by the culture around us. Paul’s challenge to Timothy is to live in “godliness” and “dignity,” with authenticity that points to Jesus.
YOU are a leader, and as we embrace and step into the calling of leadership in our lives, we must live a life founded on a deep walk with God and outwardly lived for God.
